Friday, August 30, 2013

Announcing the Fourth Annual Global Education Conference and Call for Presentations!


Bienvenue! Welcome! 歡迎! Willkommen! Benvenuto!
환영! Seja bem-vindo(a)! Bienvenido!

We are pleased to announce the fourth (wahoo!) annual Global Education Conference, a free week-long online event bringing together students, educators, and innovators from around the world, will be held Monday, November 18 through Friday, November 22, 2013 (Saturday, November 23rd in some time zones).

The entire virtual conference will be held online using the Blackboard Collaborate platform (formerly known as Elluminate/Wimba) with the support of iEARN worldwide as the conference founding sponsor.

The Global Education Conference is a collaborative, inclusive, world-wide community initiative involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe while supporting cultural awareness and recognition of diversity. Last year’s conference featured 400 general sessions and 20 keynote addresses from all over the world with over 13,000 participant logins.

To attend this year's conference and to be kept informed of the latest conference news and updates, please 
join this network.

Presenting:

The conference seeks to present ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. Through this event, attendees will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. Participants are encouraged to learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!

Keep in mind that this conference is not focused on technology exclusively; proposals must focus on global collaboration and tie to the mission of the conference

The Call for Proposals for the 2013 is now open. Presenters can submit proposals for general sessions focused on five possible tracks:  Teachers, Students, Curriculum, Policy and Leadership.
Proposals should focus on ideas, projects, and initiatives that promote global understanding and collaboration. Those who enter submissions that do not relate to the mission of the conference will be asked to revise. The final deadline for submissions is November 8, 2013,  and presenters will be notified of acceptance on a rolling basis starting 
immediately. (Keynote presentations are by invitation only; suggestions can be sent to Lucy Gray at lucy@lucygrayconsulting.com.)

The call for presentation proposals is now live and can be found HERE.

International Advisory Board:

Anyone can apply to be a member of the international advisory board. Advisory board members are recognized on the website and are asked to:
  • Participate actively in our online community
  • Promote both participation and attendance at the conference
  • Help us find additional partner organizations in their region(s)
  • Help support and potentially train presenters in their geographical region and local languages
  • If possible, help moderate sessions during the actual conference
As a conference that is focused on being inclusive, our desire is to have international attendees see this as a truly world-wide and not a North-America-centric event, and to see themselves as full participants and presenters, not just the audience.

To sign up for the advisory board, please make sure you have joined the conference network, and then see the advisory board information at 
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/group/advisoryboard2013.

Conference Partner Organizations:

Whether you are a small school library or a multi-national non-profit organization, we want to encourage you to become a conference partner. Your work in this area must be non-commercial and primarily or substantively focused on globally connecting students or teachers, or other global competency and awareness education initiatives. Once approved, your organization will be listed with a link, logo, and a short description; and you will be provided with a "spotlight" speaker session in the conference.

Our goal for the conference is to have it continue to be a milestone event, bringing together organizations and individuals from all over the world. We recognize that much (if not most!) of the outreach for this conference will come from libraries, schools, or organizations who advertise the conference to their memberships, and we want to recognize and reward those who do this!

There are no financial obligations for being a partner organization--all we ask is that you actively promote the conference to your membership and network, and encourage participation as well as presentations and submissions. To apply to be a conference partner organization, please make sure you have joined the conference network, and then join the partner group specifically at http://www.globaleducationconference.com/group/partners2013.

Conference Sponsors:

There are opportunities for commercial sponsorship of the 2013 Global Education Conference, and both recognition and authentic appreciation for financial support will be given to those who choose to sponsor. Non-profits who see value in our work and want to support this endeavor are also encouraged to consider sponsorship.  Sponsorship levels and benefits can be discussed with Steve Hargadon directly at 
steve@hargadon.com or 916-283-7901.

More Information:

The Global Education Conference founding sponsor is iEARN (International Education and Resource Network). iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 130 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.

We are looking forward to the fourth year of this this terrific event, and to your participation! For further updates, please join our network at 
http://globaleducationconference.com and follow us on Twitter (@GlobalEdCon) and using the hashtag #GlobalEd13.

See you online!

Steve Hargadon
Founder and Co-Chair
steve@hargadon.com
www.SteveHargadon.com
www.Web20Labs.com

Lucy Gray
Co-Chair
lucy@lucygrayconsulting.com
http://lucygrayconsulting.com
http://globaleducation.ning.com

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Conference 2.0 News - STEMxCon Deadline, Connected Educator Month, Reform Symposium, Library 2.013, and More

For many, this is the start of a new school year. We hope that, wherever you are, our peer and practitioner-driven professional development conferences make a difference for you. All of these events are free to attend.

"Conference 2.0" is not just about attending and learning (which we hope you are doing!), but also about providing significant encouragement to present. Because an online conference doesn't have the physical and financial constraints (and sometimes the politics) of an in-person event, we can accept the great majority of presentation proposals and allow the audience to decide what they want to attend. This means that the experience of presenting, which can be hard to come by for someone who hasn't done so before, is available to all. The great surprise of having done this process now for four years (hurrah!) is that the quality of the presentations remains significantly high. So we encourage you to be brave and to consider presenting at one of the following conferences.

(And don't miss the training and news sections at the bottom of this post.)

2013 GLOBAL STEMx EDUCATION CONFERENCE
September 19 - 21, 2013
http://www.STEMxCon.com
We've accepted 73 proposals so far and have 26 still to review, which means we're going to have at least 100 sessions for the world’s first massively open online conference for educators focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and more. The proposal deadline is September 1, this weekend, but we know that for many this is the start of a new school year and so proposals can come in after September 1st, but those that do will be approved on a space-available basis. Submit one! It wouldn't surprise us to reach 150 proposals by the time of the actual conference. See the list of GREAT keynote speakers HERE. Please tell everyone you can about this new event, join our outreach and advisory board, become a partner organization, or even (please! :) consider helping to sponsor the conference.

CONNECTED EDUCATOR MONTH
October 2013
http://connectededucators.org
Not technically a Web 2.0 Lab's "Conference 2.0" event, but one which we support whole-heartedly, the second annual Connected Educator Month is a project of the Connected Online Communities of Practice working group formed by the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. With a focus this year on supporting districts and their professional development activities, stay tuned for really fun news about: nightly Connected Educator chats with special guests, a special Connected Librarian Day (we haven't forgotten about you!), special Connected Learners events, and much, MUCH more.

REFORM SYMPOSIUM CONFERENCE (RSCON)
October 11 - 13, 2013
http://www.reformsymposium.com
We are pleased to announce the fourth annual Reform Symposium Conference (RSCON), a free online three day event bringing together educators, students and innovators from around the world and in conjunction with Connected Educator Month. RSCON is a global community initiative to transform teaching and learning, and will be a highly inclusive and engaging event that will encourage students and educators around the world to share and learn about transformative approaches to learning and teaching. To attend this year's conference and to be kept informed of the latest conference news and updates, please 
join the conference at its new online home, FutureofEducation.com.


LIBRARY 2.013 - THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES CONFERENCE
October 18 - 19, 2013
http://www.library2013.com
Our third annual Library 2.0 conference on libraries, librarians, and librarianship is also totally rocking along, with 80 accepted proposals so far for this terrific two-day event in its third year. There's lots of room--please consider presenting! There are eight conference strands covering a wide variety of timely topics, such as, MOOCs, e-books, maker spaces, mobile services, embedded librarians, green libraries, and more. Proposals can made between now and September 30th. As noted above, we're going to be doing a special Connected Librarians Day for school librarians--more information on that, and some joint conference sessions with the Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) to come!

2013 GLOBAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE
November 18 - 22, 2013
http://www.globaledcon.com
This is the great "mother ship" of our virtual conferences. Coming into our fourth annual event, we are so excited for another five days of all-out connecting and collaborating. If you've never been a part of this event, you MUST find some time to participate. Focused on helping teachers and students connect globally, we're proud of the amazing network that has been formed around this conference. We might just hit 500 presentations this year! The call for proposals will open very soon, and all are invited to participate.

2014 OZeLIVE - ED TECH DOWN UNDER
January 17 - 18, 2014
http://www.ozelive.com (coming)
We're in our early planning stages for an Australia / New Zealand time-zone friendly educational technology virtual conference. There some definite excitement building. More information to come.

2014 RETHINKING HIGHER ED
February, 2014
http://www.rethinkinghighered.com (coming)
Also in the early planning stages, but very excited about this event!

2014 SCHOOL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
March 27, 2014
http://www.schoolleadershipsummit.com
After a terrific first summit this year, TICAL, the founding sponsor, has enthusiastically committed to doing this again! Look for more news in the fall.

TRAINING:
  • With the exception of Connected Educator Month, all of the conferences above are held in Blackboard Collaborate, an online teaching and learning platform. Live and recorded training sessions are held regularly for both presenters and volunteer moderators, and please see the training page on each specific conference site for details.
MORE NEWS:
  • We're still making some plans for a worldwide education film festival at the start of 2014. If you know filmmakers (or are one) and you want to talk about this with me, please reach out (steve@hargadon.com)!
  • A final tease is for a special event in November, under wraps right now, but tentatively titled "Reinventing K12." Stay tuned!.
REPORTS:
  • The 2013 Homeschool Conference, the first ever, was a huge success. Organized and run in just five weeks after being announced, we had 1534 attendee log-ins for 48 presentations and 8 keynotes, all around sharing strategies, practices, and resources for those involved with homeschooling, unschooling, free schools, democratic schools, and other forms of alternative and independent education. . The recordings are all up and available (all free, of course), and plans are being made for Homeschool Conference 2 in early 2014.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Conference Starts Today - Homeschooling, Unschooling, Free / Democratic / Alternative Learning

Our two-day, free, online Homeschool Conference starts today. Join the conference network at http://www.homeschoolconference.com. See the conference schedule in your own time zone, and click directly into the Blackboard Collaborate virtual sessions rooms, from the schedule page. Follow the Twitter stream at #homeschool13. Enjoy a deep dive into alternative pedagogies!

KEYNOTES:
Pat Farenga on "The Legacy of John Holt"
Clark Aldrich on "Unschooling Rules"
Jerry Mintz on "The Global Movement for Learner-Centered Alternatives"
Cindy Gaddis on "Learning Disabled or Learns Differently?"
Elliot Washor on "How to Increase Student Engagement Focusing on Student Expectations"
David Albert on "The Average Giraffe Sleeps 4.6 Hours a Day"
Yale Wishnick on "The Home Schooling Movement as a Political, Economic, and Social Force for Change"
Peter Gray on "Free to Learn"

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS:
Jamie McMillin on "Self-Directed Learning and The Roots of Success"
Meredith Collins on "Humor and Lightness in the Face of Struggle"
Monica Cochran on "SelfDesign: Unfolding Our Infinite Wisdom Within"

SESSIONS:
Slow Learning / P. Aravinda
Home Education in England and Wales / Leslie Safran Barson
Using Online Resources to Teach Math vs. Training Kids in Math / John Bovey
What is Your Creation/Consumption Quotient? The Power of Learning By Doing / Bernard Bull
Writing Homeschooling Goals / Heddi Craft
Flipping the Homeschool Cooperative / John Cummins
Utilizing Your Local Library to Bridge Homeschooling Curriculums / Dorcas Davis
Helping Boys Learn: 6 Secrets for Homeschool Success / Edmond Dixon
Baby algebra, toddler calculus: Adventurous math for the playground crowd / Maria Droujkova
Inquiry Through Citizen Science / Jennifer Fee
Observing for Learning / Kathleen Forsythe
Benefits and Challenges in Homeschool Education / Ann Gaudino
Creating significant learning environments to inspire, foster and facilitate deeper learning / Dwayne Harapnuik
Educate-Me Egypt: Dream-driven learning! / Yasmin Helal
Learning in Minecraft - the Massively @ jokaydia Guild / Jo Kay
Social, student-centered online study environment uniting homeschoolers and schools / Marko Koskinen
The Fully Untapped Potential of Open Educational Resources to Individualize Instruction / Sri Lekha
Travel as an alternative form of Education – Life Learning on the Road / Lainie Liberti
Flatten Your Learning: Use Technology to Connect with the World and Go Global / Julie Lindsay
The Beauty of Homeschooling / Olivia C. Loria
Alternative Education in South Korea; Stigmatized Schooling or Cultural Resistance / Kara Mac Donald
The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every child / John Mighton
Creating Your Own Interactive E-learning with Adobe Captivate / Tammy Moore
ABC's of Learning Beyond School: T is for Trust / Lisa Nalbone
Unschooling, distance schools and how to use teaching materials / Sorina Oprean
The What and Why of Standardized Testing in the Christian Homeschool Context / Althea Penn
The Christian Education Mandate: Equipping Kingdom Kids to Impact the World for Christ / Althea Penn
Aligning Curriculum with the Bible and Common Core Standards / Althea Penn
Dynamic Learning for 21st Century Learners / Kathy Ray
Transforming learners into global citizens through Wikipedia / Natalie Rector
The Willed Curriculum: A Learner Centered Democratic Worldview / Carlo Ricci
UClass, the world at your fingertips! / Zak Ringelstein
Enterprising Students in Institutional Contexts / Eric Rosenberg
Engaging Math Students in an Online Community / Joey Sabol
Healing Relationships, Healing Mother Earth / Urmila Samson
Motivation for the Uphill Climb: Praise and Success / Cindy Sheets
Short Term Online Language Review Courses / Edwige Simon
Princeton Learning Cooperative: Helping teens live and learn without school / Alison Snieckus
Integrating Unschooling with Traditional Teaching / Revathi Viswanathan
Worldschooling / Jessie Voigts
The Feminist Homeschooler / Suki Wessling
From School to Homeschool / Suki Wessling
Learning Styles or Learning Disabilities? / Mariaemma Willis
Class Dismissed - The World's 1st Feature Length Documentary about Homeschooling / Dustin Woodard

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Late Notice: Early Interview Today - Connected Student-Authors Talk about Building a Digital Classroom

Join me earlier than normal today, Tuesday, August 20th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with a group of Norwegian students, and their English teacher (and blogger) Ann Michaelsen, to discuss their recently published book, Connected Learners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Global Classroom.

Written, edited, and designed by a team of 27 students at Sandvika High School (Oslo, Norway), with support from Ann, Connected Learners is a unique compendium of stories, advice and how-to articles designed to help high school teachers and their students around the globe shift from classrooms that are isolated and teacher-centered to digitally rich environments where learning is student-driven and constantly connected to the global internet. The 10-chapter interactive digital book is designed to be useful for teachers and students in both high school and middle school.

The 220-page collaborative book takes the reader through all the steps to create a digital classroom, says a spokesman for the team of Grade 9 students, "ranging from setting up Twitter and blog accounts, to finding educators and students online for global learning activities, to how to optimize the use of search engines and teach the key elements of digital literacy."

"This book offers a unique insight into what students and teachers need to know in the 21st century classroom," says Michaelsen. "I'm extremely proud of what my English learners have accomplished and shared in this remarkable example of project learning."

Date: Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
Time: 2pm Pacific / 5pm 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/site/internal/launch/nativeplayback.jnlp?psid=2013-08-20.1120.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&loginid=194153 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/connectedlearners.mp3 and at http://www.stevehargadon and http://www.futureofeducation.com.

Meet the Student Team:


"In this unique project we want to show teachers how to transform their classroom and why they need to do so. The book is about learning online in a transparent world. We are writing a book about teachers and students learning together. This is a book written by students on topics they are passionate about, and topics they need to learn more about. It is not a book written by a teacher or educational experts telling you what students want. It’s a book written by students and their teacher in a collaborative project where every voice counts."
More Information at http://www.connectedleaners.com

Monday, August 19, 2013

2013 Homeshool Conference Update - 3 Days to Go!

We're just a few days away from the 2013 Homeschool Conference. This little conference is really shaping up! 

Pat Farenga (the conference co-chair and opening keynote speaker) and I knew it was going to be hard to announce, organize, and hold a conference in a matter of weeks. However, we wanted to be sure to do this before the school year begins for those many considering homeschooling, unschooling, or some other form of alternative learning. This will be, we hope, the first of many such events.

PROMOTION:
Please tell everyone you can about this free event. Our goal is to create a great, inclusive environment for practitioners sharing their strategies, practices, and resources, and we can accommodate an unlimited number of attendees. We've had over 1,000 people sign up so far, and would love to see many more. Blogs, email lists, list-servs, social networks--spread the word wherever you can.  http://www.homeschoolconference.com.

THE PROGRAM:
Currently, we have eight great keynotes (see below) have accepted over 40 presentation sessions (a partial list of which is also below). This is going to be a great experience! The conference program is now up on the website, showing in US-Eastern Daylight Time. In the next day or two, the program will be available to be seen in all time zones, plus there will be detailed information on how to connect to the virtual sessions.

KEYNOTE SESSIONS:
Our keynote lineup is now set: Pat Farenga, David Albert, Clark Aldrich, Cindy Gaddis, Peter Gray, Jerry Mintz, Elliot Washor, and Yale Wishnick. Read up on them at http://www.homeschoolconference.com/page/keynotes.

PRESENTING:
Believe it or not, there is still time to submit a presentation proposal. Submitting by the end of the day Tuesday, August 20th, guarantees a time slot if accepted. After that we will still consider proposals on a time-available basis. We want this first conference to have as many sessions as possible, so we'll help you if you want to present. http://www.homeschoolconference.com/page/callforproposals

VOLUNTEERING:
The success of this kind of a virtual conference is in large part because of the terrific volunteers who help to moderate sessions and especially help new presenters. What you may not know is that volunteers end up having a terrific, bonding experience as a group, and we encourage anyone who can to sign up as a volunteer. You don't have to have had previous experience with Blackboard Collaborate (the conference platform), but you will have to watch or attend the one-hour training (see below). Presenters--we count on you to volunteer as well! Whether you can help with one session or many, go to http://www.homeschoolconference.com/group/2013volunteers to sign up, where you will also find the link to the actual hour-by-hour signup calendar.

TRAINING:
There is a recorded training program on the training page at the site as well as a live training on Tuesday, August 20th, at 6pm US-Eastern Time and an open help session on Thursday, August 22nd, at 9am US-Eastern Time. More information at http://www.homeschoolconference.com/page/training.

STUDENTS:
Students are most welcome to attend the conference, and our long-term hope is that many of them will present as well. There currently aren't any student presenters, but there should be! If you know a student who would like to present, please encourage them to do so.

SPONSORS:
We didn't have high hopes that we'd find sponsors on such short notice for this conference, but if your organization would like to support the Homeschool Conference, please contact me at steve@hargadon.com.

See you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
Co-Chair, 2013 Homeschool Conference

PARTIAL LIST OF PRESENTATIONS:
Listed in US-Eastern Daylight Time. More detail on each session on the conference site.

Friday, August 23

11:00am

Opening Keynote - Pat Farenga

12:00pm

Integrating Unschooling with Traditional Teaching - Dr.Revathi Viswanathan

Slow Learning - P. Aravinda

1:00pm

Enterprising Students in Institutional Contexts - Eric Rosenberg

The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every child - Dr John Mighton, Founder

2:00pm

Transforming learners into global citizens through Wikipedia - Natalie Rector, Emerging Technologies Librarian & Wikipedia Ambassador

Using Online Resources to Teach Math vs. Training Kids in Math - Mr. John Bovey

3:00pm

Keynote - Clark Aldrich

4:00pm

Princeton Learning Cooperative: Helping teens live and learn without school - Alison Snieckus, PLC staff member

What is Your Creation/Consumption Quotient? The Power of Learning By Doing - Dr. Bernard Bull, Assistant Vice President of Academics & Associate Professor of Educational Design & Technology

5:00pm

Educate-Me Egypt: Dream-driven learning! - Yasmin Helal, Founder

Social, student-centered online study environment uniting homeschoolers and schools - Marko Koskinen

6:00pm

Dynamic Learning for 21st Century Learners - Kathy Ray, Advocates for High Ability Learners & Gifted Facilitator K-12

Learning in Minecraft - the Massively @ jokaydia Guild - Jo Kay - Director, jokaydia.com / Facilitator of Fun on the Massively @ jokaydia Minecraft Server

7:00pm

The Feminist Homeschooler - Suki Wessling

Writing Homeschooling Goals - Heddi Craft

8:00pm

Keynote - Jerry Mintz

9:00pm

Inquiry Through Citizen Science - Jennifer Fee, K-12 Programs Manager

Observing for Learning - Dr. Kathleen Forsythe Principal

10:00pm

Alternative Education in South Korea; Stigmatized Schooling or Cultural Resistance - Kara Mac Donald, Assistant Professor

Creating significant learning environments to inspire, foster and facilitate deeper learning - Dr. Dwayne Harapnuik - Learning Theorist, Home Educator and Instructional Development Consultant

Saturday, August 24

9:00am

Keynote - Cindy Gaddis

10:00am

Keynote - Elliot Washor

11:00am

Keynote - David Albert

12:00pm

From School to Homeschool - Suki Wessling

Motivation for the Uphill Climb: Praise and Success - Cindy Sheets

1:00pm

Helping Boys Learn: 6 Secrets for homeschool success - Dr. Edmond Dixon

Learning Styles or Learning Disabilities? - Mariaemma Willis, M.S., Educational Therapist

2:00pm

ABC's of Learning Beyond School: T is for Trust - Lisa Nalbone

Home Education in England and Wales - Leslie Safran Barson

3:00pm

Keynote - Yale Wisnick

4:00pm

Creating Your Own Interactive E-learning with Adobe Captivate - Tammy Moore
Unschooling, distance schools and how to use teaching materials - Sorina Oprean, Homeschooling Mother/Collaborator at Pedagogia Blanca-Pedagogia Alba

5:00pm 

The Christian Education Mandate: Equipping Kingdom Kids to Impact the World for Christ - Althea Penn, Educational Consultant

Worldschooling - Jessie Voigts, PhD

6:00pm

Aligning Curriculum with the Bible and Common Core Standards - Althea Penn, Educational Consultant

7:00pm

Benefits and Challenges in Homeschool Education - Ann Gaudino, Ed.D.

Short Term Online Language Review Courses - Edwige Simon, Educational Technology Specialist

8:00pm

Closing Keynote - Peter Gray

Sign Up Now for the Free Global STEMx Education Conference in September


We hope you will consider joining us for the Global 2013 STEMx Education Conference, the world’s first massively open online conference for educators focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and more. The conference will be held over the course of three days, September 19-21, 2013, and will be free to attend!

STEMxCon will be a highly inclusive event that will engage students and educators around the globe and will encourage primary, secondary, and tertiary (K-16) educators around the world to share and learn about innovative approaches to STEMx learning and teaching. The call for presentations has been issued. More information below.

Please register at http://www.stemxcon.com to attend and to be kept informed.  

Why the “x” in STEMx?
The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics acronym is no longer adequate, as it is missing well over 20 letters that represent key skills & disciplines. As such, x = Computer Science (CS), Computational Thinking (CT), Inquiry (I), Creativity & Innovation (CI), Global Fluency (GF), Collaboration ( C ), ...and other emerging disciplines & 21st century skills.

Keynotes
We have a terrific set of keynote speakers for STEMxCon, including Tim Bell on computer science in New Zealand, Al Byers on STEM teacher learning communities at the NSTA, Jeanne Century on STEM schools, Cristin Frodella on the Google Science Fair, Paloma Garcia-Lopez on the Maker Education Initiative, Iris Lapinski on Apps for Good, Ramsey Musallar on an inquiry-based learning cycle, Ramji Raghavan on sparking curiosity and nurturing creativity, and Avis Yates Rivers on inspiring the next generation in IT. More information at http://stemxcon.com/page/2013-keynotes.

Presenting
This is a practitioner-focused conference, and we encourage all to consider presenting. Proposals can be submitted until September 1st, 2013. More information at http://stemxcon.com/page/2013-call-for-proposals.

Sponsors and Partners
Our founding partners are HP and ISTE. To be a sponsor, please contact steve@hargadon.com. Non-commercial organizations can apply for free partner status at http://stemxcon.com/group/partners-2013.

Global Advisory Board and Volunteering
Sign up to be a member of our global advisory board and help us promote the conference worldwide! http://stemxcon.com/page/2013-global-advisory-board. Conference volunteers (helping moderate conference sessions--a blast if you've never done it!) can sign up here: http://stemxcon.com/group/volunteers-2013.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Homeschool Conference Update

Our brand-new, first-time, world-wide, virtual conference is just under two weeks away. So exciting!

Please do let others know about the conference. It is free, and the goal is to provide an opportunity to share strategies, practices, and resources for those involved with homeschooling, unschooling, free schools, democratic schools, and other forms of alternative and independent education.

http://www.homeschoolconference.com

ATTENDING:
The week before the conference begins a conference schedule, with links to each session, will be posted on the site. The conference platform is Blackboard Collaborate, on online platform that combines video, audio, chat, presentation, and other capabilities, and it supports participation using Window, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android. All of the sessions will be recorded and will be available immediately afterwards.

KEYNOTE AND DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS: 
We are still getting our keynote and distinguished speakers organized, but committed so far are the terrific Pat Farenga (conference co-chair), Jerry Mintz, Clarck Aldrich, Peter Gray, Cindy Gaddis, Yale Wishnick, Elliot Washor, Charles Mojkowski, Laurette Lynn, and Maurice Gibbons. And we're still in discussion with several more!

PRESENTING: 
This is intended to be a practitioner-driven conference, and we are accepting proposals to present until the 20th. Even if you've never presented before, we encourage you to consider doing so! More information is on the site.

VOLUNTEERING: 
This conference is highly collaborative, will have a number of presenters and attendees who are new to the virtual conference world, and we depend on a lot of volunteer help to pull off an event like this! If you have used Blackboard Collaborate (the conference virtual platform) before, we'd love to have your help in moderating sessions. If you haven't used it before, but you are willing to take the one-hour training (see below), even "newbies" can be of great help. See the "volunteer" link in the main conference menu on the site.

TRAINING: 
If you are presenting or volunteering, there is a one-hour training that we ask you to take. It's held live several times, and then also can be watched as a recording. The training sessions start this Monday, and the schedule and instructions are on the site--look for the "training" link under the "presenting" menu. You don't have to sign up to attend a training, just log on.

FILM FESTIVAL: 
We're still working on this (part of the fun of creating and holding a conference in six weeks' time!), but we think we'll have at least a couple of films available to watch, and a couple of sessions where the directors and producers take questions.

SPONSORS AND PARTNERS: 
Also still looking for sponsors or partnering organizations. Contact me directly if interested.

ADVISORY AND OUTREACH BOARD: 
Join our advisory and outreach board and get some recognition on the site for helping to promote the conference. It's super-easy, low commitment, and just our way of recognizing those who spread the word.

Thanks for being a part of this event. I'll be offline for the next few days as our family moves to Asheville, North Carolina, to be a part of the new http://www.BlackMountainSOLE.org self-organized learning environment being set up on the beautiful site of what was once Black Mountain College. I'll be holding several events there around deep-thinking about learning, so look for news on that soon after our conference is over.

See you online!

Steve
Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com
steve@hargadon.com