Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation (2010 Edition)

I'm pleased to announce that the 2010 Edition of Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation will be hosted by Loveland High School on February 20, 2010. Like the original in 2008 and the 2009 Edition, this year's get together is free.

What is Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation?

Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation is a one day conference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents and anyone who is interested in education. It will be held on Saturday, February 20th, 2010, from 8:00 am until 3:30 pm at Loveland High School in Loveland, Colorado, USA (different location than last year - here's a map. We assume most folks will be from Colorado, but everyone is welcome to attend, and we are working on some ideas for virtual participation.

Education is conversation.

Conversation creates change.

The future of education does not exist in the isolated world of theory and abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations. It exists in creating a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation. It is merely a stopping point, a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek.

We read. We reflect. We write. We share. We learn. Come join us for a day of conversation about learning and technology.

You can learn much more about the conference on the wiki, including information about registering. Here are some highlights:

Tentative Schedule
We're still working on the details so this will be updated before the conference. Also, this may expand if we have more folks register than we are anticipating. (To quote Bud Hunt, "This conference stuff is hard!"). We also need folks to submit proposals to facilitate conversations.

Registration
You must register so that we know how many folks to expect.

Cost
Free, baby. We also anticipate that lunch will be included as in previous years, however - with our various school district budgets being what they are this year - this is not for sure just yet. We're working on it.

Wireless
BYOL (that would be Bring Your Own Laptop) - we'll have wireless access to the Internet (filtered) - we may test our capacity to handle density of machines, but hopefully things will go swimmingly. If not, we have wired machines in various places you can access.

Invite Others
We strongly encourage you to invite other folks from your school, district, neighborhood, or learning network to attend as well. It would be great if everyone could bring at least one person with them that is perhaps new to this conversation.

Call for Conversations

Hey, did you miss it above? We need folks to submit proposals to facilitate these conversations. This doesn't happen without you.

Questions?
Feel free to leave a comment on this post or on the FAQ page on the wiki.

Promote Learning 2.0
Did we mention that you should tell others? Blog about this. Link to the wiki or this blog post. Or use this nifty image.

EduCon 2.1, Constructing Modern Knowledge, and Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

If there’s one educational conference you attend this year, I think you should make it be EduCon 2.1. If I had a choice between FETC and EduCon, I’d pick EduCon. If I had a choice between NECC and EduCon, I’d pick EduCon. If I had a choice between any content-area conference and EduCon, I’d pick EduCon (it’s not a technology conference, it’s a learning conference). If I had a choice between all my students having laptops computers and going to EduCon, I’d choose . . . well, okay, I’d choose the laptops for all my students. But you get the picture.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go to EduCon, which is why I want you to go if it’s at all possible (and then tell me all about it). If you live anywhere near Philadelphia, go. If you don’t live near, but your organization (or personal budget) funds things like this, go. I mean, just look at the scheduled conversations. Here’s the description from Chris Lehmann:

Registration is now open for EduCon 2.1, the second annual conference and conversation on education and innovation hosted by Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy in conjunction with The Franklin Institute. We will be convening January 23-25, 2009. During the conference, educators from around the world will descend upon Philly to teach, to think and to learn how to improve their own practices and inform the larger dialogue on education as well. Aaron Sorkin wrote, "Decisions are made by those who show up." It is time to show up.

EduCon is built on the Axioms:

1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members

2) Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with our students -- the 21st Century Citizen

3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.

4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate

5) Learning can -- and must -- be networked.

Visit the EduCon wiki to learn about the conversation schedule. Aside from the conversations, Friday night will feature a panel discussion where deep thinkers from various non-academic strata investigate the question, "What is the purpose of school?" While the need for a new educational course is clear, the path to that shift is not as obvious. Sunday's panel will highlight those divergent paths as educational leaders for varying pedagogies engage each other in an attempt to make the case for how we should approach our educational evolution.

EduCon will also feature a pre-conference event on January 22nd this year - Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge - with participants Dr. David Thornburg, Dr. Gary Stager and more.

The stage is set for an amazing conference. No vendors. No sponsors. Simply - ideas, inquiry and pedagogy.

Show up.

General conference registration is $150 and $100 for School District of Philadelphia employees and includes Friday admittance to SLA's partner museum The Franklin Institute and The National Constitution Center. Pre-Conference registration is $100.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Lehmann.

Now, for those of you in Colorado (or close to Colorado) who cannot attend EduCon (or even if you can attend), please consider attending the 2009 edition of Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation (last year’s info soon to be updated with this year's info). This will be held on February 21st, 2009, at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado (different location than last year - mapquest), with details to follow in another post very soon.

Mr. Vice President 2.0

In keeping with the spirit of my last post . . .

Senator Clinton, Senator McCain, Senator Obama - I just wanted to let you know that I'm ready and willing to offer my services. Here's my campaign photo.


Photo Credit: Dan Maas, taken at Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

Learning 2.0: Brief Reflection and Recap

So, it looks like we pulled off a conference today. I'd estimate we had between 130-150 physical attendees (we had about 170 folks registered, and about 40 didn't pick up nametags, but some other people came and some folks probably just didn't get a nametag), as well as some virtual attendees.

We'll have to wait until everyone fills out the evaluation to get a complete picture of how the day went, but certainly the comments we received - and overheard - were very positive. Overall, things seem to run fairly smoothly, the sessions and conversations seemed to go well, we had enough food for lunch, and our students were amazing (as always) for the student panel discussion. We certainly could've done better on the virtual component - some of the Ustreams didn't work well and it probably would've helped if we'd had some people on site just dedicated to helping with those and managing the various chats. But, as we said all along, we were mainly concerned with pulling off the physical conference and the virtual part was a bonus - so I think we did okay there. Should there be a next time (umm, can we pick somebody else's school?), we'll do better. You can see a couple of CoverItLive Replays on the main page of the wiki, as well as the Ustreams that did work and some partial copy and paste's of chats. There are also quite a few resources on various parts of the wiki, particularly linked from each session page.

I'm really tired, so this post will be brief (for me), but a few thank you's. Thank you to Littleton Public Schools, Arapahoe High School and St. Vrain Valley Public Schools for supporting the conference so that attendees not only didn't have to pay anything, but also got fed. Thanks to all the presenters that gave of their time and expertise. Thanks to the attendees for giving up most of a Saturday to come and help us all learn. Thanks to the five students from Arapahoe and one student from Ben's Cresthill Middle School for sharing your insights with us. Thank you so much to Barbara Barreda and Clarence Fisher who helped us out with a video (produced by Bud Hunt) to start off our day and then participated in a virtual roundtable discussion at the end. And, finally, thanks to Bud Hunt, Ben Wilkoff and Mike Porter for helping take this harebrained idea and making it a reality. 'Twas an honor to work with you.