Part 2: Comments and quotes from the Building Learning Communities/Alan November Conference 2007

Part 2: Comments and quotes from the Building Learning Communities/Alan November Conference 2007:

Leadership is being:
Accountable
Dependable
Predictable
Passionate
Empowered
Engaged

Students should take ownership of their own learning

It has nothing to do with all the Technology stuff you have—it has everything to do with what you do with it…

I think we should require EVERY principal to have and write a Blog- communicate with the community, staff and students.

Tell me what make a good teacher?

Kids are digitally juiced

Kids who use Wikis do better school work

My staff is a reflection of me

Can we shift control to the kids?

If you spend a lot of money on the Technology stuff for a pointless purpose; it is a waste of money

It’s not about Technology and connectivity; it’s about the contributions we can make as students and educators.

Our schools today only skate the surface..they do not use the full power of the Internet.

I do not need a physical classroom anymore.

How does this change the way I learn?

When our kids walk into the classroom of today—we cut them off from social connection and communication.

Every class offered at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). is on-line: With 1,550 courses published as of November 1, 2006

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

Audio and Video Guide: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/OCWHelp/avocw.htm

I.B.M. has over 400,000 employees that have social web pages.

What are we going to do with these disruptive Technologies?

If you as teachers are not doing it, someone else will.

Every classroom should be connected to a nursing home or assisted living area.

Learn to know how to honor the wisdom of a senior citizen.

Be watchful of what could be wrong; but be a model of what can be right.

We all need to be in the learning business not the school business.

We are at the beginning of a revolution with these new technologies; i.e. Blogs, Wikis, PodCasts, Visual Literacy, Interactive Video Conferencing and Digital Story telling.

The role of a teacher is to expand the boundary of communication.

Tools For Creative Thinking: Most of the educational systems around the world have not changed to support creative thinking.

The Creative Process should be like kindergarten and applied at K-12:

Imagine

Create

Play

Share

Reflect

Repeat the process:

Teachers need to get out of school – they all should have the opportunity to be involved in an internship with a business during the summer.

Give kids “Real Work” and “Real Problems”

Feel the fear – and do it anyway.

Why do our classroom have fixed walls?