Education Leadership

"There are a lot of people in education that when they hear that the world is changing they don't feel excitement about that..they feel anger, they are not happy about this... and I was saying to them you have to change..you are not a teacher as much as you are a learner with your kids, you are not a content expert as much as you are a master learner who models learning on a regular basis for your kids and asks questions you do not know the answer to because that's the way to prepare kids for a world of abundance. So we have to deal with that anger, maybe even that sadness..grief..we have to feel that and we have to make sure we understand that in the context of the intellectual part of that change. Once we get through that we ourselves have to change, we do have to become learners first..parents, teachers, community members.."

"We need to be articulating the idea that schools still have a huge, huge value in our kids learning wise, but that value has changed. It not a place of content so much as it is a place of learning, collaboration, critical thinking, of making things with kids that can absolutely change the world...It cannot longer be about simply passing the test, it has to be much much more than that..if we really want to be leaders in education..it has to be our job stand up and say that learning is what our kids need to be doing in the classroom not getting ready for assessments that we built for an age that no longer exists."

Will Richardson has spent the past decade thinking and writing about how emerging web technologies can be best used in classrooms and schools. Called 'a trendsetter in education' by The New York Times, Will is author of the bestselling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, and has spoken to tens of thousands of educators in more than a dozen countries about the value of online learning networks.
This was a free event hosted in the State Library of Victoria's Experimedia room -- a distinctive space where 19th-century grandeur meets 21st-century digital technology in a spacious bluestone-walled courtyard. Around 250 educators came together to explore the theme of Education Leadership. Attendees were encouraged to start thinking about how they can work together rather than in isolation within their own classrooms. The event focused on the changing nature of education and how technology can shape the future of learning which each of the speakers speaking passionately about their areas of expertise. VERY INTERESTING TALK, WELL DELIVERED.