ISTE #1 - Will Richardson

I am here in Denver at ISTE and it is late at night. I took in a full day of presentations. I was hoping to post my thoughts and ideas in between sessions but it was a fast paced day and I found myself with little time. One of the things I need to do tomorrow is give myself more time to process. OK... so here is a recap of my fist session.

My first presentation that I attended was a tough one to choose. Three of the ones that were the most enticing were from three men that have been influential to me in Ed Tech journey. First was Ian Jukes who I first saw back in 1998 when I was teaching in Nevada. Back then it was my first conference and he came in wowed me with the possibilites of where education is going. He is presenting and blogging and can be found here at the Committed Sardine (http://www.committedsardine.com). I didn't see Ian (a big reason for this was that his session was full!) and my second choice was Hall Davidson (http://www.halldavidson.net) who I saw at the CTAP conference two years ago. He was the one how taught and inspired me to begin with podcasting my lectures with a green screen. I saw that Hall was presenting later so I skipped his first and went to see the third of these presenters - the guru of blogs, wikis and podcasts, Will Richardson.

Session: Changing the Climate: How Teaching Social Networks Might Save the World
I have read Will's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms and been a follower of his blog (http://weblogg-ed.com)for about a year now. Here are some of the points that I wanted to share:

• His final point "BEGIN TO PARTICIPATE". In short, a call to arms that we as educators must act and act now. That we as teachers need to look at these social networks and realize that students are already creating their own Personal Learning Networks and we must do so as well. Plus we should be guiding our students in the PLNs so that the can participate in safe, effective and ethical ways.
• Shared a passage from Daniel Goleman "Know your impacts, Favor improvements, Share What You Learn"
• A lesson to focus on... How do we teach kids to make sense of all the content out there. We should not just trust all that we read but also must not think it is all suspect. Users should learn how to try and make sense. He used the BP Oil Spill and how the Google sponsored links are paid by BP. 
• We all get smarter when we work in the community and share - collaboration is king. I need to spend more time thinking about Will and others' idea of PLN's and also how we at my district are trying to move toward a PLC model. PLN's and PLC's... are they one in the same?
• He used a great example of how the world of technology is re-defining reading and writing. Showed
• There is a polarization out there between those who push for change and those who have not shifted their paradigm that the education is now becoming a different place. 
• Lastly, the walls of the classrooms are coming down. Learning takes place outside those walls but one of the consequences is that teachers are going to need to be more transparent. They need to allow others to see in. This would hold teachers more accoutable and make them WANT to get better.
• And one more time.... "BEGIN TO PARTICIPATE". Teachers it is time to open ourselves up to change and this participation will help us all. 

The network is the most powerful piece of learning