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Apr 9

At what point in time will you be embarrassed that you blocked out social media?

For all of the school administrators and/or school policy makers who are hell bent on making sure that resources that can assist in learning remain off the table in their schools. . . . Is there a point in time that you will be embarrassed at the opportunities that you denied learners due to your narrow-mindedness? Isn’t the job of school administrators to add to the list of resources that our staff and students have access too? When will you realize that we are blessed to be in our positions at such a wonderful moment in history?

Patrick Larkin via http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/5653

Filed under  //  edtech   leadership   policy   socialmedia  

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Apr 1

Bullying: ineffectual and indifferent school officials

The immensely powerful and highly acclaimed documentary "Bully," whose makers hope to create a nationwide movement against the "bullying crisis," opens in selected theaters this weekend. The film follows the harrowing experiences of a handful of victims of harassment, including two who killed themselves in desperation. It is, above all, a damning indictment of ineffectual and indifferent school officials.

Despite the rare and tragic cases that rightly command our attention and outrage, the data show that things are, in fact, getting better for kids. When it comes to school violence, the numbers are particularly encouraging. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 1995 and 2009, the percentage of students who reported "being afraid of attack or harm at school" declined to 4% from 12%. Over the same period, the victimization rate per 1,000 students declined fivefold.

When it comes to bullying numbers, long-term trends are less clear. The makers of "Bully" say that "over 13 million American kids will be bullied this year," and estimates of the percentage of students who are bullied in a given year range from 20% to 70%. NCES changed the way it tabulated bullying incidents in 2005 and cautions against using earlier data. Its biennial reports find that 28% of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied in 2005; that percentage rose to 32% in 2007, before dropping back to 28% in 2009 (the most recent year for which data are available). Such numbers strongly suggest that there is no epidemic afoot (though one wonders if the new anti-bullying laws and media campaigns might lead to more reports going forward).

Nick Gillespie via http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577311664105746848.html

Filed under  //  leadership   safety  

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Mar 22

Innovation is about space to breathe rather than process

Innovation isn't about structuring a process to lead to an outcome so much as it's about creating space--both elbow room, the space to roam free of bureaucratic rules and red tape, and head room, the freedom to see differently, think wildly, and aim higher. The leaders who generate more creative energy and innovation are always wrestling with the question: How do we design in more slack? Or, how do we cultivate an environment and support work that enlists people as drivers of their own destiny and inventors of the company's future?
Polly LaBarre via http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/delivering-innovation-overnight-what-it-takes-do-new-things-fast

Filed under  //  innovation   leadership  

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Mar 5

Move toward the fear

The things we fear are probably feared by others, and when we avoid them, we're doing what others are doing as well.

Which is why there's a scarcity of whatever work it is we're avoiding.

And of course, scarcity often creates value.

Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/03/fear-scarcity-and-value.html

Filed under  //  Seth Godin   leadership  

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Mar 1

Now we are ALWAYS transitioning

We’re not just living through a transition; we have transitioned into always transitioning.

Filed under  //  change   leadership   learning  

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Feb 20

When it comes to ed tech, we shouldn't be looking for 'buy-in'

I'm not looking for buy-in, because I'm not selling anything.  It's an expectation that we should have, that we will do what we can do because it's the right thing to do for students.
Eric Sheninger via http://teachinghumans.blogspot.com/2012/02/low-hanging-fruit-why-technology-in-our.html

Filed under  //  edtech   equity   leadership  

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Feb 19

We could get into trouble!

Isabelle: We could get into trouble!

Hugo: That's how you know it's an adventure...

Via Hugo
Filed under  //  change   leadership  

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Feb 17

Job titles are meaningless

People do their best work when they do work they love - work that connects their unique skills, talents, and passions to a greater good - all of which has nothing to do with a BS title
Kari Weston via http://blog.kariweston.com/2012/02/16/bs-job-titles-sacred-cows--organizational-progress.aspx

Filed under  //  leadership  

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Feb 5

Why using test results to drive teacher and leader effectiveness won't work

Using test results to drive teacher and leader effectiveness is akin to poking the raw batter with a toothpick. Which is why it hasn't worked and is not going to.
Thomas Payzant via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-thomas-w-payzant/school-testing_b_1248319.html

Filed under  //  assessment   edreform   education   leadership   teaching  

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Feb 1

Even though you have a simple message, you still need to be a complex leader

your goals and your strategy must be simple. You must have passion and certainty in order to make a difference as a leader. Your tactics, on the other hand, should be layered, multi-dimensional and reflect the patience of someone who cares about reaching a goal.

When Howard Schultz talks about coffee or Jill Greenberg talks about lighting or Cory Booker talks about education, they can impatiently demand clear and simple results. At the same time, successful leaders see the nuance they'll need in executing to get there.

The paradox is that the simplicity we often seek in search of solutions rarely leads to the patient leadership we need to get them.

Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/01/the-waffle-paradox.html

Filed under  //  Seth Godin   change   edtech   leadership  

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Jan 3

We must risk all to gain all

sometimes we must risk the danger of this dark course over the safety and comfort of the present lightened way.

We must risk all to gain all. Because to stay where we are gets us nowhere.

Many of us make the mistake of choosing comfort over possibility.

Adam Alvarado via http://tinybuddha.com/blog/the-fear-of-change-or-the-thrill-of-something-new

Filed under  //  change   edreform   leadership  

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Dec 2

Institutional stability can turn into rigidity and blindness

The ability of institutions to adapt slowly while preserving continuity of mission and process is exactly what lets them last longer than a single leader or lifespan. When change in the outside world outstrips an institution’s adaptive capabilities, though, the ability to defend the internal organization from outside pressures can become a liability. Stability can turn into rigidity and even institutional blindness.
Clay Shirky via http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2011/12/institutions-confidence-and-the-news-crisis

Filed under  //  change   edreform   leadership  

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Nov 21

The world changed; management didn't

Why is the private sector—once the pride of America and the engine of economic growth—getting much lower returns on assets and capital than it used to get?

The reason for that is not that the managers have forgotten how to manage. The primary reason is that world has changed and management hasn’t.

Half a century ago, big firms were in charge of the marketplace. They could dictate terms to customers. Customers had few choices and imperfect information. Large hierarchical bureaucracies pursuing economies of scale and pushing products and services at customers were fairly effective in dealing with such a world.

Then the world changed. At first slowly and then, in the last decade, rapidly. Customers now have many choices and instant access to reliable information about those choices and can share views with other customers. As a result, there has been an epochal shift in power from seller to buyer. Now large hierarchical bureaucracies are no longer nimble enough to cope with a world in which the customer is effectively in charge. If customers are not delighted, they can and do go elsewhere. In order to delight the customer, a firm needs continuous innovation.

Steve Denning via http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/21/why-we-are-in-political-gridlock-the-private-sector-is-dying/

Filed under  //  economy   leadership  

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Nov 7

Creative learning, personalization, responsibility, collaboration, and trust

I hear a lot of people ask "What has Finland done to improve their education system", but it might be equally as important to ask, "What has Finland not done to their education system". While most Anglo-American cultures have spent their limited time, effort and resources on content-bloated, standardized, prefabricated, top-down mandated curriculums with test-based accountability and market-based competition, Finland has focused on broad & creative learning, personalization, professional responsibility, collaboration and trust.
Joe Bower via http://www.joebower.org/2011/11/what-has-finland-not-done.html

Filed under  //  edreform   education   leadership  

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Nov 7

How NOT to make change

You don't make change by simply making those who have less power than you do what ever it is you demand. To believe otherwise is to ignore what research has been telling us for a very long time.

A prominent researcher in the field of motivation and psychology Edward Deci explains in his book Why We Do What We Do:

The proper question is not, "how can people motivate others?" but rather, "how can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?"

Joe Bower via http://www.joebower.org/2011/11/what-has-finland-not-done.html

Filed under  //  edreform   education   leadership  

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Nov 6

We're waiting for you

Most of the time there's something that needs to be done where the answer is unknowable until you do it...

That's what we're waiting for you to do.

Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/11/what-do-you-do-when-you-dont-know-the-answer.html

Filed under  //  Seth Godin   leadership  

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Oct 6

Don't waste your time living someone else's life

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford University commencement address
Filed under  //  leadership  

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Oct 6

A world where big stuff can never get done

Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems—climbing the hill, as it were, toward a local maximum, trimming fat, eking out the occasional tiny innovation—like city planners painting bicycle lanes on the streets as a gesture toward solving our energy problems. Any strategy that involves crossing a valley—accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance—will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done.
Neal Stephenson via http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation

Filed under  //  change   leadership  

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Oct 5

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present

new media literacy skills are expanding our definitions of literacy but must be cultivated from the foundation of traditional literacy. While traditional literacy is foundational, it is no longer solely sufficient. As media scholar Henry Jenkins has said: "Traditionally we wouldn't consider someone literate if they could read but not write. And today we shouldn't consider someone literate if they can consume but not produce media."

The literacy of the future rests on the ability to decode and construct meaning from one's constantly evolving environment -- whether it's coded orally, in text, images, simulations, or the biosphere itself. Therefore we must be adaptive to our social, economic and political landscape. Those of us living in this digital age are required to learn, unlearn and learn again and again.

Navigating times of great change is never an easy affair. But the results can be historic. In this regard, Abraham Lincoln provides wise council. Before signing the Emancipation Proclamation President Lincoln sent a message to Congress in which he said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

Aran Levasseur via http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/10/learning-in-a-digital-age-teaching-a-different-kind-of-literacy277.html

Filed under  //  change   edtech   education   leadership   learning   literacy   teaching  

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Oct 4

We need to be asking harder questions

Our education right now is always about the simple answer and never about the hard question.
Trung Le via http://willrichardson.com/post/10886407558/our-education-right-now-is-always-about-the-simple

Filed under  //  edreform   edtech   education   leadership  

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Oct 2

Face the abyss

If you're not willing to face the abyss of choice, you will almost certainly not spend enough time dancing with opportunity.
Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/10/what-to-do-next.html

Filed under  //  Seth Godin   change   leadership  

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Sep 22

Want to be a superintendent?

every time I get a call asking if I want a superintendent’s job, I say, ‘No, thank you. I’m too busy putting bamboo shoots under my fingernails.’
Mike Feinberg via http://www.texasmonthly.com/2011-10-01/feature3.php

 

Filed under  //  education   leadership  

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Sep 14

Find the courage to educate

There will be no advancements in society until those entrusted with education find the courage to educate
Stephen Downes via http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=56240

Filed under  //  leadership  

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Sep 10

How the developed world can compete

Developed economies and their companies will always lose out to the emerging economies and their companies if the battle is fought on the basis of lowering cost (which is where traditional management generally tries to compete.)

Developed economies and their companies can only win in the long run if they compete on the basis of adding more value, through superior understanding and mastery of the world of the customer (which requires a radically different kind of management).

Steve Denning via http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/21/amazon-kindle-part-3-its-not-just-manufacturing

Filed under  //  economy   leadership   workforce  

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Aug 17

Put this pledge at the top of every meeting agenda

What if includ[ed] on every agenda was a pledge like this:

  1. I agree to show up on time.
  2. I agree to NOT grandstand, ramble, create diversions, stall, blame, or attack.
  3. I agree to change my mind or point of view if presented with a compelling argument.
  4. I agree to work in the self interest of the group, not just myself, my department, or my team
  5. I agree to boldly commit to actions, and then follow through on their completion
  6. I agree to NOT attend if I don’t feel my presence will add value. I won’t worry about upsetting others.
  7. I agree to prepare in a way that is worthy of the time we’ll be spending at this meeting.
via http://modernmeetingstandard.com/2011/08/the-power-of-pledge

Filed under  //  leadership   meetings  

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Aug 17

The question we should be asking ourselves about our meetings

the problem until now is the flawed question we’ve been asking ourselves:

“Is this meeting necessary?”

It seems like a good question doesn’t it? But there are two big problems:

  1. The question presupposes that some meetings are necessary. That’s just not true. A meeting is only a vehicle (among many that could take you to your destination) and although meetings are some times an appropriate and powerful choice, they are in fact a choice. No meeting is absolutely necessary.
  2. Almost anyone would and will answer the question: yes, of course my meeting is necessary. We probably wouldn’t have even thought about holding a meeting, if we didn’t think it was necessary. We have a hard time looking at the question objectively.

Here’s a better question to ask yourself and those around you:

“If you couldn’t have your meeting, how could you still achieve the same objectives?”

This question has much more power. It gets us to acknowledge that a meeting-less scenario does exist (and in it, planet Earth usually survives).

via http://modernmeetingstandard.com/2011/08/a-better-question

Filed under  //  leadership  

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