If you plan it, they will come!!

One of my passions is community engagement.  I believe that if we create a genuine space, people will come and share their ideas and passions--and commitment to public education.  When I talk about this, I often get pushback from the people who work and lead our school districts.  No one comes.  People don't have time.  We don't have time, or money, to plan it.  Only the cranky people come.

I understand that perspective as it is based on experience.  One that often comes out of what we encounter in public hearings.

Here is an example of what a community can do when visionary leadership calls for  genuine community engagement.  In Bibb County, Georgia, 4,000 people are participating in the district's strategic planning process.  Read more about The Macon Miracle here.

65 percent

That is the percent of children who are entering school today who will end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet.  How can we open up public education to innovation and creativity so that we can prepare our children for this future?  Most of our classrooms still resemble the 19th century model that was created to address the needs of that time.  We need to adapt so that we can prepare our children for the 65 percent.  Education needs a digital age update provides some food for thought on this subject.

People who make predictions must have tons of confidence

I don't think I understand what is going to happen next week, let alone in the next ten years.

Still, it is fun and important to think about how the world is changing.  One thing IS certain:  the pace of change continues accelerate.   Are you ready for what may come your way?

Here is a list of changes that could affect public education:
10 Things That Will Be Obsolete In Education by 2020

Transformation and technology

This week I spent two evenings talking with school boards about their work, particularly as it relates to vision.  One board engaged in conversation that specifically focused on technology.  How could we use it better?  How do we know what kinds of questions to ask about it?  Are we qualified to make technology questions. What does the term "cloud" mean?

The other board talked about vision and the need to include the community in conversations about the future of the district. One of the board members said, "It is clear technology has to be a central component of those conversations.  And, again, board members expressed dismay that they don't know enough to make these kinds of decisions.

Well, school board members are not alone.  In his blog, dangerously irrelevant, Scott McLeod talks about how educational leadership programs are not addressing this issue either.  We need to prepare our school leaders, not so that they will have the answers, but that they will be able to ask the right kinds of questions, spot trends, and bring people together to figure it out.

And, technology is not the issue.  The issue is educational relevance and the role technology plays in achieving that.  Other questions:  how will technology change our culture and are we ready for that?  How big of a change are we ready for?

Human Capital and Technology

I frequently hear conversations where people talk about the role technology could play in bringing schools into the 21st century.  It is easy to focus on the gadgets--laptops, iPads, Smart Boards.  But getting the gadgets into the schools is only one challenge.  If teachers are to successfully use these new technologies, they need training.

This blog post provides food for thought about how we might more effectively introduce new technologies into our schools.  And, the proposed changes to collective bargaining may provide opportunities for important staffing reconfigurations that can help support staff learning about new ways to deliver curriculum using technology.

We need to think differently about the delivery of public education

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
                                                                                                        Albert Einstein

So, how do we do that when we are surrounded by chaos:  drastic budget cuts; political instability at the state; parents who demand (rightly) that we serve their children; community members who are unwilling to pony up more dollars.  

In the face of these pressures it is understandable that you might want to double down and do what you are doing, only harder, faster, better.  But, as Einstein posits, this will not solve the problem.

There are places where we are starting to see how a 21st century education can be delivered.  Read here to get a glimpse:

What is 21st Century Education?

Understanding the changing context

Some of you may have heard me talk about how the world, Wisconsin, and the expectations of public education have changed.  Seth Godin's blog post does a good job of explaining some of the challenges of the changing context.

Leaders in public education need to understand these changes.  If we continue to improve the current system, we will have failed.  It is not reform, but reinvention, that we need to pursue.

This means that leaders need to have strong communication skills. Today, leadership is not about technical skill.  It is not about being good at issuing orders.  It is about creating contexts for groups to come together to solve problems.  Problems which do not have one clear answer.

In this more complex era, leaders need to be able to develop good relationships.  They need to create a context of trust.  The context is chaotic.  Leaders who learn how to create a context to let order emerge from the chaos, will succeed in leading the public education reinvention our students need.