David Bailey |

A guide to free photo resources on the Web for educators

Posted on April 1, 2015 by David Bailey

Need that image that illustrates your point exactly for your slide presentation? Got to have the perfect photo that summarises your blog post? Is it essential to have the right kind of fern, or duck, or face, or tattoo, or map, or whatever it may be to go in that research or white paper? I reckon I would be correct that most people’s solution would be — just “Google it”. But that’s only the beginning of the process that so often leads to hours of sifting—and often frustration.

Unfortunately, (or maybe, fortunately) “Google it” isn’t the answer to everything. Google is certainly a powerful tool, and Google’s constant improvements are making it easier. Some time back, I wrote a post about how to becom e a Google Images as a power user, and that can be very handy as a first port of call. Sometimes, though, you need more, or, you want something that’s quite specialised.

And, of course, you do want the image to be copyright free!

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Holiday reading and viewing

Posted on December 24, 2014 by David Bailey

Well, what a year! Teaching, while enormously rewarding, is an exacting profession!

You’ll be looking forward to a break. Turn the computer off, lock away the phone, take some deep breaths, and relax. It’s time to allow the mind and body to be refreshed.

You know when you’re refreshed: you start thinking about the things that excite you again; you feel energised; you want to get cracking! You want to grasp the bigger picture, to get the creative juices flowing, to be inspired, to plan. Well, here’s a few ideas from CORE staff that just may provide some of that stimulus. There’s both fiction and non-fiction, heavier as well as light. We have placed them under the main categories for our blog, and provided, and a variety of mediums: books, websites, videos, podcasts. There’s something for everyone.

The list

General

Books

How to come up with good ideas— Ewan McIntosh

This book will help you achieve ambitious visions for learning through swift innovation.

Ewan is well known to many as an educational leader, ULearn keynoter and thought leader. His company Notosh recently hosted the Google Certified Teacher Academy in Sydney. This book outlines his philosophy behind design thinking.

Get it from the Notosh website
Get it from iTunes store

Reviewer: Allanah King

And another review:

How can students, teachers and school leaders in the education world innovate, share and build on new ideas, taking them out of individual classrooms to have a wider impact?

Connected Educator Month review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxnAK_ZpRKw

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Get it from the Notosh website
Get it from iTunes store

House Rules — Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes — Jodi Picoult

Two oldies but goodies that take you into the world and heads of the the student who doesn’t fit into the social infrastructure of school or society.

A combo of delightful switch off reading-for-pleasure holiday reads with a central protagonist in each that really got me thinking about the backstory of students who just don’t fit in.

Reviewer: Paula Eskett

Key Competencies for the Future – Hipkins et al (2014), NZCER

A timely focus on how the NZ Curriculum — and the Key Competencies in particular — offer a vehicle to design learning around “wicked problems” and real world learning. CORE featured this book, with NZCER, as part of Connected Educator Month. The discussions are still open for you to join.

This book offers a starting point for any school looking for a pragmatic way forward in the rethinking of student-centred, relevant learning programmes.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Becoming a High Expectation Teacher. Raising the Bar — Christine Rubie-Davies (2014)

This book offers practical advice on how teachers can have high expectations for their students. It explores three key areas that high expectation teachers enact differently: the way they group students for learning, the way they create a caring classroom community, and the way they use goal setting to motivate students.

This book is inspirational and has the potential to transform teaching and learning — it is an easy read, and provides examples and practical guidelines to help lift teachers’ expectations — love the New Zealand context … every teacher, and everyone who works with teachers, should put it on their reading list!

Reviewer: Adele O’Leary

Program or be programmed —Douglas Rushkoff

The debate over whether the Net is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In ten chapters, composed of ten “commands” accompanied by original illustrations from comic artist Leland Purvis, Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.

Rushkoff investigates why programming is the new literacy of the digital age. An interesting read highlighting the importance of understanding programming.

Get it from Rushkoff's website.

Reviewer: Tara Fagan

Article

Preparing for a Renaissance in Assesssment — Peter Hill and Michael Barber

“We are about to see big changes in the possibilities of assessment as a result of technology” writes Barber. “Current assessment systems around the world are deeply wedded to traditional testing and exams and, some might argue, are holding us back from potential reforms” This highly readable, though meaty article, argues that current assessment methods are no longer working, so that even the top performing education systems in the world have hit a performance ceiling. The authors set out a ‘Framework for Action’ for school leaders to prepare for the “assessment renaissance”

Available as free pdf online from Pearson

Reviewer: Liz Stevenson

Website

Hour of Code

Spend an hour of the holidays learning some basic coding. This website will show you how as well as why coding is so important.

Reviewer: Tara Fagan

Videos

How to escape Education’s Death Valley — Ken Robinson

You can access the Interactive Transcript.

This video features Ken Robinson, who outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture tends to work against them.

The description on the site reads: "Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility."

Ken Robinson, as well as being an entertaining speaker, has some leading ideas that feed into approaches such as Modern Learning Environments and Practices, and Universal Design for Learning.

Reviewer: Hazel Owen

Vital to education: Non-cognitive skills

Awareness of the importance of affective factors on cognitive abilities has been long-known, but this podcast focuses on "studies that show how poverty-related stress can affect brain development, and inhibit the development of non-cognitive skills".

The implications for curriculum design, facilitation and support of students of all ages, as well as assessment practices are huge.

Reviewer: Hazel Owen

The Moth

Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide.

True stories told live — what’s not to love? I like to think of them as ‘camp fire stories’.

An electic mix but 9/10 stories I love. This was one of the podcasts recommended to me by many people.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

This American Life

This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 2.2 million listeners. It is also often the most popular podcast in the country, with around one million people downloading each week.

This was probably the most recomended podcast by friends — apologies if you’re familiar but I think it’s a great start to listening to podcasts for pleasure.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Early Years

Book

Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years: Tools for Teaching and Learning — Chip Donohue

‘Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years is a thought-provoking guide to effective, appropriate, and intentional use of technology with young children. This book provides strategies, theoretical frameworks, links to research evidence, descriptions of best practice, and resources to develop essential digital literacy knowledge, skills and experiences for early childhood educators in the digital age.’

Provides current thinking around using digital technologies to support young children’s learning. A good read that prompts reflection on how we use digital tools.

Amazon Link

Reviewer:Tara Fagan

Video

Yay to play

A video featuring Nathan Mikaere-Wallis and Miriam McCaleb who are child educators, presenters and Brainwave Trust educators talk of the joy and importance of play — for children and for adults.

Engaging presenters who have the pedagogical backing but also have hands on experience with their own children and others.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Podcast

Leadership in ECE: Q1 and the proverb explained

Ruta and Lima, experienced Early Learning Facilitators, explain the proverb — “Ia su’i tonu le mata o le niu” which means to pierce the right eye of the coconut. The proverb describes the notion of leadership — to go about an undertaking in the proper way — leading the right way. Q1 of this series.

Due to the vast growth of Pasifika families and children attending ece services in both mainstream and Pasifika services the Ministry is interested in developing Pasifika leadership pedagogies to ensure that teachers and leaders who are working with Pasifika families/fanau and communities are demonstrating an understanding of Pasifika theories and practice in their services. The Pasifika Education Plan puts Pasifika learners, families and communities at the centre, so that all activities are responding to the identities, languages and cultures of each Pasifika group.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Emerging Technologies

Book

It’s Complicated: The social lives of networked teens – by danah boyd

This book explores issues related to identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying, as faced byyoung people online.

This is a timely reminder that, contrary to popular media, networked spaces function at the heart of many young people’s identities and sense of connectedness to those around them. boyd presents a person-centred view of society and offers an informed take on how we might alter our view and support them to become confident and independent in a networked world.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Podcast

http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/podcast/cyberbullying-and-student-diversity-inclusive-lens-schools

CORE colleagues John Fenaughty and Chrissie Butler discuss changes in understandings of bullying and cyberbullying and explore how schools can take a more inclusive approach to supporting the wellbeing of all students.

To quote John and Chrissie: As 1:1 technologies and BYOD become more prevalent in schools, evaluating school-wide approaches to support students’ wellbeing becomes imperative and a wonderful opportunity to enhance inclusive practice.

This podcast also features other resources on the page.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Video

This will revolutionise education

Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, this video asks: what could revolutionize education?

An engaging, lighthearted and informed overview of the ‘big picture’ around the evolution of technologies and the hype that can surround their use. This would be a good ‘spark’ to prompt staff discussion.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Kaupapa Māori

Book

Tiketike Ngahuru, Hakahaka Raumati — Teanau Tuiono

A Māori medium resource on traditional seasonal calendars and how they are used to plan planting and harvesting

If you are interested in how some communities continue to use the environment to plan and organise their lives. It is written in Māori.

Reviewer: Teanau Tuiono

Podcast

100 % success in language learning/embrace your dickness — Nichole Gully, Tahu Paki

Nichole Gully and Tahu Paki discuss their top tips for second language success? The most important? Embrace your dickness.

As someone who normally loves to give things a go but struggles with languages, I think of Nichole’s advice when I feel nervous about giving it a go. This podcast is entertaining — Nichole and Tahu are excellent — but filled with practical examples from real life.Very relatable.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Website

Māori History

Introducing Te Takanga o te Wā — Teaching Māori History Guidelins for Teachers Years 1-4. Reo Māori and English langugae versions

Teaching of Māori history is a new learning focus closely related to tikanga ā-iwi and social studies. The website is bilingual and caters for the needs of all kura and schools with students at this level.

Reviewer: Deanne Thomas

Pasifika Education

Podcast

Raising Aotearoa: The Emerging Realities Of Multiple Diversities – Shannon – Part 1

Providing a parent’s perspective on the identities, languages, cultures of their children who are of Māori and Pasifika descent. Highlighting the challenges of navigating Māori and Pasifika learners on their educational journeys by focusing on who they are and how they articulate their values.

An excellent insight from a parent:
'Teachers of kids like mine need to learn to understand their worlds, talk to their parents and whānau and think about how their cultures, languages and identities shape the individuals they are — every child comes from a different background and this can inform their learning in the classroom.' Shannon — parent of two Pasifika children.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Ten Trends

Video

What’s next in 3D printing? [TED]

Just like his beloved grandfather, Avi Reichental is a maker of things. The difference is, now he can use 3D printers to make almost anything, out of almost any material. Reichental tours us through the possibilities of 3D printing, for everything from printed candy to highly custom sneakers.

For anyone interested in makerspaces and hands-on innovation, this video will be an engaging exploration into how 3D printing will become an integral part of design processes. Reichental argues that it will connect us with our heritage and our culture around us.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Book

#EdBookNZ — Various

Produced as a collaborative effort during Connected Educator Month, this e-book, in English and te reo Māori, explores how digital views in education are changing.

Dip in and out of short chapters on digital communities, connected learning, iPads and digital citizenship, to name a few. With an impressive team of educators — and a front cover and forward from Pam Hook — this is also a model of what can be achieved through collaborative action online. A trend in action.

Reviewer: Karen Melhuish Spencer

Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world — Jane McGonigal
Kindle version

Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality is Broken sends a clear and provocative message: the future will belong to those who can understand, design and play games.

The two main take-aways from this book have changed the way I do my work: many small and meaningful challenges and real time feedback is the key; by turning your world into a game you can hack life itself. Don’t read this book unless you’re prepared to buy into its premise.

Reviewer: Stephen Lowe

Video

Jane McGonigal on alternate-reality gaming

In this 20-minute video presentation explains how alternate reality games can alter an individual’s reality for the better in a technique dubbed reality-hacking.

Jane McGonigal is extraordinary in her vision and in her accomplishments. Her work heralds a brave new world in which we are truly masters of our own destiny; in educational terms both empowering and agentic, she gives us tools for life.

Reviewer: Stephen Lowe

Website

Six to Start

Six to Start create award-winning games that combine the digital and physical world. Zombies, Run! and The Walk use smartphone sensors to create immersive and motivating gaming experiences in the real world.

Don’t just transform your classroom, totally transcend it! Make your immediate locality your classroom. Walk, run, play and learn. The future of personal computing is unarguably both personal and mobile. Six to Start are leaders.

Reviewer: Stephen Lowe

Universal Design for Learning

Book

Universal Design for Learning: theory and practice — Anne Meyer, David H Rose, David Gordon

This book is the print version of the CAST website, and the two complement each other. Sometimes it’s easier to sit with a book than stare at a screen.

It’s my opinion that there’s a lot wrong in this book. But they say you have to learn the rules before you can start breaking them. It is good to read the standard text, before your move on (through conversation with Chrissie Butler, for example) towards deeper understandings.

Reviewer: Stephen Lowe

Podcast

UDL – Universal Design for Learning — 101; the 3 principles explained, part 1 of 4 — Chrissie Butler, Stephen Lowe

Using analogies of food and sport, Chrissie Butler — CORE Education's UDL [Universal Design for Learning] specialist — talks to Learning Designer Stephen Lowe about the three principles of UDL: 'Working out what people need (to learn) and the smartest way to make it'

An excellent place to start for those who wish to learn more about Universal Design for Learning. An engaging conversation between CORE’s UDL expert Chrissie Butler and Instructional Designer Stephen Lowe.

The podcast page also has links to other options of finding out more about UDL.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

Modern learning

Video

The Mary Idema Pew Library

“What works to prepare a student to be successful in their classes, with the kind of skills they have to use is not that different from the skills they’re going to need when the leave school & go into the workplace”.
In just over 4 mins see what the combo of great service & space design in a MLLE (Modern Library Learning Environment) can do.
How would this library environment support MLP?

An excellent clip to challenge the perception of traditional library design and shift the expectation of service and space from transactional to transformational.

Reviewer: Paula Eskett

Podcast

How approaches to managing change in schools are evolving — Karen Melhuish Spencer, Mark Osborne

A discussion exploring how modern trends in learning design and technology, combined with understandings about adult learning, are driving the development of new models for leading change in schools

An engaging and practical discussion between Karen Melhuish Spencer and Mark Obsborne on the only contant: change and how to manage it.

Reviewer: Rochelle Savage

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Take the hassle out of finding images: Become a Google Images power user

Posted on August 16, 2013 by David Bailey

Google Images home page

Educators are regularly looking for images. You need them for a PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation, for a display, an activity, a report, or you want your students to find suitable images for their project. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got to have just the right image for the job. If I can, I’ll take my own photo to get what I want, but someˆtimes that’s not possible. And, for some reason, it always seems easier, like a lot of resource hunting today, to search for it on the Net.

For years I simply “Googled it”, and up would come a mind-numbing list of photos to wade through on any given subject. One estimate suggests that there is between 500 billion to 1 trillion images on the Internet (Flickr alone had 6 billion photos in 2011, and Facebook—although, not accessible in Google searches—100 billion). Well, that’s okay if you’re happy that all the other things on your To Do list can wait for another day, and the presentation you’re preparing for is eons away.

But if that’s not the way you work—and there’s not too many of us that do—this method of photo searching can be a source of enormous frustration! There’s this tension between time and getting the right image—it ends up being quite an emotional issue. Especially when it’s more than one image that you need to find, which is usually the case.

Google’s image selection improvements

Google has recognised this issue, too. Of course, Google has our wellbeing at heart, and they, in turn, want a place in our hearts. So, they’ve worked on improving both the presentation and the selection process to provide peace of mind to the overwealmed searcher. Let’s have a look at some of these in Google Images. I’ve been going the long way round on this for years, and it was my son (Oh, to be young and inquisitive) that alerted me to other possibilities by doing some simple exploring. A little bit of time spent snooping around will save you time—and frustration.

So let's go.

The suggestions list

The useful suggestions list for refining your search that automatically appears as you type in your search term has been around for a little while now. But, isn't it interesting, how, like pop-ups and banner ads, some of us block out what could be useful to us? Lesson one: check the list!

The sub-topic menu

But, the addition of the relatively new suggested sub-topics in a bar at the head of your more general search results is a very handy innovation by Google.

Google Image's sub-topic suggestion bar

On many search results you get the handy filter selection bar at the top of the search.

Time-losing issues for image searches

But, even with these improvements, there’s got to be a more efficient way to get the right image. And not only that, there’s several other issues:

Copyright:
Having found an image, you still have the question: is it legal to just take it even for personal use, or for the classroom? Google just has a warning to say “it could be under copyright”. Without the hassle of having to contact the owner of the site, the temptations is to just use it. Not good role modelling.

Image size:
How often do you find exactly the image you are looking for, only to find that it’s at some size totally unusable for your needs! It just adds to the frustration.

Image colour:
Sometimes you are trying to preserve a colour theme for your presentation. Looking for predominantly orange photos as well as looking for the kind of shot you’re looking for is rather difficult.

Image type:
You want to preserve a particular style—maybe line drawings. How are you going to wade through all images just to get that?

File type:
For some uses, JPGs and PNGs are fine, but you don’t want ICO graphics or SVGs. Until you’ve looked at each image, you don’t know what file type it is.

Specific or current events:
You’re looking for a good photo of a specific event that occurred just a few days ago. Or, it may be photos of some historic occasion 50 years ago. You can always do a normal search for that event, but results are generally not that good for finding all available photos, let alone having to wade through individual websites.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could filter all these things out?

Search tools relief

Well, you can! It’s there under our noses. It really pays to snoop around these buttons and options in the Google Images interface. Try clicking on the Search tools button:

And this is what magically appears:

There you go!

Size
colour
type of image
file type
time options

All rolled out! By clicking on the More tools option, you can have the actual image size displayed under each image in the search results list.

And the functionality of this options list is really clever. You can put all these options to work at once by simply setting each option. For example, you can select under the Size menu option all medium-sized images. Then select your colour, then the type of image, say, Clip art. You can even display the actual sizes on all images in the resulting search.

But there’s an even faster and more powerful way than this. And, it also resolves the only other bugbear, the copyright issue.

Become a Google Images super power user

Real power is not far away; it's at your fingertips. It comes in the form of this little button here (Google calls it the Options button):
.

Click on it, and you get this list of options:

Google Images Options button's list of options

Click on the Advance search option. Don’t be afraid, it’s not intimidating at all. Actually, you’ll find a lot of the stuff we’ve already seen above, plus a little more. And by using this wonderful option list, you'll find your anxiety levels and blood pressure decreases dramatically, and deadlines a possibility.

There are only two sections on this page:

Find images with…
Then narrow your results by…

Simplicity plus! And Google steps you through it, as well as providing helpful hints. Let's look at the first section:

Find images with…

This section is asking for your search term. It allows you to refine your search so that you can get very specific. If you're following along on Google Images, you'll notice the helpful advice Google offers on the right side of the range of field boxes (not shown on the image above). Use them. You want a specific image on a specific topic, here’s where you can get exactly that. You’re looking for a grey squirrel in St Jame’s Park, London, on a branch in snow? This is where you’d put that information. If you want a range of options, you’ve got a field that you can add this information separating each option by the word OR. Just check the instructions on the right, and you can get exactly what you want.

And the next section is even simpler, and even more helpful!

Then narrow your results by…

You will recognise most of the options in this section: image size, colours in the image, type of image, and file type. This is the same list of options we’ve already seen out on the main page that we looked at under Search tools. You’ll notice that if you have already looked for something using the Search tools options, these will already be filled out for you on this Advanced search page.

But there’s some most helpful extras in this section as well.

Aspect ratio: you can choose the shape of the image. You would like only panoramic shots? Viola! How cool is that!

Region: you can specify what country you want the subject matter to be from. You want Jewish synagogues in Poland, or Zimbabwe pound notes, or Kiwifruit in Argentina? Or, maybe a Bengali tiger in a cage in Moscow? I can’t promise you that there are any images there (I haven’t checked), but if there are, they'll show up in the search results. Well, as best as Google’s search engines can define the images available on the Net, and let’s be honest, it’s become remarkably good at it!

Safe search: can filter out anything explicit if that could be a problem in your search term. Some words lend themselves to including unwelcomed images.

Usage rights: at last, the copyright issue can be solved. And look at the list of options available: from unfiltered through to free to share and use commercially (if that’s an issue issue to you). Solved.

So, you have at your fingertips amazing tools for speeding up the process of finding and selecting images exactly as you require them. And there's more there to explore. Just click on the links at the bottom left of the page, and see what they can do for you.

Advance search extra options list

But, Google’s not the only option

Of course, while Google has provided these amazing tools, there’s no guarantee that you will find the exact image you need. Google does have some downsides. Images come from all sorts of sites, good and bad, so quality is not always the best.

I also have some favourite free image sites, and even some free image search engines I use all the time. That’s for my next post.

Share your Google Images tips

In the meantime, if you have some other secrets to be found under Google Images' hood, please share them that others may take some of the frustration out of their day.

Happy (frustration free) image hunting!

Posted in

Holiday reading for inspiration

Posted on January 4, 2012 by David Bailey

holiday reading

It’s been a hard and eventful year. You feel like you’ve fought the third world war single-handedly—well, if you played for the All Blacks, of course you'd say, "it was a team effort". You’ve fought dragons on the mountains, lions in the valleys, and aliens on the rooftops. You’ve put up a good fight; you’ve managed to keep your head up without it being carted off as someone else's trophy. In other words, you’ve earned your rest, and you just want the holidays to continue forever.

But you know like I do, at some stage, the exhilarating plunges into the depths, the soothing massaging of UV rays, the aroma of the sizzling sausage and sound of clinking of bottles must needs come to and end. Like Napoleon or Alexander, you’ll feel the need to face the looming challenges peeping above the horizon, or conquer new worlds.

But there’s one thing you need—the key that reignites the flame, that lifts and sets the focus, that draws you to new heights: Inspiration. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alexander and Napoleon and J.K. Rowling all needed that!

Well, here’s some things you can start with. I asked seasoned inspirers and campaigners from our staff for their suggestions on web sites and books that would assist educators to find inspiration for the coming year. Thanks to Glen, DK, Karen, Tara, Chrissie and Tamara for the suggestions and comments.

Here are their suggestions (not in any particular order):

Web sites:

1. EDtalks

Why not start with our own EDtalks. This site is full of video teasers from gurus from around the world involved in the education sector, sure to give you ideas and inspiration.

2. zefrank.com

Tidbits from around the web and offerings from this creative genius. You just have to just go and have a look to see what this one’s about.

3. The Minimalists

This one’s all about making more space for purpose in your life. We have too much stuff, and T.V. rots our brain! Stop consuming and start being creative producers again!

4. Gary Vaynerchuk

This guy is leading the social media space/discourse—and he’s a wine merchant! And he’s inspirational.

5. WanderMonster

A joyful, quirky celebration of parenting, and how the little things make the difference. Every day Rob Kimmel starts half a mini-comic for his eight-year-old son Ben. He then slips it into Ben’s lunchbox for Ben to finish at school. The end results are pure wonder.

6. Enabling eLearning

Here’s a hub of e-learning-related content and communities. It’s a new site. Take time to find the e-learning goodies that will help your work in the new year, and maybe join a community and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

7. Cowbird

This site is built on participatory journalism. This new web site tells rel stories a captured by the public through photos and words.

8. ECE Online

A source of inspiration for early childhood educators. This fabulous web site covers all things ECE and invites collaboration.

9. Gapingvoid

This guy does cartoons on the back of business cards. Not only does he have great marketing and branding based blog posts, but he has fun doing it. Great for inspiration.

Books:

1. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

by Carol Dweck

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. This book is eye-opening as a parent to see how praising children for their hard work rather than their talent/ability can have a huge impact on motivation and future success.

2. The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning (Architecture)

by OWP/P Architects, VS Funiture and Bruce Mau Design

79 ways you can use design to transform teaching and learning. Education architects, education furniture designers and education thinkers look at how we use and think about space, equity and creativity in learning. A big thick easily browsable “mook” (magazine/book).

3. Rework

by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Rethinking how we work for the 21st century—by two gurus from 37signals. We have become lazy in our thinking of how we approach work. Here’s a cheat sheet of the book: http://justadandak.com/rework-cheat-sheet

4. Coaching Educational Leadership: Building Leadership Capacity through Partnership

by Jan Robertson (Published in association with the British Educational Leadership and Management Society)

Coaching and mentoring in easy, doable, meaningful steps. This book gets us into the mood for making big changes to what we do in 2012. How will it look different to 2011?

5. Steve Jobs

by Walter Issacson

This book is about Apple, Steve Jobs, and pursuing excellence. It’s a good read which looks at how computers have developed to how and where they are today.

6. Beware Dangerism! (Kindle Single) (TED Books)

by Gever Tulley (TED Books)

This is a Kindle Book for iPad, and supports the TED talk. Are our children missing out because we are concerned for safety? Are we cultivating fear? Take a look at risks we should be offering our children. As the book says, “…children can only learn to take responsibility when given a chance to assess and mitigate risk for themselves.”

And if you want more—Wow! Go for it tiger! Have a look at last year’s lists.

Be inspired, and let the year begin…just when you're ready!

Posted in

Interviews with education influencers: Cheryl Doig

Posted on July 27, 2011 by David Bailey

Cheryl Doig

Cheryl Doig is a recognised leader in education—previously a highly successful school principal, Teaching Fellow in Educational Management and school reviewer. Under her leadership both Richmond and Fendalton schools received national recognition, including the Goodman Fielder School of the Year. Cheryl has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including the Beeby Fellowship and the Woolf Fisher Fellowship. She is a member of the Leadership Faculty of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and speaks and writes internationally on leadership for the future.

Cheryl is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM), an independent director of NZIM Inc. and a member of the Institute of Directors. She is managing director of both Think Beyond Ltd and ALPinE Leadership Ltd, and serves on a number of trusts.

David Bailey interviewed Cheryl late June, 2011.

Personal:

How long have you been involved in education?

I guess I’ve been involved in education all my life! I left school after the 7th form and went straight to teachers college—that was in 1975!

What was your initial interest in education?

I spent the first ten years of teaching as an intermediate school teacher. I was basketball coach and curriculum leader of reading. I then started becoming interested in leadership and moved up the ranks to principalship. I spent seven years as principal of Richmond School (Christchurch), then seven as principal at Fendalton Open-air School—both fabulous learning; very different contexts.

What is your passion in education?

Helping grow leaders for the future. This is in all contexts, not just in education. I am passionate about building a firm base of ethical leadership; self leadership, and global leadership. I believe we have a lot to learn from cultures other than our own, from the neurosciences and from business.

You run Think Beyond. What does that organisation do?

Think Beyond focuses on challenging leaders to think for the future. We work internationally with development of leadership at all levels, facilitating learning programmes, speaking, writing and contributing through social media. Key words in the partnership are: collaboration, challenge, creation and congruency. We work with people who are excited about possibilities and want to grow themselves, their teams and their organisations. We try to bridge research with common sense and practical application!

You also run ALPinE, a web site for thought leaders to connect and air their views. How successful is this site?

ALPinE Leadership is focused on educational leaders who want to explore future possibilities for different approaches to leadership, and the whole concept of ‘school’ as we know it. It was developed from a sense of impatience with the speed of change and mindset that there are too many barriers in place to change. The site includes the opportunity to set up interest groups, and will be developed further with the help of contributors who join the site. Currently, a weekly guest blogger writes focusing on a real range of leadership ideas and experiences. We have also launched our first webinar series for educational leaders, attracting participants from NZ, Australia and Singapore. We will be offering a greater range of online resources to cater for those who wish to learn from each other, yet find travel problematic. There is a huge need for leadership growth opportunities, and so a range of offerings (including a yearlong programme, “The Journey”), are next steps.

You have two web sites, contribute to blogs, run workshops, mentor clients and do presentations here and overseas, on several boards, as well as all the connecting via social media. How do you keep up with all this? And, what drives you?

I don’t keep up with it! I let it wash over me and try to connect things together as much as possible. I have a real portfolio career and it is this that allows me to develop skills in a variety of setting. I enjoy the governance work for extending my analytical and thinking skills and to practice applying what I preach!

I am driven by an intense interest in learning new things and bringing ideas together to create something better than the sum of the parts. I also have plenty of personal goals to work on, and a commitment to support others in their attaining their goals.

Apart from all this, you have also been involved in voluntary work in India. Can you explain what that work involves, why you got involved, and any success stories?

I support the Rata Teacher Support Trust, and have volunteered in both Cape Town and India. This involves helping untrained teachers to teach and supporting leaders to grow skills and capabilities. I got involved because I knew others who were involved and I liked the fact that I could be part of a long-term project based on listening to the needs of the group and on building sustainability. The schools we work with support the underprivileged, the poor, the slum dwellers, the remote communities. The project in Cape Town finished last year, and there was a marked change in teacher practice at the end of this time. Sustaining the change is always difficult. My particular interest in being part of these projects is on listening to the people and learning from and with them in order to build some sustainability (rather than dependence).

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My husband says marrying him, and he may well be right. David is my rock and right-hand man and chief believer! When I finished my doctorate it was after the culmination of 25 years of part time academic study, while maintaining a fulltime job as teacher and principal. His support was vital!

Concerning Education:

Methods for learning and educating have changed gradually over the centuries, with more effort and change occurring within the last century. What do you see as being the greatest achievement?

Growing literacy levels for those who have not typically had a chance to be educated, especially in emerging countries such as China and India. The impact of the internet on changing ways in which students can collaborate and interact in ways that can provide positive outcomes for the planet.

Where do you see methods of educating need the most improvement?

Teachers listening more and letting the students do the learning. Letting go! Realising that there is not a one best model of education—there needs to be choice and multiple pathways to meet the diverse needs of students. Moving from a restrictive curriculum to a global one—looking outwards and less focused on measurement of minutae.

How do you see this happening?

Some real leadership from NZ Ministry of Education to employ leaders with a vision for growing an exceptional model of learning. A focused approach on developing adaptive leaders—future focused, embracing complexity, and innovating for the benefit of all students.

Are we doing it right here in New Zealand? Who leads the way?

No we are not doing it right from a systemic level. There are some amazingly positive things happening, and some real innovative practice. This is not rewarded or developed from a systems perspective. Those schools that are not achieving are not held accountable at an early enough stage.

It is difficult to compare countries because of contextual differences. I think we need to look at Eastern models with more interest, and move away from following the USA and UK. Australia has pockets of excellence, however, all systems look better from the outside—none is perfect, nor meets the needs of all.

How do you see typical education will be in the future?

Education in the future will be much more diverse. There will be a move to more charter and specialist schools, more home schooling, and more online opportunities. Many schools will become a hub for learning rather than a place attended from 9-3. Hours will be more flexible, and the boundaries between school, business, and home will become more blurred. The use of technologies will continue to have a profound affect on learning. If schools do not adjust to this they will continue to become increasingly irrelevant to students, who will learn in other places through other means.

Concerning Leadership:

You are clearly interested in leadership. What are the key ingredients you see for developing leadership skills in the modern age?

Leadership of self is absolutely foundational. You cannot lead others without first leading yourself, understanding yourself, and self-regulating. From this grows the ethical base that has always been important, and is increasingly so. From here, leaders need to grow the capabilities to lead others and to lead the organisation. Joan Dalton and I wrote the Leadership Learning Maps for the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. This framework of leads self, leads others, and leads the organisation is a good model to follow.

What are the styles of leadership and demands on leaders that are different from the conventional wisdom of a few years ago?

We have moved from a mechanistic view of leadership to a more ecological one. There is greater recognition that leadership is complex, so leaders must be able to meet adaptive challenges. This is recognition that there are not always answers, that there are many possibilities, and that working with cultural change is messy. Increasingly, too, there is a focus on developing as a networked leader. This is about looking outwards and influencing beyond your organisation locally, nationally, and globally.

How do you see this kind of leadership?

It demands mindfulness and reflective practice. More than ever it requires diverse forms of intelligence. One of these, cultural intelligence, will become a major focus in the next three years, as organisations and populations become much more diverse. Neuroleadership is another area that will see significant growth—the melding of neurosciences, leadership, and coaching.

Your web site and presentations show you clearly think technology has a part to play in leadership development. Where do you see technology fitting into the development of leadership and thought leadership?

Technology is a tool for communicating, collaborating, and growing new ideas. As a learner I use, for example, Web 2.0 tools to research trends and to grow ideas with others. Technologies continue to change rapidly and provide leaders more diverse ways of undertaking professional learning, undertaking global projects, and working just in time. Leaders will also need to develop their skills in focus and paying attention to what matters, otherwise the technology will overwhelm them.

I saw in one of your Slideshare slides one that intrigued me. It said: “Leadership is an influencing relationship”. Please explain what that means.

Leadership is about influencing rather than power. Influence is pulling people to a new future, rather than pushing them whether they resist or not. Influence is about people wanting to be part of the tribe (as Seth Godin describes it) because it connects to their heart as well as their head. Influence is about working with people and listening to understand before taking action. Power is a short-term solution that cannot be sustained over time.

Catastrophes provide ample opportunities for good leadership. The recent Canterbury earthquakes have provided such an opportunity. How do you think leadership in education has fared (the good, the bad, the ugly)?

Secondary schools have had the opportunity to break down barriers and work more closely together. This has helped people to rethink what they have been doing. It will be easy to revert to tradition unless schools, the Ministry of Education, and other key drivers proactively start imagining new possibilities. Technology, in particular Christchurch’s GSCN, has a real part to play in accelerating and embedding changes.

The danger is that the Eastern suburbs are left without support, and that they focus on survival of ‘their school’ rather than looking holistically at new possible models that meet the needs of students in the area.

We have a real opportunity to work together as a city to develop a model of education that uses strengths across the city. It will require some key people stepping up to lead and being prepared to leave egos and parochialness behind. That is Christchurch’s immediate challenge. It will be tough, yet so many possibilities exist….

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