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\u201cThink \u2018Why not?\u2019 \u2018What if?\u2019 not<\/span> \u2018Yes, but\u2019 to new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nigel Barlow<\/p>\n I sat in the hotel conference room staring at the blue velvet curtains at the back of the stage.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a crisp autumn day and I\u2019m at the Hilton for three days of high-octane immersion at the AELI 2012.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to what\u2019s billed to be an interactive gathering of Canadian educators dedicated to furthering innovative learning in their schools.\u00a0 We\u2019re here to learn how mobile technology can personalize learning and transform learning into a more engaging experience inside the classroom and out.<\/p>\n Enter Nigel Barlow<\/a>, our keynote speaker and focus for the conference.\u00a0 He will tell us why we\u2019re here.<\/p>\n He\u2019s the English author of Re-Think: How to Think Differently<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0He is wry, spry, dry and razor sharp.\u00a0 He has my attention. The room grows quiet.<\/p>\n His first pitch is a fastball.\u00a0 Cultivate curiosity.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must develop a beginner’s mind. Ask, ‘why not?\u2019 and \u2018What if?’ when presented with ideas. Learn to think beyond the tendency of \u2018Yes, but\u2026\u2019. \u00a0Teach yourself ignorance, and allow someone to teach you something new.\u201d<\/p>\n His message is strong, if not new; but not new is his point.\u00a0 We have to re-learn it every day or we learn nothing.\u00a0\u00a0 Creativity and curiosity have always underpinned education, but we lose sight of them quickly as we become comfortable by what we believe we now \u201cknow\u201d.<\/p>\n When I started teaching I could vividly see my curriculum, classroom and school with fresh eyes; now, years later, I still notice things around me but am less aware of the new opportunities in front of me.\u00a0 \u201cOne month on the job, and you\u2019re blind.\u201d\u00a0 Experience can trump innovation, when the reverse should be true.\u00a0 Always.<\/p>\n Tough to argue.<\/p>\n Behind the speaker on the platform, I could see the blue velvet curtains were shimmering.\u00a0 They shimmered for me throughout the three-day conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThink \u2018Why not?\u2019 \u2018What if?\u2019 not \u2018Yes, but\u2019 to new ideas.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nigel Barlow I sat in the hotel conference room staring at … Continue reading “Developing a Beginner’s Mind: Apple Educator Leadership Institute 2012, Toronto”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,9,7],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aeli","tag-apple","tag-nigel-barlow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}