Our dominant metaphors influence how we approach our critically important work as education leaders. Teaching is, at all levels, often a solitary pursuit for individual practitioners. Educators teach in a largely autonomous if not atomized environment. Connecting islands of professional practice increases the diversity and richness of learning experiences.

"An ecology is basically an open, complex adaptive system comprising elements that are dynamic and interdependent." John Seely Brown

Ecology, as a systems thinking metaphor, deals with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.

A learning ecology is an environment that is consistent with how learners learn. It involves the active (re)creation of knowledge in an environment that fosters and supports the creation of overlapping learning communities which are constantly evolving, largely self- organizing and which cross-pollinate with each other.

Each learning community must learn to respond in its own way to the challenge of adapting and evolving in the light of local and national needs and imperatives.

The appropriate metaphor is not engineering but cultivation, linked to better reticulated professional wellsprings which nurture the energy and creativity of education professionals. As education leaders how do we develop simple sustainable strategies for complex adaptive learning systems?
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ELF 10 is for people from across the education and training spectrum who are leaders or stakeholders because of their position, influence, or ideas and who are interested in how different parts of the learning system can better collaborate and be more responsive to changing needs.

Contributors
Steering Team
Supporters
Feedback from ELF 2009
Photos from ELF 2009

For more information or to register interest in contributing contact:
Lyall Lukey, ELF Steering Team Co-ordinator, Phone (03) 3667 874.