EduCon Reflections
I am attending EduCon 2.2 and just getting ready to start the final day. Yesterday I had the privilege to facilitate a conversation with Danja Mahoney and Michael Springer, and chat with some of the smartest most thoughtful educators around. Our topic was Subversive PD: Creating a culture of collaboration to bring educators into the 21st century. Our focus was looking for strategies that work, in the absence of administrative and teacher support and/or awareness, to foster professional growth. Are there ways that we, as individuals, can help drive change in our hallways, schools and districts? We had a great turn out, which frankly surprised me. Discussion notes can be found on the session wiki.
What I love about EduCon is that it takes the best part of traditional conferences, those wonderful thoughtful hallway conversations and makes them last for three days. It brings Higher Ed, K-12 and others interested in learning together to focus on learning and education in general. It is not about technology, it is about challenging ourselves to think about what we do, why we do it and can we do it better.
Looking forward to learning and thinking today.
2 thoughts on “EduCon Reflections”
Beth,
I love your description of taking the conversations from the hallways and moving them into the presentations. My favorite part of the last two EduCon’s I went to was that you had as much to gain from your audience as you they did from you.
Thanks for posting this, and the tweets you’ve sent. For those of us who could not attend, it helped a great deal.
The main criticisms of professional development also apply to creating a culture of collaboration and bringing technology into every classroom. It is not differentiated, it is top down, it is short/sweet, and there is no follow up. Their suggestions for best practice would pertain to any vein of professional development – going back to the classroom, implementing the technology, and then reflecting on your learning – perhaps through a blog. They also advocated collaboration and sharing among colleagues. I also like their idea of students acting as teachers of technology for the staff.
I have had my staff members demonstrate the use of smartboard and particular websites to colleagues on school improvement days. I think it is much easier for staff to develop skills with continual contact and feedback with someone nearby who they can consult on an as needed basis. I believe that staff do need to ‘play’ and ‘experiment’ with technology. We administrators must at least provide them with the time and the opportunity.