All Things Learning

  I wonder: Can educators serve students, society, and generate wealth for themselves and their organisations through win-win avenues? Exploring social entrepreneurship in education might help us unlock opportunities and solutions. Over the last few years I have been thinking a lot about creating win-win opportunities - where they can exist in education and what they might look like in my life. I wrote a little about it in this blog post. I also have been increasingly curious about the role of social entrepreneurship in education, particularly in schools (as opposed to EdTech companies on the fringes). Inspired by a fascinating win-win story: Maui Nui Venison Today I was inspired by an amazing win-win story in this Tim Ferriss Podcast episode with Jake Muise. Jake Muise runs a meat store that sells ‘responsible red meat’. When I heard this my first thought was just another meat company that minimised the suffering of animals, using humane means for slaughtering. Really nothing ...

The Idea: Data-informed decision-making is very valuable, but the users must also ‘know their data’. This means that users should not just jump to drawing conclusions for data they have access to, but also know what specifically the data is measuring, and how the data was collected. Without this crucial aspect of data literacy, the user is susceptible to deception by data. Encouraging questions and conversations during the data analysis process can support the development of this ‘know your data’ aspect of data literacy.

The Idea: Patient Optimism is important for anyone striving for Transformation in Education. Change in this complex context is more likely to be incremental, and brought about by the advancement of both - technology and thriving communities, together.

The idea: This quote from the paper summarizes the message: 'For parents and educators, we suggest that, “it is time to move beyond a heavy focus on risk with little exploration or recognition of opportunities ”, and instead leverage the strengths and benefits of ST in a purposeful way while mitigating any associated risks during these exceptional times'

  The Idea: Stay optimistic about Edtech but also think Long Term. Sustainable Change is most likely to be incremental, especially in complex educational systems. Edtech along with Learning Communities, has the best chance of bringing about positive sustainable change at scale, in education.

The idea: Distributed Leadership is a powerful tool for building learning organizations that continuously learn and innovate. But central to distributed leadership is also a balance of top-down and ground-up approaches : Shared vision driven by leaders but influenced by individuals; Autonomy balanced with individual responsibility; Psychologically safe environment for collaboration balanced with honest, open dialogue; Experimentation and risk-taking balanced with individual/ team competence and discipline. In my previous blogs I introduced the synergy of Distributed Leadership  and a Culture for Distributed leadership . In this blog, I will expand on key supporting features and the simple but important balancing forces needed to make Distributed Leadership approaches thrive. While I was discovering the importance of these balancing forces through my work, I came across an article in Harvard Business Review - The hard truth about innovative cultures that put words to my e...

The idea: Here are 3 common mistakes to avoid when adopting data-driven approaches in your schools: #1 Lacking a clear purpose for collecting data, #2 Failing to tackle data aversion/ fearing mindsets in the community, #3 Drawing conclusions without analyzing the reliability of the data  For any School that wants to be innovative and improve quickly, data-informed approaches/ improvement science approaches should be central to their functioning. Read more about adopting an Improvement Science Approach in schools in this book:  Learning to Improve: How Americas Schools Can Get Better At Getting Better .

The idea: Successfully launching new technology in schools involves four key steps: ‘ Setting up Systems ’ where leaders ensure the vision, culture and systemic supports for the innovation are in place; ‘ Getting the ball rolling ’ where high quality training on the tech is provided to introduce the team to it; ‘ Greasing the wheels ’ where the actions and impact of the early adopters are amplified; ‘ Letting it roll ’ where you consolidate and enable continuous improvement by supporting learning communities. As the horror of the pandemic took over our lives last year, I witnessed a miracle unfold in our schools. Our teachers, students and parents embraced the opportunity before them, leapfrogged over many barriers (inexperience, access, etc.) and emerged a digitally competent community. Before the pandemic hit, I had dreamed this would happen in 3 years. It took 6 months. This had a lot to do with the pandemic, but also a little to do with how we approached the challenge, I believe. H...