From Pull, by John Seeley Brown, John Hagel III, and Lang Davison:
The institutional changes ahead will be quite different. These changes will be driven by passionate individuals distributed throughout and even outside the institution, supported by institutional leaders who understand the need for change but who also realize that this wave of change cannot be imposed from the top down. The new institutional model will involve a complete refocusing: Rather than molding individuals to fit the needs of the institution, institutions will be shaped to provide platforms to help individuals achieve their full potential by connecting with others and better addressing challenging performance needs (Location 150, Kindle version). [Emphasis mine.]
Love that part about the “complete refocusing” because it resonates so much with a lot of the other stuff I’ve been reading and thinking. But the part I’m really diving into is that last, the idea of schools providing platforms to help students achieve their full potential through connecting with others. What if we spent the bulk of our planning and visioning conversations in schools around just that one thought?
Great read so far.
[Sidenote(s): How do I cite a quote from a Kindle? And for those of you who, like me, are frustrated by the inability to copy and paste on the Kindle, you can always go to the synced up reading notes and highlights that you’ve taken when logged in at kindle.amazon.com/kindle/list. Just click on the title. Thanks to Ted Bongiovanni for that little piece of assistance.]
That is indeed a great statement. In teacher education, often a huge limiting factor comes in “connecting with others and better addressing challenging performance needs”. Each of my students connected with (via Skype) educators from all over the globe to “talk shop” and were blown away by the power of such connections. They were amazed at what they learned from just one, simple conversation… outside of the classroom and institution. There are the types of relationships and opportunities that we must open up to them. When our institutions serve to confine them, their views and vision often become atrophied.
Will,
presuming you saw my tweet about Kindle and citations?
If there’s no page number, you don’t put one 😉
(same as any other source with no page number indicated.)
That does seem like an annoying feature of the Kindle. The reference I tweeted earlier mentioned that the Location numbers on the Kindle are meaningless in terms of citing, btw.
Hope that helps.
Regarding your quote– love the concept of not shaping our students to the institution but rather shaping the learning experience to lift up our students and help them discover their potential.
I’m not familiar with Pull–would love to hear more.
What you and JSB describe sounds like a good liberal arts colege!