Celebrating the Back Channel - Day 3 ISTE #ISTE2015

The crowds thronged, the halls were full, the discussions were coming thick and fast.  It truly was a site to behold.

If you are a tweeter then it took an all mighty amount of concentration to stay focussed on the feed and what was being said.  Those who were wise created separate hashtags for events, sections and presentations.  This was a win! It separated the feed to what you wanted to focus on.

Although on the up side, that presentation that didn't quite cut it, then at least there was something to follow.  The back channel kept me entertained.

To those that posted links to presentations - I applaud you! You are my heroes, as today I got to virtually share many more sessions than I could physically make it to.

The power of the hashtag should not be underestimated.... use it to separate the feed, to focus on what you consider important.  So tomorrow hashtag away... post, create, collaborate and join in what it trending as an important back channel to an amazing educational event.

#awesome #collaboration #creativity #edtechynerds

It takes a village... ISTE day 2

Different start to the day, different ideas, different discussions.
Inspirational people doing extraordinary things in sometimes out of the ordinary situations.

I take my hat off to you....

I had conversations with those that are trying to move schools forward, to create change, to inspire and lead innovation in the next generation - not an easy job.

I met people that have made decisions to be change agents.  To not accept the "average".  To challenge, to create access and embrace diversity.  To give to those who don't have the chance to explore how their dreams can be realised.

These people are learners, they support each other, they find someone to help, they source experts.  They have courage, they have aspirations, they have hope.

They create a village.  A village where learners fail forward.  A village where risk taking is the norm.  A village where there is support, collaboration and creativity.  A village where dreams are realised, where individuals are celebrated - just because.  

Imagine an education system that contained all of these types of villages.
Imagine what would happen.
Imagine what our students would be like.

Whoooooweeeeee.  Now that's what I call hanging with my tribe - getting inspired!

Are you a change agent?

Have you created a village?

Are you part of a village? 

Is Educational Change Glacial?

Food for thought...

I heard today something that made me sit up and take note.
I heard "Isn't this the same discussion we had 5 years ago, 10 years ago?
It is the same rhetoric being moved from the back of the room to the centre of the room to the stage.  So what is different?  Is it changing in schools?"

This generated the idea that educational change and innovation is moving at a glacial rate.  Slowly pushing its way forward over the boulders, valleys and mountains.

We could say that the obstacles that a glacier navigates could be government policies, changes in curriculum, changes in leadership, changes to idea sets, changes in technologies.  I like to think that the pedagogical practice, the why and how of teaching is what is pushing this change.  Teachers wanting to inspire their students, involve parents and communities and show the obstacles that students are innovative, solution seekers that are gasping for engaging content and a purposefulness to their learning.

The other force of this glacier are the students.
Students want control of their learning.
Students want control of their learning environments.
Students want a large and varied selection of tools to choose from to create, collaborate and solution seek with.
Students want to be teachers and learners.

Then we must ask... are us as educators the rocks and mountainous obstacles on their glacier?

I recall participating in the conversations at the back of the room, then in the middle and now I sit and see it coming from the front.

When will the glacier stop moving?  Maybe it won't.  Will the edge snap off and float away on a stormy sea? Or will it become a thing of beauty with a hidden depth of knowledge, experience going on to encounter other icebergs? Or will it melt away, disappearing from sight, to become a distant memory?

My First Time @ ISTE

Well.. I am here.  It is huge.  It is over the top.  It is insane crazy.

I don't know how I feel about it yet.

There is a lot of reference to Common Core - I am struggling with this.
I don't use Common Core and there is word in ISTE that says International.  The last time I looked Common Core is only used in the USA.  The discussions I am hearing are the relationships of the ISTE Standards with Common Core.  More generic please.  If you truly want to be seen as an international organisation with international standards then the relationships need to be generic with curriculum contents.

I empathise with my fellow educators, my US colleagues, with what they see as a daily battle of engagement - not just with students but teachers as well.  But the journeys that others take, can be learned from.  Their experiences, their encounters, their failures, their successes need to not just be heard but listened to as well.  Learn form them.

This is just after day 1.

I hope that the next few days there are different discussions, different encounters, a more global approach.  I don't know.  But I hope so!
Go global people, think it, act it, learn from it.....

The Things You Find

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