Hillary Programme

My last blog was on the leadership programme I have just completed.

I need to thank the few of us who were still there at the end. Nigel, Peter, Vivian, Carmen, Andrew and Michael. It will be great to keep in touch.

Also a big thanks to Peter and Lisa who ran the programme with help from Lester, Brigid, Joeline, and Loretta. Thanks to Phillipa for making everything work.

Leadership

I have just finished an 18 month leadership course for senior leaders. It is called the Hillary programme run by Excelerator which is part of Auckland University. The course has been hugely demanding not in time but in commitment. The commitment is about a need to work from ones self. To be a better leader requires a person to be a better person.

There have be many challenges over the 18 months. The challenge of needing to look at myself and how that drives my leadership. The challenge of working with others closely over a long period of time. The last challenge is what this means moving forward and how I am going to use this in the future.

There are two areas which interest me in education. The first and I think easier one is the whole area of where education in the 21st century is heading and how connectivity and Web 2.0 have the capacity to totally alter the way we learn and teach. Schools need to adapt to survive and teachers need to change to continue to exist.

Education as a compulsory part of our societies is only relatively recent and high school education in New Zealand has only been compulsory for 70 years. If we don't change our profession risks becoming as redundant as blacksmiths are compared to 200 years ago.

The second issue follows from this and it is the area of that new word of the decade 'sustainability'. Sustainability in education not only from an environmental view but how do we make learning sustainable as as Friedman states our world flattens around us?

So my leadership over the next time window (undefined in length) is to work in the areas of 21st Century education around firstly connectivity and secondly sustainability.

Leadership

Today is the last day of an 18 month leadership programme. Have I changed or learnt anything. Today I find out.

Last week I worked with a group of 18-24 year olds in Auckland who were having a week long leadership course. It is inspiring to work with youth who actually do believe they can make changes to the world. There were several on the course who I believe will do this.

The old visions of leadership as being first over the top and everyone follows saw not evident at all. These were all reflective, thinking young adults who really valued the opportunity to do something for the world. It does leave one slightly humbled to be in their presence.

Moving on

I have not written for a while because of the distractions of the Easter break and preparing for an upcoming ERO visit. Two things have occurred which have brought me back to the focus of learning in this time.

The first is Will Richardson's book titled Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms which I found wonderful. This gives a great insight into how these technologies can be used in the school.

The second is my oldest daughter, Annie, aged 14. She was using messenger to communicate with two friends at one time, while also have a text conversation on her phone. The surprising thing was that the conversations were all connected and it was as though she was just a conduit for the thoughts. If she is able to do this socially then what could she achieve educationally?

She is now hankering for a myspace account, which I am persuading her she needs to be older to have.

These two issues have sent me forward again on the journey to establish more technological solutions at my school.