Online Meetings

To explore this week’s 23things, I’m attending Educon 2.2 hosted by the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. It is an education conference that is “both a conversation and a conference.” I am attending using the software Elluminate. It’s nice that I’m participating in a conference going on live in Philadelphia, yet I’m sitting in front of my computer at home. One downside is that my dog sees that the sun is shining outside and I’m not leaving for work, so why am I not taking him for a walk?

The first session I’m attending is Tinkering Towards Technology Fluency. It’s about a program that allows students to discover technology on their own. The video screen is very difficult to see and there’s a lot of static in the audio.

Snippets of the conversation: Nothing turns out as planned… success is in the doing …everyone doesn’t do the same thing …as long as they make progress and they are showing they are learning …move from curriculum learning …what you need to learn when you are ready to learn it … see yourself as Iron Chef – here’s the ingredients and tools, now go to it … stop the thinking of “delivering” learning …learning happens when students are given agency …students may be learning something that is unknown to the teacher … not learning about science, but acting as a scientist .. how to implement in a block learning …

Interesting discussion, but as far as the technology goes, it was not a great experience. Online meeting and conferences are in their infancy. I think we have to be patient. I just have to think of how things have changed in the last few years, and how much more they are going to change in the next few years. I think online learning is one area that will get much, much better.