Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century: K12 Online Conference 2008: Amplifying Possibilities

Saturday, September 20, 2008

K12 Online Conference 2008: Amplifying Possibilities

The K12 Online Conference 2007 provided some of the very best professional development that I experienced last year. My understanding of personal learning networks increased as did my perspective on using cell phones as classroom learning tools. Liz Kolb shared so many great ideas about using cell phones in the classroom! And thanks to Vinnie Vrotny I tested the waters of a professional learning network. I began using Gabcast for my work and introduced it to my students. I learned more about Web 2.0 and understood more about using it in the classroom.

It’s almost time for the K12 Online Conference 2008. Considering how much I learned last year, I want to very strongly encourage you to participate in this year’s conference. Educators (all volunteers) have designed this conference for educators. I expect that the presentations and conversations from this year’s conference will do the same that last year’s did: help us incorporate new technologies into the teaching and learning processes.

This year’s conference uses the theme Amplifying Possibilities and begins with a pre-conference keynote during the week of October 13. That is followed by two weeks of presentations, October 20-24 and October 27-31. There is no cost for participating in the conference and conference materials are covered by a Creative Commons license. Are you busy with other projects those weeks? You can view the presentations later in online archives. In fact, there are 82 past presentations archived and viewable from the K12 Online 2006 and K12 Online 2007 conferences.

This year’s conference has four strands. Quoting briefly from the conference materials, these strands and their purposes follow.

Getting Started: Everything you wanted to know about getting started with web 2.0 technologies for learning but were afraid to ask.
Kicking It Up a Notch: This strand amplifies ways new technologies can be used to transform classroom and personal learning.
Prove It: What are “best practices” for teaching and learning with the new participatory media?
Leading the Change: Presentations in this strand will both showcase successful strategies as well as amplify critical issues which must be addressed for innovative learning methods to be adopted by teachers, librarians, and administrators on a more widespread basis.