This is the title of the all-day conference I went to today, with keynote speaker Peter Reynolds, author, illustrator, animation software creator. His speech was about teaching in the 21st century, and the focus was basically that we should be creative, inspired, innovative, use project-based learning, and if your students have a vision - follow through! He has created a foundation called World Problem Solvers, which encourages students (and adults?) to develop and share videos and animations, which illustrate their way to make the world a better place.
Our next session was on Web 2.0 in the K-6 Classroom, specifically Skype and Voice Threads. Skye was used to connect an elementary school in a more urban area with a more rural one. We're talking kindergarten! Their first book was Town Mouse, Country Mouse, and are doing Flat Stanley next.
Voice Threads was also in a kindergarten classroom. Not sure how many of you know what that is, but it is basically a way to blog and communicate with voice, photos, video, etc. (It's a free download for educators, or you can also pay.) This class communicates with other students all over the world!
The second session I took was Internet and Cognitive Processing, which focused on the "Millenial Learner" born 1981-2000), their learning needs, and how schools need to respond to them and their parents.
Some of the characteristics of these learners? Confident, pressured, guided and secure, hopeful, goal and achievement oriented, civic minded, inclusive (31% are minority), patriotic, connected and open for business 24/7. They've grown up with technology, have a larger visual cortex, thrive on instant gratification, and multi-taskers....
All in all, an excellent conference, with lots of food for thought. There was so much more that I could share, but I'm still getting the hang of translating my thoughts to this blog. So, if you have specific questions, be sure to let me know!
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