{"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}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":2,"ScheduleSlotID":6},"total":15,"limit":false,"offset":false}