change. create. change.

As of November 4, 2008, the United States of America will have new leadership and a new leadership philosophy governing our country and more importantly, setting the federal stage for P-20 education.

We need to put a college education within reach of every American. -Barack Obama, Reclaiming the American Dream Speech, Bettendorf, IA, 11/7/07

What does this mean for our educational environments of the future?
Under the notions introduced by Dr. Faverty in last week's class....
---Use what we have to think DIFFERENTLY.
---Try to start where we're not.
---We need to use what we don’t have and recognize that a lot of the things we have we don’t use.
---We need to view educational environments in terms of humanity and what a social environment actually means.

Where does this leave us? We need to address the 4C's: climate, culture, context, content.

climate: What should the ideal college educational experience feel like for students?
-comfortable, safe, supportive, authentic, friendly, humane, resourceful, energetic, personal, connected, purposeful

context: What should it look like?
-warm, familiar, engaging, colorful, technologically compatible, clean, clear, accessible, inviting

After brainstorming the climate and context I have realized that many people (including myself) can readily identify the things they do not like or what may need to be changed. But what is more important as an educational leader is to identify the ideal environment for our organization(s). Then we can work towards changing and creating them. Sometimes it is important to forget all that we do know and for a minute pretend that we have the ability to create the ideal environment for our students and colleagues.

Ultimately, we need to CHANGE our habitual ways of thinking in order to CREATE new, innovative, practical and lasting positive CHANGES within our educational environments.