More on 'Agile Leadership'

Nguyen Vu Hung (vuhung) via Compfight cc 

"Five year plans are the last thing I'd be creating if I wanted to see innovation happen in a school." Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh at #Edutech2014 challenged thinking on leadership with the notion of 'Agile Leadership'.  

McIntosh says:

Ultimately, agile leadership is about recognising that everyone in the 'orchestra' of school is a leader, provided the strategy has been scored in a way that enables everyone to know their part in making it happen. The metaphor with music is one I concluded with, based on this old conductors' post I wrote. 

McIntosh overlaid his own entertaining and insightful commentary on agile leadership (be great if that makes it to youtube soon +Edutech ) as depicted when Maria Joao Pires realises she has practiced the wrong concerto and the ensuing exchange between herself and conductor Riccardo Chailly. 

Some further reading on Agile Leadership:

Agile leaders -- what do they look like?
by Ana Duta "Agile Leaders are those who “figure it out”, who “get it”, when faced with new and challenging situations."

The Agile Leader’s Toolkit"Agile leaders are leaders who are able to reflect, see possibilities and reframe their thinking constantly. They understand the importance of adaptability, grace in failure, curiosity, collaboration, back up, diversity, ease of access and the ability to forecast.

What should TLs take from the Horizon Report?

The 2014 Horizon Report identifies

• Key Trends Accelerating Educational Technology Adoption in Schools 
• Significant Challenges Impeding Educational Technology Adoption in Schools
• Important Developments in Technology for K-12 Education

Increasing the focus on Open Education Resources (OER)is identified as one mid range trend accelerating educational technology adoption in school. 
(This was also identified in the 2013 Report - see this video explanation of OER -->)

Edutopia's post on "Open Educational Resources (OER) Resource Roundup" - offers a good place to start understanding the breadth of what is on offer with regard to online repositories, open text books and other resources.  

Assisting staff and students in navigating access to these resources enables teacher librarians to continue to provide real and relevant information services to its learning community. A logical place to offer meaningful access in terms of matching resources to curriculum needs - to such resources is via the school library's online catalogue.

A video snap shot of the 2014 Horizon Report

You may have read Joyce Valenza's response to the report on her blog. Joyce states even though library or librarian does not appear in this document in a meaningful way, "These trends should inform K12 library practice and the ways in which we partner with classroom teachers. In many cases we will already recognize them as part of our current practice."

Joyce responds to each of the key trends 'Accelerating Education Technology Adoption in Schools' with important questions and implications to reflect upon for Teacher Librarians working in school libraries.

Providing the conditions conducive to cultivating creativity, learning and improvement in student work

This clip used in Sir Ken Robinson's presentation at EduTECH 2014 and shows the results of a simple experiment that regarding how articulated expectations of a right answer influence the creative effort / capacity of students to take risks. 

When the pressure is taken off and students' work is graded satisfactory or not - rather than graded A to E, students feel free to take more risks - hence be creative.

Sugata Mitra's research showed that if adults step aside, and give less 'help' children can work out so much more for themselves - and the learning really becomes their own.

Ewan McIntosh relayed how we as teachers are often satisfied with students first or second attempts and demonstrated the power of continual feedback from a wider audience in promoting more superior student work. 

The school library is in a pivotal position to offer opportunities and conditions conducive to cultivating creativity in learners. How can we also make it a place where students can gather real feedback on their work in order to improve?

Read more: Grading Systems - SCHOOL, HIGHER EDUCATION - Students, Grades, Teachers, and Learning - StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2017/Grading-Systems.html#ixzz34EwtnJn9

Agile Leadership with Ewan McIntosh at EduTECH

Some key points from Ewan McIntosh's keynote on 'Agile Leadership' at EduTECH 2014.

For more on the work of Ewan McIntosh and his team especially in the area of 'Design Thinking' visit their site 'Notosh'
Ewan argues that we need to encourage students to be not only problem solvers but problem finders.

A School Library is All About Learning and Teaching... How do we create a 'Library' that teaches all the time?"

How do we create a 'Library' that teaches all the time?" 

Staff at Mt Alvernia Secondary College iCentre in Brisbane are on a journey from Library to iCentre and have made exciting and significant inroads re addressing the question above! 

The role and services offered at Mt Alverinia's ICentre were showcased at Edutech by teacher librarians Kathryn Schravemade and Helen Stower. The iCentre truly has extended its services and its reach beyond the physical space of the library.  The building...  the space ... whilst still very important do not make library services happen - it is the energetic, innovative and committed staff that do.

Mt Alvernia iCentre reflects the shift that is/has happened for school libraries in moving from a standalone PC type environment to Mobile digitally connected environment. One example of this is that Mt Alvernia iCentre have continued to tap into the expertise of  Marg Donaghue - previously a TL at MtA iCentre who now features  - as the centre's  Cybrarian.

Among other things, Kathryn & Helen demonstrated how effective use can be be made of social media, to connect with and engage with staff and students in their learning community. iCentre staff too have actively provided teachers with assistance to use social media to establish their own professional learning networks.

These teacher librarians are also involved in enabling students to become contributing digital citizens who create positive digital footprints through their 'ReTech' program.

To find out more and follow the work of the Mt Alvernia iCentre check out their site.

Read more from these TLs via their blogs - Kathryn and Helen and 

on Twitter @KatSchrav ; @HelenStower1