Conference Update!!
Hello Students! Wow! I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the fantastic information I've learned today. Honestly, I need time to process all of the wonderful ideas that have been presented.
First, we had an incredible keynote speaker: John Seely Brown. He spoke to us about the importance of the teacher as a cultivator of imagination. He said that the 'half-life' of a skill is now approximately 5 years. If you want an explanation on half-life, ask a parent, or check out:
wikipedia - Half-life
That means whatever skill I teach, that skill has a chance of being obsolete in five or so years. So what do I teach? Dr. Seely Brown asked,
"Are we willing to re-invent learning for an era of constant change?"
Well, how I'm going to do that will be a learning process, and I hope you are ready to join me down that road! There is space for your passions or interests, your friends, and academics (school learning!):
Why are peers important? Social networking is important!! We are social animals! Why am I at a conference in Richmond Hill? I could have just read things on the internet. Because there is value in face-to-face interactions. The problem is, for so long in classrooms, students and teachers alike see learning as occurring only when we are being quite, and working independently. We know this isn't always true. However, we also know that sometimes, when we work with our friends/peers, we can not be focused or productive. How do we solve that?!
Off to the next workshop!
