I spent the latter part of this week in Seattle attending the annual NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference.  I had been a bit reluctant to take the the time out to attend, as I had only recently spent time off-campus recruiting faculty, but everyone I spoke to encouraged me to attend, including our three Division Heads and my Deputy, all of whom also attended.  They told me that the quality of the sessions would be superb and that it would be an excellent networking opportunity.  They were right – this was one of the best educational conferences I have ever attended.

There is so much I could say about this conference that it is difficult to know where to begin.  I attended several sessions that will be invaluable as we develop a new strategic plan this year, and several others which provided wonderful insights into new developments in implementing technology in the classroom.

There were 4200 attendees at the conference, the theme of which was “Innovation”, with sub-themes of imagining, inventing, inspiring and dreaming – singularly appropriate themes for an educational conference in the innovative city of Seattle, the source of Boeing jets, Microsoft software and Starbucks Coffee.  The underlying proposition of the conference was that schools which fail to be adaptable, flexible and innovative won’t survive.  That is quite a significant challenge!

Several highlights of this excellent conference stood out for me.  For example, the keynote opening speaker was none other than Bill Gates, a Seattle ‘local boy’.  While introducing Bill Gates, NAIS President Pat Bassett outlined what he saw as the ten

promising innovations for education in the next few years:

1. •Adopting backward design and mapping curriculum around skills rather than subjects, focussing on “the 6 Cs”: character, critical thinking collaboration, communication, creativity and cosmopolitanism/ cross cultural competency;
   

2. •Documenting student outcomes via formative assessment and demonstrations of learning;
   

3. •Connecting appreciative inquiry, the strengths approach and growth mindsets, all subsets of the positivist psychology movement;
   

4. •Globalizing independent schools;
   

5. •Stage II greening of independent schools;
   

6. •STEM and beyond signature programming - robotics, Rube Goldberg and inventors competitions, and so on;
   

7. •Professionalizing the profession - rotating schedules to free groups of faculty researchers;
   

8. •Public purpose of private education initiatives;
   

9. •Online learning consortia for independent school branded courses;
   

10. •Design Thinking - incorporating MIT and Stanford Design Lab ideas
    

Pat Bassett finished his introduction by quoting Bill Gates: “Innovation is the means and equity is the end goal” (a quote from Bill Gates’ 2012 Annual Letter).

Bill Gates’ presentation was straightforward, informative, thoroughly researched and totally focussed on education.  His opening statement, illustrated by a high school graduation picture, was that he had not needed to seek any qualification after

his high school diploma – a nice tribute to his own schooling at Lakeside School, an independent school in Seattle.

It was a privilege to hear Bill Gates in person.  The sheer magnitude of his foundation’s philanthropy is astounding. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has worked to fight childhood diseases in developing countries, where they have already saved millions of lives. Their sincere, keen focus on education reform in US has helped to raise the profile of educational quality in the public debate, and their recent focus on teacher training and growth has been something that I welcome wholeheartedly as an educator.  Gates said that it was the inspiration of his own education that had led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish structures to try and help other students have a quality education as well.

In reflecting on his own education, Gates noted that ‘hi-tech’ in the 1970s meant colored chalk for the blackboards.  As you might expect, he believes that technology will play a very significant role in transforming the quality and techniques of teaching over the next few years.  He emphasized, however, that technology must be used to enhance learning and build a good learning environment.  But what is a good learning environment?  Gates suggested there were four main areas where technology needed to (and would) transform education in the coming few years:

1. •Re-imagining textbooks such that textbooks must change to become interactive.  Gone will be the days of static texts that students carry in heavy backpacks;
   

2. •Supporting all teachers by encouraging the best teachers to upload their lessons online to widen accessibility;
   

3. •Connecting through social networks - connecting students to students, teachers to teachers and learners to experts through various social media;
   

4. •Personalizing learning in ways that allow students to individualize the pace and structure of their learning.
   

Gates highlighted a number of websites by showing a video that provided a vision of the (near) future of education:

CK-12: http://www.ck12.org

Gooru: http://www.goorulearning.org/

iTunesU: http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

udemy: http://www.udemy.com/

Teachers-pay-teachers: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

ePals: http://www.epals.com/

Edmodo: http://www.edmodo.com/

Manga High- learning games: http://www.mangahigh.com

Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/

Bill Gates then asked a significant question - with all that is available to teachers and schools today, what is holding schools back?  One factor is that not every student has access to technology and not every student can have internet access at home.  Another factor is the need to overcome experienced teachers’ fears of new ways of teaching.  He suggested that we need an easy and accessible framework for enabling students to read online to promote basic literacy, we need to give teachers time to catch up and learn what other teachers are doing, and we need to undertake comparative studies to ensure we don’t increase the gap between students who do well and those who struggle.

At the end of his address, Bill Gates was asked, “In the 21st century, what is the role of education?”  His answer was that he felt students had to learn to live in a collaborative culture so they could engage in problem solving with others.  I can only agree with him!

Thursday ended with three speakers – Stephen Carter, Cheryl Crazy Bull and Sarah Kay, all of whom talked on the theme of inventing a better tomorrow.  Each speaker was excellent, but like everyone present, I rose to give the third and final speaker (23 year old spoken poet Sarah Kay) a well-deserved standing ovation.  I had seen Sarah Kay before in video presentations, but seeing and hearing her in person was simply mind-blowing.  If you are unfamiliar with her work, you can see her in a TED presentation at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html.

To give you an idea of the diverse sessions I attended, let me list a few of the titles of the optional workshops I attended:

1. •The New Normal: Re-thinking technology in a world of ubiquitous access
   

2. • Strategic Directions Reframed: Five Goals, Five Teams, Five Years
   

3. •Leading People Through Change
   

4. •The future of textbook publishing
   

5. •Authentic Doing: Producing and Publishing Digital Video Oral Histories
   

6. •Communicating and Connecting through Social Media
   

7. •Innovating the Strategic Plan
   

8. •The World Peace Game
   

9. •From Envisaging to Implementing Global Programs
   

10. •The Transformative School Schedule
    

The closing speaker of the conference was Amy Chua, author of the controversial book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”.  A great teller of stories with a humorous and self-deprecating touch, I really enjoyed her insights, her energy and her

perspectives.  Apparently she never intended her book to be a parenting guide (which how many critics have perceived it), but it was intended to be an honest, self-incriminating look into her journey as a parent.  Indeed, the motive for writing the book was the crisis she faced in her own relationship with her then 13 year old daughter.  She added that she intended the first two-thirds of her book to be funny, and the final one-third to offer some worthwhile insights, both for herself and others.

Having worked for seven years in Hong Kong, I enjoyed hearing Amy’s controversial views on self-esteem and how best to instill it in children, although unlike some others, I didn’t find her ideas too outlandish or alien.   Although I found some of her ideas a little extreme, I agree with her that there is very little value in boosting children’s self-esteem when they know themselves that they have done nothing to deserve the praise they are receiving.  There are some other things she said that I would also question, but having heard her story, I am convinced that her sole motive was doing what she thought was best for her children whom she loved so much.

And I cannot think of a better motive than this for trying to guide children into adulthood.

Moreover, I agreed with Amy’s belief that we all should apply discipline and hard work to something we love, and that we should encourage our children to do the same.  It was a fitting conclusion to a brilliant conference that has already whetted my appetite for next year’s gathering.

The dates are already in my diary.