I was interested in finding out what was happening in all these schools. One process I use to do this is the web walk, a type of learning walk which involves looking through a site looking for key statements and ideas that provide information about the school:

• What does it stand for?
• What does it focus on?
• Is it an ongoing ‘story’ or just updated for marketing?
• What does it tell you about the benefits of attending the school?
• Does it mention learning (you’d be surprised the number of schools that don’t)?
• Is there any evidence of student voice?

My passion is leadership for the future so I was particularly interested to see whether there was any collaboration between staff, students, school and wider networks and whether the learning seemed to be future focused. So here is what I found…

Out of the 11 school sites I looked through 9 had up to date newsletters and term calendars. The sites had information about the structures of schooling – the buildings, the curriculum learning areas, the rules, the board of trustees…  I was hoping for more. I wanted to see the visiosn connect with ideas around key competencies, rich tasks and global projects. I wanted to see the odd glimmer of teachers being active inquirers. I wanted to see a glimpse into what might come next…

I see the challenge of schools for the future as articulating the processes of learning and collaborating with the world. While this may be happening in some of these schools, no evidence presented itself during my web walk. There is still a focus on students being involved as house leaders and school councillors. Nothing wrong with that (depending what the role involves and what is being achieved)….I just want the and… how have we moved on to really engage students in meaningful learning? Are they participants or observers? Give me examples of students having input into their learning and giving feedback to the school. 21st century learning was supposed to start 10 years ago. Have I missed it?

This comment led to me facilitating two World Cafe events at the learning@school conference. The people who came to these sessions were ones who had been listening to the hype of 21st century learning, teaching and leading for some time and who wanted to challenge themselves and others to move forward. The World Cafe format allowed time to slow down, engage in dialogue and leave with some personal and professional ideas for the future.

Some of the overheard discussions during these sessions included:

• Where is the expectation that things will change?
• Just because we can’t do it doesn’t mean we should stop others from doing it.
• I’m looking forward to being made redundant as a teacher.
• If you believe in it you prioritize time.
• I don’t think it’s written anywhere “Thou must do it alone.”
• Schools should be laboratories for life.

Many of the comments focused around the need for changes in teacher practice and increasing the role of students in their own learning. If we really want to transform education we need to start with teacher change, otherwise students will not have a greater say. For teacher practcie to transform across an organisation school leaders must be committed to the transformation and lead by example.

One World Cafe participant jotted his thoughts clearly on a post-it, as shown below. I liked the quirky idea of a post-it on an iphone and also the call to personal action. I don’t think it is suggesting we will get change by riding over top of people. We know we need to build trust and gain commitment. We also know we can’t go at the pace of the slowest.  The time for educational leaders to step up is now. We need to move beyond the rhetoric and start taking action. We could even involve students in the plan…

Learning organisations are ones that are constantly evolving and that recognise the interdependence of systems. As organisations learn, so do the individuals that are part of the organisation. Yet they all do so in different ways, at different paces and for different reasons. Learning professionals realise that these individual needs must be considered and learning must involve workplace support and connections.

Cheryl currently has no public seminars available for enrolment. Closed sessions in the near future include:

• South Sydney Catholic Principals’ Conference – Woollongong
• Microsoft Australia Partners in Learning -  Innovative Schools’ Programme – Hobart
• Pegasus Achievement Cluster -Leadership workshop – Christchurch
• Pegasus Achievement Cluster -Principals’ workshop – Christchurch
• Te Haerenga Leadership workshop – Christchurch
• ACEL Conference – Sydney
• ULearn Conference – Christchurch
• Education Leaders Forum – Rotorua
• Microsoft Worldwide Innovators in Education Forum – Cape Town

Think Beyond is about to launch an exciting new leadership program for 2011. This will involve face to face opportunities, online support and webinars. As with all of the work undertaken by Think Beyond, these programs will be underpinned by a strong ethical base, an understanding of the latest leadership research and a focus on leadership for the future. Think Beyond tailors its programs to meet the needs of participants based on expert facilitation. If you want to be part of this program, co-create ideas, or have the first preview of new programs follow cheryldoig on twitter, register for our newsletter or use the contact form to find out more.

Learning Walks

Cheryl’s new ebook is now available for purchase from the ‘STORE‘ link on this website. Talking the Walk: Walking the Talk is an introduction to learning walks as a process for bringing about change in education.

This book is the first in a series, with future ebooks being available in the next few months. The writing of ebooks fits with the Think Beyond philosophy of sustaining resources. Rather than cut down trees, the book can be read online or downloaded as a pdf. It is easily updated, and has the ability to provide interactive resources such as videos and audio.

The Future Learning Walk  is based on the process shown in the diagram below. It asks leaders to focus on what is important and to be courageous in leading their learning organisations forward.

Future Learning Walks Process

This first ebook in the series outlines the learning walk process, with each subsequent book providing greater detail of each stage of the process.