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 year I am launching a series of ebooks to explore these developing technologies. The first of these is a series on Talking the Walk: Walking the Talk. These are for educators who wish to use a learning walk process to develop their pedagogical leadership skills. Aspects of the Kiwi Leadership for Principals that are highlighted in this book include relationships (since these underpin learning walks) and the power of context. Leading change, problem solving, culture, pedagogy, systems and awhinatanga are also key strands throughout this book series. Talking the Walk: Walking the Talk also relates well to the Leads Other for Learning section of the ACEL Leadership Capability framework which you may also want to explore further.

Talking the Walk: Walking the Talk experiments with flip book technology, giving the look and sound of the pages of a book as they turn over. You can read it online or download as a pdf. Adding embedded audio and video will be the next stage in my learning. If you come across new ideas and tools that I could use please let me know. Ebooks are on the rise!

You will find more information about the content of  my first ebook on the News! page and can place orders at the Store.

This Online interactive eBook explains the process of future learning walks – the process of walking through learning environments in ways that encourage deep thinking about learning and teaching. If you want to develop your school’s conversations about learning then this book is for you. There are five more books in this series, to be released in 2010. Click onto the book cover to the left to see two pages from the eBook. For more information on the book’s content check out the News!

At the end of the Paypal purchasing process click on the link that takes you back to the Think Beyond website. You will be redirected to a secure website page containing the interactive eBook.

IMPORTANT – Please make sure that you save the eBook website page to your bookmarks so that you can access it again once purchased. If you do happen to forget or lose the website address contact us directly and we will be in touch to ‘reconnect’ you with this great publication.

The weblink allows you to view the pages as a flipbook, to download the book in pdf format and to print pages as you navigate through the book. This is a high quality ebook production created to meet the emerging ebook market.

AUD $19.95

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.