Thing 15: Attend a Conference Online

I viewed: “Bridging the Divide” by keynote speaker Kim Cofino. The title of her presentation: “Going Global: Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education”.
Some of her major points were:
Educators must allow learning to take place whenever and where ever and it should be personalized to the student. Learning must be delivered when the student is ready. Students and teachers must learn to be adaptable and flexible. Blend old and new, technology and traditional. Technology can accommodate diverse learners. Blend culture and global perspectives for all students. Cofino advises that teachers must develop their own personal learning communities (PLCs) by joining social networks and creating a blog to share thought and ideas about education. Attending conferences on line is also recommended along with using Skype and Twitter. Then educators will be able to facilitate student creation of their own PLCs and they can experience earning in a global community.
I went to a few of the archived conference sessions from last year. “Show and Tell Exhibit, Reflect” had students post their artwork on a blog and then comment on each others work. I thought I would mention this to our art teacher.
I also viewed “Web 2.0 Tools to Amplify Elementary Students’ Creativity and Initiative“. I was disappointed because the sound was bad and the picture was blurry. However, she did say that while she likes webquests, she feels they are too teacher driven. She thinks it is more beneficial to students to provide them a menu of websites and let them explore. Also, have them go to each website and review it. Questions for students to consider when looking at websites:
What do you like about the site
What don’t you like about the site?
How would you use it?
She also mentioned the value of the “Myths & Legends” website which was mentioned in our class and I plan to use with my students.
Gerstein also recommends ThinkQuest as a valuable tool for students to create their own websites and avatars in a safe environment. I put ThinkQuest on Diigo and hope to use it with my students.
I will return to the conference next week to see what is new.