Three Great Remote (and Free!) Ed Tech Events This Weekend

Three great events are taking place this weekend that you can participate in remotely! All are being held through Classroom 2.0's Elluminate account, and links are below.

1. PodStock, this Friday and Saturday (May 1 & 2). This is the brainchild of the ever-amazing Kevin Honeycutt. Podstock is a brand new conference designed to bring podcast creators and those who see the real value of podcasting as creators and consumers together. The physical conference is in Old Town Wichita, Kansas, but one whole track of the conference is being live-streamed through Classroom 2.0's Elluminate account. The event schedule for Friday is at http://www.essdack.org/podstock/?q=day1, and the event schedule for Saturday is at http://www.essdack.org/podstock/?q=day1. The Elluminate link that you use to attend for both days is https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.1A526C55FBD94161034848F86F2735. Wichita is Central Daylight Time, so take that into account when looking at their program.

ADDED: Jerry Butler just sent this message: "Join us at Podstock virtually if you can't be there in person! Thanks to Steve Hargadon and learncentral.org, we will be sharing sessions on Elluminate. Go to http://tinyurl.com/Podstock starting at 9:15 Central Time and log on to join the fun. I will be running the back channel conversations and helping you join the educational movement. It's two days of Education, Learning and Fun and you won't want to miss it! Also, join us for our simultaneous RL/SL dance party at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/KDS%20World/17/155/21 Starting at 5:00 SLT (Pacific) 7:00 Central.

2. MIT's New Media Literacies Spring Conference, this Saturday (May 2). This one-day event, "Learning in a Participatory Culture," is being held physically in Boston and is also being streamcast in its entirety (all tracks!). Because there are different Elluminate links for each track, you'll need to use this detailed schedule to click through to individual sessions. Boston is Eastern Daylight Time, so take that into account when looking at the program.

3. Our regular Classroom 2.0 "LIVE" Saturday show (May 2). 9am PDT / 12pm EDT. Our topic this week is "Managing Social Networks" with special guest, Angelia Maiers - author of the book, Classroom Habitudes. Please join for some great information and tips about managing social networks and the concept 'Inbox Zero'. More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. The direct Elluminate link is http://tinyurl.com/d7hvx7.

It should be a very exciting weekend for learning remotely! :) Hope you have some fun!

Creating the Future of Learning - KnowledgeWorks Foundation's 2020 Forecast & Interview

Tomorrow we have a special event in the Future of Education interview series:  an interview with Chad Wick and Andrea Saveri on "KnowledgeWorks Foundation's 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning."

KnowledgeWorks Foundation is the primary sponsor of the Future of Education interview series, and they deserve a huge round of applause.  We've had a terrific lineup so far, and have some great interviews coming up (Michael Horn, Chris Dede, Michael Wesch, John Seely Brown, David Thornburg, and more!).  The interviews are live through Elluminate, but are also are recorded and available to listen or watch at any time.  

Tomorrow, April 21st, KnowledgeWorks Foundation President and CEO Chad Wick and futurist Andrea Saveri will join us to explore key forces of change that will shape the landscape of learning over the next decade, and how we are moving toward a culture of creation and innovation. We'll dive into the 2020 Forecast and accompanying website experience for an hour, including a Q&A period.

Date: Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Time: 12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern / 7:30pm GMT (international times here)

Location: In Elluminate. Log in at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.969B8EF566D3702FEAB416B57827B4.   The Elluminate room will be open up 15 minutes before the event if you want to come in early.

To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support.

Chad Wick is driven by a desire to create equity of educational opportunity in  order to effectively prepare all students for college, work, and citizenship in the 21st century. Recognized by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley as "one of the outstanding education leaders in the country," Chad leads KnowledgeWorks Foundation in its mission to increase the number and diversity of people who value and access public education. As the founding president and CEO, he has led the Foundation to achieve this mission by providing not only seed grants and operating funds, extensive technical assistance and training, but policy and advocacy projects that promote and support sustainable, system-wide changes.

Prior to starting her own independent practice, Andrea Saveri worked for Institute for the Future, a non-profit think tank in Palo Alto. As a research director, her career at IFTF included leading large-scale domestic and international research studies in technology adoption, social innovation, and networked organizational structures. At IFTF she launched FutureCommons, an open networked thinking community, and initiated IFTF's transition to a networked organizational model, applying her research to IFTF's strategic plan. She pioneered IFTF's work with teens, developing curriculum to teach youth about forecasting and long-term thinking. Over the years she has presented research and facilitated numerous client meetings from the managerial and operational levels to the executive and board levels.

Created with the Institute for the Future, the 2020 Forecast highlights key forces of change that will shape learning over the next decade. In particular, it shows how creation and innovation are becoming more essential for success than ever before.

To be successful in tomorrow's new economy, today's students will have to be able to learn and adapt quickly and frequently.

In highlighting such trends, the 2020 Forecast aims to help anyone with a stake in learning anticipate and prepare for change.

Having been engaged in a disciplined study of future forces affecting education since 2006, KnowledgeWorks is working to transform education in the US from a world of schooling to a world of learning.

This world calls not for better schools, but for entirely new kinds of learning environments.

To be successful in it, tomorrow's learners will not just need better teachers; they will need guides who take on fundamentally different roles.

KnowledgeWorks invites educators and others interested in the future of learning to use the 2020 Forecast to support visioning and strategic planning. Anyone can start exploring by visiting www.futureofed.org.