Thursday, April 25, 2013

Thursday Interview: Andreas Schleicher and What We Can Learn about Education from International Data

Join me Thursday, April 25th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Andreas specifically has oversight of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

PISA is an international study that was launched by the OECD in 1997. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide every three years by assessing 15-year-olds' competencies in the key subjects: reading, mathematics and science. PISA emphasizes functional skills that students have acquired as they near the end of compulsory schooling, and includes measures of general or cross-curricular competencies, such as problem solving. To date over 70 countries and economies have participated in PISA.

The PISA results have generated very significant reactions, which include: the focus on Finland's educational system because of the unexpected and consistently top results from Finnish students; the highest-place results for Shanghai in 2009 when China students were included for the first time; and the comparatively low results for the United States (in 2009, 31st in Maths, 23rd in Sciences, and 17th in Reading).

We'll talk with Andreas about what data from high-performing school systems around the world tells about best practices in education, and look to uncover promising practices and the future of education internationally. This is a special event held in partnership with the Asia Society as part of their year-long Global Learning for Educators webinar series.

Date: Thursday, April 25th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-24.1706.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording us at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/andreaspisa.mp3 and at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/47034.

Andreas Schleicher is Deputy Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to OECD’s Secretary-General. He also provides strategic oversight over OECD’s work on the development and utilisation of skills and their social and economic outcomes. This includes the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems (INES). Before joining the OECD, he was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement." He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tuesday Interview: The Truth About Testing with Jim Popham

Join me Tuesday, April 23rd, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with W. James Popham, author of (among many other books) The Truth About Testing: An Educator's Call to Action and Unlearned Lessons: Six Stumbling Blocks to Our Schools Success.

"Why is it," Jim writes, "that today's educators seem almost compelled to replicate their predecessors' blunders?" We'll talk with Jim about "the absurdity and serious destructive consequences of today's testing programs" and why it's "nonsense" to think that large-scale, high-stakes testing programs are the best way to determine which schools or teachers are failing and which are succeeding. We'll also discuss the ultimate impact on both teachers and students of this "measurement mess" and what we can do about it.

Date: Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-23.0918.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/pophamtesting.mp3 and at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/46394.

W. James Popham, professor emeritus at University of California Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, has spent the bulk of his educational career as a teacher. His first teaching assignment, for example, was in a small eastern Oregon high school where he taught English and social studies while serving as yearbook advisor, class sponsor, and unpaid tennis coach. That recompense meshed ideally with the quality of his coaching.

Most of Dr. Popham's teaching career took place at UCLA where, for nearly 30 years, he taught courses in instructional methods for prospective teachers as well as courses in evaluation and measurement for graduate students. At UCLA he won several distinguished teaching awards. In January 2000, he was recognized by UCLA Today as one of UCLA’s top 20 professors of the 20th century. (He notes that the 20th century was a full-length century, unlike the current abbreviated one.) In 1992, he took early retirement from UCLA upon learning that emeritus professors received free parking.

Because at UCLA he was acutely aware of the perishability of professors who failed to publish, he spent his non-teaching hours affixing words to paper. The result: 30 books, 200 journal articles, 50 research reports, and 175 papers presented before research societies. Although not noted in his official vita, while at UCLA he also authored 1,426 grocery lists.

His most recent books are Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, 6th Ed. (2010) and Assessment for Educational Leaders (2006), Allyn & Bacon; The Truth About Testing (2001), Test Better, Teach Better (2003), Transformative Assessment (2008) and Instruction that Measures Up (2009) ASCD; America’s “Failing” Schools (2005) and Mastering Assessment (2006), Routledge; and Unlearned Lessons (2009) Harvard Education Press. He encourages purchase of these books because he regards their semi-annual royalties as psychologically reassuring.

In 1978, Dr. Popham was elected to the presidency of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He was also the founding editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a quarterly journal published by AERA. A Fellow of the Association, he has attended each year's AERA meeting since his first in 1958. He is inordinately compulsive.

In 1968, Dr. Popham established IOX Assessment Associates, an R&D group that formerly created statewide student achievement tests for a dozen states. He has personally passed all of those tests, largely because of his unlimited access to the tests’ answer keys.

In 2002 the National Council on Measurement in Education presented him with its Award for Career Contributions to Educational Measurement. In 2006 he was awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the National Association of Test Directors. In 2009, he was appointed to be a board member of the National Assessment Governing Board. Dr. Popham’s complete 44-page, single-spaced vita can be requested. It is really dull reading.

(Bio from Corwin Press, humor from Jim.)


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Thursday Interview: Success Stories from Around the World with Sahlberg and Stewart

Join me Thursday, April 18th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Pasi Sahlberg and Vivien Stewart. Our discussion will focus on what we can learn from international education models, and specifically how those models provide students with equal access to an excellent education. This is a special event held in partnership with the Asia Society as part of their year-long Global Learning for Educators webinar series. (Please note this is at an earlier time of the day than usual.)

Pasi Sahlberg is Finnish educator, teacher and scholar. He worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator and policy advisor in Finland with broad international experience. He has served World Bank, European Commission and OECD and advised foreign governments on equity and excellence in education in more than 45 countries around the globe. He is board member of the ASCD (in the U.S.), the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education (IASCE in the U.S.), and the Centre on International Education Benchmarking (CIEB in the U.S.). His award-winning book Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? (2011) is bestseller and translated into more than ten languages. His current job as Director General of CIMO (National Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Finland, he leads internationalization of Finnish education system. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and at the University of Oulu. He received 2012 Education Award in Finland and 2013 Grawemeyer Award in the United States for his work on equity and quality for all through public education.

Vivien Stewart is senior education advisor and former vice president of the Asia Society, where she led a national effort to prepare American students and educators for the interconnected world of the 21st century. She has worked with schools around the country to prepare students for work and citizenship in a global age. She has worked with states to adapt their policies to a global knowledge economy, and she has developed resources for teachers to promote global knowledge and skills. Stewart has also brought together education leaders from many countries, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, to share expertise on how to respond to the rapid transformations of globalization and develop world-class educational systems. Previously, Stewart was director of education programs at Carnegie Corporation of New York for 10 years, where she developed initiatives to improve early childhood and youth development and managed a series of national education task forces. She has also been a senior policy advisor at the United Nations, a visiting scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is an internationally known writer on education. Her book, A World-Class Education: Lessons from International Experience was published in February 2012. Stewart received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oxford University.

Date: Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Time: 1pm Pacific / 4pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-18.1030.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/globallessons.mp3 and http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/44570.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Wednesday Interview - Breaking the Cycle of Students' Disengagement by Having Them Leave, to Learn

Join me Wednesday, April 17th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski on their new book, Leaving to Learn: How Out-of-School Learning Increases Student Engagement and Reduces Dropout Rates.

The first step to addressing the nation's dropout rate, Elliot and Charlie argue, is letting students "leave, to learn."  (From the book's description:) "It's an alarming fact: in the U.S., one student drops out of school every 12 seconds. Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski, both of Big Picture Learning, have a proven, innovative solution for stemming the flow of drop-outs and breaking the cycle of disengagement that leads up to it. It's called leaving to learn. Leaving to Learn helps us deeply understand the real reasons kids drop out and the essential conditions for productive learning that today's adolescents require. The authors then make a compelling argument: in order to retain students through to graduation, schools must offer experiences where students do some of their learning outside of school. With common sense 'rules of the road,' the authors offer nuts and bolts guidelines for implementing a high-quality Leaving to Learn program, including:examples of the many forms of out-of-school learning: internships, travel, community service, independent projects, and more seamlessly integrating students' outside learning with in-school curriculum assigning academic credit for out-of-school accomplishments."

Date: Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-17.0748.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/leavingtolearn.mp3 and at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/44050.

Elliot Washor, Ed.D. is the co-founder and co-director of Big Picture Learning. He is also the co-founder of The Met Center in Providence, RI.

Elliot has been involved in school reform for more than 30 years as a teacher, principal, administrator, video producer, and writer. He has taught and is interested in all levels of school from kindergarten through college, in urban and rural settings, across all disciplines. His work has spanned across school design, pedagogy, learning environments, and education reform and is supporting others doing similar work throughout the world. Elliot’s interests lie in the field of how schools can connect with communities to understand tacit and disciplinary learning both in and outside of school. Elliot is deeply committed to imagining Big Picture Learning as a ‘do-think-do’ organization, and persistently pushes the boundaries of its design in order to continually innovate practice and influence in the world of education.

At Thayer High School in Winchester, N.H., Elliot’s professional development programs won an “Innovations in State and Local Government Award” from the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has been selected as an educator to watch in Rhode Island and has recently been selected as one of the Daring Dozen – the Twelve Most Daring Educators in the World by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. His dissertation on Innovative Pedagogy and New Facilities won the merit award from DesignShare, the international forum for innovative schools.

Elliot lives in sunny San Diego with his wife and five dogs.

Charlie Mojkowski worked with Elliot Washor and Dennis Littky in creating Big Picture Learning and The Met School in Providence. He currently works with Elliot on developing new initiatives that refine and extend the Big Picture Learning design. Charlie has served as an independent consultant to education and business since 1976. He works primarily in the areas of school and curriculum improvement, leadership and organizational development, program evaluation, and applications of technology that support that work. Charlie designed, administered, and taught in a doctoral program in educational leadership; directed the Rhode Island Educational Leadership Academy; and served as Executive Director of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals.


Monday, April 15, 2013

Tuesday Interview: "Deschooling" with Matt Hern


Join me Tuesday, July 2nd BEING RESCHEDULED!, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Matt Hern on "deschooling."

The phrase "deschooling" was popularized by Ivan Illich, and indicates a belief that "most people learn better by themselves, outside of an institutional environment, at a self-determined pace" (see Wikipedia). Matt's most recent book on this topic, Everywhere All the Time: A New Deschooling Reader, "presents an array of historical and contemporary alternatives to traditional schooling, demonstrating that children’s capacity to learn decreases as soon as they enter bureaucratic, institutional facilities."
"Debates about education often revolve around standardized testing, taxes and funding, teacher certification—everything except how to best help kids develop learning skills.... Census data in the United States alone places the number of home-schooled children at five hundred thousand. Trends point toward an increasing skepticism of the ability of public schools—and private ones, based on similar pedagogy—to give kids what they need to be healthy, self-directed life learners. Major themes in this book include: children’s self-directed learning, encouraging community-building and participation from parents in the learning process, critical thinking for active engagement and democratic self-governance, and alleviating the negative psychological effects of traditional schooling methods. It also includes the voices and artwork of alternatively schooled children themselves." (From the publisher description.)
Matt lives and works in East Vancouver with his partner and daughters where he co-directs the Purple Thistle Centre and founded Car-Free Vancouver Day.  His books and articles have been published on all six continents, translated into ten languages and he continues to lecture globally. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies, and teaches Education at UBC, Urban Studies at SFU and Community Economic Development in CBU’S MBA program. He is currently primarily occupied directing the Groundswell project.

Date: Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013 BEING RESCHEDULED
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording and an audio mp3 recording will be at http://www.stevehargadon.com and http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/43623.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Library 2.013 Conference Call for Proposals

This is the official call for presentation proposals for the Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference, October 18 - 19, 2013 (in some time zones the conference will conclude on the 20th).

This fully online, participatory conference presents a unique opportunity to showcase the excellent research and work that done every day, with a focus on peer-to-peer presentations. How does your library manage digital collections? Is your library mobile friendly? Do you have a story to tell about maker spaces? Your participation as a presenter can help to steer the global conversation about the future of libraries.

Everyone is welcome to submit a presentation proposal and participate in this free event. There are no registration fees and no travel requirements. The entire conference will be held online via web conferencing, with presentations held in multiple languages and scheduled around the clock over the course of the two days.

The Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference presentations will cover eight subject strands, addressing a wide variety of timely topics, such as MOOCs, e-books, maker spaces, mobile services, embedded librarians, green libraries, and more! Doctoral students will also have their own strand for presenting their research. Plus, there will be a new strand dedicated to virtual library tours.

The Library 2.013 Conference Strands:

  • Digital Services, Preservation, and Access
  • Emerging Technologies and Trends
  • Learning Commons (for school libraries and/or academic libraries)
  • Management of Libraries and Information Centers in the 21st Century
  • User Centered Services and Models
  • Library and Information Professionals – Evolving Roles and Opportunities
  • Doctoral Student Research
  • Library and Information Center “Tours”
To view examples of presentation topics for each subject strand, click here. Your presentation does not have to fit into the conference strands to be considered – the strands exist for the convenience of those interested in finding particular themes.

Proposal acceptances will be communicated on a first-come, first-served basis starting June 15. If your proposal is accepted, you will be provided with the ability to schedule a presentation time that is convenient to your time zone and work schedule. Early proposal submission and acceptance will give you the most flexibility for scheduling your presentation. The deadline to submit presentation proposals is September 30.

The Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference is our third installment of the Library 2.0 conference series, sponsored again by founding partner San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. Last year’s Library 2.012 conference featured 150 fully online presentations given by scholars and information professionals worldwide. If you missed any of the presentations, you can still access recordings of the presentations. A wealth of information was also shared during the inaugural Library 2.011 conference, and a list of those recordings can be found here.

For more information about the conference and how you can get involved as a partner, sponsor, volunteer, and advisory board member, please visit: http://library2013.com.

Please do share this call for proposals with your colleagues and friends. We look forward to receiving your presentation proposals!

Monday, April 08, 2013

Tuesday Interview: Madeline Levine on Teaching Your Children Well

Join me Tuesday, April 9th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Madeline Levine on her book, Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success.

Dr. Levine is a psychologist with over twenty-five years of experience as a clinician, consultant and educator. Teach Your Children Well, a New York Times bestseller, looks at "how parents and schools have come to embrace a narrow vision of success that is out of line with the real needs of children and teens. Without reassessing our current overdependence on grades, trophies and prestigious college acceptances, we are likely to continue to see children at physical and emotional risk; kids lacking in both character and the coping skills necessary to face the inevitable challenges of growing up. Dr. Levine poses solutions that are research-based, credible and realistic."

Dr. Levine’s previous book, The Price of Privilege was also a New York Times bestseller. She is the co-founder of Challenge Success, a project at the Stanford School of Education that focuses on providing parents and schools with the tools they need to raise healthy, motivated kids in a fast paced world.

Date: Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-09.1732.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/madelinelevine.mp3.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/41460.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Thursday Interview: John Hattie on What Actually Works in Schools to Improve Learning

Join me Thursday, April 4th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with John Hattie, author of the internationally acclaimed books Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement and Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning.  His work is believed to be the world’s largest evidence-based study into the factors which improve student learning, and involve "more than 80 million students from around the world and bringing together 50,000 smaller studies."

The study found "positive teacher-student interaction is the most important factor in effective teaching." We'll talk about the implications from his work, how it's been received, and what educators can do to implement "visible learning."

Date: Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.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.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-04.1504.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/johnhattie.mp3.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/39761.

John Hattie has been "Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, since March 2011. He was previously Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. His research interests include performance indicators and evaluation in education, as well as creativity measurement and models of teaching and learning. He is a proponent of evidence based quantitative research methodologies on the influences on student achievement. Prior to his move to the University of Melbourne, Hattie was a member of the independent advisory group reporting to the New Zealand's Minister of Education on the national standards in reading, writing and maths for all primary school children in New Zealand." (From Wikipedia.)

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

2013 School Leadership Summit - Recordings Posted, Thanks to Be Given!

Last week we held our inaugural School Leadership Summit, and it was a huge success. The recordings for the event are posted (http://admin20.org/page/summit-recordings), and now is the time for some real thank-yous (as well as a taking a little pleasure in the Summit reviews!).

TICAL was the founding partner for the Summit, and Rowland Baker and Jason Borgen were my conference co-chairs. What a terrific and supportive organization TICAL is, and Rowland and Jason deserve a round of virtual applause for helping make this event happen.

To our speakers: great job! The Twitter-sphere was abuzz with compliments for the quality of the speakers for this event. We put a lot of responsbility on speakers, as you are well aware--having to learn the program, running your own session--but it pays off by allowing as many people as possible to present. Thank you!

To our volunteers: you are the *heart* of the conference. It's hard to express how much your work is appreciated by attendees. But more than that, what you do and the grace with which you do it forms the moral/philosophical core of the event. The bond that forms between the volunteers speaks volumes about the commitment you bring to an event which has the primary goal of being inclusive. And no thanks here would be complete without acknowledging Nikki U., who always goes the extra mile and gave personal attention to many of the speakers before, during, and after the training sessions.

To our advisory board and partners: deep appreciation for spreading the word about this conference and encouraging people to attend. Your outreach is critical!

To our additional sponsors Intel and Wilson Consulting: your support is greatly appreciated!

The goal of the conference was to kick off an event that would perpetuate and would be a place for broader conversation amongst school leaders and the ed tech / blogger / social media crowd. Of course, I think we just touched a small sliver of the potential audience, but I am thrilled with what took place, and we will definitely be doing this again next year. I'd love to get any feedback you have, or ideas for how to expand the reach, or how to make sure we make this "big tent" event as inclusive as we can.

I leave you here with some of the quotes from participants. Enjoy them! You deserve them!
  • "A model of future professional development."
  • "There were so many wonderful sessions I wanted to attend, but couldn't due to a full day. I am so excited that I am able to look at some recorded sessions. The continuous sessions through different times of the day was pretty awesome. I'm so glad I was on the mailing list for this opportunity. I shared with a few of my tech savvy colleagues."
  • "Very forward thinking and providing leadership that is sorely needed."
  • "This is fantastic...not getting much work done."  
  • "Conference is great.  When's the next one?"
  • "Fabulous learning opportunity for the country! Provides a virtcon expereince and nationally known presenters at no cost to the attendee, what a gift! Thank you! "
  • "Fantastic! Not just for administrators though!"
  • "Love learning from national and international experts in the field right from my desk! Thank you!!"
  • "The terrific variety and scope of online conferencing is proof that education is undergoing fundamental shifts...for the better. Kudos to all the presenters, and to Steve Hargadon for blazing trails forward to better, more equitable and exciting education for all."
  • "Excellent; superb; fantastic - and that is just the beginning."
  • "Really enjoying the conference.  How cool is this!!"
  • "This is an awesome way to attend a conference!! Thank you!!"
  • "Simply excellent."
  • "Really enjoying it. Great learning. Great selection. Wonderful new connections."
  • "Love the conference! Way better than expected. Love the freedom and the knowledge that the recordings are available for the ones I couldn't get to. Not good enough to just watch the recordings, though, the collaboration with other attendees in the Chat Box is not to be missed!"
  • "This is an excellent opportunity to engage in high quality, connected learning."
  • "Fabulous!"
  • "What a wonderful way to connect the school community around the world around important issues."
  • "It's been an intense, but gratifying and exciting day of learning and building knowledge capital! I have been in sessions since the beginning of the conference. This is too great and free none the less! PLEASE KEEP DOING THIS!"
  • "Great Conference!"
  • "Please do this again next year. A fantastic opportunity."
  • "Cannot wait until 2014!"
  • "This was a very user-friendly, comfortable, accessible, and cost-effective way for adult learners to learn virtually.  "Let's do this again :-)"
  • "This was one of the best Summit/Conferences I have participated in. Please have another one this year! Thank you very much. I will definitely recruit more people for the next one and also try to have this available in classrooms for teachers to participate in."
  • "A massive learning/social capital day!"
See you online!