Just weeks ago we gathered in Portland at the Innovate20 conference. We talked about the desire to reimagine education. We talked about the courage that was needed to walk into the unknown where we must become Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Little did we know at that time what we know now. With our schools now closed for what may be weeks if not months, we are all walking into an unknown. It is scary. But if we walk into this unknown together, our shared creative spirit can be found – one that will give us strength.
Being at the sharp end of a particular activity or type of work means that you're involved in the most difficult or dangerous aspects of it. That is where we are now finding ourselves.
The Dayton Experiment was a journey into the unknown. As I shared in my closing remarks, it was into the unknown that Jami and I ventured six years ago with the commitment to courageously lean into an Audacious Aspiration to unleash the creative genius in each student, in each teacher.
Could she transform a school from a rigid teaching institution to a dynamic learning organism, one that could evolve in new amazing ways?
It happened.
And then came the second grand experiment. Could I tell a story and find the meaning of that story so that what we learned could be shared with others? From that second grand experiment, a book emerged, one that explored the very nature of how our students, with their Digital Minds, learn differently from us.
In my closing talk I introduced our third grand experiment: Could we all come together and begin to experiment together as we all sought to reimagine education?
We didn't know at that time that we would be faced with a global challenge that requires us all to innovate faster than ever before. We need to do it for ourselves. We need to do it for our children.
We don't know how we are going to keep inspiring our children to become empowered learners when our school buildings are closed. But we have a lot of ideas and we must walk courageously into this question.
So come join our community – a place there where we can share our stories and ask for support as we each experiment and learn.
Let us creatively walk into this unknown together. Something amazing is about to happen.