More from Sir Ken:

The role of leaders is not command and control but climate control / creation.

More evidence that policy-makers are losing control. Great stuff.

Ken Robinson, testing, edTech and freedom to learn

"The appetite for learning is unabated once people are free to learn what they want to learn. What dulls the appetite is being force fed things that people can't see an immediate relevance in or have no immediate interest in or where they're forced to learn in situations which are inimical to the actual process, 8 hours a day, sit still and do what you're told."

"Education can function perfectly well without tests of the sort we're currently used to and it may be able to function even better in the future without them."

 - Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson at WISE (aptly named)

I came across this video and was further inspired to push on with spreading the view that, unless policy-makers can come up with an authentic assessment system and provide truly persoanlized curricula which meet the needs of ALL learners, then they really will find that no one is listening to them anymore. No department of education, no regulatory body, no inspections - just learners taking control in the digital world and learning what they need. Accountability will shift to the learners and their families, who will be free to choose where they seek that learning and from whom. I suspect it won't be the current publishers and exam boards.

And then there's Sugata Mitra, whose talk I heard recently in Dubai, providing another fascinating perspective on why the education system looks the way it does and why it is wholly inadequate to meet the demands of the future. Nice summary here:

Sugata Mitra

So ends another productive day when I haven't needed to pick up a pen. I've interviewed, pitched and been pitched at, evaluated, talked, listened, made decisions, prioritized tasks, controlled my frustrations (just), used the phone, Skype and GoToMeeting, typed on my laptop, sent and received emails, blogged (obviously), reflected, chatted face to face with colleagues to build relationships, Googled, watched videos, facilitated an online PD course for teachers, arranged meetings in Outlook, checked the news (and Facebook) on my phone, tweeted, accepted some more LinkedIn connections and probably loads of other stuff. One thing I certainly haven't done is sat down for a three hour stretch, without being connected to other people either face to face or digitally, and written with a pen to show what I know and can do.

Meanwhile, in schools...