Mind Lab Session 1

What a wonderful first session! One of the most valuable aspects of collaboration is the ability to percolate ideas and watch them slowly synthesise new growth. There is a fascinating aspect about engaging in the bouncing of ideas where I can almost hear neurons rushing to make connections and suddenly a cascade of thoughts leads to illumination (for any neuroplasticity fan out there, you can read about the brain's ability to exist in self-organised criticality).


Highlights of session one:
On Epistemology and the Purpose of Education
- Discovering the terms for different types of epistemology and how I see aspects of my teaching philosophy align to them.
- Considering how societal, financial and cultural pressures can tip the purpose of education in different ways and what the new digital frontier offers to education (image from course notes- copyright of Mindlab).

On Thought Leadership and Followership:
- I had never noticed the importance of 'the first follower' . In essence, it has made me notice how crucial collaboration is for creating change. One question that did arise for me was: do we just follow because it becomes the 'done thing'? At which point do we stand back and critically observe rather than follow? ( I did find the last part of the video kind of weird- is that how Donald Trump has got this far?)

Am I a thought leader? Yes. I encourage my students to the autonomous and independent, to question and disagree. We co-construct our classroom culture and I encourage it to evolve. I strive to make the learning of skills and knowledge relevant to their needs. We do, on occasion, dance like crazy too.

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