Day 2 Schedule BLC07

Angela McFarlane just took the stage to keynote on Day 2 of Alan November’s Building Learning Communities conference. Day one was incredibly intense, so much going on, so many meaningful live discussions that I’ve never been a part of before. I attended sessions by super Scot Ewan Macintosh, Will Richardson, and Bob Pearlman.

Will Richardson was interesting. He came off as almost being pissed off (he called it edgy in his latest post), but he wants to push us all a step further. It was a good presentation, he engaged the audience in a discussion and got them asking good questions. The audience was passionate. I was most struck by a social worker who raised her hand and admitted that she was probably the only non-educator at the conference. But, she took great interest as a parent in what Will had to say. I think that the female social worker is on to something. At some point, the conversation needs to reach parents. How about a Building Learning Communities Conference that includes just as many parents as educators?

All three presenters I went to had different content and style but gave excellent presentations. I can only hope Day 2 is just as inspiring.

Below is my schedule for Day 2:

8:15am-9:15am Keynote: Angela McFarlane
9:15am-10:00am Keynote: Mitchel Resnick

Session 4 -10:30am- 11:30am

Dr. Joyce Valenza, School Library Websites: State of the Art Information Landscapes for 21st Century Learners (CB) , Charles River West

Session 5- 11:40am- 12:40pm

Ewan McIntosh, “We’re Adopting:” An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Education (CB) (L), Charles River West

Session 6- 1:45pm-2:45pm

Alan November, Teaching Zack Webliteracy (CT), Charles River West

Then later on at night ….

7:00 - 10:00pm, Spirit of Boston Dinner Cruise

Double Whammy

Alan November kicked off the Building Learning Communities Conference 2007 like only Alan knows how and Tim Tyson keynoted. Below are a few quick hits from Alan’s 30 minutes onstage, then Tim’s hour-long headliner.

• Workshops during conferences are an excuse for the conversations that ensue.

• Exams should include all materials and total access to information.

• Leadership makes or breaks the use of technology. Leaders need to be fearless.

• Technology is polarizing the society.

• No Child Left Behind is increasing the gap on the innovative end.

Tim Tyson-

Tim Tyson was an excellent first day presenter. He’s a principal that actually gets what education and learning need to be about. Tim’s big on having students make meaningful contributions with their work and then examining the learning that goes into such efforts.

A few quick hits from Tim:

• When you are making a contribution, you are performing at the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy. Exemplary work deserves global distribution. It changes the nature of schoolwork. Its the definition of authentic assessment.The gift of meaningful and significant contribution. The essential question: When does meaningfulness start? When do our lives become significant?

• Dan Pink says in his book, “we’re preparing kids for a workplace that doesn’t exist today. Linear thinking is no longer sufficient. To thrive in the economy, right brain skills are essential.”We aren’t even training the Dilberts of the world anymore.

• Students believe that whats going on in school is irrelevant to their future. It’s time for significant change.

• It’s a time for new beginnings School 2.0

-authentically engaged learners
-self directed
-project driven instruction
-Relevant
-Engaged in authentic tasks, authentically engaged in knowledge work.
-Who is doing all the thinking work?

• Tyson’s greatest fear is that federally funded NCLB will work and students will be achieving at the minimum. If that happens, the whole nation will end up being left behind.

These are just my sloppy notes from the keynote. If your intererested in more, I suggest you check out the hitchikr site for BLC 2007 (thank you, Mr. Warlick) or do a search for BLC 2007 in Technorati.

More to come…

Building Learning Communities 2007

I just arrived in Boston, MA. OK, not really Boston but 10 miles out in Newton, Massachusetts. I’m in town for Alan November’s Building Learning Communities (BLC) Conference 2007. I’m a little groggy from the five hour commute from Syracuse, but I’m starting to come around.

A few minutes ago, I turned on my laptop and began perusing the BLC conference flier. Alan November’s thrown together a pretty impressive lineup: Will Richardson, Tim Tyson, Marc Prensky, Ewen Macintosh, Joyce Valenza. And that’s just to name a few. I feel lucky to be attending.

Below is my tentative schedule for Wednesday June 18th 2007:

8:30 am Welcome to BLC 07, Alan, Salons A-E

9:00 am KEYNOTE - Dr. Tim Tyson, Moving from Personal Knowledge to Global Contribution

Session 1

10:20am- 11:20am: Alan November, Teaching Zack Webliteracy, Salons D-E

Session 2

11:30am-12:30pm: Will Richardson, New Internet Literacies for Educators, Salons G-H

Session 3

1:45- 2:45: Bob Pearlman, Designing Secondary Schools of the Future, Old Meeting House

More tomorrow!