Innovation is Possible... in Staff rooms!

Innovation exists in the meeting of minds!

With Twitter misbehaving of note, I was lucky enough to chance upon a few tweets late in the afternoon, that drew me to an engaging conversation that was being hosted by a number of fellow Canadian twitterers, bloggers, and podcasters who were lucky enough to be invited to Microsoft's Innovative Teachers Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I captured 100 seconds of the discussion, and have shared it below so that you can see what true innovation is: Teachers, meeting on their own time, to engage in rich professional dialogue. Clarence Fisher acted as host of the impromptu gathering to discuss issues related to the question: "Is Innovation possible in Classrooms"

Beyond the richness of the discussion, this experience offered a rare opportunity: the chance to participate in a 'staff room' conversation with Clarence Fisher, Ben Hazzard, Joan Badger, Darren Kuropatwa, Chris Harbeck, Kathy Cassidy, John Evans and those on the back-channel including Alex Couros (until he had to board a plane), Jen Jones, Dean Sharesky (on screen as co-host), David Jakes and others.



Whether or not innovation comes to classrooms any time soon, one thing is for sure: Innovation in staff rooms will have to happen first. Today, I was lucky enough to witness first hand, what an innovative staff room might look and sound like!