Inspiring Innovators

I have had an epiphany. At 25 years old, still considered young by many, one would expect that indoctrination in the ways of old, teaching wise, isn't a lived out truth. However the reality is that my journey as a learner through the education system has affected me in ways I wasn't aware of. Until I am challenged by a belief, by myself or by my colleagues, everything is done in an unaware, subconscious machine like manner. The question of purposefulness is one that needs to be asked, and just as pressing should be the questions of what else can I do? and how else can we do it? Comfort is a beautiful, warm and fuzzy feeling thing, yet comfort does not create change.

In a provocation to the University of Auckland, Google Class On Air participants challenged the University to reconsider what effective 21st teaching practices looked like and how they might provide teachers in training with the opportunity to develop these particular skills which compliment effective practice. Innovation.


As Russell Burt, Pat Snedden, Dorothy Burt and company work to move the community of Tamaki from subsistence to a position where they can experience capital growth through education, they have questioned other social aspects along the way - they identified that education needed to change and then they asked, well, why not housing? Why not the health system? Innovation.

To be surrounded by such an unbounded amount of innovation jerks me from comfort and inspires me to take risks in the learning environment in an asserted effort to make learning purposeful and authentic.

It's hard work. It makes your brain hurt. It's not always comfortable (actually, it hardly ever is comfortable!) BUT when purposeful, it creates CHANGE! Feeling so humbled to be in the presence of individuals and collectives who are courageous enough to take risks for the betterment of the tamariki and the wider community.