Dayton Experienced

The second fortuitous meeting emerged for me in April 2019 in Dayton, Oregon. I organised QASSP's third study tour to the USA to investigate the impact of technology on education. The tour saw the group visit Apple Park, the AltSchool, Stanford University, the University of Oregon, Microsoft and Amazon.

The opportunity to meet Thompson Morrison came via an internet search that presented an organisation by the name of Innovate Oregon. My email request for assistance for a school visit in Portland presented a chance to experience Dayton Junior and High School. It was an overcast morning in April as the coach pulled up at a school in a small rural town after a drive of about an hour from Portland.

While I was in conversation with Thompson as the students shared their work with the study tour group, further curiosity was sparked. Why was this tech guy so invested in learning in this small rural high school? And I sensed it was not to 'make a dollar' as the group had learned at the AltSchool in San Francisco. That startup had reportedly raised $175 million in venture capital. Dayton was a public school... in rural Oregon! This was a  typical rural public school that certainly didn't have any venture capital or any other special funding attached to it. I treasure that initial meeting and conversation.

What really stood out was the level of engagement of teachers and students who were equally thrilled for the opportunity to tell their stories. Student agency was palpable. There was that feeling in the school that learning was Fully Alive, and not dulled by a drive for test scores. The teachers leaned into their work in a way I'd only occasionally experienced – researchers might recognize it as Collective Teacher Efficacy.

Also leaving a lasting impression on me was the principal of the school, Jami Fluke. Jami spoke with passion and shed a tear when she recognised that having an international group visiting their small rural school was part of the audacious aspiration she and Thompson had for the school. She told us that her students had hoped that the work being undertaken in Dayton might someday be of international significance. And here she was, on that day sharing her story to a group of Australians from the other side of the world!

We were intrigued that in this small rural school there was something profoundly going on in relation to learning and there was much more for us to learn. I was curious and had a sense I needed to be Leaning into Meaning. At the conclusion of our study tour, this visit was rated by principals as the most important of the entire visit, as we began to recognize it wasn't the technology that was going to transform education, but the new way of creative thinking and learning that was developing it, what was called an Agile Mindset. This study tour became the catalyst for introducing this mindset to educators in Australia with the help of a new learning framework developed from the experience in Dayton, that which was to become known as Designed InGenuity.

Next: The Pivot