"Great leaders don't set out to be a leader..they set out to make a difference. Its never about the role-always about the goal"

Today on a Saturday morning session at Mind lab we started with a task where we had to find "Where's George Siemens" was.  This was an interesting task for those of us who did not know much about this person. We had to use the  internet to find out where he might be right now. We used a range of social media such as twitter, wikipedia, and you tube to find out latest information about this man and where he was.

For those that are reading my blog and do not know who George Siemen's is here is a little bit of information about this man.

George Siemens is a writer, theorist, speaker, and researcher on learning, networks, technology, analytics and visualization, openness, and organizational effectiveness in digital environments.^[1] He is the originator of Connectivism theory and author of the article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book Knowing Knowledge 


We then talked about if  anyone in the group emerged as a leader in regards to this class activity.
In what ways?
If not, why not?






I found this task very interesting as I did not know much about this man and I found that the very first place that I went to find information about him was on google search and from there, Wikipedia. I then, because the task asked to find out where he could be right now, I retreated to social media such as his twitter feed and also you tube or his personal blog.

Next, we then went onto talking about Leadership and our mind lab leadership assignment 1.
Leadership is very board.

Assessment 1: Leadership

In this video it talked about the 10 best known leadership  theories. I have listed these below. 

1. The great man theory. 
2. The trait theory of leadership. 
3. The skills theory of leadership. 
4. The style based theory of leadership.
5. The situational leadership skills.
6. Contengency theory.
7. Transactional leadership. 
8. Transformational leadership.
9. Leader-member exchange theory.
10. Servant leadership theory. 

We then went onto doing our collaborative task where we had to explore one leadership theory. Here are some that we had to choose from. Our group chose to do Maori Leadership . I personally related to this as majority of my class are from a Maori background. 

1. Servant leadership
2. Pedagogical leadership.
3. Transactional leadership.
4. Transformational leadership.
5. Maori leadership.

We had to then Identify some key aspects of this leadership theory create a  set of resources.  i have included our groups collaborative task on Maori Leadership below. 

Our group collaborative task -Maori Leadership. 

We then went onto looking at leadership theory VS Leadership style. 

Leadership theory VS  Leadership style.

How do they relate to practice

Is there one approach to leadership that would work in every situation?

Style: How you apply that theory and work in practice. 

We were asked to do a leadership quiz to find out what leadership style we fitted into. I have included my results below.  My leadership style which was participative style with fitted in with the famous Nelson Mandela. WHOOP!WHOOP!! He is an amazing man. 

Leadership Quiz reflection results: 

Your score is: 

Authoritarian 27

Procedural 24

Transformational 42

Participative 44

Laissez Faire 35

Note down your scores then see below.

Theories

Servant leasdership

Pedagogical leadership.

Transactional 

transformational

Maori medium 

Styles:

Visionary 

affilitive 

pacesetting

coaching

democratic

commanding

Atrributes:

Key competencies

21st centuries skills

Growth mindset

Adaptive competence 

Emotional intelligence.

Character qualities (world economic forum)

These are the things that we need to look at and reflect on in our leadership assignment 1(as per above).

We then looked at Emotional Intelligence. I have included a video below.

In this video is talked about these 3 emotional intelligence:

Symapthy

Empathy

Compassion. 

Connected learning and connectivism (Digital)

Why connected learning?

 Connected learning is when someone is pursuing a personal interest with the support of peers, mentors and caring adults, and in ways that open up opportunities for them. It is a fundamentally different mode of learning than education centered on fixed subjects, one-to-many instruction, and standardized testing.Young people learn best when actively engaged, creating, and solving problems they care about, and supported by peers who appreciate and recognize their accomplishments. Connected learning applies the best of the learning sciences to cutting-edge technologies in a networked world. 

 Optimal learning for each learner. Discovery, exploring that is driven by real world problems. Connecting learning to real world engagement. Making it more accessible for the students, young people and families. 

Whanau concept of knowledge

-Regarded as belonging to the whole group, whanau rather then being individual. 

http://clalliance.org/why-connected-learning/

We then looked at the different apps such as 

•  Piktochart
• storybirdthat.com
• powtoon.com

Our task was to create a presentation on what connected learning looks like in our teaching practice. 

I have included a link to my piktochart of what connected learning looks like in my practice. 

Here is my link. Click on the link to view my connected learning piktochart. 

We then looked at Connectivism. Below is a video on what connectivism is. 

What is connectivism.

 In the theory, learning occurs through connections within networks. 

Siemen's Principles of connectivism:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

(Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age)

Below I have included a really good presentation that I have online about the elements of connectivism.