Michael Fullan Admin

California’s Golden Opportunity – Status Note

Posted on 1 Comment on California’s Golden Opportunity – Status Note

November 2014

This note is for all those committed to and interested in how California can improve its education performance statewide over the next four years—improvements across the entire system and all of its levels. We believe that there are enough forces aligned to make this result a distinct possibility. The actions and coordinated efforts we outline in this paper are practical and realistic. Our team is working in partnership with a number of groups at all levels of the state. 

… Read more California’s Golden Opportunity – Status Note

Topic Video: Framework for Whole System Change

Posted on No Comments on Topic Video: Framework for Whole System Change

To raise the bar and close the gap for students means improving ALL schools in the system—not just a few. Piecemeal or small-scale reform doesn’t work. What does work is focusing on the three core components of deep learning: learning & teaching, change knowledge, and the culture of learning. Using the whole system change strategies in this framework, we have found that we can get great results in a reasonably short period of time.

This is topic video 16 of 22.

… Read more Topic Video: Framework for Whole System Change

Topic Video: Capacity Building

Posted on 1 Comment on Topic Video: Capacity Building

At William G. Davis Senior Public School, when the idea of BYOB came up, principal Andrea Meyer gave every teacher an iPod and said ‘Have fun!’. He knew that capacity building requires skill, knowledge and motivation. View this video to see how teachers teamed up and reached out to each other in a brilliant fashion to develop the strategies they needed to reach their goals.

This is topic video 15 of 22.

Topic video 16 will be posted Thursday,

… Read more Topic Video: Capacity Building

Topic Video: Focus

Posted on 1 Comment on Topic Video: Focus

In this video filmed at Park Manor Public School in Ontario, Vice Principal Liz Anderson describes the importance of focusing on the student. The Accelerated Learning Framework, developed at Park Manor to provide clarity about what learning needs to be, uses pedagogy as the driver and digital to accelerate learning.

This is topic 14 of 22.

Topic video 15 will be posted Thursday, April 23.

… Read more Topic Video: Focus

Topic Video: Practice to Theory

Posted on No Comments on Topic Video: Practice to Theory

When in doubt, it’s better to examine your practice and that of others who seem to be getting somewhere than it is to reach for the bookshelf. New work on understanding the brain bears out this idea. We know that the brain is best fed through experience.  When people experience something new, it connects with their feelings first, then their minds. When this leads to new behavior, the latter sticks because it has emotional meaning. This is why I have stressed going from practice to theory.

… Read more Topic Video: Practice to Theory

Diffusing Tension Between Tech and Instructional Leaders

Posted on No Comments on Diffusing Tension Between Tech and Instructional Leaders

Christina Quattrocchi, staff writer, EdSurge, wrote the following article on Diffusing Tension Between Tech and Instructional Leaders:

One might expect bandwidth, data privacy and device rollouts to dominate discussions at this year’s Consortium for School Networking’s (CoSN) conference, where over 900 chief technology officers (CTO) and other administrators gathered.

But the opening message was quite the opposite. Keynote speaker Michael Fullan, Canadian education writer and researcher shared one simple message: “It’s time to shift focus from the digital to the pedagogical.”

… Read more Diffusing Tension Between Tech and Instructional Leaders

Topic Video: Push & Pull: The Role of Technology

Posted on 1 Comment on Topic Video: Push & Pull: The Role of Technology

School boredom has no chance against the addictive digital draw of the outside world. Within schools, technology is conspicuous by its absence or by its superficial, ad hoc use. Stratosphere wants to change that. How can technology help us by opening up the world to deeply engaged learning and worldwide, collaborative problem-solving? In a word, technology, well used, can help us race rapidly to a future that humankind wants and will find fulfilling.  (Stratosphere,

… Read more Topic Video: Push & Pull: The Role of Technology

CoSN 2015: An Unstoppable Digital Revolution is Around the Corner

Posted on 1 Comment on CoSN 2015: An Unstoppable Digital Revolution is Around the Corner

By D. Frank Smith

Frank is a social media journalist for the CDW family of technology magazine websites.

To embrace a deeper learning landscape, educators must work together to make digital pedagogy appetizing.

That’s the takeaway from the opening keynote at CoSN 2015 in Atlanta, led by Michael Fullan, an education researcher and a former dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Fullan has spent years studying the horizon of education technology in schools all over the world,

… Read more CoSN 2015: An Unstoppable Digital Revolution is Around the Corner