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.
Mark these dates on your calendar and join me at the K12 Online Conference 2008!
Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/aliedwards/2054506662/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
This year’s K-12 Online Conference (http://k12onlineconference.org/) is truly an international conference… and it’s free. Educators throughout the world are sharing ways that Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to help our students--and us--learn. The theme this year is Playing with Boundaries. The pre-conference keynote took place this past week. This week and next, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be available to download and view. Live events will also be announced. If you’re interested in information about professional development and/or graduate credit, check out this site: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=161PRE CONFERENCE KEYNOTE: Inventing the New Boundaries by David Warlick
http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=144
I just listened to the pre-conference keynote address by David Warlick. He commented that his generation was the last that could develop an insight into its future by watching their fathers and their fathers’ careers… that we are now educating students for a future that we do not know.
As I think about teaching my students, David’s comments ring true. When I taught mathematics, I knew what my students would experience when they studied mathematics in college. And I knew what they needed to be able to do when using mathematics in their careers. When I started teaching computer science --programming-- I was self-taught. Well, to be truthful, my students and I taught each other. But, I soon returned to college so I could experience what my computer science students would experience in college. All so I could do a better job teaching them. Now that I teach instructional technology for preservice teachers, I find that we are preparing for a future that does not yet exist. There’s no place to go to experience what these students will experience in their careers. Instead, we--i.e., they and I--need to invent their futures… and be open for change… by communicating, collaborating, and working creatively.
David also talked about boundaries… old ones no longer existent, new ones developed when and as needed. Well, obviously, David’s comments got me thinking. I recommend that you view and/or listen to his pre-conference keynote!
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
The easiest way to access the conference presentations is through the conference schedule, which is linked and updated daily. The conference schedule and lots of other helpful information is available at http://k12onlineconference.org/ I urge you to “attend” this conference. Remember… if you’re too busy to attend this week or next, it’ll still be available on the web for your perusal later.
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.
