Tonight I was trying to find out about
Microsoft’s Virtual Classroom Tours , as I'm talking with Emma Griffiths tomorrow about these in relation to her role on the
Innovative Teacher Program . They're packages based on PowerPoint. I had a look in one about
Designing a Room and found it contained an interesting short note on the thinking behind the idea. It pointed to the work of Michael Fullan, one of
Microsoft’s International Advisory Board Members .
It sounded like he was on the same wavelength as Exc-el, so I had a look to see if I could find out more about his work. I found his web site,
www.michaelfullan.com , is a good resource. It includes downloadable
articles, for example. He has authored a number of
books, one of them with Andy Hargreaves who spoke on
“Success and Sustainability” at SETT . It's a small world!
Here's an extract from one of the articles, which he'd co-authored for the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, which made me think of Exc-el: (http://www.michaelfullan.com/Articles_05/Tri-Level%20Dev%27t.pdf)
“…Beyond this, system leaders have a special responsibility to foster and support crosssystemnetworks where people across a region, state or country learn from each other.When done well this has significant payoffs for sustainability. First, people are able to learn directly from other practitioners. Second, people begin to identify with larger parts of the system beyond their narrow interest group.”