Wow, what a weekend! EduCon 2.2 in Philadelphia this past weekend was a fascinating experience. Over the three days of the conference I think I crammed more information into my brain than I have in years and I am still trying to come to grips with everything I have learned. Overall, the conference went very well, and hats off to Chris Lehmann and the Science Leadership Academy for a great conference. The teachers and students all did a great job. To all of the presenters, I was very impressed and pleased with our conversations and wished I could have attended more (I am looking forward in the coming weeks at looking at the recordings and information from the different sessions to get as much as I can from most of them.) I met a lot of great new people with whom I hope to continue the conversation going on through my PLN (Twitter, through this blog, the various Nings of which I am a member). I will be talking about more about the details relating to what I learned and who and learned it from at EduCon in the coming weeks.
But, as with any good metal exercise, I am left with more questions from the conference than anything else. What to do with all of this new insight? How to make the best of this information? What does this mean for my teaching and the possibilities of teaching at my school?
In some ways, what I believe is the biggest question left me a little worried. How are we going to bring the change to schools that we need? Yes, there is a large and growing group of progressive educators in America (the conference was a shining example of that) but, they are still a small percentage of the overall system which is not changing the way we would hope. There is hope, but a lot to be concerned for, and that should call us all to action.
3 comments:
Will the 21st Century Student be able to carry on a verbal dialogue? I'm not a cynic, but I need to challenge them in person
Ryan,I am very impressed not only with your knowledge of technology but also with your well thought out reflections.I am a novice to technology and find this a bit overwhelming. However, I am teachable and will continue to be open to learn. Thanks for the enlightenment
jharris... I have had the same thought. Kids still need to be engaged verbally (and things like Skype give opportunities for that like we have never had before), but blogs, Twitter, and the like give opportunities for those who are not always comfortable verbally. The key is to use that to increase their comfort level so they engage more verbally in the classroom.
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