Posts Tagged ‘conference’
Monday, January 9th, 2012
I’m heading to London this week to take part in the BETT 2012 conference in London. This is the largest educational technology conference in the world and I’ve been wanting to check it out for years!
I’m presenting a session on Friday – Tinkering: A New Model of ICT and STEM Learning
Yes, I know it says “new” – but it’s not. Poetic license, I guess I was worried that things have to sound new to get any notice. However, I’m hopefully presenting a new look at old-fashioned learning. I’m combining some of my existing resources about tinkering and playful learning with some new ideas about the role of gender, the danger of looking at science only through the lens of the “scientific method”, and the synergy between art and science.
Be back next week!
Sylvia
Tags: bett12, conference, edtech, tinkering
Posted in conferences | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 21st, 2011
Next weekend in Philadelphia will be the fourth annual Educon conference. I’m happy to say I’ve been to all of them so far, and it’s grown into one of my favorites of the year.
There are several things I love about Educon:
- It’s small. Capped at 500 people, it’s intimate enough that you get a “sense” of what people are thinking and the shifts occurring in real time.
- Authenticity gives it voice and shape. Held at the Science Leadership Academy, a public magnet school with a progressive philosophy in the center of Philadelphia, the vibrancy of the school (both from teachers and students) shines through the event.
- It’s not a trade show. So many educational conferences, even the ones with academic roots, have morphed into what Gary Stager calls “boat shows.” The focus on sales creates a different kind of atmosphere. Educon is about educators thinking out loud together without the carnival barkers.
- Conversations, not sessions. At most conferences, people always wonder why discussions of new ways to teach and learn are held in old style lecture halls, and the interesting conversations are the ones in the hall. Educon has tried to bring those conversations to the forefront.
- It’s centered in practice. Being in a school is not just about the building. The teachers and students are full participants in the conference and model collaboration, non-coercive learning and empowerment throughout. You can tell it’s what they do on a regular basis and it raises the bar for everyone.
I’m leading a conversation this year about gaming in education, “If Games are the Answer, What’s the Question?” Games in education are a hot topic these days, with all the usual mix of reality and hype that goes along with that. I definitely have strong opinions (which I’ll share) – but not the whole time. I hope to have a lively discussion where we’ll look at some games and talk about what makes them “good” for learning or not. Ultimately, perhaps we can come to some conclusions about what to look for in games for different subjects and classrooms.
I’d appreciate any input here or on the Educon page for this session about any particular games that people are curious about and want to discuss. I’ll try to have some screen shots prepared since there really won’t be time to download and play a lot of games AND have a discussion.
If you are coming to this session in person or via the live web streaming, please come with a downloaded game to share, or post suggestions here.
Sylvia
Previous posts about Educon
Tags: conference, education, educon, educon23, Science Leadership Academy, technology
Posted in conferences, education reform, professional development | 5 Comments »
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
I’m excited to be heading off to New Zealand next month to keynote the Learning@School 2011 conference in Rotorua (Feb 23-25). It looks like a wonderful conference, with some really interesting themes and strands.
I’ll be talking about student leadership and empowerment – and the way we can structure learning environments to offer those opportunities. Putting students into positions of responsibility for what and how other people learn teaches them that what they do matters, and gives them new insight into how they (and others learn.)
People always say, “you learn so much by teaching” – so why not have students learn AND teach. Combining this with technology, for which students today have a natural instinct and interest, just makes sense. Students can teach other students, teach teachers, support technology professional development, help with technical set up and support, and much more. It creates natural collaboration opportunities, provides challenges at many levels, and is really useful. Giving students this kind of responsibility creates a win-win situation where students are valued for their expertise and hard work – real, needed work!
I’ll also do a follow up session to talk about the “how tos” of student technology leadership programs, and then another one about games in education.
I also hope to get some time visiting the famous geysers, boiling mud pools and thermal springs of Rotorua!
Sylvia
Tags: conference, edchat, edtech, education, keynote, leadership, learning@school, student, sylvia martinez
Posted in conferences, education reform, professional development, student project samples | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 13th, 2010
I’ll be in Paris, France for the next week to attend Constructionism 2010 at the University of Paris. Constructionism 2010 is a reincarnation of Eurologo, and the name change refelects the myriad of opportunities that exist today for using technology to express the educational philosophy of constructionism.
I’m looking forward to linking the learning from Constructing Modern Knowledge 2010 last month to Constructionism 2010. Seminal people in constructionism will be there, including Idit Harel, Cynthia Solomon, Gary Stager, Jose Valente, and Brian Harvey. Of course, this list is completely personal (and geographically biased!). But that’s how learning happens, you connect one idea to the next, one person to the next, building and constructing knowledge as you go. I look forward to adding more people and expanding my learning and my network.
I always think I’m going to blog while I’m on the road, but it rarely happens, so no promises. But I’ll have lots to share when I return.
Sylvia
Tags: CMK10, conference, constructionism, constructionism10, constructionism2010
Posted in conferences, constructivism | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
The post Students raising funds and technology awareness in Maine got a lot of comments and interest on this blog. Here’s an update from one of the participants:
First of all, our students are committed to this project! All of our students in Wells, Maine, had to get out of bed and to the school bus by 5:15 AM for the 3 hour bus ride to Orono. They all had planned their presentations with their teachers and then practiced for 2 weeks. Once at the University, they all attended the opening session, then walked quickly across campus to a variety of classrooms and within 10 minutes they were on stage, confident and presenting to students and teachers from around the state.
read more at: Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff – TechLearning.com.
Hope we see more from these motivated students!
Sylvia
Tags: conference, laptops, Maine, Maine Learning Technology, student
Posted in conferences, In the news, student project samples, student voice | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
“Catch the Dream” in Canada!
Join hundreds of educators, students, administrators and partner organizations who come together annually from 50-70 countries to share how they are using technology to build global understanding and enhance teaching and learning! Learn how to make your education programs more global, and meet others who believe that students can make a difference in the world when they work together on collaborative online projects.
The iEARN Annual Conference and Youth Summit
Register now for the 17th Annual iEARN Conference and 14th Annual Youth Summit in Barrie, Canada (outside of Toronto), July 12-17, 2010.
Early Bird Rates for the iEARN International Conference and Youth Summit are available until March 31.
Call for presenters - are you interested in sharing your project, student work or best practices in education? Please participate as a presenter at the conference. Call for Presenters is open until March 31, 2010.
Sylvia
Tags: collaboration, conference, global, iEARN, meeting, projects, technology, youth summit
Posted in conferences, global | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
At the Northwest Council for Computers in Education (NCCE) in Seattle March 2-5, 2010, over 70 students from districts around Washington will be on site to assist. Students from grades 7-12 will help with video and audio production, technical support for attendees, geocaching events, and support for speakers. Generation YES is proud to be a sponsor of these student volunteers. They hail from several local districts that all use the Generation YES models of student technology.
If you are attending NCCE and need technical help during the NCCE conference, just go to the Generation YES Student Tech Support Station. It will be right outside the exhibit hall entrance and will be staffed with trained, helpful students from Tuesday – Friday 9 AM – 5 PM. Students will also be taking photographs, shooting video and doing interviews throughout the conference to document all the events at NCCE. Don’t miss the closing keynote for the debut of their production!
These students work daily in their own schools to help teachers use computers, video and more to make education better for all. If you meet these fine young men and women, you are sure to be impressed with their professionalism and knowledge about technology. They are pros at helping out — they do it all the time!
I won’t personally be at NCCE this year, but if you are a Generation YES blog fan, be sure to stop by and say hello to the students, Dennis Harper, Megan Evander, and Steven Hicks, the rest of the awesome Generation YES team.
Sylvia
Tags: conference, education, NCCE, NCCE10, NCCE2010, northwest, school, Seattle, student, tech support, technology, Washington
Posted in conferences, Generation YES, student tech support | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
The Capitol Region ISTE affiliate (CRSTE) is hosting a free online conference on education and technology called C3 – CRSTE Cyber Conference 2010 every evening from Feb 21 – March 5, 2010 . You don’t have to be from the mid-Atlantic region (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, DC, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware) to participate in this conference, and you don’t even have to show up!
The conference is a combination of asynchronous and synchronous events, and everything will be archived so you can check back in at any time. I was honored to be asked to participate and I’ll be presenting a session live.
Student Leadership ‐ Building Authentic 21st Century Skills
Date: February 27, 2010 Saturday
Time: 5:00 PM EST
Session Description: This session will present 4 models of student leadership focused on improving technology integration in real schools around the world. Having tech-savvy students help solve the authentic problems of 21st century education builds future leaders, learners, and citizens.
You can download the conference schedule here (PDF)
To register for the conference, you simply check off the sessions you are interested in. Online conferences are great ways to participate without a huge committment of time or money! And yes, although the sessions will be permanently archived, it’s more fun to be in the “action” online. You’ll be able to chat and interact as the session goes on.
Hope you’ll stop by!
Sylvia
Tags: conference, CRSTE, educational technology, free, ISTE, online, student leadership, student voice
Posted in conferences, fun/free stuff, professional development | Comments Off
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
I’ll be heading to Philadelphia later this month for the Educon conference. This is a terrific small conference held at the Science Leadership Academy about education and change. Educon is famous for having “conversations” not “presentations.” This means that the wisdom of the crowd gets shared as we explore one topic in depth.
This year I’m leading a conversation on Tinkering Towards Technology Fluency
Conversation Description: Tinkering is a time-honored educational practice, focusing on a learner exploring a subject or problem without clear goals or time constraints, using objects or tools at hand, driven by passion and curiosity. Seymour Papert used the word, “bricolage” to describe a way to solve problems by trying things out, testing, playing, and trying again. This stands in direct contract to the way we teach students to use analytical methods (such as the scientific method) to solve problems. Current digital tools would seem to support this method of learning, with the rapid ability to build first drafts and easy to use editing tools. When mistakes and prototypes were expensive and time consuming, it certainly made sense to carefully plan your attack on a problem. However, this is no longer the case. In industry, the methodology of production planning has been revolutionized by rapid design tools. Accepted practices of design and planning have completely changed over the past 25 years, with linear “waterfall” planning completely replaced by new “spiral” design methodologies, especially in the design of digital products.
Beginning questions for the conversation are: How can tinkering influence our understanding of technology literacy as a set of skills to be mastered? How might this influence classroom practice when teaching analytical problem solving in any subject? How can tinkering fit in today’s structured classroom environment? How does a teacher maintain a schedule and series of learning objectives that result in learning, not just fooling around? Is anything a student does tinkering? What role does judgement and content knowledge play in tinkering?
If you are considering attending Educon, I hope you join the conversation!
Related posts:
Sylvia
Tags: bricolage, conference, constructivism, educon, Educon22, session, SLA, technology, tinkering
Posted in constructivism, Generation YES | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
The New York state educational technology conference, NYSCATE (Nov. 22-24) always has a top lineup of speakers and keynotes. This year is no exception. The featured keynote is Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned advocate for creativity and innovation in learning.
I’ll be there as well, participating in the Constructivist Celebration, two sessions, and a panel. My Monday session is on teacher professional development in a “technology ecology,“ and on Tuesday the topic is games in education. The panel will tackle an intriguing question – What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century (and what does Web 2.0 have to do with it?)
In a special Sunday session, we will explore the second year outcomes of the NYSSTL program (New York State Student Technology Leaders). In more than 30 middle schools in New York, this innovative model for student-centered technology is showing that students can be 21st century leaders. The session will showcase video by two teachers who are working side by side with these student leaders.
Continuing in the creativity theme, if you are anywhere near Rochester on Sunday, Nov. 22 — don’t miss the Constructivist Celebration @ NYSCATE — it’s back and better than ever! Gary Stager and award-winning children’s book author Peter Reynolds will host a full-day workshop at the Strong National Museum of Play. This is the perfect place to explore creative, playful, constructivist learning with computers. The $100 registration fee includes lunch, creativity software from your favorite companies, and new this year, a free TechYES Mini-kit. TechYES is our middle school project-based technology literacy certification program. This is hundreds of dollars worth of the best creativity software and tools PLUS a great day of tinkering with technology.
And a note for you Stager fans, this will be your only opportunity to hear the always entertaining and thought-provoking Gary at this year’s NYSCATE.
The theme of creativity resonates strongly throughout NYSCATE, and the best way to encourage creativity is to allow (and teach) children to be creative problem-solvers in their own lives, both personal and academic. At Generation YES, we are sure there is no better way than to invite students to become leaders and allies in the effort to improve education with new technology.
As you can tell, I’m excited! NYSCATE is one of my favorite education technology conferences of the year and I can’t wait. If you’d like to hear more about what’s going on there, or meet me at NYSCATE, I’ll be there Sunday –Tuesday (Nov. 22 – 24).
Sylvia
Tags: conference, constructivist, Constructivist Consortium, creativity, education, gary stager, Ken Robinson, NYSCATE, nyscate09, peter reynolds, technology, web20
Posted in conferences, constructivism, Generation YES, web 2.0 | Comments Off
