Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Learning Revolution Free Events - The Conference - Next Up #Reinvent14 - Appreciative Inquiry and AERO

The Learning Revolution
Weekly Update

April 22nd


The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn...and change.
- Carl Rogers

The technologies of the Internet and the Web are reshaping where, when, and from whom we learn--and even how we think about learning. The Learning Revolution Project highlights our own virtual and physical events and those of our more than 200 partners. We also highlight good conversations about learning taking place between educators, learners, leaders, and others from the school, library, museum, work, adult, online, non-traditional and home learning worlds. The Internet is shifting the boundaries of these worlds, and we believe that as they increasingly overlap and integrate they will be critical to framing and preparing for the learning revolution starting to take place.

To subscribe to this newsletter, please sign up at the Learning Revolution. Please share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues!

Updates


Partner Spotlight

ISTE

ISTE The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier nonprofit organization serving educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected world. ISTE serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world. More information at https://www.iste.org/.

Interested in becoming a Learning Revolution Partner? Please fill out a Partner Application today.

Partner Announcements

Become a Learning Revolution Partner and share your Partner Announcements in our weekly newsletter!

One Week Calendar

All events are listed in US-Eastern Daylight Time. To become an event partner and have your events listed here, please email admin@web20labs.com.

  • Tuesday, April 22nd at 7pm Learning Revolution Keynotes, Don't miss Carlo Ricci on "Learning and Love," Howard Rheingold on "Co-Learning, Social Media, Peeragogy, and Open/Connected Learning," Maria Droujkova on "From Adventurous Learning to Disruptive Innovations: Brave Design in Mathematics Education," and Mark Treadwell on "The Neuroscience of Learning - A Model for How the Brain Learns." See the schedule in your local time at http://learningrevolution.com/page/attending-schedule.
  • Wednesday, April 23rd at 4pm Free BrainPOP Webinar: Come Play! Mission US: A Cheyenne Odyssey, We welcome Christopher W. Czajka, Senior Director at LAB@Thirteen, the producer of our GameUp title Mission US: A Cheyenne Odyssey. Christopher will discuss how Mission US prompts young players to think critically, make choices, and reference primary sources. He'll also provide an overview of the accompanying educational resources. Join here.
  • Wednesday, April 23rd at 7pm ISTE - ISTE Standards and the Common Core Integration in Action, Are you daunted by the prospect of implementing the Common Core State Standards? Don’t be! The Common Core opens the door for innovative teaching techniques to ensure students are college and career ready. Join Catlin Tucker to see how she’s successfully blending technology and tradition to teach the new standards in her classroom. Learn how to leverage web 2.0 tools to engage students and teach creative problem solving, critical thinking, and effective communication and collaboration. Leave this webinar with lesson ideas you can use with your students today! Registration and more information here.
  • Wednesday, April 23rd at 7pm Learning Revolution Keynotes, Don't miss David Loertscher on "The Flat Co-Taught Learning Experience: A 'Core' Idea," Cynthia Mediavilla on "Learning by Doing: Internships and Residencies," and Bernajean Porter on "Futuring with Story Telling Inspires Communities, Schools and Student Lives." See the schedule in your local time at http://learningrevolution.com/page/attending-schedule.
  • Wednesday, April 23rd at 9pm Teachers Teaching Teachers, Weekly conversations hosted by EdTechTalk, a collaborative open webcasting community. For more information, click here.
  • Thursday, April 24th at 7am Learning Revolution Keynotes, Don't miss Pat Farenga on "What is the role of the teacher when children learn on their own?" Leonard Waks on "Beyond the University: New MOOC Audiences and Providers," Stephanie Sandifer on "Mobile Learning Among the Museums of Houston, Texas: A Blended & Personalized Learning Environment Leveraging Community Resources for Improved Learner Outcomes," Jackie Gerstein on "SAMR as a Framework for Moving Towards Education 3.0," Steve Wheeler on "Students Driving Change: How Learners are Making the Difference in the Digital Age," Roger Schank on "Out with the Old and In with the New: A Plan for Redesigning High School so that it is Fun and Useful," and Michael Strong on "Creating Great Educational Communities." See the schedule in your local time at http://learningrevolution.com/page/attending-schedule.
  • Thursday, April 24th in Omaha, NE Identifying the Learning Potential of Apps, Websites, and Games & Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship on an iPad; , Common Sense Media presenter, Jeremy Nielsen, will deliver two great sessions at the Nebraska Educational Technology Association event in Omaha, NE. More information here.
  • Thursday, April 24th at 3pm Rethinking Lesson Design with App Flow & Digital Citizenship: A Whole-Community Approach, Common Sense Media presenter, Kelly Mendoza, will deliver two great sessions at the free, online Learning Revolution Conference. See the schedule in your local time at http://learningrevolution.com/page/attending-schedule.
  • Friday, April 25th in Denver, CO Making a Better World: Digital Citizenship & Literacy for K-12, Empower youth to be in control of their online lives by teaching them digital citizenship using Common Sense Media resources. The K-12 Digital Citizenship and Literacy curriculum includes lesson activities, student videos and interactive assessments...More information and registration information here.
  • Sunday, April 27th at 8pm I Have a Question EdTechWeekly, Weekly attempt to crowdsource answers to education questions from our community of communities. Tag your questions #eduquestion or post them on our Facebook page or Google+ community.
  • Monday, April 28th at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC YouthCaN 2014, YouthCaN is a global youth-run organization co-sponsored by iEARN that uses technology to inspire, connect and educate people about environmental issues facing the planet. Every year at our annual conference at the American Museum of Natural History, YouthCaN groups from around the world present and/or attend environmental science-related workshops. The date for the YouthCaN New York City Conference is April 28, 2014 at the American Museum of Natural History. More information here.
  • Monday, April 28th in Pacific Palisades, CA Tips & Tools to Tech Up Your Teaching, Today’s educators are tasked with integrating technology in the curriculum to enhance student learning and advance 21st century skills, but, with myriad of tools and educational applications to choose from, it can be a daunting task for already busy teachers. This professional development workshop is designed to help jump-start meaningful technology integration with ideas, resources, and teaching tips. More information here.

For a full calendar of all upcoming events and conferences, click here.

Deadlines

  • Reinventing the Classroom, May 1st, 2014
    Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals will be accepted between now and April 25th for Reinventing the Classroom. Conference strands include Teaching with Technology, Student Devices, Online Learning, Subject Specific Ed Tech, Creative Ed Tech, Web 2.0 & Social Software, and Administrative Support. Please see the call for proposals and submission instructions here.
  • Reform Symposium MiniCon May, May 4th 9:30am - 1pm EDT
    Upcoming deadlines: Sign up for the Tech & App Smackdown - Share your favorite web tool or app as we celebrate our amazing presenters from 2013 and look forward to #RSCON5 on July 11-13th, 2014. Your presentation will only be 2 minutes long with 2 images as your presentation. Or sign up to be an Inpire Presenter! You are invited to do a 3 to 5 minute presentation that either (1) gives us highlights of your RSCON4 presentation or (2) gives us a sneak peek at what you are thinking about presenting for RSCON5. Space is limited for these presentations, so sign up soon.
  • Library 2.014, October 8th + 9th, 2014
    Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals will be accepted between now and October 1st for Library 2.014. This fully online, participatory conference presents a unique opportunity to showcase the excellent research and work that you do every day. How does your library manage digital collections? Is your library mobile friendly? Do you have a story to tell about maker spaces? Your participation as a presenter will steer the global conversation about the future of libraries. Please see the call for proposals and conference strands and consider submitting your proposal soon!

Highlighted Recordings

Ian Jukes from the Learning Revolution Conference - on "What 21st Century Learning Really Looks Like"

Jukes
http://youtu.be/DfNF3fVS82U

Bron Stuckey from the Learning Revolution Conference - on "The Minecraft Experience: Curating Learning"

Stuckey
http://youtu.be/n6l2Skj_KhI

Bernard Bull from the Learning Revolution Conference - on "Eight Laws of the Self-Directed Learner"

Bull
http://youtu.be/XbAC51BNd-4

NMC Navigator Top Reads

Top Learning Tech Stories of the Week from the NMC/Horizon Project Navigator.

  1. Online grade books earn A for info, F for stress
  2. Myths of Technology Series: “Technology Will Replace Face-to-Face Interaction”
  3. U.S. Views of Technology and the Future
  4. Creativity and the Brain: What We Can Learn From Jazz Musicians
  5. Tell Me a Story: Augmented Reality Technology in Museums
  6. How a District Ended Student Dropouts with Personalized Learning
  7. Heartbleed, the Branding of a Bug, and the Internet of Things
  8. Games that teach: It’s not just about scaffolding
  9. Why Data Is the Key to Successful Course Redesign

Conversations

Classroom 2.0

  • Designing Baseball Uniforms in the School Library. Teacher-librarian, Selena Jensen, is looking for a comprehensive fashion design software program to help high school baseball players design their own uniforms. What an excellent idea! Do you have experience with design programs? Give your recommendations to Selena here.
  • Social Media for the Art & Design Classroom. Jessica Longmore is teaching a Level 2 Art & Design course and is looking for ways to engage her 16-17 year old students. She writes, Can anyone recommend a social media platform that would be suitable to use? I'm looking for something with a balance between safeguarding issues and valuable vocational insight. Share your ed tech best practices with Jessica here.
  • European Competition 2.0. Joel Josephson reminds us that the Ed2.0Work Competition is quickly appropaching. Deadline for submissions is September 12th. The European Competition 2.0 asks educators/teachers to show how they are using Internet software or sites and mobile apps in innovative and creative ways in their teaching. Learn more about this event here.

Education Revolution Google+ Community

  • Guidelines for Project Based Learning. Prasanna Bharti shared this Ed Tech Review article on project based learning. The article lists the "do's and don'ts" of designing a project based learning experience for students, from redefining "group" work, to remembering basic teaching principles. Check out the article here. Thanks for sharing, Prasanna!
  • Promoting Creativity in Math Education. Giorgio Bertini shared this article with the community, which describes theoretical learning models that encourage creativity among learners of mathematics. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to generate a model that explains how teachers make sense of creativity in the learning of mathematics and how teachers promote or fail to promote it in the classroom. Learn more here.
  • The Bumpy Road of 1:1. Dan Adiletta shares his article, Biggest Technical Headaches of Going 1 to 1, with the Google+ community -- I'm sure none of you can relate! In light of our upcoming Ed Tech Month which kicks off with Reinventing the Classroom, this seems like a great share! Bring these questions, frustrations, insights, and (most importantly) solutions with you to the great line-ups we have for you.

Final Notes

I am a big fan of a change methodology known as "Appreciative Inquiry." In Appreciative Inquiry, the idea is to drill down on that which is being done well as a means of then collaboratively designing improvement in areas that do in fact need it. Whether for individuals, groups, or institutions, what the Appreciative Inquiry process can do is to facilitate improvement in healthier and more productive ways than is often the case with the more-usual pattern of focusing on deficiencies. This is not to deny that problems exist or that there is need for improvement, it rather is to recognize that the temptation to focus first on deficiencies can produce cycles of accusation and defensiveness which may never get at the true issues and can be counter-productive.

In many ways, an immediate focus on deficiencies is a symptom of control mentalities, and control often (usually) invites the very behavior it is intending to control against. Controlling behavior isn't necessarily malicious, it's often just a misunderstanding of how to accomplish the ultimate task and it's usually the result of fear conquering logic. Think of the sports coach screaming at players from the sideline all through a game, compared with the coach who watches how the team is playing and where the players are struggling, works out what training and advice are needed, and then focuses on providing that help during time-outs and--better yet--in practice.

Institutions are often built on a DNA of control. Because of desires to assure consistent output and to protect the "brand" (or role) of the institution, controlling behavior and its accusatory/defensive culture are an easy trap for institutions. In this way institutions can become unintentionally myopic--seeing only that which they feel they can control, and missing good work which is independent of that control.

The best conference I attended last year was the AERO conference. This year AERO conflicts for me with ISTE, so I won't be able to attend, but if you want to see an education conference that manifests Appreciative Inquiry in education, may I suggest you consider attending AERO. The mission of the conference is to "help create an education revolution to make learner-centered education available to everyone," and I think what you will find is an event uniquely open to different perspectives on learners and learning, with representatives from a variety of educational approaches: everything from homeschooling to unschooling to democratic schools to progressive schools and beyond. More than anything else at AERO I felt the ability to explore intellectually and independently the deeper challenges and opportunities that face learners in our changing world, and an implied respect for the variety of opinions represented.

It is my hope that in some way LearningRevolution.com provides a similarly appreciative approach to thinking about learning. We are working hard to bring together those who have been thinking about learning from worlds that are often siloed: the same constituencies that attend AERO plus libraries, museums, and work-, adult- and special-education programs. Our goal is to appreciate that which is being done well by so many, and create constructive conversations by exposing them to each other. Do let me know how you think we are doing!

See you online!

Steve
Steve Hargadon
www.stevehargadon.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

I hate having to moderate comments, but have to do so because of spam... :(