“Innovation is an iterative process of substantial positive improvement, for the many, by a few.”
I came up with this phrase today while thinking about what Innovation means to me.
I define Innovation as ‘Substantial Positive Change’.
What does it mean to you?
I was blown away by this new visualisation tool on LinkedIn, called InMaps partly because it looks so good!
I love LinkedIn, and try to only link with people I have actually met, worked with, or shared an event with. This means that I can vouch for my network and it can vouch for me.
But this is hard to keep track of…and since I tipped over into over 500 connections, I have struggled to maintain a clear view of those that I know.
So, I was pleased to be able to play with this tool to see the patterns of connections as I was able to see my professional network in a whole new way.
Apart from the groups that I know from clients and previous employers, what became clear is that by far the biggest and densest part of my network are teachers, teachmeeters, and ‘edugeeks’ – that large group at the bottom right shown in blue.
It is a great way to see where my professional interest remains and how it is complemented by the wonderful people I know!
Following my first two posts explaining why (and, almost more importantly, why not) I am involved in leading ONSchool, the proposal for a free school in Oxford, I want to answer a key question that follows from one of my main motivations, to keep learning and challenge myself.
Firstly, I have found that I have some amazing friends, talented neighbours and a professional network who have proven essential to the progress we have made. There are so many people to thank, so many acts of kindnesses, big and small. Thank you.
I realised, as these people just kept on giving and sharing, that in some ways, the nature of the ONSchool proposal – for a school that is so innovative – has allowed people to give something new of themselves. And boy did they give! I learned that even under pressure of a project far beyond my previous experience, and on a deadline I would never normally subject a team to, it is possible to hold on to core values and an evidence based approach.
I have worked in education, in practice, publishing, and policy. Modesty prevents me from blowing my own trumpet – but there are some things I do well. What I did not know was how the skills, experience and knowledge I have would apply in a role I had never tried before – or been selected for. I put myself into this role, and could have run away at any point. I discovered that my core strengths – to Synthesize good ideas, harnessing the expertise of cleverer people than me, and to be in touch with the key trends in education – are transferable and much stronger than I thought they would be.
Admit when your wrong, admit what you don’t know. Never forget to say thank you. So far, the ethical approach has worked. I intend to stick with it.
In the second of the posts on this thread, I will continue to answer:
As I proved in the last post, my reasons for leading the proposal for ONSchool are simple and, I hope, ethical.
Unlike those who are, perhaps, older, with pensions and savings to draw on; or the very well paid; or those with jobs that pay and a very understanding boss…. I work in the education sector, so never expected to be rich or to have an easy ride.
I have signed up to start supply teaching next week, and have had kind offers from friendly local primary schools to take cover work when it comes.
A well meaning tweep DM’d me to comment that he was worried that I was “back to square one”. Although that made me smile, it reflects a general concern that teaching is something you fall back on in hard times- only as a last resort! This is not how I feel about teaching. I never have. I have always loved teaching. I have just found other ways to support the learning experiences of children.
I have also had some very interesting offers and expressions of interest for other roles that might be closer to my more recent positions – but, we will see.
In the meantime, I have some answers to a few questions I posed:
As long as there is no conflict of interest – surely it would be ok. So, what are the options?
How is it that there are smart people out there, who are totally entitled to think that Free Schools are evil – who cannot see the logical inconsistency of criticising people for doing what what 1000s of ex-LA authority consultants have been forced to do? Loads of these amazing people have been forced to sell their services back to the schools they used to support with LA badges on. Of course, this is madness – but it is happening. They are not evil people. There are people who value their expertise – gained while working at the tax payers expense, in state sponsored schools. And there are schools / organisation / companies that will pay for this.
Can’t I do that?
I wish I could! Unfortunately, there is very little sharing going on between proposer groups. The one great space that evolved (thanks to Tom Legge of Place Group), on Linkedin, has now become full of service providers broadcasting their wares to people like me! I have set one up for proposers alone – and hope that others will join!
Should we wait until all the ethics are clear and there are boundaries and guidelines and companies that dominate the space… Nah!
I do not want to wait for the academy chains to dominate education, I want free schools to be opened and led by passionate people who care about their local education system – and the quality of their kid’s education. Don’t you?
Why give up a great job to take on a project that has little hope of success, for no pay; risking reputation and friendships?
In this blog post, and the next few, I hope to inform those who wonder what drives someone to get involved in something as nebulous as a ‘Big Society’ project. The big surprise for many is that, for me, it is not money! I have been leading a proposal for a secondary free school in Oxford – ONSchool www.onschool.org.uk since June 2011.
From day one of announcing this idea, people asked me, “Why are you doing this?”. Apart from all the reasons to do with education, there had to be more to it, right?
Anyone who knows me, and my views on social justice, knew that I could not be doing this because of the politics.
So, most assumed I wanted to be the Head, or Principal Designate.
Although only my closest friends could ask, there is also the question of ‘Ego’ and ‘Legacy’. Perhaps I was doing this to become famous – or something! I cannot honestly answer this – except to say that, given that 90% of the applications last year failed, I could not be doing this for this reason alone .
The next assumption was that I’d teamed up with an Academy Chain, or profit driven businesses who were paying me to do this – or would do if we were successful.
There is no such arrangement with any company driven by profit. I receive no ‘retainer’ or have any promise of one.
Finally, those who care about me and our family asked if I had a hidden pile of cash to draw on. Any money we had saved had just mostly gone on an extension and improvements to our house, that finished in May 2011.
When friends heard this, they asked how we were going to survive, and if I was mad!
I had been very successfully leading a fantastic business providing educational resources for schools, and (if I am honest) being paid more than I had been expecting to be – working with great people, with a great boss. I was not pushed – I left by choice.
It is true that leading the ONSchool proposal, with a vision built around Innovation – threaded through with transformative use of digital technology – was ‘in tune’ with my professional interests – in that I have been working in educational organisations to bring change and improvements through use of ‘ICT’ for 20 years. However, there was no obvious way for me to make a living from this. One of my ex-clients said to me recently:
“What you are doing is amazing, but we don’t know how your new skills and knowledge could help us, as you have moved out of the ‘box’ we knew you were an expert in.”
I have been doing this without pay or any employment (or expectation of any resulting from this project) and have been working close to 100% on this since the Summer. So, you might ask again, ‘Why?”
But, there is still a big question… How can I help to pay the mortgage (again)?
In my next blog post, I want to talk about the income options available to me – and some of the ethical issues I am finding myself dealing with, such as:
Is it right to profit in any way from being involved in ONSchool?
Is there a moral difference between being paid by a Local Authority and a private company if the work is the same?
How can I learn from others who have opened free schools?
Given that the free school policy is changing the landscape in education – is it ok to stake a claim in the new territory – or should I wait till others have proven the ground?
How many more risks can I afford to take?
Image taken from Microsoft Partners in Learning page.
Of the 12 recommendations, I don’t disagree with most, but I did object to the thrust and tone of Ian Livingstone’s talk at MSPILF2011. He made it clear that it was his view that the country should invest in the games and hi-tech media industry to train children and young people to work within it, to maintain our standing as a creative country. Games development, computer science and high end media production skills should be on the curriculum at schools, he said.
So, why did I object to this? I have been an advocate and co-creator of the use of technology in education for 20 years and now advise organisations how to use new media to make a positive change in the way we engage children in learning. So, why disagree so much with what Ian Livingstone said?
Firstly, I do not think it is the role of schools to train any specific part of the workforce (ie teach specific industry related skills). Ian Livingstone made a terrible case for why training for games development would lead to a creative and commercially successful sector – using high achievers in the industry to complain that if only they had had coding taught them at school, then they would have been more successful!
The evidence that was before us, in reality and contradiction to Ian Livingstone’s point – was that the breadth of their learning had given them the foundations to specialise and succeed later in life. We cannot train for the jobs of the future as those jobs are not there yet and if we train for the jobs that are there now, then we will damage our chances of economic competitive.
I believe that there are a range of computing basics that schools should be teaching and that includes some coding – BUT I do not agree with a coding curriculum from the industry – as Livingstone demands. I am not expert enough to say what should be taught and experienced – but I do not believe that the current crop of games company executives are in a position to either.
Furthermore, I am sick of the games industry telling us how successful they are and how much money they bring into the economy – and then come to education events bleating that they are struggling for great graduates while investing so little in schools.
In terms of the wider economy (to be a little political) these companies and those that lead them are in no position to complain about the status of education in the UK when they are taking their profits offshore to avoid tax here.
Also, it is an industry with very a poor record in looking after the people who work in it – claiming that their ways of treating workers is just being competitive with the ‘east’… ie treating them like fodder.
I love games. I have been a gamer for 36 years. I was doing Games Based Learning in the mid 90s (using Sonic on the SegaMega Drive for story starters). I know senior people in the industry. I love what they create. I have spent a small fortune on games and the devices to run them.
I think that Intellect UK, the trade body for the IT industry, is taking great new steps to think about how to answer the social responsibility it has to the communities that buy into their products and services.
That said, I feel that creating a part of the curriculum for game design, and accepting any parts of the NextGen Report should come with a price for the studios themselves.
There are some recommendations we should do anyway, but any that benefit the games industry should come with a pro rata contribution in hard cash direct into the schools sector. There should be a tax on the games industry in return for the sort of specific ”help’ they are asking for. It could be said that they are asking the state to fund the sort of training that in other industries either the worker or company has to pay for. Surely this is not reasonable – however much we love what the games industry do.
Finally, Ian Livingstone is living proof, through his life story and his journey to his place as a creative giant helping to build a new media, of why his report – and the logic underpinning it – is flawed and self serving.
I would like to see this great man and the great people in the games industry return the love from young people all over the world – and give something tangible back – to education and the wider society.
Eylan Ezekiel
@eylanezekiel
The offering is a leading provider of educational engagement services. This role will define and drive digital strategy for people, products, platforms and integration across an organisation working with learning, in and out of schools.
Experience of exemplary delivery in both B2B and B2C in an education related environment is essential to the offering.
A trusted and respected voice in the education sector, Eylan will bring considerable social capital to your organisation – as well as a powerful network, to inform the organisational goals.
Working across a wide range of technologies (LMS, Social Media, Digital Asset Management, Content Management Systems, XML, mobile content, portals etc) Eylan will own the digital roadmap for the organisation to ensure your team provide fit for purpose solutions.
This will be an exciting, very challenging role to define, develop and execute a new digital platforms/product strategy.
This will be a rare opportunity to really make a difference by taking on one of the most influential players in the education space.
To see more about the offering – see here
I am instigating the proposal for a new school in Oxford.
The Oxford New School – ONSchool.
OK, no huge surprise for many. Especially if you read between the lines of a previous post – From Agitation to Proposition.
To find out more, please see the website – www.onschool.org.uk
I will be continuing to use this blog for non ONSchool posts, not least as my involvement in ONSchool will have to be balanced by getting work to pay the bills, continue learning, and involvement in my PLN.
So, I hope to hear from your on the ONSchool blog – through comments, and on twitter @turnonschool and on Facebook.
We’d love to hear from you.
I spent an afternoon at Sonning Common Primary School – in the Year 2 class of Matt Lovegrove.
Firstly, Matt invited me to teach his class – and we discussed what we I might do using twitter direct messages. When we agreed that we’d do a session on transition from KS1 to Ks2 – I thought that Matt might have had a lesson plan for me to pick up and adapt – but… rather wonderfully, he didn’t!!!
Now, I know that there are those of you who are wincing at this. I know I would have. No clear plan? No APP linked activities and outcomes?
Matt knew what he wanted to cover with the kids (to deal with the hopes and fears of his class as they prepared to move ‘up’ the school) but he gave me almost total control over how to deliver this on the day – with little or no preparation (except the vague idea to use wallwisher).
So, how did I do? Well, really you should ask Matt and his amazing class
However, the good news is that my classroom management and ‘teacher craft’ – though rusty – was more or less still there.
The main reflection is that that released to be creative, and allowed to fail in a safe environment felt great, for me and for the kids.
I have been invited to go back and I am looking forward to it.
Given that my local school is going to be closed for the strike on Thursday 30th June – I am thinking of organising a day of learning and discovery for some of the local kids (including my own).
I’d like to combine Geocaching, video, audio, and parent’s skills to enliven the kids day and end it with something that they all created together.
Groups of kids (mixed ages) on problem solving – team building – treasure hunts…
Any ideas? Anyone done this before? Do you want to take part? Can you help?
Please let me know. Thanks
