Laurie O’Donnell

I had the had opportunity to hear Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote on his then recently published book ‘The Tipping Point’ at NECC 2004 in New Orleans. LTS had taken 10 ICT Masterclassers to the event as part of a study visit to see what was happening in the world of educational technology beyond Scotland. We all really enjoyed watching this great storyteller hold an audience of 10,000 absolutely spellbound.

His latest book ‘Outliers – The Story of Success’  is very accessible, he really knows how to craft a story. From an educational perspective some of his themes are very interesting and make this a very worthwhile read:

•  The 10,000 hour rule  – I think has resonance with all learning from languages and maths to playing a musical instrument
• The importance of the month in which you are born – what a difference a year makes when you are starting school aged 4.5 rather than 5.5 years old!
• The language of mathematics, school holidays and much more…

His main message is around the often unacknowledged factors that lie behind high achievement. As always with with a book like this the reader is left with more questions than answers – Gladwell does not pretend to be a scientist (or even a social scientist). Nonetheless this is a thought provoking book and a lot of fun to read.

Gladwell is is going to be speaking in Glasgow in June and I am really looking forward to another evening in the company of one of the world’s best public speakers.

The latest version of LTS’ Connected eZine is now available:

After eight great years with LTS I have decided it is time for a change.

I am going to leave my post as Director of Learning and Technology in the summer to start up my own business.

The plan is to develop a portfolio career picking up bits and pieces of work here and there and helping out where maybe I can make a difference. I want to continue working in the learning and technology space – where I have been for the last 10 years full time and to some extent throughout my career as teacher, school manager and local authority officer.  However, I am also interested in trying my hand at some new things and keeping my options open.

It all feels a bit risky giving up a brilliant job in the public sector during a recession but it just seems like the right time for me. I need a new challenge and I think there are opportunities out there to build on my experience at LTS. Lets hope so!

I will really miss the great people I have been lucky to work with at LTS and across the country and recognise how privileged I have been to hold this post and be involved in all the major developments in education at a national level.

One thing I won’t miss is the 170+ miles round trip, commuting between Broughty Ferry and the centre of Glasgow three or four days a week. It’s not just the distance it’s the 4 hours of travel that eventually starts to impact on quality of life. Hopefully the 0652 train will disappear from my daily routine.

Anyway this is much more about seeking new challenges to develop, grow and continue to make a contribution. I feel optimistic, and at 48 believe I still have a lot to offer.

My leaving date has been confirmed as 30 June and over the next 98 days I hope to be able to find some time to reflect on my time at LTS and the challenges that lie ahead. Watch this space …

Another great example of how our national schools intranet is really starting to make an impact on learning across the country. This post from the Glow Scotland blog really made me smile with 60 schools and over 1,000 children joining together to hear the story of Percy the Puffin.

Bob Stone sent me an email earlier highlighting an article he has published recently on the Governing.com website. Bob worked with Al Gore on the ‘reinventing government programme’ (see his book  ‘Confessions of a Civil Servant’ for this great story).  His latest article draws on his previous work and is entitled the ABC of Leadership.

I like what he  is saying around Authenticity, Buoyancy and Control. We need truthful leaders who have a vision  beyond covering their own backsides. Whilst I agree with Bob that the leader’s role is to set the standards I am not sure if ‘control’ is the best way of capturing the need to have a clear direction (mission) and to secure the right organisational culture. I think leading is more of an enabling than a controlling role. Enable is the default/proactive role so that control is only used on the rare occasion when you need to. Is this a question of personal style?

News item in this morning’s Times Educational Supplement Scotland (TESS) on Glow.

Great to see how Glow is being used. Who could have predicted this?

I have been aware of Twitter for the last couple of years – really since our then New Technologies for Learning national adviser Ewan McIntosh started to play around with it. As an infrequent blogger I decided to keep an eye on it but leave it for now.

Anyway signed up for an account a few weeks ago after watching Stephen Fry on the BBC website and within a couple of days was following (and being followed by) around 50 fellow twitters.

There appears to be a few people who are tweeting all the time and I find this quite facinating. Most of the people I follow seem to be seeking advice,  sharing significant stuff they have found on the web or just letting the rest of know what they are up to. All very interesting and tools such as TweetDeck let you filter out or in whatever you like.

Anyway I am really enjoying it and if you want to follow me I can be found at  http://twitter.com/laurieod