The times, they are a-changing, me-thinks

I have been at MacICT for 4 years almost and these years have been incredible. The growth of a culture of thinking that embraces new ideas, and more importantly, creates new ideas has been encouraging. The ability to take risks in a safe, supportive environment has meant that the work achieved has been beyond my own imagination. The centre is quite a hub of real innovation. The projects allow us to scaffold, mentor, encourage, experiment and evaluate quickly the impact we have on students and their teachers. (Note, I mentioned the students first?) If you can make an impact on students, and allow them the opportunity to share it with others, not just their peers but teachers, then it is a very powerful message.
I was reading last night from Dean Groom that we have got to do more than 'send messages.' He was very complimentary when he said: MacICT...' find room to move and innovate consistently – providing real skills, not just messages.'
But I am also reading from Greg Whitby that education is going backwards.
And speaking to Stephen Heppell while he was here in Australia for the Listen2Learners event, things are fairly grim in the northern hemisphere, especially our UK colleagues.
What does this mean for us? Are we really at a fork in the road? Is it time for us to step up? I hope so. I think it is possible but there are some cracks in the wall at the moment. There have been some fantastic ideas proposed: the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Councils Expert Working Party's recommendation (Dec 2009). Transforming Learning and the Transmission of Knowledge
Professor Penny Sackett Chief Scientist states: The report focuses on the fundamental questions that influence our ability to learn and highlights the opportunity for Australia to transform its practices related to learning, with the aim of enhancing life-long learning outcomes for all Australians.
The central recommendation of the report is the establishment of a Science of Learning Program, to be delivered through a number of interdisciplinary and inter-professional Science of Learning Centres.
So if the Chief Scientist agrees with these findings, what's happening? Is this a likely outcome for Australia or not? Are you seeing the cracks in the wall that I'm seeing?

Working at MacICT

I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately about the opportunities that have come my way whilst working at MacICT. It is a particularly unique space for so many reasons. I have never been in a place where absolutely everybody in the building is passionate about being there.
What exactly is it that harvests such passion? Is it that the people are always passionate, regardless of where they work? There are people who I have met and worked with in my career who are able to find the positive in everything they do. But I don't think that it is that simple.
When you get the opportunity to work with like-minded people who are highly experienced and willing to share this depth of experience, the collaborative potential is made possible. But more than that, these people do not have any issues with acknowledging and accessing the expertise of others in the space. It is often seen as a risk to admit that we don't know it all and we value the opinions and ideas of others. This risk-taking attitude allows us to open our minds to the most creative ideas.
I really think that creative minds are flexible and pliable. Innovation becomes intrinsic, embedded and expected. Creating high expectations can a bit like high-jumping. As long as the risks are calculated, the bar is not too high and the jumper has practised and practised, then the likelihood for success is also high. It takes mental as well as physical training. Importantly, there should be a soft-fall for when we don't quite make the jump. If these high expectations are balanced with risk-management, then the likelihood for success is high.
In my time at MacICT, it has been such a pleasure to work with the best group of creative people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. It has not been an easy road, but we have worked together to map out the directions we wanted to take. The research into This has helped us all to jump so high and when we don't quite make it, it's OK because we always learn from it and ensure that we do it better next time.

Reference Group Meeting 18th August

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting our latest Reference Group meeting. There was a great diversity of attendees at this term's meeting: Panasonic, Electroboard, Keepad Interactive, RM Asia-Pacific, MQ Dept of Computing (Faculty of Science), MQ Dept of Education (Faculty of Human Sciences), MQ Macquarie E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE), AECG, DET Connected Classrooms Program and DET Northern Sydney Region.
I spoke about the latest news and big ideas but the most informative part of the agenda was to follow with Professor James Dalziel from MELCOE and Sam Doust, Creative Director of ABC's Innovation division.
James spoke about all the layers of support provided through AICTEC. As a committee member, James was able to describe the functions and responsibilites of the various divisions, committees and advisory groups under AICTEC and how they dovetail to advise, support and guide the educational community. The discussions were particularly informative around copyright, intellectual property and funding programs for ICT in education.
Sam Doust introduced the audience to Bluebird AR. This alternate reality game was designed by Sam and his team and played by over 200 000 players across the globe in April-May this year for 7 weeks. There were 723 super players who engaged in this game for an average of 2.5 hours per day. Two-thirds of them were girls! It will be interesting to see how this game can influence some of the decisions we make at MacICT about our future projects.
Watch and see! There will be some synergies, I think.