{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":221,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351735971,"CreatorID":1193,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"#standardizethat","Handle":"standardizethat","ShortDescription":"A critical look at the standardization of public schools and especially the Common Core State Standards. How do the CCSS and the associated testing affect learning, motivation, and student passions?  What things should be standardized in classrooms if anything?","Description":"The wide adoption of CCSS leads us into an era of standardization never seen before in North America. What implications does standardization have on national testing and classroom learning? I feel that standardization limits students ability to pursue their passions at school and hurts motivation. It leads to one-size-fits all teaching rather than personalized, student focused learning. The conversation at Educon will focus on how standards control and limit student voice and choice. We will look at how standards make student-centered environments such as PBL more difficult by restraining learning. We will also talk about what content, skills, etc should every student master if anything. Should every student take algebra is the type of content vs. skill question that we will discuss. I envision some audience members supporting the CCSS leading to a rich discussion of their strengths and weaknesses.","Link":["http:\/\/concretekax.blogspot.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Shared Google Doc for note-taking; Chalk Talk for pros\/cons of standardization. Group discussion (breaking into smaller groups if there are many participants)about what should\/should not be standardized in schools. Wrap-up:How can we change the conversation at a national level on standards?","Presenter":["Mike Kaechele"],"PresenterAffiliation":["New Tech social studies teacher at Kent Innovation High"],"PresenterEmail":["concretekax@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":1193,"AdditionalComments":"One idea to bring national attention to this idea is for each participant to submit an image with a short description of what they would standardize in schools that could be compiled into an e-book.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":247,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351823067,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"@remixeducon","Handle":"remixeducon","ShortDescription":"This is not a proposal for a conversation. This is a proposal for an Educon remix experiment we would like to try during the course of the conference.","Description":"Remix and mash-up projects using shared digital multi-media encourage participatory culture, provide insight into multiple points of view, sharpen digital storytelling skills, and create a platform to exercise digital citizenship. @remixeducon is a unique crowdsourcing media collaboration experience for all Educon attendees. @remixeducon encourages you, the attendee, to capture images, video and audio clips from Educon that represent your unique experience of the conference. It can be anything: a cab outside on the street, an empty classroom, a moment from a session, networked learning in action, a short clip illuminating an empowering idea you just heard, or even a description of a project you can\u2019t wait to share with your learning communities. Be creative! Use whatever tools you have at your disposal to capture your media.\r\n\r\nAll media submitted to @remixeducon will be licensed under Creative Commons and made available for easy downloading and remixing. \r\n \r\n@remixeducon will provide:\r\nA Gmail address to email digital images and video created by attendees during Educon.  A Google voice number for recording digital audio comments or sound files. \r\nThese digital images, video and audio files will then be made available in an easily accessible public Google Drive folder. \r\nParticipants are encouraged to view and download choice media files to create unique digital media projects using the crowdsourced material. \r\nThese diverse media projects will be showcased on the Remix Educon site.  \r\n \r\nThese projects may take the form of traditional online videos, remixes or mash-ups, slideshows, animated gifs or podcasts.  In addition, we hope participants will find ways to demonstrate the diverse educational potential of hundreds of new web 2.0 media creation tools like wevideo, animoto, blabberize, extranormal, and many others.","Link":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/remixeducon"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"n\/a","Presenter":["George Mayo","Harry Costner"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montgomery County Public Schools (Silver Spring","MD.)","Arlington Public Schools (Arlington","VA.)"],"PresenterEmail":["George_Mayo@mcpsmd.org","harry.costner@apsva.us"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"We weren't sure how to go about submitting this idea so we thought it best to use this conversation proposal form. If this idea is accepted we would like to create small cards to hand out at the conference clearly stating how attendees can participate. Of course, virtual attendees could also participate. Our aim is to create a simple way for people to create, share, and remix media from Educon 2.5. Could be a lot of fun!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":158,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1348887411,"CreatorID":337,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"A new vision for mathematics in high schools","Handle":"A_new_vision_for_mathematics_in_high_schools","ShortDescription":"We need new thinking about what mathematics in high schools actually means. Does the mathematics teacher's role need to change? Does the structure of the curriculum need to radically change? How can we re-engage more students in genuine mathematics? Come and talk about what mathematics could be!","Description":"Mathematics has been put on its own island for too long: disconnected from its neighboring fields in economics, the sciences, music, and the visual and technical arts, and detached from its historical roots in both its teaching and its meaning. We need new thinking about what mathematics in the schools can and should be. In addition, the role of the mathematics teacher is changing, so one of the questions we'll explore is: should we be just \"math teachers\", or should we act more as resources, providing help in improving quantitative literacy in all fields? Another question we'll consider is: what would happen if we compressed the four-year high school mathematics curriculum into one year, and then students learned topics of interest more deeply in their remaining years? Come and talk about what's possible, what's impossible, and what is right.","Link":["http:\/\/hyperbolicguitars.blogspot.com\/","http:\/\/hyperbolicguitars.wikispaces.com\/"],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"I would love to build wikis with this group; one on the 100-hour-one-year course (what would it look like?), one addressing the \"what happens after the first-year course?\" question, and one on potentially new roles for mathematics teachers. These will be the focus questions and will be used in a modified focus\/framing question exercise.","Presenter":["Mike Thayer"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Summit High School","Summit","NJ"],"PresenterEmail":["michael.r.thayer@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":337,"AdditionalComments":"The genesis of this talk came from something I wrote months ago: http:\/\/hyperbolicguitars.blogspot.com\/2012\/01\/minor-proposal-for-coming-year.html and http:\/\/hyperbolicguitars.wikispaces.com\/100-hour+Introduction+to+Mathematics+course","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":213,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351713659,"CreatorID":142,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Collaborating in the Bronx to Amplify Youth Voices","Handle":"Collaborating_in_the_Bronx_to_Amplify_Youth_Voices","ShortDescription":"Meet four New York City Writing Project teachers who are part of a study group that has been sponsored by the NYCWP to foster and reflect on our use of Youth Voices. Amal Aboulhosn, Paul Allison, Tricia Clarke, and Jim Nordlinger will show student work that has resulted from their work together. We will also be joined in a Hangout by Youth Voices co-founder, Chris Sloan from Salt Lake City, Utah.","Description":"We see this conversation as a welcoming party. We would like to show our colleagues the work we have been doing on Youth Voices, and we\u2019d like to invite each of them to join us if it makes sense.\r\n\r\nYouth Voices is a school-based social network that was started in 2003 by a group of National Writing Project teachers. We merged several earlier blogging projects. We have found that there are many advantages to bringing students together in one site that lives beyond any particular class. It's easier for individual students to read and write about their own passions, to connect with other students, comment on each others work, and create multimedia posts for each other. Further, it's been exciting for us to pool our knowledge about curriculum and digital literacies.\r\n\r\nFour of the facilitators of this conversation are active members of a study group supported by the New York City Writing Project. We use an open study group on P2PU, and along with other teachers, we are developing a system of 60 Challenges, Tasks and Badges on P2PU that is totally open for any student or teacher to use, edit, or clone. We will also be joined in a Hangout by Youth Voices co-founder, Chris Sloan from Salt Lake City, Utah.\r\n\r\nYouth Voices is much more than a website or a social network. We are also a welcoming community of teachers who have been planning online curriculum together for a decade. We would like to invite interested colleagues at EduCon 2.5 to join us!","Link":["http:\/\/www.goorulearning.org\/gooru\/index.g#!\/collection\/b210b7ee-c9e1-4a36-9601-e24750d0c5ef\/play","http:\/\/youthvoices.net","https:\/\/p2pu.org\/en\/groups\/connected-learning-with-youth-voices","http:\/\/digitalis.nwp.org\/resource\/1260","http:\/\/nycwritingproject.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will invite participants to comment on the current discussion posts by our students on Youth Voices, and much of our conversation about this school-based social networking site will build from their experience of the site. We will also ask participants to add something (or clarify something) on our new Challenges on P2PU, which are open for any member to edit. And these experiences will lead to more conversation about how we build curriculum together.","Presenter":["Amal Aboulhosn","Chris Sloan (in a Hangout)","Paul Allison","Tricia Clarke","Jim Nordlinger"],"PresenterAffiliation":["New York City Writing Project","Youth Voices"],"PresenterEmail":["amal.aboulhosn@gmail.com","allisonpr@gmail.com","jnordlinger@optonline.net","tricia.c.clarke@gmail.com","ccsloan@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":142,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":219,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351734034,"CreatorID":1215,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Competency Education: Pathways to 21st Century Student-Centered Learning?","Handle":"Competency_Education:Pathways_to_21st_Century_Student-Centered_Learning","ShortDescription":"\u201cCompetency education\u201d is increasingly taking center stage in policy, online and blended learning, and education redesign conversations. How might the trends, emerging issues, and recent research inform and impact the way we think about and engage with inquiry-based learning and how might we influence the national conversation?","Description":"There is momentum growing around competency education, with increasing numbers of states adopting or considering policy enabling graduation based on demonstration of proficiency, rather than the ability to withstand a requisite number of hours in a classroom. The working definition, developed by CompetencyWorks.org, for high quality competency-based approaches is directed toward transforming the education system.\r\nCompetency education is (a five part working definition):\r\n1.\tStudents advance upon mastery.\r\n2.\tExplicit and measurable learning objectives empower students.\r\n3.\tAssessment is meaningful and a positive learning experience for students.\r\n4.\tStudents receive rapid, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.\r\n5.\tLearning outcomes emphasize competencies that include application and creation of knowledge along with the development of important skills and dispositions.\r\nMastery-based learning requires a new set of practices and policies that is riveted on student learning and personalization. There are many driving forces for advancing competency education in the K-12 system including school improvement, turnarounds, the dropout crisis, credit recovery, multiple pathways and expansions in online and blended learning. The Common Core State Standards is also creating a unique opportunity to introduce performance-based approaches.\r\nWe\u2019ll begin by highlighting trends and emerging issues and discussing recent research from two new briefing papers on competency education: designing competencies and supporting students and staff in competency education, followed by roundtable discussions asking participants to share and highlight examples from their work, and brainstorm opportunities for influencing the field and the growing national conversation.","Link":["http:\/\/www.competencyworks.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The session will begin with a Chalk Talk, capturing participants\u2019 understandings, questions, and perspectives on competency education. Following an interactive overview of the developing field of competency education, participants will participate in roundtable discussions, selecting one of the five parts of the working definition for a focus. Each roundtable group will discuss how that aspect of the working definition connects to their current work as well as to their vision for 21st Century learning, highlighting promising practices, surfacing challenges, and identifying ways in which they would like to influence the national conversation.","Presenter":["Kim Carter"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Q.E.D. Foundation"],"PresenterEmail":["kcarter@QEDfoundation.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":1215,"AdditionalComments":"It's possible Chris Sturgis of MetisNet.net will join me virtually to co-present.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":185,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351187658,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Developing the Design Mind:  An Introduction to the Process of Design Thinking","Handle":"Developing_the_Design_Mind:An_Introduction_to_the_Process_of_Design_Thinking","ShortDescription":"This conversation immerses participants in the process of design thinking and what it means to approach problems with a design mind.  Come prepared to form design teams with your Educon colleagues and take a deep dive into the process of design thinking.","Description":"This conversation engages participants in a holistic treatment of the design thinking process, and helps them to begin developing a design mind, one that sees problems and issues always as a design problem.  Participants will form design teams, and use the process of design thinking to address a contemporary issue surrounding education (design provocation).  Embedded in this conversation will be strategies to help participants vision design thinking as a 21st Century pedagogy, and one that deeply engages students in developing solutions to human needs. Additionally, other components that support the process, such as developing the types of learning spaces that support such design thinking, will be addressed.  After developing a prototype solution, participants will have an opportunity to share and receive feedback on their designs.","Link":["http:\/\/jakes.editme.com\/educon25"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The design thinking process begins by deeply immersing people in a human need  Once that need is understood, the process then focuses on ideation to develop and extend ideas that contribute to a potential solution set.  From this set of ideas, one is selected to explore and develop a prototype that can address the problem that needs to be solved.  Through an iterative process, the prototype is tested and improved, and a solution emerges that successfully addresses the initial issue.\r\n\r\nThis session immediately engages participants by immersing them in the process of design thinking.  The very nature of the word design is to promote an action, and participants will form design teams to address a design provocation.  Participants will be given a design challenge to explore in their teams, ultimately using the design thinking process to arrive at a potential solution to the original problem.\r\n\r\nThe role of the three facilitators is to introduce each part of the process as the process naturally unfolds and guide the teams through each phase as they address the provocation.\r\n\r\nAfter engaging in the process, their designs will be shared and all with offer a critique.  The goal is to capture their ideas to the design provocation and make them available through a variety of social media.\r\n\r\nThe design thinking process can also be thought of as a true 21st-Century pedagogy.   It is our hope that participants will extend their developing understanding of design thinking to consider pedagogical applications.  Our discussion through the experience will encourage that.  We also plan on challenging participants to consider the role that classroom space plays in supporting and illuminating this process within the context of student learning. \r\n\r\nThe Educon experience itself is about ideation.  People attend to be challenged and to leave with potentially transformative ideas.  This conversation contributes to that by providing a framework for the continued exploration of those ideas, and for the development of new ideas, designed to provide solutions to the issues and challenges we face in education.","Presenter":["Christian Long","Laura Deisley","David Jakes"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Cannon Design","Chicago IL","(Christian)","The Lovett School","Atlanta GA (Laura Deisley) and Glenbrook South High School","Glenview","IL (David)"],"PresenterEmail":["clong@cannondesign.com","lwdeisley@gmail.com","dsjakes@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you for your consideration.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":208,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351698649,"CreatorID":1213,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Educating for Changemaking: How we can ensure students become empathic leaders who can work collaboratively to drive change, address shared problems, and generate innovative solutions to social problems.","Handle":"Educating_for_Changemaking:How_we_can_ensure_students_become_empathic_leaders_who_can_work_collaboratively_to_drive_change-address_shared_problems-and_generate_innovative_solutions_to_social_problems","ShortDescription":"Understanding that everyone needs to practice empathy, leadership, and teamwork skills to solve social problems, Ashoka has launched the Empathy Initiative to make these \u201cchangemaking skills\u201d a priority in education. Join us in a conversation about pedagogy, curriculum, and evaluation strategies for fostering and evaluating changemaker skill development in students.","Description":"The main goals of this conversation are twofold: 1. To identify the design principles for cultivating empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills in students, and 2. To explore assessment strategies for evaluating changemaker skill development in students. We will begin the conversation with a discussion of changemaker skills and how Ashoka and its Changemaker Schools have found empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving to be critical competencies in changemaker development. Following this introduction, we will invite participants to share ways they have cultivated these skills in their students. By the end of the conversation, we will have an action plan for making changemaking skills as important a priority as traditional academic skills.","Link":["http:\/\/www.inspiredteachingschool.org\/","http:\/\/startempathy.org\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will be using the strategy of sharing best practices to ensure that the session is a conversation, rather than a lecture. We will also set up a wiki to collect best practices and share them with a larger audience.","Presenter":["Zoe Duskin","Kirsten Hill","Laura White"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School","University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education","Ashoka"],"PresenterEmail":["zoe.duskin@inspiredteachingschool.org","kirstenleehill@gmail.com","lwhite@ashoka.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":1213,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you for attending our session! To continue the conversation and sharing of best practices, please visit our wiki at http:\/\/startempathy.wikispaces.com\/home","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":274,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1358873685,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Educon 101: What are all these people talking about?","Handle":"Educon_101:What_are_all_these_people_talking_about","ShortDescription":"We want you to get as much as possible out of this weekend. If you're new to EduCon or the progressive\/ed tech scene, join us for a crash course in EduCon, SLA, and all the latest ed tech tools.","Description":"We want you to get as much as possible out of this weekend. If you're new to EduCon or the progressive\/ed tech scene, join us for a crash course in EduCon, SLA, and all the latest ed tech tools.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Marcie Hull","Zac Chase","Tim Best"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["tbest@scienceladership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":176,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350839241,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Hack On: The NWP Educon 2.5 Hack Jam","Handle":"Hack_On:The_NWP_Educon_2-5_Hack_Jam","ShortDescription":"What happens at the crossroads of hacking and schooling? How do these two seemingly disparate notions complement and inform one another? How can Candyland and HTML spark a learning revolution? Let\u2019s find out together. Join us for the second annual EduCon Hack Jam and be ready to play!","Description":"Hacking and schooling mean different things to different people, but at their crossroads we have the opportunity to look at the past, present, and future of both and to explore how the two seemingly disparate ideas of schooling (as building up) and hacking (as taking apart) can inform one another, our professional practice, and our students\u2019 learning.\r\n\r\nIn this session, participants will hack Candyland and the Web to provoke conversation about how and why educators, students, parents, and policy-makers might hack school to make it more fun, playful, and authentic for our kids and their learning. In pursuing a more compelling, hacked vision of school through their conversation, participants will have the opportunity unpack notions of bias, choice, hacking, organizing, pop media, resistance, technology, and youth in schools. Together, participants and facilitators will explore making and web-authoring as metaphors for broader change in how we school children.\r\n\r\nParticipants will leave as members of the hack jam community and with the kind of motivating discontent that leads to intensely meaningful inquiry-based learning as professional-development and substantive change in teaching practice.","Link":["http:\/\/educonphilly.org\/conversations\/Hacking_School-the_EduCon_2-4_Hackjam","http:\/\/davidwarlick.com\/2cents\/?p=3477","http:\/\/nwphackjam.tumblr.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Play and conversation\r\nSharing hacks and artifacts on the NWP Hack Jam tumblr\r\nInviting and participating in social media backchannels","Presenter":["Meenoo Rami","Chad Sansing"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Meenoo Rami - Science Leadership Academy (SLA)","Chad Sansing - Community Public Charter School (CPCS)"],"PresenterEmail":["meenoo.rami@gmail.com","csansing@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":174,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350681361,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Panel: Home & School 2.0 - Envisioning a Transparent, Connected Learning Environment","Handle":"Panel:Home-School_-_Envisioning_a_Transparent-Connected_Learning_Environment","ShortDescription":"A panel of parents, educators and lead learner at @KnappElementary School will share their collaborative efforts in \"meeting parents where they are\" using both tech & non-tech family engagement strategies to engage a diverse elementary school population in suburban Philadelphia.","Description":"Efforts detailed within this session will include LIVE feed monthly Home & School Meetings using free, user-friendly web utilities that can be used on any platform, shared, transparent use of Twitter & Facebook, meeting the needs of diverse families and most importantly the family engagement core values in place that keep home-school partnerships moving forward at Knapp Elementary in suburban Philadelphia, PA.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"Moderator Jeff Bradbury of @Teachercast will moderate a fishbowl conversation highlighting the efforts of the group.","Presenter":["Gwen Pescatore (P)","Deb Rzepela-Auch (P)","Dania Henaidy (P)","Andrea Abel (T)","Sara Heckman (T)","Nancy Kaufman (T)","Gabrielle Morrison (T)","Joe Mazza (A)"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Knapp Elementary School","Lansdale","PA - North Penn School District"],"PresenterEmail":["pennedtech@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":177,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350961683,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Small Town School.......Global Education","Handle":"Leveraging_Technology_to_open-Possibilities-for_Rural-Low-Socio_Economic_Schools-Students","ShortDescription":"With increasing technology and innovative educators, the World is getting smaller and our small  isolated, school is \"getting bigger!\"\r\nLet us show you how an iPad & a caring, innovative teacher can make a student who doesn't have running water at home value their education and want to be \"more.\"  \r\nTechnology + Relationships= Success","Description":"The focus of the conversation will be how Innovative uses of technology are the \"GREAT EQUALIZER\" for students in poor, isolated, rural America.\r\n\r\nWe will examine successes we have had at our school including specific students who now have \"possibilities\" they've never had.  We will also discuss other  \"possibilities\" in education, technology, and innovating our youth!","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Live FUN presentation @ EduCon \r\nInteractive Group Discussion\/Q&A\r\nLive Twitter Feed\r\nGoal=  more ways to equalize the educational experience for poor, rural, isolated students.....without breaking the bank!","Presenter":["Daisy Dyer Duerr","Sabra Provence"],"PresenterAffiliation":["St. Paul Schools","Huntsville School District","Arkansas"],"PresenterEmail":["dduerr@1hsd.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":5,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"We would love this opportunity!!!!  We promise a dynamic presentation- with involvement of the audience dictating some of the presentation.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":261,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352098224,"CreatorID":182,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"So You Want To Start an Educational Non-Profit","Handle":"So_You_Want_To_Start_an_Educational_Non-Profit","ShortDescription":"If you have ever wondered how or why someone would choose to start a non-profit organization - as opposed to a for-profit, or working for an existing company - this is the session for you.","Description":"Starting your own company or organization brings the promise of intellectual and professional freedom, but it requires both work and risk.\r\n\r\nIn this session, we will describe our process in starting a non-profit: how we made the decision, the barriers we are facing, and why we opted to create a non-profit in the first place.\r\n\r\nWe are early in the process of founding our non-profit; part of the discussion will involve the steps we are taking to ensure that our non-profit is set up to succeed. We would also love to hear from people who are doing, or who have done, similar work in the past.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"In keeping with the mission of our non-profit, we plan on being completely transparent in our the full process of founding this organization. This transparency includes blogging the details of the founding process, but also taking steps to make sure that anyone else interested in doing similar work down the road can benefit from our process.\r\n\r\nIf we make mistakes, we want people to know what they are, so they can avoid them.\r\n\r\nIf we do things well, we'd like to emphasize why a set of choices worked well for us.\r\n\r\nThis conversation is both a means for us to share what we are doing, and, ideally, for us to learn from participants who have useful experience in this area.","Presenter":["Bill Fitzgerald","Jeff Graham","Andrea Burton"],"PresenterAffiliation":["FunnyMonkey"],"PresenterEmail":["bill@funnymonkey.com","jeff@funnymonkey.com","andrea@funnymonkey.com","abby@funnymonkey.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":182,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":246,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351821994,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Students as Teaching Resources","Handle":"Students_as_Teaching_Resources:2","ShortDescription":"A conversation involving educators and how we can involve students in planning, implementation, and assessment within the classroom. A practical approach for educators who would like more student investment and ownership in education.","Description":"Utilizing students in the classroom is not a new idea. Educators understand the impact on motivation and engagement when students have a voice and meaningful responsibility. Unfortunately, initiating and sustaining such student involvement is timely and stressful. What responsibilities do you hand over and how do you monitor the student's achievements? When can you make the students responsible for teaching and in what context? What are the benefits and challenges? These types of questions were raised when we started a program called SIRS, or Students as Integrated ResourceS. The students volunteer and come in after school to participate in a hands on activity. We discuss challenges, understandings, and possible mistakes. When their peers do the same activity in class, these specially trained students act as teachers; answering questions, helping with procedures, monitoring safety, and even engaging the unmotivated individuals. The SIRS have become an integrated and a necessary part of the class, such that recently, a student who raised their hand for help, and saw me coming, said \"No, no. I want a SIRS.\" We would like to share the implementation strategies we used and how we are sustaining the program with other educators. In addition, we would like to extend the conversation to include other classes and subjects. Does the SIRS program have wide-spread application? How can it be adapted to fit teachers and students schedules? How do we measure the success of the SIRS in the data-driven environment of education? What are the barriers to creating meaningful student involvement?\r\n\r\nIn summary, we would like to create a critical friends group to analyze our best practices for involving students in daily instruction and invite others to analyze their best practices as well.","Link":["http:\/\/www.nsrfharmony.org\/protocol\/doc\/success_ana_individuals.pdf","http:\/\/www.soundout.org\/teaching.html","http:\/\/www.anastaciabrie.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"1. In heterogeneous groups, share an experience of student involvement or student voice or student integration in a classroom that you consider to be the best. Reflect and answer the question: \"What made this experience so different from others?\"\r\n2. Develop a common definition of best practice concerning student involvement in a class room. Define it by what it looks like, sounds like, and what is measurable - for a teacher or for a student. Each group creates their own document (chart paper? google document? post-it notes - can be flexible). Use prior experiences that you just shared.\r\n3. Video of students participating in a SIRS class\r\n4. Any clarifying questions about the student teaching program from the video?\r\n5. Analyze what we saw - how does it match our definitions? how is it different? What does it have in common with your personal experiences? what is different? What can we measure? (or even should we \"measure\" it - but that might be an entirely new conversation.)\r\n6. From that analysis, any extension questions or insights or adaptations?\r\n7. Group Work: How can I extend my best practices for student involvement in the classroom - not just engagement, but meaningful participation in the teaching itself? What can I take back to my classroom? School? or even District?\r\n8. Wrap-up and reflection","Presenter":["Anastacia Brie","Grace O'Keeffe"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Hudson Highschool of Learning Technologies"],"PresenterEmail":["abrie@hudsonhs.com","gokeeffe@hudsonhs.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":4,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"I have to share that I got a lot of inspiration from attending EduCon conferences in the past. Just listening and sharing with others about new ideas and strategies for engaging students. I adapted the SIRS program after a conversation with a student who participated in the student teaching program at the Science Leadership Academy. We couldn't utilize seniors, because we don't have any at the moment, so I had to use the kids in the class. It took me two years to develop and sustain the program. So thanks so much. EduCon has made a difference in my practice. With this application, I am hoping to give back!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":205,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351685882,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Closer Citizen: Linking Close Reading to a Careful Analysis Of Media and Our Lives","Handle":"The_Closer_Citizen:Linking_Close_Reading_to_a_Careful_Analysis_Of_Media_and_Our_Lives","ShortDescription":"With 24-hour news cycles and the constant presence of screens, text rushes past us at an astonishing rate. We must slow down, read closely, and uncover subtle messages in texts.  This conversation focuses on studying, collaboratively with students, close reading skills and their transfer into media, culture, and daily life.","Description":"With 24-hour news cycles and the constant presence of screens in our lives, information rushes past all of us at an astonishing rate. It feels urgent to slow down, read closely, and uncover subtle messages in texts. It is all too easy to read fiction and nonfiction texts for just \u201cthe gist.\u201d Unfortunately, it is just as easy to only grab the overt points in media, games, even our daily interactions, only to catch the broadest points and miss the important nuances.  To be a 21st Century Citizen is, in part, to be a careful consumer, in the pursuit of becoming more powerful creators. \r\n\r\nIn this conversation, Chris and Kate will demonstrate some of the strategies they have used to help students see how reading a text closely can help uncover the messages, biases, and points of view that can remain hidden in texts and in life.  They will lead participants in a conversation which raises opportunities for class inquiries such as: \u201cHow does a close analysis of the characterization in a video games help us to understand the forces behind marketing to youth?\u201d \u201cHow does the dialogue in a television show reveal the point of view of the creators and that of our culture?\u201d And \u201cHow can paying close attention to our own choice of words and messages alter the way we think and talk about ourselves and others?\u201d\r\n\r\nThrough discussion, this session will develop a shared list of strategies and ideas to take directly back into our classrooms.","Link":["http:\/\/www.ChristopherLehman.com","http:\/\/www.kateandmaggie.wordpress.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"During the first main section of the conversation we will introduce a close-reading framework, similar to a protocol, giving participants live and online opportunities to interact with texts and experiment with strategies presented. During the second main section of the conversation we will ask both live and online participants to arrange into small collaborative groups around \u201clife genres\u201d on googledocs (such as \u201cvideo games\u201d and \u201cnews media\u201d and \u201cschool life\u201d), they will co-create ideas and strategies to bring back to their classrooms.  Chris and Kate will interact live and online during this process.","Presenter":["Chris Lehman","Kate Roberts"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Teachers College","Columbia University"],"PresenterEmail":["iChrisLehman@gmail.com","teachkateroberts@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":207,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351693733,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"You Say You Want Tech Standards? Here Come the NITS!","Handle":"You_Say_You_Want_Tech_Standards-Here_Come_the_NITS","ShortDescription":"The ISTE Nets (tech standards) are approximately a decade old. They've produced endless meetings, clich\u00e9-laden documents and breathless rhetoric, but no perceptible increase in student computer fluency or teacher competence. Rather than standardizing, it\u2019s time to amplify human potential with computers. A new diet of computing is required for learners.","Description":"There are a lot of computers in schools, but not a lot of computing. The ISTE Nets and their state and local spawn offer an imagination-free vision of school technology use that hardly justifies the investment let alone realizes the potential of computers as intellectual laboratories or vehicles for self-expression. The current crop of technology standards form the basis, at best, for a form of \u201ccomputer appreciation\u201d being taught in school. \r\n\r\nIf school leaders demand them, we should offer tech standards worthy of our students based on powerful ideas and a commitment to teacher renewal. We must move beyond the trivial and use computers in a fashion consistent with modern knowledge construction. These new \u201cstandards\u201d elevate school computing and challenge traditional notions of top-down schooling.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s call them N.I.T.S. \u2013 New Intergalactic Technology Standards.\r\n\r\nGary and his virtual friends, Brian Smith in Hong Kong and Martin Levins in Australia, will share their recommendations for raising our standards to the level kids deserve. Educon participants can argue the merits of these goals and add their own. You should have a lot fewer meetings to attend when your superiors are afraid of our new standards. Standards, up yours! Everybody wins!","Link":["http:\/\/constructingmodernknowledge.com"],"Audience":["Elementary School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"Presentation of new standards, the rationale for them and then the attendees will debate, improve and extend the standards.\r\n\r\nOne or two of the co-presenters will participate via videoconference.","Presenter":["Gary S. Stager Ph.D.","Martin Levins","Brian Smith"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Constructing Modern Knowledge","The Armidale School - NSW Australia","Hong Kong International School"],"PresenterEmail":["gary@stager.org","martin@levins.net","brian@briancsmith.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":6,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":223,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351763132,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"CoderDojo: World-wide Youth Coding Club Movement","Handle":"CoderDojo:World-wide_Youth_Coding_Club_Movement","ShortDescription":"What is CoderDojo? Is it important to the educational landscape? What resources are needed to support and encourage the creation of CoderDojos around the country?","Description":"CoderDojo is a movement oriented around running free not-for-profit coding clubs for young people. It was founded in Ireland in 2011 by James Whelton and Bill Liao. There are now over 125 CoderDojos in 22 countries around the world. Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) in Charlottesville, Virginia held its inaugural CoderDojo Summer Academy, August 6-9, 2012.  The initial goal for the Academy was to host 50 students. Those slots were taken up in the first few minutes of registration, so the program was expanded to 200 while over 700 applied! ACPS is now seeding CoderDojos around the district\u2019s feeder patterns.\r\n\r\nDuring this conversation we want to explore the phenomenon of CoderDojo. What is it and why the appeal? Is it important to the current educational landscape? What might CoderDojo look like in different communities and settings? We also want to build a list of resources, best practices, advocacy tools, etc. that would help encourage the creation of CoderDojos around the country.","Link":["http:\/\/coderdojo.wikispaces.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We'll give a brief overview of CoderDojo and capture any additional questions about it. We\u2019ll then lead a facilitated discussion to address the questions we\u2019ve all posed about this movement as well as begin to collaboratively build a resource that can be used by those interested in starting a CoderDojo.","Presenter":["Kim Wilkens","Vincent Scheivert"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Teen Tech Girls (Wilkens)","Albemarle County Public Schools (Scheivert)"],"PresenterEmail":["techkim@kimxtom.com","vscheivert@k12albemarle.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":4,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":189,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351454957,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Curation: three ways","Handle":"Curation:three_ways","ShortDescription":"Curation strategies for searching, teaching, and learning.","Description":"Curation belongs in the curriculum.  It can be part of the student search toolkit, part of your plan to build curricular resources,  strategy, part of your professional development plan. Joyce will define curation as a learning strategy and lead a discussion of surrounding what might be curated, the best new tools for curating, students as curators, the role of student work in curation.","Link":["http:\/\/curation.wikispaces.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Sharing best practices: participants will work in self-selected interest groups to identify and share curation solutions around practical scenarios.  Ideas will be captured and archived in a Google presentation.","Presenter":["Joyce Valenza"],"PresenterAffiliation":["School Library Journal \/ Springfield Township High School"],"PresenterEmail":["joycevalenza@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":206,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351692471,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Disruptive Innovation","Handle":"Disruptive_Innovation","ShortDescription":"This conversation will focus on disruptive and sustaining innovation and their effects on education.  What technology and educational innovations are revolutionary? Which are evolutionary?   How do these innovations affect education and, ultimately, the future of our students?","Description":"The main idea of this conversation is the impact of disruptive innovations on education.    What are the technologies impacting and changing education today?  What are the sustaining innovations that are improving the pedagogical process?   \r\n\r\nDisruptive technologies, or innovations, are innovations that create a new market.  They are disruptive because they are innovations the markets did not expect.  Sustaining innovations, on the other hand, are improvements to existing technologies. They cater to high end customers who demand better performance than previously existed.\r\n\r\nWe will be discussing the difference between disruptive and sustaining innovations.  First we will identify in which category innovations belong, then we will discuss which has more impact on education.","Link":["http:\/\/www.interaction-design.org\/encyclopedia\/disruptive_innovation.html"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will be using a text based seminar format for our conversation.","Presenter":["Danielle Hartman","Dr. Spike Cook","Dana Sirotiak"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Hartman-Tech\/Literacy Specialist: Burlington County Institute of Technology","Dr. Cook-Principal: Millville Public Schools; Sirotiak: Social Studies Teacher: Jersey City School District"],"PresenterEmail":["dhartman@bcit.cc"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"I can get Spike and Dana's emails, but haven't yet due to power\/internet issues from hurricane. (also, for website, I added the reading for the conversation, no my website)","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":200,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351628343,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"How do Colleges of Education need to change?","Handle":"How_do_Colleges_of_Education_need_to_change","ShortDescription":"One of the axioms of education is that we \u201cteach the way we were taught.\u201d How do we change how teachers are developed? What needs to change in Higher Education?","Description":"One of the axioms of education is that we \u201cteach the way we were taught.\u201d Students go through higher education and are perpetuating the same antiquated model of education. How do Higher Education institutions need to change to produce 21st Century teachers? Discuss your higher ed experience, your experience with first-year teachers, or even better what you dream Colleges of Education could look like.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will start with setting the context of the discussion, breaking out into small groups for discussion that is captured on Google Docs and then back to the large group where we will Mind Map the intersections of ideas","Presenter":["Bethany Smith"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NC State University College of Education"],"PresenterEmail":["bvsmith2@ncsu.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":210,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351707212,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom","Handle":"Invent_to_Learn:Making-Tinkering-and_Engineering_in_the_Classroom","ShortDescription":"Bring the power of inventing to the classroom with new materials, digital fabrication, and computing by incorporating these new technologies across the curriculum. The making\/tinkering\/fabrication revolution is exploding outside of school. Now you can create a classroom makerspace regardless of budget or experience.","Description":"Necessity may be the mother of invention, but invention is the mother of learning!\r\n\r\nImagine a place where hard fun and problem solving combine with computing and tinkering. This could be your classroom and your students the masters of their own learning. \r\n\u2022\tDiscuss how digital fabrication is changing the world and its potential effect on schooling.\r\n\u2022\tLearn what kinds of materials and resources are needed and where to find them.\r\n\u2022\tExplore how to bring learning through tinkering and invention to the classroom no matter your budget.\r\n\u2022\tLearn to justify this 21st century project-based learning.\r\n\u2022\tDifferences for elementary, middle years, and secondary schools will be explored.\r\n\u2022\tDiscover changes in design methodology that impact the traditional scientific method.\r\n\u2022\tExplore making across the curriculum.\r\n\u2022\tAppreciate the promise of S.T.E.M. when rooted in the maker ethos and constructionism.\r\n\u2022\tReinvent approaches to teacher professional development.\r\n\u2022\tSituate tinkering, hacking, inventing and making in a sound theoretical context for learning.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This will be a conversation about the particular contexts that people bring to the session. A bit of a \"do-it-yourself\" clinic. As we find out who is coming to Educon, we hope to include other teachers with makerspaces in their classrooms to come and share their experiences. If that is possible, we could break into smaller groups, perhaps by interest (programming vs. fabrication) or elementary, middle, HS. It sort of depends on who is coming to Educon. Would love to include some SLA teachers in this too, since they are obviously doing some of this at SLA.","Presenter":["Sylvia Martinez","Gary Stager"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Generation YES","Constructivist Consortium"],"PresenterEmail":["sylvia@genyes.org","gary@stager.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"if selected, please schedule on Saturday, thanks!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":178,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350966333,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Leading When the King has no Clothes","Handle":"Leading_When_the_King_has_no_Clothes","ShortDescription":"What do teachers and leaders do while we wait for policy makers to discover that the test culture they have created is a mistake?","Description":"Many sources tell us that the test culture propagated by NCLB legislation and the Race to the Top initiative is likely to have negative unintended consequences. Students are likely to find test prep boring and irrelevant. Teachers are likely to suffer moral problems as they compete with each other for good scores rather than collaborate. With a train wreck on the way, how do teachers and leaders avoid the worst and do what\u2019s best for the students? The policy makers have created a new game. How do we successfully play this game so the students can prosper?","Link":["http:\/\/DrDougGreen.Com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Key questions should get the conversation going. Something like: \"So the tests are crap, What do we do to make sure the students don't suffer?\"","Presenter":["Douglas W. Green EdD"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Binghamton University"],"PresenterEmail":["dgreen@stny.rr.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":159,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1349037163,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Making Connections Between Space, Time, and Learning","Handle":"Making_Connections_Between_Space-Time-and_Learning","ShortDescription":"It\u2019s time educators to break down classroom walls, promote mindful disorder, leverage ALL of the environment for learning, and guarantee our young people access to contemporary materials.  This conversation will cause you to question all that you have come to believe schooling is as we collectively imagine what learning can become.","Description":"For so long, teachers have attempted to teach students within four walls, in rows of desks designed to maintain order, with all eyes on the teaching wall or out-of-date textbooks, for 45 to 90 minutes at a time.  It\u2019s time educators break down the walls, promote mindful disorder, leverage ALL of the environment for learning, and guarantee our young people access to contemporary materials for learning and creating new knowledge.  This session will cause you to question all that you have come to believe schooling is as we collectively imagine what learning can become.","Link":["http:\/\/www.k12albemarle.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This is basically a \"what? so what?  what next?\" plan.  We will begin with a reflective activity that is grounded in Bill Glasser's work with Choice Theory.  The purpose of this is to set the stage for participants to recognize and own the choices they do make with respect to space, time, and learning.  We will use Today's Meet for this activity to ensure everyone is \"heard\" and has a voice in the conversation.  \r\n\r\nWe will then share some of the stories and images that have emerged through our work on designing and implementing \"contemporary learning spaces\" - from new construction projects to School Board priorities to teacher-driven \"HGTV\"-like changes in individual classrooms.  \r\n\r\nFinally, we will revisit the text generated in the initial activity and use a Google form to make a personal commitment to make a change in the service of student learning.  The form entries will be used to construct a GoogleDoc that will be shared openly so that others can see what happens when a teacher commits \"I will let more natural light in to my classroom by opening the blinds,\" or, \"I will downsize the 'teacher corner' to make sure kids have more space to spread out in the classroom.\"","Presenter":["Pam Moran","Paula White","Becky Fisher"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Albemarle County Public Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["bfisher@k12albemarle.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":196,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351618382,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Making the Impossible, Possible: A conversation for visionary educators, parents, students and policy-makers.","Handle":"Making_the_Impossible-Possible:A_conversation_for_visionary_educators-parents-students_and_policy-makers","ShortDescription":"If YOU could change education, what would YOU do?  Join this conversation about our collective commitment to revolutionize learning and what it looks like in our individual spaces. Tell us what you have done, are doing, or will do to transform education in your own sphere(s) of influence.","Description":"\u201cSo let me explain how revolutions work. Revolutions destroy the perfect and then they enable the impossible. They never go from everything-is-bad to everything-is-good. There\u2019s a lot of noise in the middle.\u201d ~Seth Godin,  http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ericssonvideo\r\n\r\nLike many of you, we are frustrated by the ineffectiveness of our educational system. It feels overwhelming and hopeless waiting for schools to shed outdated practices in favor of creating new learning models that fit today\u2019s students.  \r\n\r\nThe daunting question is, How do we make it happen? \r\n\r\nPerhaps we already are. Our \u201cperfect\u201d system of education is crumbling. We are firmly embedded in the \u201cnoise\u201d of change. Perhaps a more crucial question is, \u201cHow do we intensify \u201cthe noise\u201d and make the \u201cimpossible\u201d possible?\u201d  \r\n\r\nWe do it together \u2013 collectively, but ALSO each in our own sphere, one by one.\r\n\r\nEducational transformation is so complex that no single visionary educator, policymaker, or parent can make it happen singlehandedly. Rather, the wisdom of multiple perspectives, talents, and approaches will be key to authentic systemic change. It will require commitment, thoughtful action and purposeful deconstruction of the existing model in ways that make sense in each of our contexts. It will take vision & individual acts of bravery to make the impossible possible.\r\n\r\nWatch http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ericssonvideo \r\nJoin this conversation about a movement to make education work for students. It is going to take all of us doing our own guerrilla-style acts to grow the transformation of learning.","Link":["http:\/\/knowclue.wikispaces.com\/Red+Bandanas","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=quYDkuD4dMU"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"\u201cThink, Pair, and Share \u201c what\u2019s working for you that others could replicate. Consider our collective commitment and what it looks like in our individual spaces. Tell us what you have done, are doing or will do to transform education in your own sphere(s) of influence. Think, Pair, Share during this session and then beyond. Again and again... \u201cout there.\u201d Think, Pair, Share, and Act.","Presenter":["Anne Collier","Peggy Sheehy","Marianne Malmstrom"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NetFamilyNews.org and ConnectSafely.org","Ramapo Central School District","G.A.M.E.","WoW in School","The Elisabeth Morrow School"],"PresenterEmail":["anne@netfamilynews.org","peggysheehy@mac.com","Knowclue@mac.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Please note Anne Collier's bio as you may not be familiar with her work.  http:\/\/www.netfamilynews.org\/bio.html","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":179,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351013872,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Project SPACE: A Case Study","Handle":"Project_SPACE:A_Case_Study","ShortDescription":"Want to get some ideas on how to get your students involved in the community and excited about it? Come join 5 students talk about their experiences in the Project SPACE Program and what got them started on it.","Description":"In this student-led presentation, follow them on their voyage to solve the mystery of capturing live images of the sun. In this session, see how the students used inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection to tackle a novel student-driven science project. During this session, the students will go through the questions they asked to more fully understand the scope of the project, the research required to get the project started and the process that went into building a multi-talented team of students to execute the project. Then they presented the final product in the form of solar images, and continue a constant evaluation and improvement process. Working in collaboration with Philadelphia\u2019s Franklin Institute Science Museum, the students use their observatory telescope twice a week to collect images of the sun. Out of this session, you will learn how you can apply this process in the development of student projects and to give students a structure around which they can build their own projects in school. The images are uploaded and linked through the Franklin Institute\u2019s Observatory page (http:\/\/www2.fi.edu\/exhibits\/permanent\/bloomobservatory.php).","Link":["http:\/\/www2.fi.edu\/exhibits\/permanent\/bloomobservatory.php"],"Audience":["Middle School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will pose questions to the audience and have them create their own ideas for students projects and then have each person comment on each others' ideas.","Presenter":["Tyler Morales","Derrick Pitts","Matthew Ginnetti","Allen Yang","Winston Wright","Alex Johnson"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Franklin Institute","Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["moralest51@gmail.com","wjohnson@scienceleadership.org","dpitts@fi.edu","wwright@scienceleadership.org","ayang@scienceleadership.org","mginnetti@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":211,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351709221,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Sequence and Consequence: Why Storytelling is Essential for Learning","Handle":"Sequence_and_Consequence:Why_Storytelling_is_Essential_for_Learming","ShortDescription":"The human brain is built for stories. After a brief discussion of the science and theory, we will explore several aspects of story and digital storytelling and how they intersect with schools, curriculum, and learning. Small groups will collaboratively build a Learnist board to capture and share the ideas we generate.","Description":"The focus for this conversation is how and why storytelling should be embedded in the design of all learning experiences.\r\n\r\nWe will first share some of the science supporting the connections between storytelling and learning. Then, we will spend a few minutes processing this information, capturing several \u201cSo What?\u201d thoughts and questions from the participants. We will form small groups around some or all of the questions generated by the room. Each group will explore the questions more deeply, contributing to a shared Learnist board as a storytelling tool. After sharing out highlights of the learning in the small groups, we\u2019ll move into the \u201cNow What?\u201d phase, with new groups following a line of personal interest by generating a classroom activity around a digital storytelling tool, a curricular area, a project, or a problem applying ideas from the earlier discussions.\r\n\r\nIn the last few minutes of the session, pair up and share with each other how you will tell the story of this experience to your colleagues or administrator when you get back on Monday.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Use of a modified \"What? So What? Now What?\" protocol as the overall framework, each segment of the session will focus primarily on small group conversations and collaboratively building a Learnist board.","Presenter":["Gerald Aungst","Amanda Dykes"],"PresenterAffiliation":["School District of Cheltenham Township","McAdory Middle School"],"PresenterEmail":["geraldaungst@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":264,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352218479,"CreatorID":88,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Standards Based Reporting and Grading at SLA","Handle":"Standards_Based_Grading_at_SLA","ShortDescription":"In this panel conversation, SLA teachers from each discipline will discuss how they created standards language for their specific subject area, how they track student progress throughout the school year, and how they integrate the skills and reflection into their own classroom.","Description":"In the face of Common Core and increasing pressure from administrations, many schools are looking to produce more data about student learning. At SLA, teachers have responded to this shift by creating their own system of Standards Based Reporting. In this panel conversation, teachers from each discipline will discuss how they created standards language for their specific subject area, how they track student progress throughout the school year, and how they integrate the skills and reflection into their own classroom.  The staff will also share the online system SLA uses to collect and report standards data with students.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"Teachers will briefly discuss their individual practice, leaving most of the time for discussion with attendees and each other.","Presenter":["Mark Bey","Roz Echols","Pearl Jonas","Brad Latimer","Larissa Pahomov"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["blatimer@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":88,"AdditionalComments":"HELLO","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":212,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351712482,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Stuff Doesn't Matter: Technology and Design","Handle":"The_Stuff_Doesn-t_Matter:Technology_and_Design","ShortDescription":"The important thing about the technology isn't the things that plug in but what we create with them. We'll investigate, design, create, and evaluate products in this prototyping workshop and discussion.","Description":"Participants will learn about the Design Cycle of the IB's Middle Years Program, a process that asks students to create solutions to meaningful issues, inside a looser definition of technology that could include computer-based technology, design technology, cooking, or anything that asks students to work within a cycle of investigating, designing, planning, creating, and evaluating. Though the cycle is specific to a certain curriculum, the ideas behind them are relevant to any curriculum and any subject area.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Participants will divide into groups to design solutions to assigned problems, and will get a remote how-to from students well-versed in designing and iterating.","Presenter":["Basil Kolani"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Dwight School"],"PresenterEmail":["basil@dwight.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":5,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":180,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351028644,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Turning It From Sucks to Rocks","Handle":"Turning_It_From_Sucks_to_Rocks","ShortDescription":"Participants will generate a joint list of challenges that schools face today. After engaging in a discussion on the issues where they\u2019ll share their opinions, small groups will work together on ways to refocus the conversation on the issues to help bring about positive change in their own schools.","Description":"This conversation will have four main stages, moving from whole group sharing to whole group discussion to small group discussion and back to whole group sharing.\r\n1. Using Socrative, participants will generate a list of some of the biggest challenges they feel that schools are facing today. After the whole group generates the list, participants will then vote on which challenges to focus on for the following discussion. (~10 minutes)\r\n2. Taking the topics from the previously created list, the discussion will move into a Things That Suck format. One of the topics will be thrown out to the group, and participants will move to one side of the room or the other based on whether they think it sucks or rocks. There will be a short period of discussion for each topic. (~30 minutes)\r\n3. Based on their own interests, participants will choose a small group that focuses on one of the issues just discussed. That small group will focus their discussion around the perceived challenges that are presented by the issue, and work on formulating strategies that can be used to overcome those challenges and bring about positive change. Documents created and relevant links will go onto a shared wiki. (~30 minutes)\r\n4. Small groups will summarize their discussion for the whole group, with a particular focus on the strategies they developed. (~20 minutes)","Link":["http:\/\/suckstorocks.wikispaces.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Protocols - What, So What, Now What; Things That Suck; Wiki\/shared documents","Presenter":["Dan Callahan","Michelle Baldwin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Burlington Public Schools","Anastasis Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["danielcallahan@gmail.com","michellek107@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":253,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351828313,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Unraveling the Textbook","Handle":"Unraveling_the_Textbook","ShortDescription":"The nature of information access allows for a whole new way of working with content in our schools.  Join us for a conversation deconstructing the concept of textbook and visioning what comes next.","Description":"The nature of information access allows for a whole new way of working with content in our schools.  Join us for a conversation deconstructing the concept of textbook and visioning what comes next.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Participants in the conversation will work through the concept of a 'unit of learning', issues of ownership and content, examples of successful OER, brainstorm ways to collect, curate and disseminate information differently than in a text format.","Presenter":["John Pederson","Diana Laufenberg"],"PresenterAffiliation":["WiscNet","Unveristy of Minnesota"],"PresenterEmail":["ijohnpederson@gmail.com","dlaufenberg@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":183,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351089744,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Web Literacies: Redefining the Continuum of \"Literacy\"","Handle":"Web_Literacies:Redefining_the_Continuum_of-Literacy","ShortDescription":"As we move further into the Digital Age, the populous is being segmented into varying degrees of digital competencies. Join Mozilla and the National Writing Project to discuss how a fluent understanding of the web and the nuances of web culture is necessary in today's world.","Description":"Critical thinking in combination with creative thinking leads to innovation, something that is only possible through usage of and contribution to the ecosystem of human knowledge and the collective distilling of that knowledge. In short, without a critical mass of contribution to the human knowledge network, we will be unable to distill the truth from the irrelevant and unable to solve key problems that plague the human race. All issues of the human experience are directly related to our ability to communicate and share ideas with one another. The World Wide Web has made both of these processes extremely easy.\r\nIn this conversation, we will do a collective thought experiment in which we create a tree of dependencies to envision and record the consequences of ignoring web literacies. \r\nMozilla, a non-profit organization best known as the makers of the Firefox browser, has committed itself to tackling the problem of web literacies, literacies that involve the ability to contribute knowledge to the global ecosystem.  The National Writing Project is faciliating and participating in the academic conversation surrounding the very definition of \"literacy\". Together, the National Writing Project and Mozilla aim to spread web literacies and create a culture of sharing and collaboration using the Web as the platform.","Link":["http:\/\/webmaker.org","http:\/\/explorecreateshare.org\/","http:\/\/nwp.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"In this conversation, we will do a collective thought experiment in which we create a tree of dependencies to envision and record the consequences of ignoring web literacies.","Presenter":["Laura Hilliger","Chris Lawrence","Paul Oh","Christina Cantrill"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Mozilla","National Writing Project"],"PresenterEmail":["laura@mozillafoundation.org","clawrence@mozillafoundation.org","poh@nwp.org","ccantrill@nwp.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":8,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":163,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1349368821,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"A look at how Google Earth can foster empathy and broaden students' world view","Handle":"How_Google_Earth_fosters_empathy_and_broadens_students-world_view","ShortDescription":"You've seen Google Earth, and maybe even used it yourself; but have your students used it to develop empathy with world events they study? Together, we will learn how to make Google Earth place marks that students (and teachers) can use to make multi-disciplinary connections about the world.","Description":"This presentation will make the case that everyone should be using Google Earth as a sort of digital journal. You can easily make place marks that record (and reflect upon) the people and places we learn about in the world.\r\n\r\nI started making Google Earth place marks four years ago. When I read a news article or have an interesting conversation with a person from a place I'm not familiar with, I make a place mark.\r\n\r\nI now have more than 1,200 place marks. This practice has made me more empathetic and more globally aware. \r\n\r\nFor example, I had an \"aha\" moment when I looked up where Paul Ryan was from in Wisconsin (Janesville) and learned that his home town is located less than 60 miles from the Sikh temple shooting just outside Milwaukee in August 2012.\r\n\r\nImagine having middle school students make place marks for 10 stories a week.  Multiple that by 30+ weeks per year for three years, and students would enter high school with a journal of more than 1,000 place marks.  More importantly, the practice of reading the news on a daily basis would provide them with a global context that will serve them extremely well in high school and beyond. For more details, see http:\/\/wiltoday.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/10\/typical-morning-at-tlc\/","Link":["http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LAx7vcOF9jM","https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1U7JdOI8XZ7GNqHiH108D7t9dwPd_Z8NU0vNK2QV-8PY\/edit"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"After a brief demonstration of how to make Google Earth place marks, each participant will create at least two Google Earth place marks, each of which could be used to tell your students a story when you get back from EduCon.\r\n\r\n\r\n(see the website below for a 6-minute video showing Google Earth in action)\r\n\r\n\r\nGoogle Earth is a great storytelling tool, and after we each learn to make a few place marks, we will each share one of our place marks -- and the story that goes with the place mark -- in small groups.\r\n\r\n\r\nWe will spend the remainder of our time together thinking about applications for Google Earth at *your* school. The expectation is that the conversation will continue as we find and share new applications in our various schools throughout 2013. We will record the start of the conversation in a shared Google Doc, and we can share further insights about how to learn with Google Earth using the #GElearn hashtag.\r\n\r\n\r\n(the second website link below will take you to the shared Google Doc)","Presenter":["Steve Goldberg"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Triangle Learning Community middle school in Durham","NC"],"PresenterEmail":["Steve@Trianglearning.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":270,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352670680,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Care For vs. Care About: Creating the Ethic of Care","Handle":"Care_For_vs-Care_About:Creating_the_Ethic_of_Care","ShortDescription":"At SLA, the Ethic of Care is central to the way we treat our students and each other. But what does that look like in practice?","Description":"At SLA, the Ethic of Care is central to the way we treat our students and each other. But what does that look like in practice? As educators, how do we make sure that the students we teach come first, and not the subject? How do we create and sustain an environment where students are supported and cared for while honoring the structure necessary for a school to function?","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This conversation, led by the principal and two teachers, will address the successes and challenges of implementing the Ethic of Care at every level of a school's operations, from daily classroom interactions to the strategic design of school policies and operations. Participants will be invited to share stories from their own learning environments in order to examine how they too can \"care for\" instead of \"care about.\"","Presenter":["Chris Lehmann","Pia Martin","Larissa Pahomov"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["pmartin@scienceleadership.org","lpahomov@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xpv-wpGW2Wo","ConferenceID":2},{"ID":235,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351814191,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Entrepreneurship in Education","Handle":"Entrepreneurship_in_Education","ShortDescription":"","Description":"This conversation will engage participants in a discussion about how to facilitate perseverance, professionalism, confidence, courage and creativity among their students. We will discuss out use of entrepreneurial learning opportunities, inquiry-based methods and personal learning plans to help students discover their passions. The result is a reflective, collaborative, innovative student who makes influential contributions to the learning environment and local communities.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Interactive group discussions as well as sharing teaching practices and student work.","Presenter":["Iris Hammel","Analiese Smith"],"PresenterAffiliation":["LIFE Charter School"],"PresenterEmail":["ihammel@hartlake.org","asmith@hartlake.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":220,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351734931,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Gain by Giving Up: Beyond Zero Sum Schedules","Handle":"Gain_by_Giving_Up:Beyond_Zero_Sum_Schedules","ShortDescription":"Behind every scheduling conflict lies the assumption that academic scheduling is a zero-sum game. We reject that notion, and the tug of war mentality that pits science against humanities against arts. Join a group of educators committed to improving personal and academic learning through flexible structures and student choice.","Description":"We are classroom teachers, librarians, learning specialists, and teaching coaches, and we\u2019re constantly frustrated by the pre-portioned TV-Dinner approach to scheduling and curriculum. Asserting that the 45 minute period doesn\u2019t help students is nothing new, but it persists as the primary tool schools use to achieve equity for diverse subjects.  Our claim is that longer, less structured periods of cross disciplinary learning and exploration are not only better for student learning and engagement, but they have tangible and observable benefits for all subjects and classes.  This is not just that students learn more from these open-ended projects, but that when given the opportunity for this sort of learning they learn and perform better in traditional classes as well.\r\nThis conversation will present evidence and anecdotes from our broad experience and from other Educon participants. Materials and stories will be collected and shared on our blogs and via #NoZeroSum. Our session building a repertoire of repeatable experiments and best practices. If this assertion is correct, that students with access to open learning environments also perform better on traditional modes of assessment, then a compiled source of examples and information will help teachers everywhere make changes in their own environments.","Link":["http:\/\/breakthebell.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Contribute ideas and reflections to breakthebell.com directly or via your own posts tagged with #BreakTheBell.  The goal is to bring in our library of experience, and then open a conversation space to add to those stories and support educators in their own #breakthebell experiments.","Presenter":["Andrew Carle","Jodi Kittle","Melissa Scott","Carey Pohanka","Melanie Barker"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Flint Hill (Oakton","VA)","St. Christopher's School (Richmond","VA)","Collegiate School (Richmond","VA)"],"PresenterEmail":["mbarker@collegiate-va.org","pohankac@stchristophers.org","acarle@flinthill.org","jkittle@flinthill.org","mscott@flinthill.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":4,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Find all of our resources and continue the conversation at breakthebell.com.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":272,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1354890411,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Leadership & School Cultures that Effectively Support 21st Century Learning","Handle":"Leadership-School_Cultures_that_Effectively_Support_21st_Century_Learning","ShortDescription":"While policies are an essential tool for managing technologies, effective leaders nurture school cultures that promote and exercise a vision for conscientious innovation with new learning technologies.  Come discuss how to develop school cultures where stakeholders share a vision of meaningful technology integration to support 21st Century learning and examine U.S and Singaporean systems where school administrators provide structured support to develop institutional capacity for systemic reform.","Description":"","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Tom Daccord","Patrick Larkin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["."],"PresenterEmail":["tom@edtechteacher.org","larkin@bpsk12.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":170,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350586021,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Qualitative formative assessment: Letting the ideal learning environment dictate the tools","Handle":"Qualitative_Formative_Assessment:letting_the_ideal_learning_environment_dictate_the_tools","ShortDescription":"Emerging technologies open new doors for teaching and learning. Too often, these tools are used to repackage traditional ways of doing things instead of transforming instructional approaches. This conversation focuses on emerging tools that leverage teachers' ability to meaningfully assess student understanding and help achieve learning goals.","Description":"The primary focus of this conversation is qualitative formative assessment of student understanding. In an ideal world, teachers would have the ability to facilitate 1-on-1 (or 1-on-few) conversations with each student on an ongoing basis in order to see where they are in the learning and to adapt and adjust instruction to best suit their needs. How can we leverage emerging technologies to facilitate this kind of relationship?\r\n\r\nBefore integrating any educational technology tools, it is important to anchor an exploration for the given learning environment. Learning goals, instruction and assessment, tools and resources: these are three major components of any classroom activity, lesson, project, or unit. But which is driving which in your teaching environment? In the current day and age it is easy to let the tools drive curriculum, instruction, and assessment while losing sight of the things that matter most \u2013 the learning goals.\r\n\r\nWe'll start with a quick 'checking for understanding' activity. Be prepared to think and to do. \r\n\r\nWe'll shift our focus towards solution-finding by connecting learning and assessment goals of interest to instructional practices supported by technology using a simple framework that can support qualitative formative assessment: create, curate, & publish.\r\n\r\nBy the end of the day (not necessarily by the end of the session), we will have constructed a curated resource of goals, approaches, and tools that can be referenced beyond the conference.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1aORlWtWLJaQ2HCOjEvJZtLmO4hPtf8W9xDZOji9dgtY\/edit","http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Reshanrichards\/educon2013","http:\/\/www.constructivisttoolkit.com","http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/reshanrichards","http:\/\/www.explaineverything.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Link to collaborative workspace is below. Organized chaos. Rapid Fire Conversations. Prepare to think and to share! Outline: Opening Activity; Brief Introduction & Overview; Breakout conversations (Goals, Approaches, Tech).","Presenter":["Reshan Richards"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montclair Kimberley Academy | Teachers College","Columbia University | ExplainEverything"],"PresenterEmail":["rbr17@columbia.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":5,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Reshan is the Director of Educational Technology at Montclair Kimberley Academy in NJ, a doctoral student in Instructional Technology & Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the creator of Explain Everything for iPad.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":152,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1348242348,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Reflecting on Reflection","Handle":"Reflecting_on_Reflection","ShortDescription":"On the whole, strong teachers tend to be reflective practitioners. There is research showing that reflecting is an important skill towards improving as a teacher. Accepting that, how do we become better at reflecting and how do we help new and pre-service teachers do the same?","Description":"For more than a decade I have been working with pre-service teachers in a partnership with our local university. In recent years a professor and I have begun researching ways to support these interns as they reflect on their professional experiences. I will briefly share our research and findings before guiding conversations around how and why teachers currently reflect, types of reflection, and ways to increase and improve reflection. This conversation will be one piece of ongoing research we are doing about the importance of reflection for teachers.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1RsnthLHnCSZTTt3uY7NHkIKnFl6k09rGc3WKNYKooPA\/edit"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After a brief introduction to give background on current research, we will focus small group conversations on specific questions\/topics which will be shared during the session and recorded in a google doc.","Presenter":["Jennifer Orr"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Annandale Terrace Elementary School"],"PresenterEmail":["jaorr@fcps.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":262,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352217523,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Students as Teachers: SLA's Student Assistant Teacher Program","Handle":"Students_as_Teachers:SLA-s_Student_Assistant_Teacher_Program","ShortDescription":"Science Leadership Academy's Student Assistant Teaching program has grown exponentially over the last four years. Come to a student and teacher-led workshop on creating and implementing a similar program in your schools!","Description":"Science Leadership Academy's Student Assistant Teaching program has grown exponentially over the last four years. Come to an interactive student and teacher-led workshop on creating and implementing a similar program in your schools! The Student Assistant Teaching (SAT) Program is a chance for Senior SLA students to work with 9th and 10th (sometimes 11th) grade students in SLA classrooms. SLA teachers serve as co-operating teachers.  Seniors have elected into this program and have an interest in teaching and learning.  This program has been a great way for Seniors to take leadership, serve as role models to, and connect with underclassmen in myriad ways thereby, enriching and supporting their classroom experiences.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"This session is a workshop format, with student and teacher panelists to help the conversation along.","Presenter":["Alexa Klein Dunn & Joshua Block"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["adunn@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":203,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351653055,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Stuffed Hamburgers and Trash Aquariums: Developing Creative Habits of Mind In and Out of the Classroom","Handle":"Stuffed_Hamburgers_and_Trash_Aquariums:Developing_Creative_Habits_of_Mind_In_and_Out_of_the_Classroom","ShortDescription":"Are you passionate about joyful learning? We believe creativity can be learned, practiced and applied to solve problems. Join us to participate in collaborative (and introvert-friendly) activities to amplify the joy in your classrooms using design thinking-inspired methods ... and Play-Doh!","Description":"How might young people make more healthful eating choices? How might a school community reduce the amount of trash it generates? How might a student body strengthen its sense of community? How might a school reinvent its \u201clost and found\u201d experience? Design thinking is a methodology for creative problem-solving that can be applied to many questions, large and small. Conventional solutions to the questions above might involve rewards or punishments, but designers learn to reserve judgement and generate solutions based on empathy, observation and insight. What if a child had a plush hamburger to remind her about healthful eating habits? What if a school confronted its garbage in a public \u201caquarium,\u201d instead of discarding it privately? Design thinking is unique because it challenges us to propose solutions that respond to how people actually feel and behave.\r\n\r\nWe teach and facilitate design activities in three very different school environments. Together, we propose a session full of creative provocations and challenges that will both introduce participants to the design thinking process as well as develop new ideas for what creative problem-solving can look like in schools.  Mary Cantwell is the Coordinator for Design Thinking at Mount Vernon, where she inspires DEEP thinking experiences with both students and faculty alike. Shelley Paul is the Coordinator of Teaching and Learning at Woodward Academy, where she incites and supports learning innovation. Christina Jenkins teaches design methods and many other things at the NYC iSchool, a public high school in New York City.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This session presents a series of short challenges designed to engage participants in aspects of the design process. Everyone will leave with newfound creative confidence and a physical deck of cards featuring design provocations, and we will work together on generating new ideas with an emphasis on practice.\r\n\r\n(10 min) We will begin with a brief overview of our own perspectives, and stories about what design looks like in our practice. We will move to a series of activities meant to introduce participants to the major modes of the DEEP design thinking process (Discover, Empathize, Experiment, Produce). In each mode, we will engage in exercises that are meant to stimulate thinking in specific ways, and will reflect at each step about how these activities can be used independently or together in various situations.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Discover: In the discover mode, participants will begin with a speed dating exercise meant to facilitate introductions and allow for rapid conversation. Conversations concerning school and community problems will give participants starting points for where a design thinking challenge can be found in their own backyard.\r\n\r\n(15 min) Empathize: In the empathize mode, participants will cultivate empathy and understanding through needfinding and interviewing, and we will practice by creating gifts that respond to a partner\u2019s weakness! We\u2019ll pair off and discuss what we\u2019d each like to improve on, and participants will invent imaginary solutions for each other. Understanding user need is vital in the design thinking process.\r\n\r\n(25 min) Experiment: In the experiment mode, participants will work collaboratively to brainstorm unusual solutions to problems presented in selected photographs, and will develop physical prototypes of those solutions using play-doh, pipe cleaners, and other fun objects. In this phase, designers practice creative brainstorming, consider questions that sound like \u201cHow might we reimagine the _____ experience?,\u201d and experience low-res, rapid prototyping.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Produce: In the produce mode, participants will share their prototype, collect feedback from their colleagues, and incorporate that feedback into a second iteration of their work. Designers rely on this phase to make sure that their solutions are truly responsive to user needs.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Reflection: We\u2019ll conclude the workshop with a time to reflect on the session. We\u2019ll provide postcards and invite participants to write themselves a \u201cDear Me\u201d note that includes their own thoughts \/ inspiration from the session, and we will stamp and mail those postcards back to their classrooms a week later as a reminder of our process together.","Presenter":["Christina Jenkins","Mary Cantwell","Shelley Paul"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NYC iSchool","Mount Vernon","Woodward Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["jenkins.christina@gmail.com","mcantwell75@gmail.com","shelley.paul@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":265,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352219862,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Place of I-Thou Dialogue in the 21st Century Classroom","Handle":"The_Place_of_I-Thou_Dialogue_in_the_21st_Century_Classroom","ShortDescription":"This conversation looks at the intersection of technology and the development of human-centered classrooms.","Description":"At EduCon we are bombarded with great ideas of how to integrate technology in our classrooms. This conversation invites participants to sit back for a moment to consider how the intersection of technology and learning interacts with the fundamental pedagogical relationship between teacher and student. The context for this conversation is Marin Buber\u2019s \u201cI and Thou\u201d from which we will explore how technology might interfere and possibly potentiate the creation of the type of dynamic learning environment that creates real connection between people. Knowledge of Buber\u2019s theory of \u201cI and Thou\u201d would be helpful to participate in this conversation but is not necessary.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Hxh7kgsjQlTVe09zmeArO6Jfhvx26yd-1O5f7lHyUh4\/edit"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"There is little to present here apart from some basics of the Buber's theory. This workshop literally is a conversation with an attempt to have the interactions model the type of environment that produces the type of authenticity that Buber exposes.","Presenter":["Matthew C. Baird"],"PresenterAffiliation":["SLA"],"PresenterEmail":["mbaird@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":254,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351828543,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Utopian School: If you build it, will they come?","Handle":"The_Utopian_School:If_you_build_it-will_they_come","ShortDescription":"I've oft wondered what \"school\" would look like if I were able to gather my PLN all in one spot and build from scratch. What would change and how would it affect all involved parties? There are no sacred cows here. Join me in this opportunity to design out loud.","Description":"We decry the misrepresentation of our education system by the politicians every year. Our hard work is generally turned into a few failing statistics on the national stage with no opportunity to refute them with how we feel reform should really look. Instead, we keep our heads low and pray for the election to come and go so that much of the negative press passes us by and gives us a little breathing room to move on with the important work: educating students. \r\n\r\nLet's pretend for a minute that government is going to keep its nose out of our school. What will we do then? \r\n\r\nThis session will offer attendees the opportunity to put all of their grandiose ideas for the learning system of their dreams into the middle of a much larger conversation. The discussion will center around a blank canvas creating the \"utopian\" school that participants long for.","Link":["http:\/\/utopiaschool.wikispaces.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Centered on a modified Best Ever Constructivist Protocol. \r\n\r\nA Driving Question will be shared to generate the direction and categories for needed changes. These major categories will be decided by the group. Then, the larger group will be asked to break into smaller, more concentrated groups to build out the categories with details needed to create direction for that area. Participants select the area of their interest and strength. Each of the smaller groups will be asked to decide a Driving Question for its topic. They will spend their work time negotiating possible ways to answer that driving question while documenting their work in a wiki. Virtual participants will also be invited to collaborate. \r\n\r\nWhile 90 minutes will not even come close to reforming the entire system, the hope is that it will create a starting point for discussions and a resource that educators everywhere can utilize in making decisions locally to improve their own education systems. \r\n\r\nGroups will be creating within a blank wiki so that it is truly a unique and collaborative piece created by educators that can continue to be built upon and referred back to.","Presenter":["Scott S. Floyd"],"PresenterAffiliation":["White Oak Independent School District"],"PresenterEmail":["floyds@woisd.net"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":237,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351815438,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Using Digital Texts as Mentors to Improve Student Writing (And Our Own!)","Handle":"Using_Digital_Texts_as_Mentors_to_Improve_Student_Writing-And_Our_Own","ShortDescription":"In this workshop, we will explore the use of digital texts as teaching tools when students write.  We\u2019ll study texts that swirl across the digital landscape\u2014TV, film, music, commercials, web content\u2014and use them as teaching tools, finding ways to improve our students\u2019 and our own writing.","Description":"In this workshop, we will explore the use of digital mentor texts as teaching tools when students write.  We\u2019ll study texts that swirl across the digital landscape\u2014TV, film, music, commercials, web content\u2014and use them as teaching tools, finding ways to improve our students\u2019 and our own writing.  \r\n\r\nThis writing workshop-style conversation is designed to cover all styles of writing\u2014narrative, informational and argument.  We will view different types of media and then develop a list of writing strategies that accompany each digital text.  For instance, how, exactly, does the soundtrack to Jaws build tension for an audience? Then, as writers, we\u2019ll find ways to accomplish some of the same techniques in our writing.  For example, what tools can fiction writers use to develop tension? \r\n\r\nWe will study examples of student work that attempt some of this digital mentor text work.  Above all, we, as a spontaneous writing group, will try some of these writing strategies in our own writing, too.  So bring along your writing notebook or a digital space to write in and try working with digital texts with a supportive community!  We will create opportunities to share our writing with each other, as well as brainstorm additional ways to incorporate digital mentor texts into our classrooms.","Link":["http:\/\/kateandmaggie.wordpress.com\/"],"Audience":["Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"This workshop is designed to mirror a writing workshop.  This conversation will take the shape of a writing workshop, where participants have opportunities to write together and share their writing and process.","Presenter":["Maggie Beattie Roberts"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Reading & Writing Project","Teachers College"],"PresenterEmail":["maggiebeattieroberts@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you for your consideration!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":241,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351821362,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Video Production and Social Media: A Powerful Combination","Handle":"Video_Production_and_Social_Media:A_Powerful_Combination","ShortDescription":"This conversation will focus on the benefits of integrating social media into school film production programs.  Examples of new media projects as well as simple tips for creating and sharing student films online will be included. We\u2019ll also discuss how publishing student work online helps build essential media literacy skills.","Description":"Digital film and media production can be highly engaging classes for students across all grade levels. However, simply creating digital multi-media projects is only half of the equation. Students need the opportunity to share their projects with an authentic audience using the web. Sharing student created media and film projects online should be an essential element of any film program. If we expect students to be critical consumers of digital mass media, they must have the opportunity to create and share their own media online. Sharing is just as important as creating. Publishing media for an authentic audience provides students with vital motivation and purpose. The use of social media also helps students become more efficient in the collaborative work they do crafting their multi-media messages and projects.\r\n\r\nAs we all know, many kids today are creating and sharing all sorts of media online outside of school. However, we are not teaching students how to go about responsibly sharing media online. Students need to understand the basic rules that apply to the media they are creating and sharing both in and out of the classroom. In this conversation we will share our own experiences both creating and sharing digital media in our middle school and high school classrooms. Part of our session will also be a film production workshop that will allow participants to film and upload short clips of video about ideas and issues relevant to our discussion. Bring your own device or use one of ours.","Link":["http:\/\/capfilm.blogspot.com\/","http:\/\/gunstontv.blogspot.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Our session will be both a conversation and a mini film production workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to film and upload short video clips during the session about topics relevant to our discussion. This will be a short but compelling video project that showcases how fun and powerful video can be, especially when combined with social media.","Presenter":["George Mayo","Harry Costner"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montgomery County Public Schools (Silver Spring","MD.)","Arlington Public Schools (Arlington","VA.)"],"PresenterEmail":["George_Mayo@mcpsmd.org","harry.costner@apsva.us"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thanks!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":268,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352553737,"CreatorID":1,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Why School?:  What's Our Enduring Value?","Handle":"Dear_George:So_You-ve_Got-4_Billion_to_Give_Away-We_Can_Help_With_That","ShortDescription":"I think we all agree that the Web is creating amazing new opportunities to learn for kids of all ages. But the challenges to \"school\" are profound. Now that much of what we used to come to school to learn is in a bajillion places online, what changes? What are the enduring values and experiences of this thing we call \"school\" now that content information and learning are everywhere? It the question for our times.","Description":"Seymour Papert wrote in Mindstorms \"It is an open question whether [schools] will adapt by transforming themselves into something new or wither away and be replaced.\" This session will grapple with that question. Can we create a more modern frame for schools that captures that transformation that Papert suggests? What is that \"something new\"? Let's spend 90 minutes or so crafting a larger vision of schooling, one that blends the realities of the modern world with the best of progressive thinking around education. One that we can take to the world as a guidepost for local discussions around change.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Argument, group counseling, things that stick, manifesto-like thinking, free drink coupons on United Airlines for the first five attendees, serious conversation, angst, a sense of accomplishment, group hugs. (Not necessarily in that order.)","Presenter":["Will Richardson"],"PresenterAffiliation":[],"PresenterEmail":["will@willrichardson.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":1,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":192,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351539375,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Yearners versus Schoolers*: Will we ever get to a tipping point in math education?","Handle":"Yearners_versus_Schoolers-:Will_we_ever_get_to_a_tipping_point_in_math_education","ShortDescription":"Seymour Papert, Clay Christensen, Salman Khan and others believe we can reach what Malcolm Gladwell calls a tipping point in education when emerging technologies make dramatic increases in teaching and learning achievement possible. This discussion session will focus on this possibility for math education.","Description":"My consciousness of the debate about school reform in math education began in the late 1960s and that debate continues unabated to this day. On one side are the \u201cSchoolers\u201d who believe that schools the way they are currently organized are fine, but just need some tweaking to function better. On the other side are the \u201cYearners\u201d who believe only in dramatic change that needs to become more student driven and project based, especially with regard to math curriculum.  Ronald Wolk in \u201cWasting Minds\u201d suggests that the solution is to leave the public schools to the reform-minded \u201cSchoolers\u201d and in addition to maintaining public schools in their current form for those who prefer it, a second, parallel strategy be developed where charter-like schools can experiment with alternative organizational strategies. This is particularly needed in math education because the \u201cRoyal Roads\u201d to Calculus and Algebra continue to be gatekeepers. Speaking as a card-carrying Yearner\/schooler composite, I believe this \u201cone path fits all\u201d should not be forced upon all students. Assuming that schooling should provide for the unique talents of all students, how could we make our math goals better fit the needs of all our students? Is there a middle ground for Yearner and Schoolers? What might that look like in your school?\r\n\r\nTo help set the stage for this session read Seymour Papert's opening chapter of his book Children's Machine (link below.)\r\n\r\n*Terms coined by Seymour Papert in his book \u201cThe Children's Machine.\u201d","Link":["http:\/\/dmcpress.org\/confs\/educon25\/","http:\/\/climeconnections.blogspot.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"What? So What? Now What?","Presenter":["ihor Charischak"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Council for Technology in Math Education - CLIME"],"PresenterEmail":["ihor@clime.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":244,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351821938,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"A School Leader\u2019s Guide to 21st Century School Design","Handle":"A_School_Leader-s_Guide_to_21st_Century_School_Design","ShortDescription":"Drawing from examples at the NYCiSchool and elsewhere, this session will provide school leaders with a framework and guidance for rethinking current practices and guide participants through a series of activities designed to help them develop a plan for, and create the conditions that will foster, whole school innovation.","Description":"It is widely accepted that schools must adapt to meet the needs of our changing society and the 21st century learner, yet reform efforts continue to focus on tinkering with aspects of the current system.  And in what has become the tradition of school reform, there remains hope that one singular tool or technique will be the panacea for the challenge of effective teaching and learning.  For many, technology offers this same hope.  While technology will be an inevitable tool in the process, it will not be what makes schools suddenly work.  Without rethinking how, what, when, where, and why we are teaching, technology will merely make the existing system faster and flashier.  To effect real change and improvement in our schools \u2013 locally, nationally, and globally, we must question and rethink \u201cschool\u201d \u2013 to develop a whole new vision for teaching, learning, and the student experience.   \r\n\r\nBased on a forthcoming book under contract with Teachers College Press (Fall 2013), this session will guide participants through a process of rethinking practices in order to re-imagine school, and to \u201cdisrupt\u201d how things have always been done.  Drawing from mini case studies that illustrate how changes in curriculum, human capital, time, and culture transformed the teaching and learning processes at the NYC iSchool, the facilitators will guide participants through a series of discussions and planning activities designed to help participants craft their own plans for fostering and implementing whole school innovation that will meet the needs of their students and communities.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"5 min\tWelcome and introductions\r\n\r\n5 min\tBackground\/history of the iSchool\r\n\r\n30 min\tActivity\/Discussion: True \u201cDisruption\u201d\r\nParticipants will put a list of innovative practices in order from least to most \u201cdisruptive\u201d to open the dialogue about what practices\/systems truly transform teaching and learning\r\n\r\n40 min\tGuided Workshop (the following sequence is repeated for each area of innovation: time, human capital, curriculum, and culture)\r\n2 min\tIntroduction of innovation area, with specific examples\r\n8 min\tParticipant discussion (based on guiding questions) and collaborative completion of innovation plans; Participants will have the opportunity to evaluate and discuss the innovations most powerful and possible for their schools\r\n\r\n10 min\tSharing and wrap-up","Presenter":["Mary Moss","Alisa Berger"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Novare Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["thenovaregroup@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":218,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351731608,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Build-A-MOOC Workshop","Handle":"Build-A-MOOC_Workshop","ShortDescription":"","Description":"You've likely heard of the Build-A-Bear Workshop and have probably seen one at your local shopping mall. Well, now it's time for a Build-A-MOOC workshop.\r\n\r\nMassive Online Open Courses (MOOC) are all the rage in higher education. Be it the \"Connectivist\" MOOCs (or cMOOCs) led by the likes of Dave Cormier, George Siemens and Stephen Downes or the more corporate-run MOOCs (or xMOOCs) offered by the likes of Coursera, Udacity, etc., these large-scale learning experiences are causing many questions to be asked by higher ed. administrators. \r\n\r\nSome have considered the possibility of creating massive open online courses for secondary school students, but MOOC-mania has mainly settled in the world of higher education. In this workshop, though, we'll see if we can begin to craft a meaningful learning experience for high school students that is massive, open and online. We will see if, within the time constraints of one Educon session, we can literally build a MOOC for high school students across the world.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"This is a workshop. It is hands- and minds-on. We'll have a facilitated conversation, small group discussions, and use Google Docs to write a proposal together.","Presenter":["Jon Becker"],"PresenterAffiliation":["VCU"],"PresenterEmail":["jonathan.d.becker@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"I miss Diana Laufenberg and I don't even work at SLA.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":271,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1354744163,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Developing Our Online Voices","Handle":"Developing_Our_Online_Voices","ShortDescription":"In this conversation, we will examine what it means to interact with students in online environments, how that compares to physical face-to-face interactions, and the intersections of the two. How do we craft caring relations in digital spaces? How do we build culture and community? What are the ways in which feedback and commentary could or should be adjusted when leaving the physical world. Participants will be asked to share their own experiences as well as work together to draft ideas on new ways forward for deepening and broadening our practice.","Description":"In this conversation, we will examine what it means to interact with students in online environments, how that compares to physical face-to-face interactions, and the intersections of the two. How do we craft caring relations in digital spaces? How do we build culture and community? What are the ways in which feedback and commentary could or should be adjusted when leaving the physical world. Participants will be asked to share their own experiences as well as work together to draft ideas on new ways forward for deepening and broadening our practice.","Link":[],"Audience":[],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Zachary A. Chase"],"PresenterAffiliation":["University of Colorado - Boulder"],"PresenterEmail":["zac.chase@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":187,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351370526,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Digital Fabrication in K-12","Handle":"Digital_Fabrication_in_K-12","ShortDescription":"Let's have a conversation about digital fabrication in schools. FabLabs and Makerspaces are putting the means of production (3D printers, laser cutters, milling machines, etc) into our student's hands. Let's talk about the benefits, challenges, and best practices of teaching kids to use machines that can make things!","Description":"Digital fabrication labs, maker spaces and other innovative classrooms are popping up in K-12 schools all over the world! \r\n\r\nLet's start a conversation so we can share our best practices, tips, tricks, challenges of managing and running such labs. \r\n\r\nTopics of conversation will include:\r\n\r\nFavorite student projects\r\nRecommended hardware\/software\r\nCosts\r\nApplications to design thinking\r\nStaffing and training\r\nProfessional development opportunities\r\nLab model vs 1:1\r\nAnd more!","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"As educators who have been using digital fabrication and the design process in their classroom for years, we will share some of my favorite (and least favorite) projects. We will use these examples to prompt a conversation about what works, and what doesn't in a digital fabrication classroom.","Presenter":["Jaymes Dec","Karen Blumberg","Don Buckley"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Marymount School of New York"],"PresenterEmail":["jdec@marymountnyc.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":193,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351543384,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Empathy THE 21st Century Skill","Handle":"Empathy_THE_21st_Century_Skill:2","ShortDescription":"Empathy is THE 21st century skill. It builds bonds, develops leadership skills, and brings self-awareness to seek out meaning and purpose in our lives. How can we discuss 21st century skills without first discussing empathy? How can our students understand purpose, be self-directed, and become betters learners by valuing empathy.","Description":"Empathy is THE 21st century skill. It builds bonds, develops leadership skills, and brings self-awareness to seek out meaning and purpose in our lives. How can we discuss 21st century skills without first discussing empathy? How can our students understand purpose, be self-directed, and become betters learners by valuing empathy. \r\n\r\nEmpathy enables students to integrate other people's perspectives with their own. It is the ability to identify with others and will become a crucial skill as the world merges into a global community. Global awareness and the ability for technology to bring the world into our classrooms is important, but only if we can use these tools to better understand ourselves and others. \r\n\r\nJoin the conversation to explore and discuss how using technology can help us understand and nurture empathy. In this conversation will explore the discussion educators are having all across the country about empathy and the tools, sites and teaching practices that encourage empathy.","Link":["https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/teachingempathy\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will use a variety of tools including wiki to bring together resources.","Presenter":["Samantha Morra"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montclair Public Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["smsmorra@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"I may submit more than one proposal. Please pick one. Thank you so much!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":175,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350839063,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"I was promised flying schools: storytelling the future of public education","Handle":"I_was_promised_flying_schools:storytelling_the_future_of_public_education","ShortDescription":"Participants in this two-session workshop will iterate, pitch, and develop digital stories capturing possible futures of public education. Participants will team up around compelling pitches and produce their works through forms like film, social media from the future, and time-travelling geocaches. We\u2019ll develop a web resource to share our work.","Description":"Where are we going with public education? Are we opening the doors to new annexes of inspired teaching and learning? Are we walking down dark hallways to musty rooms left in squalid disrepair? Are we headed for the exits as quickly as we can, or are we being pushed there? Participants in this two-session digital storytelling workshop will have the chance to ask their own questions about the future of public education in the United States, to formulate tentative answers about where we\u2019re going as a society that schools, and to pitch and compose digital stories that share out their questions and answers. One participant might compose a blog from the future while another goes into SLA\u2019s hallways to recruit attendees and students as improv actors in a parody of wholly standardized or democratic education. Another participant might leave pages torn from a future teacher\u2019s journal hidden around the school as a geocaching game for other EduCon attendees. Yet another might start the Twitter account of an stakeholder navigating entirely P2P-based schooling fifty years from now. The idea behind the session to confront and imagine responses to the dark aspects of schooling, while uncovering and holding up bright examples of what our public education system could become. Participants should bring their own technology and be prepared either to iterate, pitch, and develop an idea rapidly, or to join up and work with another participant whose pitch sounds fantastic. We\u2019ll develop a web resource to share our stories.","Link":["http:\/\/coopcatalyst.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/14\/the-evaluation\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Rapid storytelling incubation\/workshopping\r\nMulti-media digital story-telling\r\nBackchannel production discussions through participants\u2019 social media accounts\r\nWeb resource sharing participants\u2019 products shared through a CC-By license","Presenter":["Christina Cantrill","Kirsten Olsen","Chad Sansing"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Christina Cantrill - National Writing Project (NWP)","Kirsten Olsen - Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA)","Chad Sansing - Community Public Charter School (CPCS)"],"PresenterEmail":["ccantrill@nwp.org","oldsowconsulting@gmail.com","csansing@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":5,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"While we realize that it\u2019s not the norm to have one conversation take up two sessions, we think this kind of workshop needs that amount of time (at the very least) and that the EduCon community would be perfect for this kind of conversation through a design-sprint and making. If we had the time to compose at least rough cuts onsite, we could also see participants facilitating a short social event to premiere the works sometime late on Saturday. We would rather facilitate a 1-hour conversation than no conversation at all, however, or else work on another format in or around the conference schedule with organizers.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":204,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351685612,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"If the school library has a future, what will it be?","Handle":"If_the_school_library_has_a_future-what_will_it_be","ShortDescription":"No aspect of schooling is changing as fast as the school library. The disruption is still going on. Where do we want it to go, what do we want it to be able to do, and what will it look like?","Description":"No part of schooling has changed as much as the school library and the disruptions are likely to continue for some time. The look, feel, purpose and practices of the school library are all in flux. Technology has made a big difference at the same time budget cuts have altered staffing and challenged the continued existence of the library in many schools.\r\n\r\nDewey may be done, e-books are starting to emerge, filters are fading and reference books are rarely used for research, so what is the library\u2019s role in the school, the librarians role in the library, and how do teachers take advantage of the emerging new school media center, if that is what it has become.\r\n\r\nAdministrators, teachers, students and librarians are all affected by and have an effect on the form, features, functions and financing of the library and all those voices need to be part of the conversation. \r\n\r\nThe presenters are a rural school district administrator who has invested heavily in renovating the district\u2019s libraries to make them more student friendly, a scholar and consultant who was instrumental in the planning for those renovations, and an inner-city middle school librarian who is in the process of planning a renovation of his library. We bring a variety of perspectives to the conversation and are all experienced facilitators of constructive engagement.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"A modified What? So\tWhat?\tNow\tWhat? protocol using a whole-group approach. Slides will be used to highlight conversational foci.","Presenter":["Pam Moran","Deven Black"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Superintendent","Albemarle","VA schools; Chief Provocateur","Educology Partners; Librarian","Castle Hill Middle School 127","NYC"],"PresenterEmail":["pmpmoran@gmail.com","deven.black@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":181,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351089458,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Make. Hack. Play: The Tools of Webmaking","Handle":"Make-Hack-Play:The_Tools_of_Webmaking","ShortDescription":"Playing with the X-Ray Goggles, Thimble and Popcorn, participants  will explore concepts of interest-based learning through  tinkering with Mozilla Webmaking tools and learning projects. \r\nThis workshop will build understanding around how embedding webmaking in project based curriculum will lead to innovative problem  solving, creative thinking and a desire for  tinkering.","Description":"The web is becoming the world\u2019s second language, and a vital 21st century skill.  Digital literacy today is as important as reading, writing and  arithmetic. Mozilla believes it\u2019s crucial that we give people the skills  they need to understand, shape and actively participate in that world,  instead of just passively consuming it.\r\nYou don\u2019t have to be a professional coder or programmer to be a webmaker.  In the same way that you don\u2019t have to be a professional baker to make bread, or a professional auto mechanic to change a tire, you shouldn\u2019t have to be a professional web developer to understand how the web works \u2014 or make your own stuff. We want to help you go \u201cbeyond upload\u201d to unlock new opportunities for creativity and innovation in your life and work.\r\nMozilla Webmaker wants to help you make something amazing with the web. We\u2019ve got new tools for you to use, projects to help you get started, and a global community of creators \u2014 educators, filmmakers, journalists, developers, youth \u2014 all making and learning together.\r\nThe goal: help millions of people move from using the web to making the web. As part of Mozilla\u2019s non-profit mission,  we want to help the world increase their understanding of the web, take  greater control of their online lives, and create a more web literate  planet.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"In this conversation,  participants will use laptops to explore Webmaker tools and learn about the basic building blocks of the Web.  Then, participants will create their own webpages and interactive films.","Presenter":["Laura Hilliger","Chris Lawrence"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Mozilla"],"PresenterEmail":["laura@mozillafoundation.org","clawrence@mozillafoundation.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Bring your own laptop or mobile device","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":258,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351915420,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Ownership On Lock: Technology & Its Impact on Student Ownership of the[ir] Academic Experience","Handle":"Ownership_On_Lock:Technology-It-s_Impact_on_Student_Ownership_of_the-ir-Academic_Experience","ShortDescription":"As educational technology continues to evolve, so to do student attitudes regarding  the desire and necessity for students to take a larger role in the ownership of their academic experience.  The purpose for this \u201cconversation\u201d is to discuss this growing trend, and resources that aid teachers in capitalizing  on it.","Description":"The primary focus of this conversation is centered around educational technology and online resources that aid teachers in raising the level of student ownership and engagement, both inside and outside of the classroom.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"We intend on furthering this conversation by walking participants through a Success Analysis Protocol of various examples of best practices that worked in increasing substantially levels of student ownership through the use of technology.","Presenter":["Pia Kaufman","Daniel Williams"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Philadelphia School District"],"PresenterEmail":["pkaufman@philasd.org","dcwilliams@philasd.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"We apologize for this late submission.  We were stuck in NYC due to Hurricane Sandy, and were just able to make it back this evening.  Please consider this submission.  We'd love to present at Educon!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":224,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351781193,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Restorative Solutions to Harassment and Bullying","Handle":"Restorative_Solutions_to_Harassment_and_Bullying","ShortDescription":"Harassment and bullying interfere with student learning. In some tragic instances, these behaviors interfere with life itself. Join us for a conversation on creating strategies for prevention, intervention, resolution, and restoration of the community after incidents of harassment or bullying.","Description":"Here is a link to the Google Doc that contains notes taken during the conversation: \r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1qbO21GwwDtAyQSYrPNOfB2rvLd4FxkcQO5iGqKLgng0\/edit\r\n\r\nHarassment and bullying interfere with student learning.  In some tragic instances, harassment and bullying interfere with life itself.  All too often, we see media reports of teen suicide following allegations of brutal bullying.  \r\n\r\nFrom January through November 2010, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations undertook a series of eleven public hearings to hear first-hand from parents, teachers, students, principals, and other community members about their experiences with intergroup conflicts in all of Philadelphia\u2019s public schools.  Testimony confirmed that intergroup conflicts cover a broad range of unfair, disrespectful, and aggressive behavior that can cause emotional and physical harm and negatively impact students\u2019 ability to learn.  \r\n\r\nThe six-year cohort dropout rates reported by the School District of Philadelphia in 2010 show the gravity of the problem.  District-wide, the dropout rate is an unacceptable 37%, but is especially dire for African-American males at 43% and Latino males at 51%.\r\n\r\nJoin us for small group conversations in circles using restorative decision-making to create strategies for prevention, intervention, resolution, and restoration of the community following incidents of harassment and bullying.  The small groups will focus on these questions:\r\n\r\n\u2022\tAre legal mandates useful or helpful?  Should we have a national legal response?\r\n\r\n\u2022\tIn responding to harassment and bullying, when is it appropriate for the student who suffered the harm and the student who inflicted the harm to come together?\r\n\r\n\u2022\tHow do we promote consistency in response to harassment and bullying?\r\n\r\nThese are websites with useful information and resources:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/wideningthecircle.org\/,\r\nWidening the Circle of Our Concern: Public Perceptions of the School District of Philadelphia\u2019s Responses to Intergroup Conflicts, A Report from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.iirp.edu, \r\nInternational Institute for Restorative Practices; Restoring Community in a Disconnected World.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.iirp.edu\/join_eforum.php, \r\nJoin the Restorative Practices eForum.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.iirp.edu\/pdf\/Defining-Restorative.pdf, \r\nDefining Restorative.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.safeschools.info\/bp_toolkit.pdf,\r\nPennsylvania Bullying Prevention Toolkit.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.safeschools.info\/images\/stories\/BP_PDE.pdf,\r\nInformation about PA\u2019s law regarding school bullying.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.stopbullying.gov\/index.html, \r\nU.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Stop Bullying website.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.pabar.org\/public\/education\/projectpeace\/projectpeacehome.asp,\r\nThis goes to Project PEACE on PBA wesbite.  Project PEACE is a peer mediation, anti-bullying and youth court program jointly sponsored by the PBA and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/pabar.org\/public\/committees\/childavo\/basedyouthcourt.asp,\r\nThis goes to youth courts on the PBA website.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.legsagainstarms.info\/,\r\nSunday morning, April 28, 2013, at St. Joseph's University, will be the 7th annual Legs Against Arms anti-violence race and educational event sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility.  Our vision in a nutshell is to hold a race ( 5K run and walk with a 1K fun walk) that is the entry to a much larger event\u2014a highlighting of Project PEACE (Peaceful Endings through Authorities, Children and Educators)\u2014that rests on the conflict resolution, peer mediation, anti-bullying and youth court education programs that PSR has served as \u201cmidwife\u201d for in bringing to Philadelphia.  We want to celebrate veterans as well as we end our wars by inviting them to share their visions of peace with the larger community. \r\nOur plans right now are for registration to start at 8 a.m., for tables to start being set up then, for the 5K race and 1 K fun walk to kick off at 9:00 a.m., for the exhibit tables to open to observers from 9:00 a.m. on, for the runners and walkers to return to the gym where the tables and stage and chairs are set up in the half of the gym that is not used for basketball practice, first for the runners' awards program, probably around 10:00 a.m., and then a youth court demonstration around 10:30 a.m which will also be when we will have short speeches by honored guests.  Anyone able and willing to stick around after that demo will come together for a \"town meeting\" to look at brainstorming ideas for solving the violence epidemic we face, especially with gun violence.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/cfdocs\/billinfo\/bill_history.cfm?syear=2013&sind=0&body=H&type=B&bn=156,\r\nPennsylvania Safe Schools Act (aka PASS, aka H.B. 156).","Link":["http:\/\/wideningthecircle.org\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After viewing a 5-minute video, our time will be spent in small groups and circles utilizing restorative decision-making to develop solutions to deal with harassment and bullying.","Presenter":["Kay Kyungsun Yu","Steve Korr","Jennifer Lowman","David Keller Trevaskis"],"PresenterAffiliation":[],"PresenterEmail":["kay.kyungsun.yu@gmail.com","stevekorr@iirp.edu","jlowman@elc-pa.org","david@leapkids.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":243,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351821760,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Self-Care for Selfless Educators & Advocates in the Movement","Handle":"Sasha_Fierce_and_Self-Care_for_Social_Justice","ShortDescription":"Self-care is often an afterthought for educators, social justice activists, and ed reform advocates.  This interactive workshop will explore the responsibility we have to connect self-care with leading change; how pop culture, race and gender shape our ideas about personal sustainability; and how to support each other in allyship.","Description":"Literary activist Audre Lorde once declared, \u201cCaring for myself is not self-indulgence.  It is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.\u201d Self-care is often an afterthought for social justice activists.  The same is true in the movement for education reform.  Every child and their family deserve equitable opportunities to learn and live well, and educators and advocates work tirelessly in service of that belief.  No question: it\u2019s in our nature to nurture.  At home, at work, in the classroom and in our communities, we selflessly take care of everyone else before ourselves\u2014if at all.  But it is critical to remember that sustaining this depth of leadership requires sustaining ourselves. \r\n\r\nIn a society that defines strength by one\u2019s capacity to survive, the broad messages we receive about caring for ourselves are to toughen up through overwhelming circumstances and that it is only when we suffer the inevitable burn out that we should make time for self-care.  This interactive workshop will explore the responsibility we have to connect self-care with leading change.  Participants will learn:\r\n\r\n\u2022\thow pop culture, race, and gender shape our ideas about when, how and why to care for ourselves\r\n\u2022\thow to develop unapologetically selfish, specific approaches to personal sustainability; and\r\n\u2022\thow to support each other through our intersecting journeys.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Interactive workshop","Presenter":["Michaela Pommells","Reagen Price"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Coalition for Racial Justice"],"PresenterEmail":["Michaela@corajus.com","reagen@corajus.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":4,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":269,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352667673,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Structuring Inquiry","Handle":"Structuring_Inquiry","ShortDescription":"Over the journey that has been SLA, I've become really deeply aware of how inquiry is a process. The five core values of Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection are at the heart of the inquiry process for me. And it is an iterative process that we engage in. But also at the heart of the inquiry process is that the person engaging in the inquiry - the learner - actually cares about the questions they are asking.","Description":"","Link":["http:\/\/scienceleadership.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Chris Lehmann"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["clehmann@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":184,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351095663,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Politics of Ed-Tech","Handle":"Ed-Tech_and_Ed_Reform","ShortDescription":"We have moved beyond a world where we can simply be cheerleaders for education technology. It isn\u2019t just that the stakes are high for pedagogy. They\u2019re high politically and professionally. What are the connections between ed-tech and education reform, between technology, profits and the privatization of education?","Description":"\u201cTechnology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor decades now, many tech-savvy educators have argued that increased adoption of computers and other technologies in the classroom would help unlock problem solving skills, foster networked communication, and connect students and classes to the rest of the world beyond the physical restrictions of brick and mortar or the printed pages of a textbook \u2014 the whole \u201c21st century skill\u201d argument and more.  \r\n\r\nBut education technology is not necessarily built or implemented with progressive education in mind. Technology can just as easily reinforce, if not further, a world of standardized test-taking, Indeed, it\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that there\u2019s a significant amount of ed-tech \u2014 investors, philanthropic organizations, non-profits, politicians, and corporations \u2014 that is keen to privatize if not profit from education.\r\n\r\nThis session will explore these connections \u2014 connections between ed-tech and ALEC, for example \u2014 as well as strategies for responding.\r\n\r\nBecause the question no longer simply \u201chow do we implement technology effectively\u201d?  How do we navigate this world where technologies \u2014 education and otherwise \u2014 are becoming increasingly ubiquitous but may also be increasingly pedagogically, politically and professionally dangerous?","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Short presentation, followed by a discussion of how to respond. Participants will work on a wiki (or collaborative doc). Topics to explore include: how to make smart decisions as ed-tech users and consomers, how to use ed-tech to subvert the system.","Presenter":["Audrey Watters"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Hack Education"],"PresenterEmail":["audrey.watters@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":248,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351824388,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Using Spoken Word to Inspire","Handle":"Using_Spoken_Word_to_Inspire","ShortDescription":"In a conversation facilitated by the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, educators will discuss how they might use the performance arts, specifically spoken word poetry, to engage and inspire their students. Techniques from many different writing programs will be shared, and a dynamic writing workshop will be modeled and analyzed.","Description":"We will have a quick conversation about the merits of the performance arts in the classroom across disciplines. Then we will have a model workshop that pushes comfort levels, which we will then reflect on afterwards. After that, the participants will make their own performance activity with a case study student and field of study that we create. We will discuss these if there is not much time left \u2013 role play if there is more time left. I'll leave them with a packet of our activities and a sample curriculum to take home.","Link":["http:\/\/www.pypm215.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We are going to have a legitimate writer\/performer workshop that has the best of our practice and our best activities. We'll have another section where they plan there own activities and we'll act them out and do some good thought work with them. It will look nothing like a traditional presentation.","Presenter":["Matthew Kay","Cait Miner","Greg Corbin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Philly Youth Poetry Movement"],"PresenterEmail":["matt@pypm215.org","greg@pypm215.org","cait@pypm215.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"n\/a","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":236,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351814849,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"\u201cFlipping the Script- Teachers\u2019 Dispatches from Philadelphia","Handle":"Flipping_the_Script-_Teachers-Dispatches_from_Philadelphia","ShortDescription":"TAG Philly\u2019s \u201cFlipping the Script- Teachers\u2019 Dispatches from Philadelphia\u201d Media Empowerment workshop is an interactive roundtable empowering teachers, parents, and students to share narratives of the amazing tragedies and triumphs that take place in school communities.","Description":"TAG's Philly Media Empowerment series are anchored around using storytelling to shape and influence the narrative of education reform. Participants will discuss telling stories techniques for digital literacy age. Activists, teacher teaders, bloggers, web editors, and media makers will also share tips, tools and strategies for using multi-media for digital story telling.\r\n\r\nDiscussion leaders will share stories of writing and composing in the digital age:\r\n\r\n-          How to submit Opinion and Editorial Pieces to local newspapers and blogs \r\n\r\n-          How to write effective leads and headings\r\n\r\n-          How to use social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) to build community and  \r\n           create buzz for class projects and social justice causes.\r\n\r\n-          How to create YouTube Channels to share videos and media content.\r\nParticipants will circulate within small group interactive mini-sessions.  Presenters will share web resources, sample stories, letters to editors, blogs or other media to set the context for writing in the digital age. Presenters will speak about their writing process and strategies for telling stories. An emphasis of writing effective leads and headlines will also be covered. \r\nParticipants will be provided an opportunity to briefly think, plan and write about three \u201cFlipping the Script Teachers\u2019 Dispatches from Philadelphia\u201d scenarios\u2013 \r\nParticipants may consider the following: \r\n -       Use one of the scenarios to tell their own story. \r\n -       Which medium would be the best form to tell their story?\r\n -       What would be an effective lead or headline for their story?","Link":["http:\/\/.tagphilly.org","http:\/\/.thenotebook.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The discussions will be presented in an interactive roundtable format. This format will allow multiple topics and create audience engagement. Participants will rotate throughout round tables that cover Blogging & Writing in Digital Age, using Social Media, Video for  Digital Storytelling. TAG\u2019s plans to collect, curate and disseminate \u201cFlipping the Script Teachers\u2019 Dispatches from Philadelphia\u201d stories via its website, the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and other digital platforms.","Presenter":["David Limm","Hillary Linardopoulos Brian Cohen","Katrina Clark","Samuel Reed"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Teacher Action Group","Philadelphia Public School Notebook","Make the Grade Blog","Media Mobilzing Project"],"PresenterEmail":["sriii2000@aol.com","katrina.clark@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":14,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Some of the stories generated from this Educon conversation may be presented at TAG\u2019s Annual Curriculum and Liberation Education Fair in the spring of 2013.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":260,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352097557,"CreatorID":182,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Adopting, Using, and Reusing Open Content","Handle":"Adopting-Using-and_Reusing_Open_Content","ShortDescription":"Despite having been the subject of increased attention over the last several years, the mechanics of using open content and the advantages of using open content remain poorly understood. \r\n\r\nIn this session, we will look at the roots of some of these misconceptions, and define ways in which these misconceptions can be addressed.\r\n\r\nAdditionally, this session will also help participants looking to get involved in the use, creation, and distribution of open content.","Description":"Despite having been the subject of increased attention over the last several years, the mechanics of using open content and the advantages of using open content remain poorly understood. \r\n\r\nIn this session, we will look at the roots of some of these misconceptions, and define ways in which these misconceptions can be addressed.\r\n\r\nAdditionally, this session will also help participants looking to get involved in the use, creation, and distribution of open content. \r\n\r\nOur goal for this conversation is to help participants learn exactly how easy it is to implement open content, and an open content authoring process, as part of our daily work.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"As part of the discussion, we will focus on and document freely available open source tools that can be used to create, distribute, remix, and redistribute openly licensed content. As part of this session, we want to continue to build a network of interested educators who want to continue to work on developing and distributing open content after Educon.","Presenter":["Bill Fitzgerald","Jeff Graham","Andrea Burton"],"PresenterAffiliation":["FunnyMonkey"],"PresenterEmail":["bill@funnymonkey.com","jeff@funnymonkey.com","andrea@funnymonkey.com","abby@funnymonkey.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":182,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":256,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351874847,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Broadening STEM, Intertwining the Arts with the STEM Disciplines","Handle":"Broadening_STEM-Intertwining_the_Arts_with_the_STEM_Disciplines","ShortDescription":"There has been an emphasis on educating students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines. A growing movement to broaden the concept of STEM into STEAM (with the A representing arts) provides a broader framework for including creativity, innovation, and to some extent collaboration into these fields. This session will be about creating content and will be fun!","Description":"Traditional STEM education emphasizes reductive thinking and disciplinary depth but does not necessarily incorporate pedagogy of creativity and collaboration. Designers, choreographers, filmmakers, musicians etc. understand that creativity is a process and a shared artistic vision is quintessentially a collaborative effort. This topic aims to shed light on the idea that the traditionally narrow focus of the STEM fields can be expanded and enhanced with collaboration from the arts. \r\n\r\nBroadening this idea, it is important not to think of the STEM fields as uniquely separate; engineering is not removed from science and math; in fact, they are intricately intertwined. Using this as a baseline, the arts are not a separate discipline either. Music technology is a mainstream example of how engineering is seamlessly integrated into a traditional \u2018art\u2019 field. Smart textiles or wearable technology, fabric with electronic components, is another example of how \u2018fashion\u2019 can combine with science. These are just two examples. The goal of this conversation is not simply about adding the art discipline to STEM but is about emphasizing that all disciplines overlap, including the arts, and that comprehensive thinking is essential for education in all fields.","Link":["http:\/\/steamintegration.wikispaces.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After a brief lecture and introduction to the topic, small group discussions will ensue. Educators will be separated into groups based, not on the subject that they teach, but instead on the age level that they teach (elementary, middle, or high school), and will be encouraged to share their ideals in a round-table type discussion, brainstorming how they envision adding artistic, creative, or more visual elements into STEM fields to broaden innovation and learning. The small group discussions will not be highly structured but will hopefully produce creative thinking about how the art can intersect with science, technology, engineering and mathematics and may help educators develop lesson plans. The group will come together and will create one large list of their ideas, suggestions, reflections etcetera. \r\n\r\nA wiki page will be created so that participants can share their ideas after the conference has concluded and share resources that they may have developed during the session.","Presenter":["Alistar Erickson-Ludwig","Liana Nathan"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Drexel University"],"PresenterEmail":["a.e.ludwig@coe.drexel.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":255,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351864190,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Design Thinking in Schools","Handle":"Design_Thinking_in_Schools","ShortDescription":"Teaching design thinking in schools trains students, teachers, and administrators to think outside the box and intertwine their knowledge to conceive innovative solutions towards the future of education. We'd like to share some examples of how our community collaborated to define, research, ideate, prototype, and implement their ideas.","Description":"Is design thinking worth it?\r\nHow can schools innovate?\r\nHow can education be agile?\r\n\r\nAt The School at Columbia University, we collaborated with designers who trained us how to embrace design thinking. They've outlined the following nine steps: \r\n\r\n1. Define the problem\r\n2. Research the problem \r\n3. Analyze and redefine the problem\r\n4. Ideate many solutions\r\n5. Prototype the solutions\r\n6. Refine the solutions\r\n7. Repeat as needed\r\n8. Choose the solution\r\n9. Implement the solution\r\n\r\nOver the years, our community of students, teachers, and administrators have each had experience working on a few long-term projects. Students redesigned a desk, a chair, and a locker. Faculty and administrators examined our school culture and sought to innovate how we integrate homework, recess, lunch, discipline, and grading. By working together and following the same principles, our population embraced a common language as they worked towards a common goal: define, research, ideate, prototype, implement.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We plan to bring materials that will help attendees define their own institutional problems and seek possible solutions.","Presenter":["Don Buckley","Karen Blumberg"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The School at Columbia University"],"PresenterEmail":["dbuckley@theschool.columbia.edu","kblumberg@theschool.columbia.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":252,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351828178,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Disruptive Talent","Handle":"Disruptive_Talent","ShortDescription":"There\u2019s no shortage of educational innovators. The challenge is figuring out how best to bring their approaches to scale. Participants in this session will discuss what supporting disruptive talent \u2013 at the district, school, classroom, and community level \u2013 would look like and how we can better connect innovators across cities.","Description":"Vanity Fair recently published a list of the \"New Establishment\" and according to the editor, they share a common trait: they\u2019re \"disrupters.\" By definition, disrupters are innovative change agents who challenge the status quo. There are a growing number of these educational innovators in Philadelphia and across the country. But they often do not have the resources they need to scale their approaches. As a result, their innovation is often short-lived and isolated from mainstream practice.\r\n\r\nIn this session, participants will share their experiences and discuss what conditions are necessary to retain this type of talent at multiple levels of the system \u2013 i.e., district, school, classroom \u2013 and how the broader community can be used more effectively to support disruptive innovation. \r\n\r\nThe following questions will be discussed:\r\n\u2022What does disruptive talent look like in practice (at the district, school, and classroom level)? \r\n\u2022What role should the broader community play in supporting this type of change?\r\n\u2022How can we better connect innovators between schools within the same district, as well as across school in different regions?","Link":["http:\/\/www.phillycoreleaders.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The discussion will be structured as a conversation, where participants are split into groups to discuss their own successes and challenges with trying to implement disruptive change at each level of the system. Small group discussion will be moderated by innovators from the Philadelphia region.\r\n\r\nThe goal is to develop a concrete mechanism during the session (e.g., website, mobile application) for highlighting, supporting, and connecting disruptive educational talent both within and across cities that could extend beyond the conference.","Presenter":["Claire Robertson-Kraft","Alyson Goodner","Rachel Meadows"],"PresenterAffiliation":["PhillyCORE Leaders"],"PresenterEmail":["claire.rk@gmail.com","alygoods@yahoo.com","rachel.meadows@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":266,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352220777,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Embracing Change: A Panorama of Incoming and Veteran Teachers at SLA","Handle":"Embracing_Change:A_Panorama_of_Incoming_and_Veteran_Teachers_at_SLA","ShortDescription":"This panel-led discussion will feature three SLA teachers at different phases in their teaching careers. They will discuss their experiences navigating a technology driven environment and working in a setting that esteems the ethic of care.","Description":"Mark Bey has been teaching for 15 years in a variety of school urban and suburban environments. He's been teaching students Spanish at SLA for 5 years. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1994 with a BA in Finance and Spanish and from Temple Graduate School in 1999 with an MA in Modern Foreign Language. Mark will share his personal and professional issues of transitioning from a more traditional school and curriculum to SLA, a progressive and project-based school, and the difficulties he had practicing an ethic of care in his classroom management.\r\n\r\nPearl Jonas is a first year SLA History teacher. She spent one year student teaching in Philadelphia and 17 months in a bilingual school in Ecuador. She graduated with a BA in History in 2005 and an MS in Social Studies Education in 2010 from the University of Pennsylvania. Pearl will speak to her recent transition into SLA coming from a test-based school culture. and the role of common language and collaborative culture at SLA in that transition.\r\n\r\nKevin Beckford is a student teacher and a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Graduate School of Education. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 2011 where he majored in African American Studies and Political Science. As an undergraduate, Kevin participated in a variety of tutoring and mentoring programs with organizations such as the Yale Black Men\u2019s Union, the NAACP, and New Haven Reads. He\u00a0 just earned a Masters of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge in African Studies. He is interested in bridging classroom theory with practice and reconciling personal and professional interests within an inquiry-based setting.\u00a0","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"Panel Discussion and Q&A","Presenter":["Mark Bey","Kevin Beckford","Pearl Jonas"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy","University of Pennsylvania"],"PresenterEmail":["mbey@scienceleadership.org","kbeckford@scienceleadership.org","pjonas@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":162,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1349286576,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Mind the Gap","Handle":"Mind_the_Gap","ShortDescription":"We have a vision for effective, student-centered next generation schools, but that's very different from the realities in our classrooms. How do we bridge the chasm between what schools are and what they ought to be? This session will collaboratively explore catalysts for effective change.","Description":"The session begins with a brief presentation outlining the problem. We know that we want inquiry-based schools that foster collaboration and problem-solving, that teach students to be effective learners, and that equip learners to be creators, producers, and innovators as they work to address the challenges of their generation. At the same time, though, increased pressure to improve test scores coupled with a vilainization of teachers and public schools and severe budget shortfalls has left many schools paralyzed. We all leave these conferences enthused about the possibilities. But when we go home and get back to work, we face the realities of the current situation, and our best laid schemes are cast aside.\r\n\r\nOnce the stage has been set, we will explore the question of who can effect change. All of the stakeholders seem to have the ability to scuttle change. Administrators, teachers, parents, students, and alumni all have an interest in maintaining the status quo. Working in homogeneous teams based on their roles, participants will be asked to address these questions: (1) What can I do to effect change in my school? (2) How can I support and encourage change among the other roles? (3) How can I create a sense of urgency for change in my environment?\r\n\r\nOnce the participants have had the opportunity to explore these questions in their homogeneous groups, we\u2019ll re-group into heterogeneous groups to share what we\u2019ve come up with. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students will share their perspectives with one another, developing an appreciation for the challenges of the other roles, and identifying ways we can work together to improve our schools.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Participants will conduct small-group discussions with one another in role-based groups initially. While this depends on the composition of the participants, the goal is to have a group of teachers, a group of principals, a group of educational support professionals, and hopefully groups of parents and students. Then, participants will represent their roles in heterogeneous groups that allow everyone to see these issues through each of the lenses represented. Finally, participants will share their conclusions with the larger group.","Presenter":["John Schinker"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Brecksville-Broadview Hts (OH) City Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["schinkerj@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":190,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351526626,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Performance Task Assessment & the CWRA: Better Goal-Posts for Student Learning","Handle":"Performance_Task_Assessment-the_CWRA:Better_Goal-Posts_for_Student_Learning","ShortDescription":"Many schools are adopting visionary goals for student learning, including higher order thinking skills and creative problem-solving, and are seeking to evaluate student learning in more engaging and authentic ways.    Performance Task Assessments and the exemplary CWRA offer a potentially subversive way to change the way we assess, which we will explore and discuss in this session.","Description":"Performance Task assessment, whereby students are posed a challenging, real-world situated problem and presented associated documents for critical review and analysis and required to respond with a thoughtful, creative essay answer, is a different and better way to evaluate student learning. Performance task assessment is coming to public education in CCSS participating states in the new assessments being developed by PARCC and Smarter Balanced.  The College Work Readiness Assessment is used by about 100 US high schools, public and private, and its analogue the Collegiate Learning Assessment, is used by a about 300 colleges and universities.  Jonathan Martin has used CWRA for three years at his independent school; Pam Moran is beginning use of CWRA and is deploying Performance Task Assessments K-12 in her district,  using it to assess contemporary learning growth w students, as tool for assessing professional learning needs among staff, and to assess curricular applications w\/in across discipline: together they will host and facilitate this conversation.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We have a number of ideas and intentions for making this more of a conversation than a presentation: we intend to share sample performance task assessments and invite groups to spend a short time discussing how they'd approach and answer the challenge, what skills and learning will need to have been learned to succeed, and how these tasks can evolve toward becoming more authentic and more rigorous.   We'll ask groups to consider how and where performance task assessments can be embedded in their schools, and ask groups to conduct a gallery walk of sorts on large post-its writing to us and each other their sense of the pros, cons, questions, and improvements that we can make to make performance task assessment more meaningful for students and educators.","Presenter":["Pam Moran","Jonathan Martin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Albemarle County Public School"],"PresenterEmail":["pmpmoran@gmail.com","jonathanemartin@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":263,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352217743,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Rough Cut Schools: Developing and Sustaining Media Creation Programs for Kids","Handle":"Rough_Cut_Schools:Developing_a_Media_Creation_Program_of_Study_for_Kids","ShortDescription":"Rough Cut Media is a non-profit devoted to supporting, creating, and advocating for production-based media education programs in schools. Our mission is to help schools create and sustain comprehensive, cross-curricular media education.","Description":"Media Educator Networking and Problem Solving\r\n\r\nA chance for media, film, photography, and other digital art educators to meet, ask questions, collaboratively solve problems, or even just vent in a semi-structured group setting.  \r\n\r\nFacilitated by the founders of Rough Cut Media and current\/former students from Rough Cut's pilot program at SLA.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"Three Essential Questions:\r\n-What does media literacy\/creation look like in your school?\r\n-What would you like it to look like?\r\n-What is standing in your way?","Presenter":["Douglas Herman and Josh Weisgrau"],"PresenterAffiliation":["SLA and Friends Central"],"PresenterEmail":["dherman@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":171,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350605529,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Other 18 Hours","Handle":"The_Other_18_Hours","ShortDescription":"We have our students for about 6 hours a day. How do the other 18 hours impact their ability to learn, and our ability to teach?","Description":"How much do we know about our students' other 18 hours? What role does school play in their families, their priorities, their peer groups? In this conversation we'll examine our assumptions and look at some frames for how to meet our students where they are when they walk into school. \r\n\r\nWe will focus our conversation on through looking at the Core Strategies of Effective Integrated Treatment with Adolescents from Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services in South Burlington, Vermont. Centerpoint is a therapeutic high school and its strategies are a useful model for any teacher seeking to integrate care and positive regard into relationship with our students.  We will also take a look at excerpts from Paul Tough's How Children Succeed, his latest research on how social and emotional skills work in balance with learning. \r\n\r\nJoin this session for thoughtful reflection on our understanding of our students, our awareness of how we bring ourselves to the work, and development of intentional strategies to improve.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will have a text-based discussion as well as guided reflection and sharing through writing or visual prompts.","Presenter":["Alex Shevrin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Centerpoint School","South Burlington VT"],"PresenterEmail":["alex.shevrin@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":226,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351790638,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Using Appreciative Inquiry and Engaging in a Learning Community","Handle":"Using_Appreciative_Inquiry_and_Engaging_in_a_Learning_Community","ShortDescription":"To create an engaging learning community we must first engage all members of that community. This Conversation focuses on using Appreciative Inquiry to better understand how to reflect and harness the community\u2019s energy in a positive manner to create our ideal learning community.","Description":"To create an engaging learning community we must first engage all members. To do so we must remember why we are in the community in the first place and what we bring to it. All of us possess an inner drive to want to continue to strive for higher levels in our education. Given the alarming rate of high school dropout, everyone in this room has beaten the odds just by stepping through the door. By doing so you have all shown that you have ability to achieve and overcome adversity. Now let\u2019s harness that positive and powerful energy and create our ideal learning community. \r\n\r\nTo do this we will be using a method called Appreciative Inquiry (AI). AI is an inquiry-based process that, by using a 4D Cycle, allows us to discover, dream, design, and create a destiny to unlock our positive core. Each student or small group will be given four questions. The first question will have them appreciate what is and what has come before. The second question will be center around what could be the best possible future they can imagine. The third is aimed at determining what should be. The fourth question addresses creating what should be and then transforming that to action. Once this process is completed student(s) will return to the larger group and an AI summit, which involves picking out words and themes that each person or group came up with and using these key points to create their ideal learning community, will commence.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"After introductions and explanation of the process members of the learning community will be split into small groups and given four large sheets of paper. A question will be proposed to each group. The questions will be based on the 4D Cycle. The first question will have them appreciate what is and what has come before. The second question will be around what could be the best possible future they can imagine. The third is around determining what should be. The fourth question is around creating what should be and then transforming that to action. Each group will be given three minutes to answer each question and upon completion of each question each group will select a member of that group to hang their answers up, not facing the group. This process will be repeated four additional times. Once this process is completed students will return to the larger group and an AI summit will commence. One member of each group will be tasked with turning answer sheets around for large group to see and large group will be given five minutes to do a gallery walk to read the other groups responses to the questions. Facilitator will ask the group if they see any common themes among the first, then second, then third, and finally the last question. During each of these times the facilitator will highlight keywords and phrases. After this is completed facilitator will write keywords on one sheet of paper and present to group the ideal learning community that they created wherein all members are engaged.","Presenter":["Tariem A. Burroughs"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Youth Health Empowerment Project"],"PresenterEmail":["tburroughs99@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":164,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1349443991,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Where are the Beautiful Learning Spaces?","Handle":"Where_are_the_Beautiful_Learning_Spaces","ShortDescription":"People travel all over the world to look at beautiful buildings; we are proposing that schools should fit that category too! Looking for a conversation on inspiring learning spaces from around the world.","Description":"\u201cWe place enormous value on the role of the environment as a motivation and animating force in creating spaces for relations, options, and emotional and cognitive situations that produce a sense of well-being and security.\u201d Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Emilia\r\n\r\nReggio Emila, The Third Teacher and Fielding Nair's work all point to the importance of space in learning. Through the Beautiful Learning Spaces blog and in twitter discussions, Andrew Campbell and Jennifer Chan have begun to explore the potential and inspiration of a variety of learning spaces. Andrew is a grade 4\/5 teacher at Major Ballachey in Brantford, Ontario and has been teaching for 20 years. He\u2019s passionate about learning and committed to using new technologies in creative ways to transform and improve learning for his students. Jenn is an alternative education and community engagement consultant in Toronto, Ontario. She has been working with communities to co-design innovative spaces while thinking about how we interact with space and how space informs culture. Andrew and Jenn are in search of fellow educator to join the conversation around the impact, design and culture of beautiful learning spaces. Together, we will talk about the relationships and influence of space on student learning, engagement and the symbols we associate with the physical spaces of schools. By sharing what we have discovered, we are hoping to change the way people think about space to change the way we think about learning.","Link":["http:\/\/www.beautifullearningspaces.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After a brief introduction of our history and findings; we will run \"What? So What? Now What?\" We are looking for more input than output.","Presenter":["Andrew Campbell","Jennifer Chan"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Grand Erie District School Board","Exhibit Change"],"PresenterEmail":["jennifer.chan@exhibit-change.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":16,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"We are very excited!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":250,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351826280,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Breaking down classroom walls - open learning","Handle":"Breaking_down_classroom_walls_-_open_learning","ShortDescription":"To break down the walls of our classrooms we need to consider how to blend online and face to face learning. This conversation will focus on how open learning can transform education by giving students and educators the confidence and tools to think and learn for themselves.","Description":"We can break down classroom walls by considering open learning. Open learning is transforming education in different ways. This conversation will focus on three aspects of open learning that help encourage change: 1) open resources and content, 2) open leadership and 3) open pedagogy. \r\n\r\nOpen Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to bring education to the masses and promote educational opportunities for all. What are the most widely used resources and why? How can we find these resources and how do we curate the content?\r\n\r\nOpen leadership encourages transparency and deeper communication between communities of practice. Who is demonstrating open leadership and what are some of the common characteristics? What influence does social media have for open leaders?\r\n\r\nThere are a wide variety of options in open pedagogy, from common web tools, to open online courses and even open online projects. Open pedagogy encourages educators to consider blended learning opportunities and integration of technology into all curriculum. Open pedagogy also promotes collaboration within communities of learning and alternative methods of learning like inquiry based projects. Open pedagogy engages and connects learners with people outside classroom destroying that myth that only teachers can teach. What are some examples of open pedagogy that instill confidence in in learners? How can we transfer this confidence systemically throughout the learning community? \r\n\r\nHaving a conversation around three aspects of open learning will promote more awareness and about the open movement. The conversation will also create learning networks to extend these examples throughout the world in sustainable ways. By sharing examples, we will be able to build a bigger learning village and break down the classroom walls that have limited learning","Link":["http:\/\/openlearningk12.wikispaces.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"I will start a wiki before the session and provide resources about open learning on the wiki. These resources will include slideshares, videos and some written text.\r\nOn the day of the conversation, I will split the participants up into groups. They will each have an opportunity to give examples about the three aspects of open learning. Each group will have 10 minutes to add to the \u201cspecific\u201d wiki page, then I will switch the topics. That way every group will have the opportunity to give examples about each aspect of open learning from their own environments.  (Total 30 minutes)\r\n\r\nThen I will ask the group to look at the combined information, and choose as a group,  the first \u201caspect\u201d to integrate into any learning environment and why. I will have an online survey on the wiki so we can see the data. (10 minutes)\r\nI will ask each group to give their answer and explain their choice. (10 minutes)\r\nWe will then have an open discussion where we can add to the wiki, or just listen. (10 minutes)","Presenter":["Verena Roberts"],"PresenterAffiliation":["ADLC Alberta Distance Learning Centre"],"PresenterEmail":["vroberts@adlc.ca"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":257,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351888495,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Honoring Our Learning Philosophy Through Our Learning Reports: Is it about learning and progress or is it about grades?","Handle":"Honoring_Our_Learning_Philosophy_Through_Our_Learning_Reports:Is_it_about_learning_and_progress_or_is_it_about_grades","ShortDescription":"In 2013, how do schools report learning and growth? Is it through test scores, a \u201creport card,\u201d a \u201cprogress report,\u201d a portfolio, or  __________? Are we modeling 21st century communication and collaboration as we offer formal feedback and document student growth and progress?","Description":"We want this conversation to be active \u2013 reflecting and dreaming big while also taking small (or not-so-small) steps to plan on how to move a classroom or a school to dynamically describe, document, report, and celebrate learning. How might we honor and leverage current cultural buzzwords and eduspeak \u2013 risk-taking, failure, personalizing learning, design-thinking, grit \u2013 and authentically make these concepts part of our learning report for each child?","Link":["http:\/\/bit.ly\/LearningReports"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will ask participants to bring a current report card and have a \u201cgallery walk\u201d of the reports for the first 20 minutes of the session. Using post-it notes, participants will comment on things they like and things they wonder about. Seeing various types of reports will serve as our jumping off point for conversation. \r\nWe will lead participants in discussion about how to best honor our learning philosophies through our learning reports with guiding questions and with a lively backchannel. We are in the process of prototyping a report card of the future and will bring mock-ups to stir conversation and discussion.\r\nParticipants will drive the conversation as we brainstorm how to make learning reports about learning\/growth and not just about grades.","Presenter":["Megan Howard","Jill Gough"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Walker School","Trinity School (Atlanta","GA)"],"PresenterEmail":["marymeganhoward@gmail.com","jgough@trinityatl.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":195,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351545688,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Makeover: Classroom Edition","Handle":"Makeover:Classroom_Edition","ShortDescription":"Have you ever experienced the Web 2.0 in a classroom 1.0? Have you had trouble using 21st century technology in a 20th century space? This hands-on, interactive conversation \r\nis seeking innovative learners and teachers who are ready to take on an extreme makeover that impacts teaching and learning.","Description":"The advent of the Web 2.0 has brought many affordances to instructional practice - except in the area of classroom design.  The presenters are currently experiencing the phenomenon of engaging in 21st century learning in a 20th century classroom.  The time has come for our classrooms to enter the 21st century; it is time for an extreme makeover.  The conversation will begin with an exploration of two different classrooms, and the question: \u201cWhat type of learning occurs in this space?\u201d  In this conversation, participants will explore what constitutes a 21st century classroom space and how we create classrooms that support 21st century learning.  Participants will be asked to help design a 21st century classroom, imagine what it is like to be either a teacher or a student in a classroom designed for the 21st century, and discuss the challenges of creating 21st century classrooms.  \r\n\r\nWe hope to engage participants in a meaningful conversation that leads to the creation of a 21st century learning space.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Participants will begin the conversation by evaluating images of learning spaces and responding to the questions \u201cwhat do you see\u201d and \u201cwhat does this mean for learning.\u201d They will then share their responses to the questions. \r\n\r\nEach participant will draw a picture of their ideal 21st century learning space. Images will be displayed in the form of a gallery where others in the group can provide feedback and ask questions about the spaces.\r\n\r\nBased on their images and gallery walk, participants will create a working list of \u201cmust haves\u201d in their 21st century learning space and explain why this must be included in the classroom design. Once the list is created, participants must identify what challenges exist in making a 21st century learning space a reality. How does one address those challenges?","Presenter":["Christie-Belle Garcia","Alexandria Garino","Sarah L. Hamilton"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Christie-Belle Garcia","Fordham University","NY","Alexandra Garino","Fordham University","NY Sarah L. Hamilton","PS 44","Staten Island","NY"],"PresenterEmail":["cgarcia@fordham.edu","agarino@fordham.edu","shamilton12@fordham.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"We are doctoral candidates in Fordham University's Graduate School of Education in the Contemporary Learning and Interdisciplinary Research (CLAIR) Program","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":273,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1355240808,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Online Vs. Face-to-Face PLNs","Handle":"Online_Vs-Face-to-Face_PLNs","ShortDescription":"Are we moving towards a Surrogates society?  Are online PLNs taking the place of face-to-face PLNs?  Let\u2019s debate between the use of online and offline interactions to develop and advance our professional and personal learning.","Description":"","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Brandon Lutz"],"PresenterAffiliation":["School District of Philadelphia","SEPAECT"],"PresenterEmail":["blutz01@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":275,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1358876472,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Serving all Learners: Special Education in Modern Schools","Handle":"Serving_all_Learners:Special_Education_in_Modern_Schools","ShortDescription":"At SLA, we view acceptance of students with special needs as vital to our culture of diversity.  Supporting all students in the general education curriculum requires communication and cooperation amongst all members of a school community.  We are always working to develop and build upon systems to support a wide range learners, with the end goal of moving them towards independence beyond the walls of our school.","Description":"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Vji_aHylGSoVv6BCQao4aliUWsZSthIV0qh_TeW4Ads\/edit","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Vji_aHylGSoVv6BCQao4aliUWsZSthIV0qh_TeW4Ads\/edit"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Vji_aHylGSoVv6BCQao4aliUWsZSthIV0qh_TeW4Ads\/edit","Presenter":["Beth Menasion","Michael Ames"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["emenasion@scienceleadership.org","mames@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Vji_aHylGSoVv6BCQao4aliUWsZSthIV0qh_TeW4Ads\/edit","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":267,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352222684,"CreatorID":1,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Teacher evaluations: Towards a more democratic process","Handle":"Inquiry_and_teacher_performance_assessments:Getting_teachers-voices_into_the_conversation","ShortDescription":"How do we incorporate teacher voices into the debate over assessing teacher performance? I want to start the conversation by asking various education professionals their opinions, then pose my ideas about using inquiry to help teachers create a more formative and democratic approach.","Description":"Assessment of teacher performance has become theme in recent political discussions that is not going away. A recent flare-up was the strike in Chicago, which was not about money; it was about how teachers were assessed. Now that begs the question - if we don't want to be assessed by our students' performance on standardized tests, then how do we want to be assessed? How do we incorporate the democratic process into this discussion? Can we make these evaluations formative? I want to start that conversation and hear from teachers, administrators, people involved in unions, charter schools, and anywhere else who feels as if they want to listen and give input on the matter.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The whole session will be conducted in the form of a discussion. I have two over-arching questions that I want to pose to the people in the session to help direct the conversation, but much of this is me gathering data for myself. To that end, a web forum would help center the discussion, with maybe three short opportunities to write and respond to each other.","Presenter":["Juan Gabriel Sanchez"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["jsanchez@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":1,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":238,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351817408,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Teaching Frameworks For Creative Collaboration","Handle":"Fostering_the_Creative_Leaders_We_Need","ShortDescription":"We want our students to be collaborative solution-finders, but group work alone doesn\u2019t get there. Students need frames for creative leadership \u2013 and practice to grow into leaders who foster collaborative, creative teams. In this session, we\u2019ll practice using tools from Leadership+Design Studio and explore how they develop young creative leaders.","Description":"We want our students to be collaborative solution-finders, but group work alone doesn\u2019t get there. Students need frames for creative leadership \u2013 and practice to grow into leaders who foster collaborative, creative teams. In other words, we need to develop a curriculum for creative leadership that can operate in the authentic context of project-based learning.\r\nAt Leadership+Design Studio, we\u2019ve developed a leadership curriculum that operates in parallel with a three-day design thinking project. Students practice creative leadership while working in a small group to create new solutions to a design problem. \r\nIn this conversation, we\u2019ll practice using some of the tools from Leadership+Design Studio and explore how they can help develop young creative leaders. We\u2019ll also share case studies from our work in the field.\r\nTopics for rehearsal include:\r\n\u2022\t\u201cTask\u201d and \u201cMaintenance\u201d \u2013 and teaching students to observe the difference\r\n\u2022\tWaterline Model \u2013 learning to diagnose problems in group dynamics in a way students can apply\r\n\u2022\tSpeedback \u2013 learning to give behaviorally specific feedback\r\n\r\nParticipants will benefit from watching a 30 minute video introducing core concepts before the workshop so that we can spend the bulk of our time together engaged in hands-on practice. This video is posted at www.leadingislearning.org\/resources.\r\n\r\nThis is a hands-on, participatory conversation that will prepare participants to use to classroom-ready resources available on-line at leadingislearning.org\/resources to continue the work once they leave.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Laboratory. Participants will participate in an activity, practice core concepts in a fishbowl environment, and analyze group process.","Presenter":["Greg Bamford"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Leading is Learning"],"PresenterEmail":["greg@leadingislearning.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"This sounds awesome. Hear great things from lots of folks I admire. Going to self-fund this one!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":232,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351804928,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Visualizing Data with Fusion Tables","Handle":"Visualizing_Data_with_Fusion_Tables","ShortDescription":"Google's Fusion Tables enable the connection of data to locations on Google Maps.  Come and see maps showing how student performance and poverty compare geographically.  Add teacher pay onto the map to see how that factors in.  Have some data you want mapped?  Come and share.","Description":"The conversation will focus on Fusion Tables\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.google.com\/fusiontables\/Home\/\r\n\r\nThis free Google Drive based application permits spreadsheets with geographic information (addresses, zip codes, latitude & longitude, etc.) to be combined with Google Maps to create interesting visualizations of data.  As an example, here is school building rating data from an Ohio Department of Education Excel spreadsheet imported into Fusion Tables.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/FT-EDUCON\r\n\r\nThe application will import Excel spreadsheets, CSV and KML files.  As long as the data has geographic information, it can be \"mapped\" on a Google Map.  Additional data within the set can be used to set markers or color of objects.  Thousands of data sets are available within Google Drive and can be merged with imported data sets.  Hundreds of Geographic shapes (countries, states, counties, school districts, etc.) of data have been created in the system.  Here is an example showing Ohio school districts color coded by poverty rates.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/FT2-EDUCON\r\n\r\nDuring the session many examples will be shared and new data visualization maps will be created.","Link":["http:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Fusion Tables are part of Google Drive and can be shared in the same way as other Google Docs.  During the conversation some pre-created Fusion Tables will be shown.  The process involved in creating the Fusion Tables will be demonstrated so that all involved in the conversation will be able to create new Fusion Tables.  All Fusion Tables will be shared in Google Drive and a Google Doc with links to all projects created in the conversation will be shared with the public.  Anyone with access to Google Drive will be able to access all the projects.","Presenter":["Alvin Trusty"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The University of Findlay"],"PresenterEmail":["alvin.trusty@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":17,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Darren Kuropatwa and John Schinker have agreed to supply the Mead for the session, provided that sort of thing is permitted in SLA.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":2},"total":79,"limit":false,"offset":false}