Innovation, Skills and Connectedness

As part of Connected Educator Month we decided to have a "face to face meeting" and connect with Christchurch teachers. Connectedness is an interesting concept. We have met lots of Christchurch teachers via Teachmeets, Educamps, GAFE Summit, our Maker Event and ULearn. We have also connected with many others via Twitter, including #scichatnz, #engchatnz and edchatnz. To celebrate Connected Educator Month we decided once again to engage in "31 Days of Blogging". Getting 31 blog posts from teachers in Christchurch seems a simple task, but we were asking people to share their practice, to share what is happening in their classroom/school. We are so grateful for all those who have shared on the blog this year, as well as the teachers who shared what they were doing in 2014.
However, an opportunity arose to hear from Lauren Merritt (Ministry of Awesome)  and Derek Wenmoth (CORE Education). Their broad topic was Skills for Innovation - What is needed for the 21st Century?

Both Lauren and Derek challenged the audience's thinking in different ways.
What happens if you have a great idea? Who do you get to help you? What skills do we need our students to have in the future? What jobs will there be in the future?
What does a robot counsellor or a garbage designer do?
What is the top quality Google looks for in job applicants?
(No 3 is the first quality they look for!)

 

And according to Linda Darling-Hammond, team-work, problem-solving and interpersonal skills are now seen as desired qualities for employees. 

For many of us in the audience, me included, we might have heard of the Ministry of Awesome, but what did they do? I think Bridget summed it up!

Allana Taylor from Springston School captured her thoughts in her blog posts

The Future's not what it used to be!  - Derek Wenmoth

"The world is changing.
What are we doing to prepare our learners for the 21st century?
How do our schools need to change?"  Read more here

              "We are the people that encourage you to be innovative and take a risk."Lauren Merrit

                 Chief Awesome (Administration) Officer at the Ministry of Awesome!

Check out their website (about to be changed)  or their Facebook (Current and worth looking at)  Read Allana's post here   And for something really interesting to do - check out   "Coffee and Jam"

And for the final word - here's a few Tweets from the night.

                            Thank you to everyone who contributed to the 

                   Christchurch Connected Educator 

                    Blogtober "31 Days of Blogging" 

                     Aimie, Bridget, Matt, Pauline and Rob