Keynote-Andy Hargreaves

Today I have the pleasure of being a lone ECE girlie at the very large learning@school ICT conference in our sulphar capital, Rotorua, home to Arawa and cultural icons.  Andy is the first keynote speaker, he announces pink shirt day and outs members of the audience and prepares us for a very funny speech where in parts he is stuck to the floor!   Andy reminds us that no ICT will have the slightest difference in teaching and learning unless you pay attention to pedagogy and its effect, again good teachers using ICT is the most powerful thing, and not good ICT.   Collaborative feedback example he gives reminds me how little we put ourselves out there for colleague feedback, but how powerful a thing for growth that would be... So how is this Programme going for you so far, what do you need to achieve your goals, I bet there are many wishes people share and I am looking forward to tuning into them at our Lead Teacher Hui.  Andy takes us back to when teachers entered teachers, the 60s and 70s and disorganization, the market influences on education and governments setting criteria for education...wow we are still doing that, Margaret Carr just presented the last (will it be) set of exemplars on 'Dimensions of Strength'   the exemplars have given us a criteria that reflects Te Whaariki, havn't we come a long way into our stength based narrative assessment.  Andy warns us about the competitive climate in the UK amongst schools and how this pushes aside our efforts to enhance teaching and learning and sharing of this.  I was at a kindergarten the other day where conversations with parents on selecting services arose, parents choosing on the basis of reputation, ICT equipment and resourcing and in some cases elitism - if it costs more it must be superior???   

Andy goes on to contextualize in Finland and with the successful company Nokia...did you know Nokia is named after the town of Nokia, sits by the river of Nokia, named after a large furry rodent-think about that when your nokia is beside your ear next :) Nokia were  a timber company, that went into rubber shoes, then into cables and then into cellphones... interesting model... if you work for Nokia you change your role every 15 months because your loyalty is to Nokia and not your part, how interesting would it be to change your role in your centre and association perhaps like this, and how well we would understand each other and what each role encompasses...  

Andy helped me to step into a principal's hat and the trust and empowerment they need to express, do you have it?  If you ring the school now... 'E.T. phone home' then you do not have that trust.