Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

This event took place Saturday, June 23, 2007 in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. I arrived a wee bit late–9:30 or so, and most had been there since 8:00 that morning.  This room was stocked slam full of most of blogs subscribed in my Bloglines account. To say that I was intimidated was an understatement! The day was broken into segments that lasted roughly a hour, and then a half hour set aside for “further conversations!”  This was ideal because many seemed to desire and need to discuss topics of interst further with each session.  I did find myself with Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson, and even David Warlick frequently during the day. I guess that means I have some of the same interests. The most dominant thread was that Web 2.0 tools are not going away, and that educators need to re-examine the pedagogy of teaching so that it includes these tools.  The overwhelming agreement among everyone surrounded the idea that students need to be allowed to use web 2.0 tools, as these tools give students voice.  So what does 2.0 look like? Here’s a laundry list compiled by David Warlick:

The school

• Walls are adaptively transparent, enabling real connections with all education institutions, local community, and any and all other potential resources.
• Leaders who are visionary, value collaboration, enterprising, and who “get it”
• Flexibly structured and valuing the time that teachers need to constantly retool their classrooms
• Shared vision and mission but respects risk taking

The classroom

• Walls are adaptively transparent, serving as a window on the world
• Life long learning is what happens here — new conversations that are rich, multi-directional, and respectful
• The classroom includes technology that facilitates and provokes rich, multi-directional, and respectful conversations.
• More happening in the Long Tail

The Learner

• independent
• playful
• adaptive
• resourceful
• self-directed
• sense of wonderment
• unrestricted
• international/global
• creative/inventive
• connected
• confident
• self-aware
• able to teach themselves
• respectful

Assessment

• Are we testing the right things? Should we be rethinking curriculum first, invent ways to teach it (facilitate its learning), and then figure out how to assess it.