A Little Less Talk, A Lot More Examples

This week I presented at the Nebraska Council of School Administrator's Technology Conference in Kearney. This year's keynote speaker was David Warlick. David has one of my all time favorite videos, recorded for the K12 Online Conference. During his opening keynote this week, he talked about how students are in an information abundance age because of advancements in technology. But that isn't necessarily what our classrooms look like. Sound familiar? I thought so. Whether it's been NETA, ISTE, or Educon, I'm starting to feel like someone is just playing a recording of "21st Century learners are being educated in 19th Century classrooms." Obviously, not everyone has taken this to heart. But why not? Why haven't we moved on from this being the main idea of keynote after keynote? I'm sure you can come up with many excuses - money, time, "way it's always been done." But some schools have. Where are they? Why don't we hear more from them at education conferences? True integration, not pilot programs. True change in your school, not once a month, "ah that looks cute and fun" professional development. We had this discussion following the keynote. And so it was decided to bring some of those schools together to share their successful transformation. 
I would like to put together a panel presentation for NETA 2012 with Nebraska schools that are educating 21st Century learners in a 21st Century learning environment. The presentation would be centered around the what (you are doing), how (resources were pooled to make "it" happen), and why (it was necessary) your school became a 21st Century learning environment. I have already contacted one person, but I need some more examples. I would like to have a variety of school sizes and backgrounds. If you have examples of schools I should contact, please drop them in the Comments section or send me a message on Twitter. Thanks for your help!
The message of what a 21st Century education should look like isn't being heard by everyone, for one reason or another. I would like this panel to become an example and resource for schools looking to move their learning environments forward. As David says in his video, our schools are gardens, and each student needs a little different cultivating and care to grow into something wonderful. We need to gather our "master gardeners" together to 

Coming to NETA 11 - Conversation

The NETA Conference is going strong. In 2009, we moved to a new venue. That year we broke the 2,000 attendees mark. In 2010, we surpassed even that record mark. While other state's have seen conference participation dwindle, we seem to be going full steam ahead.

Being on the NETA Board has been a wonderful experience for me. With all of our organizational success, we don't want to be stagnant. So this year we are introducing "round table discussions." Think of it as a geeky fireside chat. It's not a stand and deliver presentation. We are not taking those types of presentations away; they will continue to be the cornerstone of the NETA Conference. But we wanted to give you the opportunity to learn from the crowd, not just the presenter! What do you talk about? That's where you come in. You bring what you want to the table for your 45 minute time slot.

I first saw this type of presentation at Educon (link to this year's site) last January at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. All of Educon's sessions are based on conversations with the other people in the sessions. One presentation that stuck out (shown in the picture) was when Will Richardson said, "I've got three slides and 90 minutes, so you'd better be ready to share." That's exactly what makes this type of presentation style exciting and successful: you are the facilitator, not the presenter. You can come with questions and don't have to have answers.

If you are looking for another example of this, check out EdCampKC on November 6th, 2010. During that day, this "un-conference" will have a Ustream going in one of the session rooms. You can find out more information by visiting their wiki.

The due date for conversation submissions is the same as the rest of NETA presentations (December 1st). If you have any questions, please leave them in the Comments section here or on the NETA Facebook or Twitter pages. And even if you don't want to present, you are highly encouraged to come over to the Marriot lounge and join in the conversation!

Educon 2.2 - A Learning Conversation

I just wrapped up my first trip to Educon in Philadelphia. After learning about it last year and seeing the tweets and blog posts raving about it, I knew it was a place I had to be. Educon refers to itself as an education conference, "not a technology conference." Looking at the list of attendees, it's a who's who of educational technology. I joked at supper one night that I felt like I was at a high school party thrown by the cool kids and happy I hadn't been sent home...yet.

Educon lived up to all my expectations. I didn't sit in presentations...I participated in conversations. We heard the story on Twitter and it was mentioned a couple times here that on Thursday the power had gone out at Science Leadership Academy (SLA), where Educon is held. While talking with co-chair and SLA teacher Diana Laufenberg on Saturday night, she said that someone had brought up "What happens if the power goes out this weekend?" The answer: We open the shades and everything moves forward as planned. Oh yeah, the visuals may be missed, but no session I sat in was based off of what's on the screen (OK, full disclosure, there was one, but I've deleted it from the list below and am not counting it in my assessment/reflection of Educon). All sessions are based off of participant conversations and sharing. And the best part? It wasn't ALL a complaint session. In the first session, it began that way, but one of the participants spoke up and said, "I would rather hear what you are doing to change." Brilliant. In the last session I attended, we discussed barriers and constraints...and then how we beat those (look for continuing updates here). You do have to understand what the negatives are before you turn them into positives.

Someone brought up a great point in our last group - We talk so much about failures. Why don't we talk about experiences? We need to accept failure and learn from it, something that is frowned upon in education (as mentioned in multiple sessions). But more than learning from our failures, we need to learn from our experiences. I personally feel that the slight change of tone makes a huge difference when presenting to a skeptical audience.

I've learned from my experience at Educon that I'm not alone and there are easily-accessible people waiting and willing to help. It was also relieving to know that we are doing very good things in our district. We aren't on the cutting edge, but we do have teachers that understand the power of technology when used properly. We have supportive staff and administrators that let us do a little playing here and there...as long as, in the end, it benefits the students.

All sessions are being recorded in Elluminate and will be made available at a later date. I'm thankful for that so that I can go back and watch what I missed. Below are links to sessions I attended:

• Elementary Schools in the 21st Century - How Does the Pedagogy Change? How Does that School Look, or Not Look- Brian Crosby
• What if School Wasn't Just Like Real Life, What If It was Real Life? - Diane Laufenberg
• The "Decoupling" of Education and School: Where Do We Begin? - Will Richardson
• Copyright Confusion: The Future of Intellectual Property in a Remix Generation - Kristin Hokanson
• Leveraging the Wisdom of the Crowd: Collaborative Action Plans - Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

But I do encourage you to check all of them out.

On a side note, I only brought my HTC Droid Eris (previous thoughts) as a camera and was very impressed. You can see all of my Educon pics on Flickr.

Here is a wikispace with a collection of all (or dang near all) blog posts related to Educon 2.2. Thanks to Shelley for putting them all together (and I love the Twitter name).