Monday, October 29, 2012

Thursday - Yale Wishnick on a Strength-Based Revolution in Education

Join me Thursday, November 1st, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Yale Wishnick, author of From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success: Focusing on What's Right About America and the American People. Most recently as the director of (and guiding force behind) the forward-thinking California Teachers Association Institute for Teaching (IFT), Dr. Wishnick has been on the cutting edge of strength-based strategies and practices to increase personal success and organizational excellence. The IFT was built on the believe that school change should be teacher-led, and he is convinced that every individual (teacher and student alike) can be successful by focusing on their strengths and positive experiences and less on deficits and weaknesses.
It doesn’t make much sense to create a school culture of success from a climate of disappointment and intractable problems. The IFT believes school change should focus on what’s working; the great teaching taking place in our classrooms. Further, if we want to know why children are successful, talk to successful students and their parents.  The IFT believes that the best strategy for school improvement is to investigate what’s working, not what’s broken. By focusing on what works in our schools and encouraging teacher independence and increasing capacity, we are more likely to have success. (From the IFT website.)
Date: Thursday, November 1st, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-01.1720.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/yalewishnick.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the website:  "From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success reveals how more and more Americans are missing out on the greatness of their country; its passion for excellence, its commitment to the dignity and self-worth of each individual, and its belief that every person has the right to achieve their own vision for success.  Chaos, confusion, disappointment, and hopelessness have pushed and pulled Americans into a state of dependency.

"From the individual, to the family, to our local communities, Americans are constantly looking for others to solve the problems and challenges they face. This has lead to victimology, class warfare, and ultimately bad public policy where a culture of dependency is becoming the new normal.

"As people think themselves into believing that they can’t make it on their own they are rejecting their own potential and capacity to act. Worse, they are missing out on the person they were destined to become.

"Go beyond the headlines and discover what is really driving a culture of dependency. Discover how deficit thinking is being used by politicians, bureaucrats, and the private sector elite to turn America into a dependency society.  From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success brings a sense of clarity to the problems facing America by offering not just solutions but fundamental reasons why America is becoming a dependency state." 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Thursday - Jamie McMillin on Lessons from Legendary Learners

Join me Thursday, October 25th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Jamie McMillan, author of Legendary Learning: The Famous Homeschoolers' Guide to Self-Directed Excellence. This interview is part of my continued interest in how lessons from the homeschool world may increasingly inform discussions of traditional education. Jamie looks at what she calls "Legendary Learners[:] big thinkers, creators, leaders and achievers who earned success on their own terms."

"Read about famous homeschoolers such as: Andrew Carnegie, Agatha Christie, Louis Armstrong, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Robert Frost, John Muir, and Walt Whitman. Find out what these legends had in common, how they were raised and how they found success. Their fascinating stories will inspire you to think about homeschooling [and schooling?] in a whole new way - beyond curriculum, test scores and 'keeping up with the school kids.' You will discover how to: unleash your child's unique creative genius and power; cultivate passion and determination; allow your child to direct his or her own education; create an authentic atmosphere of learning; and live the habits of success." (From the publisher's description.)
"The great men and women of history had a certain kind of education. Find out how to duplicate it in Jamie McMillin's excellent book! A great read for parents, teachers, and self-educators." - Oliver and Rachel DeMille, authors of the "Thomas Jefferson Education" books 
"Jamie McMillin offers a well-researched and compelling look at what little-known factors bring forth the best in each child. This is a book every parent and educator should read." - Laura Grace Weldon, author of "Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything"
Date: Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-25.0946.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/jamiemcmillin.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

About Jamie McMillin (from her website)

I have been homeschooling my three kids since 1996, trying nearly every method you can think of in that time. Fortunately, my kids are good sports.

Before that, I was in the U.S. Coast Guard, graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1989, then spending the next five years working in the Coast Guard aids to navigation program in Texas and Alaska.

In all that time, I was (and have been) a voracious reader and addicted to research. I first heard of homeschooling back in 1993 from a “Harrowsmith Country Life” magazine featuring Rebecca Rupp. Enchanted, I read everything I could get my hands on about teaching my son at home, though he was only a baby at the time. Was it legal? Did it work? How do I do this? Fortunately, my husband was game and by the time our second son came along, we had decided that homeschooling was the way to go. Rebecca Rupp was my first mentor, although she never knew it. Her books were always within reach, and our early days were modeled after hers. We read lots of books, played games, constructed Viking ships, made salt-dough models of the Mediterranean, grew pole bean teepees and had lots of fun.

As the homeschooling movement grew and I connected with more families, I researched other styles of teaching: classical (The Well Trained Mind), unschooling, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, leadership (A Thomas Jefferson Education) and others. It was so hard to decide! They all sounded right. How to choose? It really came down to experimentation and finding what worked with each of my kids – and they were all very different. But I was still a tad worried, so that’s when I started reading biographies of people who had unconventional educations. I thought that if I could pick out any common threads among the childhoods of these successful people, it would give me some indication of which homeschooling method worked best.

Well, I got more than I bargained for. I learned so much I had to put it in a book! It turns out that there was indeed a common thread in the education of the people I studied, but that was just a small part of it. I also found similarities in how they were raised and the experiences they shared. It was fascinating!

Unfortunately, my homeschooling days are almost over. My oldest is in college and my second son is attending community college part-time. My youngest has decided to go to a local charter school for the arts this fall. But now is when I really have the experience and hindsight to know what worked, so that is why I decided to create this blog. I have a lot of stories about my kids and other people with unconventional educations to help put your homeschooling worries in perspective. Don’t worry – homeschooling is much more fun than you might think!

If you would like to contact me, please email JamieMcMillin (at) legendarylearningnow (dot) com    (please excuse the coded email address – I’m trying to stop the robots from finding me)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Wednesday Live - Denise Pope from Stanford Challenges the Current School Success Model

Join me Wednesday, October 24th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Stanford's Denise Pope, co-founder of the Challenge Success program, a research-based organization that develops "refreshingly practical curriculum, conferences and other programs for parents, schools, and kids looking for a healthier and more effective path to success." From the site:
"At Challenge Success, we believe that our society has become too focused on grades, test scores and performance, leaving little time and energy for our kids to become resilient, successful, meaningful contributors for the 21st century...
"We believe that children come with a wide variety of interests, skills, capacities and talents. Children need love, support, limits and a safe environment to develop their full potential. This process of growing up is slow, deliberate and often unpredictable, and therefore requires that children have the time and energy needed to mature into resilient, caring and engaged adults. Challenge Success recognizes that our current fast-paced, high-pressure culture works against everything we know about healthy child development. 
"At Challenge Success we believe that the over emphasis on grades, test scores and rote answers has stressed out some students and marginalized many more. We all want our children to do well in school, and certainly there is content that must be mastered, but our singular focus has resulted in a lack of attention to other components of a successful life - the ability to be independent, adaptable, ethical, and motivated critical thinkers."
A Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, for the past thirteen years Denise has specialized in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. She founded and served as director of Stressed-Out Students (SOS), the predecessor to Challenge Success. She lectures nationally on parenting techniques and pedagogical strategies to increase student health, engagement with learning, and integrity. Her book Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (and which she discussed last year on FutureofEducation.com) was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal. Dr. Pope is a 3 time recipient of the Stanford University School of Education Outstanding Teacher and Mentor Award. She has been featured on CNN, World News Tonight, the Today Show, NPR, and several other television and radio programs. Before Stanford, Dr. Pope taught high school English in Fremont, California and college composition at Santa Clara University.

Date: Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-24.1533.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/denisepopecs.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the website:

Responding to an increase in academic and emotional problems among kids in the United States, psychologists, educators, physicians, and public health and policy experts in child and adolescent well-being convened at Stanford University in July 2007 to envision a coordinated approach to helping schools, parents and families develop alternative success models to align with research on healthy child development.

In response to this meeting, Madeline Levine, Ph.D., Jim Lobdell, M.A., and Denise Pope, Ph.D. founded Challenge Success, an expansion of the highly successful SOS (Stressed-Out Students) Project at Stanford University. Utilizing the resources of a prominent advisory board of interdisciplinary experts, the co-founders created a research-based organization that develops refreshingly practical curriculum, conferences and other programs for parents, schools, and kids looking for a healthier and more effective path to success in the 21st century. Challenge Success has become a trusted “voice of reason” for parents and educators and has received significant media attention and tremendous public and private support.

"At Challenge Success, we work every day to provide schools and families with the information and strategies they need to create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for their kids.  We work with teams of educators, parents and students at schools to identify problems and implement best practices for school policies, curriculum, assessment, and a healthy school climate.  We provide support to parents by giving them the tools to help their children regain their balance, strengthen their sense of self, increase their motivation and critical thinking skills, and learn how to deal effectively with the inevitable challenges of life. And we conduct, collect and synthesize research, so that the public can make informed decisions about educating children."


Monday, October 22, 2012

Tuesday Live - Suzie Boss on Bringing Innovation to School and Empowering Students

Join me Tuesday, October 23rd, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Suzie Boss on her new book, Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World. Suzie is a journalist who writes about the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. Co-author of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, she's inspired by educators who push the boundaries of the traditional classroom. She is on the National Faculty of the Buck Institute for Education, and has also helped nonprofit organizations design programs that teach both youth and adults how to improve their communities with innovative, sustainable solutions.

"Suzie Boss has wed the work of schools to the work of prominent innovators, proving that these worlds are not far apart at all. . . . Bringing Innovation to School is filled with practical, easy-to-follow ways to change teacher and school practice. We are lucky. Suzie has given us both a call for change and a blueprint for doing so." --From the foreword by Chris Lehmann

"If you read only one book on innovation in education, read Bringing Innovation to School. Suzie Boss goes directly to the heart of why we need innovation in our schools, and she describes practical, realistic solutions to get there. This book will be extremely useful to all people who seek to improve education including teacher leaders, administrators, parents, and policy makers." --Cindy Johanson, Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation, publisher of Edutopia"Bringing Innovation to School makes a powerful case that innovation can be--make that must be--taught and provides engaging examples of how real educators are doing this today. Every parent, teacher, and administrator should read this book and ask themselves whether their schools are graduating innovators." --John R. Mergendoller, Executive Director, Buck Institute for Education

Date: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-23.1704.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/suzieboss.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the publisher:  "Are you preparing a new generation of innovators? Activate your students' creativity and problem-solving potential with breakthrough learning projects. Across all grades and content areas, student-driven, collaborative projects will teach students how to generate innovative ideas and then put them into action. You’ll take learning to new heights and help students master core content.

Benefits:
  • Shows educators why innovation is an essential skill for 21st century learners' success 
  • Demonstrates the diverse ways innovation can be implemented in the classroom 
  • Provides innovative examples from outside education to stir creativity 
  • Explains how innovation can coexist with standards-based instruction 
  • Provides tips on how to incorporate unstructured time into the school day"

Monday, October 15, 2012

Wednesday Live - Kirsten Olson on "Wounded by School"

Join me Wednesay, October 17th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Kirsten Olson, author of Wounded By School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up To Old School Culture. Kirsten is a leading writer in the U.S. describing education from a student's point of view. Wounded By School was a top-selling book at Teachers College Press last year, and was nominated for Book of the Year by Foreword.  Reviewers have called the book “brilliant, insightful, unsparing, hopeful.”

Kirsten is a founding board member of IDEA, Institute for Democratic Education in America, an emerging national not-for-profit linking youth and Progressive educational activists for educational transformation through community organizing and showcasing what is best in education. A leadership coach and organizational consultant at Old Sow Consulting, Kirsten currently works with school teams and individual school leaders nationally who are attempting to do transformational work in education, and create new conceptions of powerful learning and meaningful school communities. An experiential retreat leader with two-year facilitator training with Parker Palmer at the Center for Courage and Renewal, she frequently leads week-long residential and one-day retreats on mindfulness for leaders, self-compassion, and "permissioning" in leadership and social action.

Kirsten holds a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and is a recent graduate of the Georgetown Center for Transformational Leadership.   She lives in Brookline, MA where her four children attended public school.

Date: Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-17.0407.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/kirstenolson.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

(From Kirsten's Website):

This controversial book says that the way we educate millions of American children alienates students from a fundamental pleasure in learning, and that pleasure in learning is essential to real engagement, creativity, intellectual entrepreneurship, and a well-lived life.

Based on almost a decade of intensive autobiographical interviews with over 100 "ordinary" students, teachers, and parents, Wounded By School describes some of the dilemmas of those in school now. Students talk about intensive boredom and daily disengagement, while knowing that school "matters" more than ever.  Students and teachers describe a grinding lack of meaning in their work, combined with intensive labeling, tracking and shrink-wrapping of learners based on cursory tests and poor understanding of many kinds of minds.

Wounded By School identifies seven kinds of common school wounds, and tells the stories of those who have experienced them...
  • Wounds of Creativity
  • Wounds of Compliance
  • Wounds of Rebelliousness
  • Wounds That Numb
  • Wounds of Underestimation
  • Wounds of Perfectionism
  • Wounds of the Average
These stories show that while reformers and policymakers tinker with accountability plans and annual yearly progress measures, millions of learners are intellectually and spiritually checking out--and gifted teachers depart the field by thousands--due to inhospitable conditions for learning and teaching.

In addition to exploring seven types of common school wounds, Wounded By School also portrays a few individuals who have healed their learning lives and reclaimed their intellectual territory and self-possession. These stories of healing show that those who have been lacerated must be much more vocal and active in pressuring our educational system for change.

Fundamentally hopeful, Wounded By School finds much energy for reform, and an alignment with the larger business community that says American schools are not producing the kinds of attributes most needed in young adults and future employees.

An old-fashioned, outmoded institution, the American schoolhouse and concepts of learning and teaching were designed for an earlier time. These ideas no longer serve us well. This is a critical moment for individuals to band together to create change and reclaim our learning lives.

Stand up!

A Learner's Bill of Rights

Every learner has the right to know why they are learning something, why it is important now, or may be important to them someday.

Every learner has the right to engage in questioning or interrogating the idea of "importance" above.

Every learner has the right to be confused and to express this confusion openly, honestly, and without shame.

Every learner has the right to multiple paths to understanding a concept, an idea, a set of facts, or a series of constructs.

Every learner has the right to understand his or her own mind, brain wiring, and intellectual inclinations as completely as possible.

Every learner has the right to interrogate and question the means through which his or her learning is assessed.

Every learner is entitled to some privacy in their imagination and thoughts.

Every learner has the right to take their own imagination and thinking seriously.

-From Wounded By School

Monday, October 08, 2012

Tuesday Live Interview - Blake Boles on "Better Than College"

Join me Tuesday, October 9th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Blake Boles, entrepreneur, educator, and author of Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree.

Blake is also the author of College Without High School), is the director of Unschool Adventures, and the founder of Zero Tuition College. In 2003 Blake was studying astrophysics at UC Berkeley when he stumbled upon a treasure trove of books by authors John Taylor Gatto, Grace Llewellyn, John Holt, and other pioneers in the realm of alternative education. Deeply inspired by the philosophies of unschooling and free schooling, Blake custom-designed his final two years of college to study these subjects full-time. After graduating he joined the Not Back to School Camp community and began writing and speaking widely on the subject of self-directed learning.

In Blake’s previous lives, he has worked as a high-volume cook, Aurora Borealis physics research assistant, delivery truck driver, math tutor, outdoor science teacher, EMT medic, summer camp director, market researcher, web designer, and windsurfing and tree climbing instructor. He keeps a running goal (and failure) list. His biggest passion is sharing his enthusiasm and experience with young adults who are blazing their own trails through life. He is 30 years old.

Date: Tuesday, October 9th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-09.1416.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/blakeboles.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

Do you need college in order to be taken seriously and earn a real living? 
Conventional wisdom says yes. But true success relies upon self-knowledge and entrepreneurship: two qualities that you can obtain effectively and inexpensively without traditional college.

Better Than College provides the step-by-step guidance and inspiration necessary to design your own higher education. This book teaches you how to find community, stay on track, and get hired or start your own venture, all without a four-year degree. Curious college students will learn to think clearly about their motivations, plan a gap year, or navigate life after school. And Better Than College will show parents how self-directed learning can lead to a lifetime of achievement no expensive institution required.


Why I Wrote Better Than College (from Blake)

Since the 2008-9 recession, we've seen a flurry of books that criticize the notion of college-for-all--such as Academically Adrift, Higher Education?, The Five-Year Party, and Crisis on Campus--as well as many articles and op-ed pieces that make similar arguments. Condensed, these arguments typically amount to:

  • college is overpriced, 
  • college no longer guarantees success, and 
  • college no longer offers a rigorous experience.

But what we haven't seen are concrete suggestions for what a bright young adult might do with her time instead of going to college. Even if the above arguments are correct, what is a young person to do if there are no viable alternatives to college?

That's why I wrote Better Than College. Drawing from my years of involvement in the world of "unschooling" and interviews with dozens of young people who consciously made the decision to skip (or leave) college, I constructed a "how-to" guide for giving yourself a higher education without four-year college.

My book doesn't focus on the Gates' and Zuckerbergs who made huge amounts of money without a college degree; for that, take a look at Michael Ellsberg's excellent book The Education of Millionaires. Instead, I focus on how a young person can become financially independent, self-employed (or very happily employed), well-rounded, and well-connected without the grace of a college institution.

You don't have to be a young genius to put my principles and concrete advice into action. Rather, this book is for any young adult (or adult-adult) who wants to define his own version of success and isn't satisfied to wait four years (and take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt) to do so.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

February 2013 - The Educator 2.0 Tour in Australia


Join me in Australia in February of 2013, where I'll be doing a series of workshops, masterclasses, and consultancies in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. The Educator 2.0 Tour is part of the Vanguard Visions' "Digital Capability - Doing it Smarter" program, and I hope you'll consider participating with us if that is your part of the world!

The workshops are full-day hands-on events which will explore these trends of the education revolution--which is demanding even more from our educational institutions and from educators. At the same time, the Web is providing amazing new opportunities for educators, including the ability to explore their own interests and passions, to build personal learning networks (PLNs) for peer-to-peer learning, and to have a new significant impact on their learners, their organizations, and their own careers. The workshop activities will enable educators, as the "lead learners", to build educational resources for their students, themselves, and their institutions.

Conducted as a blended approach to professional development, the Educator 2.0 full-day workshops will include post-event online meetings, together with networking and forums discussions.

Alternatively, organisations can choose to engage me for individual and customised full or half-day masterclasses or consultancies for your own staff/organisations. See the website for potential dates and contact information. Download the Educator 2.0 Australian Tour flyer for more information.
"...if we engage and participate and build, we have a very different experience than if we're just followers" 

Library 2.012 Starts Tomorrow - Worldwide and Free, 150 Sessions + 11 Keynotes


Library 2.012, the "Future of Libraries" conference, starts tomorrow, Wednesday, October 3rd, at 6:30 am US-Pacific Daylight Time and continues for 40 straight hours. The conference is free to attend, and is held virtually in Blackboard Collaborate. We have 150 presentation sessions and 11 keynote addresses from all over the world this year, and subject strands include physical and virtual learning spaces, evolving professional roles in today's world, organizing and creating information, changing delivery methods, user-centered access, and mobile and geo-social information environments. 

The schedule for the conference can be seen in your own time zone--allowing you to easily and quickly find and attend sessions that interest you. You can connect and converse with the presenters and other attendees in the 15,000-member Library 2.0 network. Recordings will be made of all sessions, will also be free, and will be posted on the conference site.

Special thanks to the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu), the founding conference sponsor; to Follett Software Company and Blackboard Collaborate; and to our 31 partner organizations and our 70 international advisors

We hope you will join us!