Comments on: NECC ’08/NECC ’09

By: junk | The OnLion: Arts

junk | The OnLion: Arts — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:43:48 +0000

[...] conversations about what the change is and the mechanics of change are underway here and here. But what is that “front piece”? Where is the eye catcher? How do we get the attention [...]

By: On Changing Paradigms | Clarify Me

On Changing Paradigms | Clarify Me — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:56:09 +0000

[...] talk Changing Paradigms at the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts (via Will Richardson). Robinson is an engaging speaker and I highly recommend viewing his talk (it runs 55 mins). If [...]

By: Blueprint » Blog Archive » Reflections on NECC

Blueprint » Blog Archive » Reflections on NECC — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:52:55 +0000

[...] relevent for schools and super relevent for those of us making decisions about technology – the ‘echo chamber‘ must be avoided at all [...]

By: John Peters

John Peters — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:46:46 +0000

Will;

This was the first time for me at NECC and overall I enjoyed the experience very much. Having said that there were things that I liked and things that I didn’t.

I think what I enjoyed most was Edubloggercon, the Bloggers’ Cafe both listening to the sessions there and meeting many of the Eubloggers that I enjoy reading. I’m sorry that I did not get the chance to meet you there because I have been reading your blog for some time now and would have enjoyed the opportunity to meet face to face.

Being a relative newbie in the Edublogoshpere, it was educational, informative and in some cases even inspiring to me to have the opportunity to take part in some of the sessions and the chat that transpired at the Bloggers’ Cafe. I think I made a few new friends and definitely made some contacts that I hope to continue into the future in order to help me explore my professional development in the area of Web 2.0 technologies so that I can share these tools with my students.

“I don’t think it was possible to sit in on the sessions or walk by the Cafe and not simply admire the level of engagement of both long standing and relatively new participants in this conversation.”

I really appreciate your comment above. This positive attitude towards us newcomers to Edublogging is what I found every where at the Blogger’s Cafe and is what has encouraged me to continue my own efforts, feeble as it may be, at blogging about education.

I agree that we will see a lot of “Web 2.0 in a box”, as you said, in Washington D.C. next year from the vendors and I don’t necessarily agree with their motives for entering into the Web 2.0 world just to sell more of their product. I know that vendors are necessary to help fund conferences such as NECC and many do have some very good products to market to the education world, but…

By: NECC ‘08/NECC ‘09 |

NECC ‘08/NECC ‘09 | — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:18:39 +0000

[...] NECC ‘08/NECC ‘09 [...]

By: Carl Anderson

Carl Anderson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:43:21 +0000

What if we empowered our disenfranchised students to effect positive change in this way. There is a growing horde of students in the US who are dropping out of school not because they possess any of the normal risk factors but because they have seen school as unimportant. They have seen school as a place where learning is inferior and have chosen not to play the “school” game. These are students who want to learn, who want to have opportunities but do not see our system as their best possible option right now. If we had a system to empower these students to effect change in the system everyone could benefit. The students would be more likely to stay in school and the school would become a more productive 21st century learning environment.

By: Educational Insanity » Blog Archive » Micro vs. Macro: NECC vs. CoSN?

Educational Insanity » Blog Archive » Micro vs. Macro: NECC vs. CoSN? — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:22:12 +0000

[...] NECC, particularly among the more experienced and “followed” edubloggers (see e.g. Will and [...]

By: Clay Burell

Clay Burell — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:48:09 +0000

@Linda, If I said students come before teachers anywhere in the above, I can’t find it. (And let’s not kid ourselves about many, many teachers who are more than happy to push the worksheets after the wannabee professorial lecture, punch the clock, and go home to watch Lost).

There’s no logical reason I can see to say either teachers or students should be included in the conversation.

My point was simply to note how absent students are as a force in these discussions and in this “movement” (if that’s what it is).

That being said, I’m with you on the importance of teachers joining discussions – that’s easy enough to see. It seems less easy to see that students should.

By: LInda

LInda — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:55:56 +0000

Clay
What makes you think teachers aren’t feeling the same incredible sense of powerlessness to change the system?
The decisions being made are not reflective of the needs of the classroom instructor. Too many ed tech discussions go on at meetings between technology integrator types, business managers, and superintendents-there are other voices that matter not in the conversation. It is nice to think students come before teachers-but that is putting the cart before the horse.

By: Practical Theory

Practical Theory — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:00:59 +0000

Why Educational Change is Hard…

… And the limits of “Here Comes Everybody” for schools.

(I’ve been thinking about NECC / EduBloggerCon / EduCon and Will’s post: NECC ’08 / NECC ’09, and I just finished reading Here Comes Everybody, the edublog book of the Summer of 2008….

By: Practical Theory

Practical Theory — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:59:29 +0000

Why Educational Change is Hard…

… And the limits of “Here Comes Everybody” for schools.

(I’ve been thinking about NECC / EduBloggerCon / EduCon and Will’s post: NECC ’08 / NECC ’09, and I just finished reading Here Comes Everybody, the edublog book of the Summer of 2008. Tha…

By: Jean Tower

Jean Tower — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:50:30 +0000

Thank you all for your insightful comments about the NECC 2008 experience – many of my colleagues from Massachusetts had similar reactions. We found ourselves wishing for more substantive uses of technology in sessions that really focused on student learning AND leadership strand sessions that were further ahead of the curve than we are, rather than a little behind. It was very clarifying and affirming to read the post and comments here (as well as many of those mentioned here). I have three things I’d like to add to the discussion.
1) William Blake once wrote (and I paraphrase, perhaps poorly) that he tells the truth less to convince those who disagree with him and more to defend those who do agree. I suggest that sometimes the “echo chamber” and techies groups and conferences of like-minded colleagues provide a necessary conclave experience where we can “defend” each other. We may be relatively alone in our schools or districts, but these forums help us to know we are not alone and we are working as part of a large group.
2) I agree that we need to reach outside of these groups to make progress – we won’t become unstuck by talking only in the same circles.
3) Here is one of the small steps we have taken in Massachusetts to combat getting stuck in the echo chamber and to get the message wider – our state ISTE affiliate, MassCUE, has made outreach to school administrators a primary focus for the last couple of years. One thing we did was send invitations to school administrators to attend our annual conference for free. Our successes have been that we have an increase in administrators who attend the conference, we have a number of principals and superintendents who present at our conference, we added a one-day Technology Leadership Conference that has been resoundingly weel received, and we are now working hand-in-hand with the Massachusetts Superintendents organization to help them plan their own technology conference for 2008, and there is talk of combining the conferences in 2009.
These milestones are evolutionary in nature rather than revolutionary, but are nonetheless steps in the right direction.

By: Steve Ransom

Steve Ransom — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:16:43 +0000

@Scott – very true. I think we need to frame all of this in a larger perspective. Step back and look at educational change in general. We get far to frustrated when we think that these technology-based tools are not rapidly revolutionizing education spheres. For goodness sake, we are still trying to get effective math, language arts, science, and social studies instruction more widespread. Of course, all available tools should be part of the “effective instruction” approach, but that is not likely to happen when so many are still religiously following the table of contents in the textbooks and pulling material out of those tired, dog-eared manila folders. I have noticed that most of my recent blog entries have been touching these issues as well (http://ransomtech.edublogs.org/). Leadership, school by school, teacher by teacher, is what is needed. Large conferences may benefit those who attend in some small ways and more rarely, in more significant ways. However, those who attend such conferences are typically part of the “choir”.

It is now time for the “choir” to recruit new members. This can’t be done in choir gowns from the choir risers. It is time to take off the gowns and go into the audience and get dirty. And, if local school leadership does not make meaningful change a priority, then very little will ever change. IMHO, we need to stop “running schools” and start revolutionizing learning.

By: Julia Osteen

Julia Osteen — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:59:45 +0000

Laura,

I think sometimes school leaders have to “see” the change in action before they can share in the vision. Not everyone can gain vision from philosophical or even pedagogical discussions. That’s why we need more models that we can send people to see in action.

I agree wholeheartedly with you about the tools. Your statement above is exactly why our school has changed “focus” from working on a 1:1 initiative to working on a 21st century learning initiative. The pedagogy is what has to drive the change, the laptops or whatever other hardware are simply the tools to meet the 21st century learning objectives.

I did not attend NECC this year but do plan to go next year. I would hope that more people who are making strides on a local level whether as a school effort or on a classroom level would apply to present. If people don’t apply to present on pedagogical topics, then NECC will continue to be the “tool fest” that it seems to have been this year.

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:29:10 +0000

Will,

Good gracious, you’re a comment-gathering machine! We’ll see if you can top 150 with this one… =)

1. I’m increasingly in agreement with Clayton Christensen (author of Disrupting Class; he also wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma) that the disruptive innovation – personalized learning for students – is going to come from outside the school organization. Think online schooling, charter schools, home schools, video games, 1:1 programs that force schools’ hands… It’s going to sneak up on the existing system and then completely surpass and overwhelm the current status quo. The only question is when, not if…

In the meantime, if you think the existing K-12 system in most places is capable of more than evolutionary / incremental change – even while surrounded by a revolutionary environment – then quit now or get used to being disappointed.

2. This post sounds a lot like Karl Fisch’s recent post about being stuck. My comment to him may be helpful to you too (or it might not!):

http://snipurl.com/2vac2

3. Call Dr. Mary Ann Wolf at SETDA sometime (tell her I sent you). SETDA is doing awfully important work at the policy / legislator level that may speak to some of your bigger picture issues…

4. Yes, I’m going to say it again: You can do anything and everything with teachers – and it might even be amazing – but if the leaders don’t ‘get it,’ it’s not going to happen.

http://snipurl.com/2vadw

And by ‘it,’ I mean long-term, substantive change. There are 125,000 schools and another 15,000 school districts in the US alone. Better get crackin’!

Peace, my online friend.