More than just knowing stuff!

Thought Leadership and ADE

January 3, 2012

With 2011 being a fast train ride for me I wasn’t able to reflect and share some of my experiences and learnings as much as I would have liked.

Thought Leadership was something I first heard about at the Apple Distinguished Educator institute back in March 2011.  As a new ADE we were able to choose a focus of interest for our four day workshop.  Having started by Masters in School Leadership, I decided that Thought Leadership would be of most benefit.  However, I really did not know much about this at all.  It wasn’t a term that had been used in my time as an educator.

There was quite a few of us ADEs who took an interest to this topic and I teamed up with two others – Bruce Fuda from ACT and Ray Nashar from Victoria.  After a jam packed four days and lots of creative energy, we were able to produce a short video capturing what we felt was our understanding of Thought Leadership.

Thought Leadership was first coined by 1994 by Joel Kurtzman and used to describe interview subjects for his magazine who had business ideas that merited attention.  It grew as a term in the business world and we can probably associate Steve Jobs as one of the well known thought leaders of our time.

However, I am still yet to hear this term used in the field of education even though as leaders we aspire to create a vision for our schools that provides the best possible service for our clients (our students).  We think strategically and align our resources to make things happen, we build commitment and following, and aim to make a difference. We showcase our successes and share our challenges.

So are we thought leaders?

Do we have the ability to make brave and courageous steps forward to ensure the education of students and ultimately our community?

I think we are … and we do…

Do you?

Here is a webinar that that Ray and I delivered for ICTEV

Entry Filed under: leadership,learning. Posted in  leadership ,learning Tags: ADE, ICT, leaders, Thought Leadership.