NECC07 Session 1: Learning for Leaders 2.0: Development of Self and Team

Notes on Learning for Leaders 2.0: Development of Self and Team

Presenters: Dr. Gordan Dahlby and Dr. Larry Anderson

I left another session to come to this leadership session so I arrived late. The main concept I took home was a Top 9 list of tech leadership statements from Google (some of these might have been abridged in my notetaking:

1. Ideas can come from anywhere (Everyone is expected to contribute!)
2. Share everything you can (Information is power)
3. "You're brilliant, we're hiring." (Work with a lot of smart people)
4. A license to pursue dreams
5. Innovation, not instant perfection
6. Data is apolitical
7. Creativity loves constraint
8. Users, not money (If you build it they will come)
9. Don't kill projects, morph them (What was the kernel of value in something that didn't work?)

Larry Anderson: "All leaders are learners"

NECC07 Session 1: Refreshed NETS-S Release!

Notes on Refreshed NETS-S Release!

Presenters: Lynn Nolan, ISTE with Don Knezek

• ISTE has released a new set of Technology Standards for Students (NETS - S)
• Won't actually be published until September
• #1 change since original is "globalization"6 New Standards are:

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citenzenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

• Previous standards focused much more on tools; these focus on function
• See more details in http://cnets.iste.org/NESBRO_ISTE_PDF_proof.pdf

A matter of perspective...

Wednesday and Thursday of this week seemed much like a movie as I tried to leave the great state of Georgia and the NECC 2007 conference with my colleague, Ryan Bretag. It was vaguely reminiscent of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". We endured cancelled flights, late hotel shuttles and high tension in the long airport lines. As I stood in what felt like my 20th line before 8:00am on our second day in the airport, an airline employee asked if I was ticketed. I thanked her but told her my reservations were a "disaster" and that I was told I needed to talk to an agent. As she moved to the traveler behind me, I looked up to see a young man in uniform. I asked if he was returning home or heading for duty. Josh was returning from 5 months in Iraq. He had 2 weeks to come home to Iowa for his anniversary before he was to return. I welcomed him home, thanked him for his service and told him I'd keep him in my prayers in the coming months. He thanked me.

Ryan arrived shortly after my talk with Josh. I left the line and we moved on, planning our next exit strategy. All I could think of was how, minutes earlier, I had told someone my travel plans were a "disaster" only to look in the eyes of someone who really knew what disaster was. Lord only knows what he's seen. I gained some perspective in those few minutes with Josh....along with some humility and gratefulness.

I'll be writing about my experiences at NECC soon. This was a different type of NECC for me with some wonderful moments. But the image from the week foremost in my mind right now? Josh. May he and other young men and women return again safely.

A Taste of NECC 2007

Well, I'm following along with some of my fellow edubloggers and posting just a few items from my NECC 2007 schedule. Here are just a few highlights. (And I thought I'd toss this question out there: Tom March, where are you?? Apparently the March sessions have been cancelled....won't feel like a NECC to me without him....)

Refreshed NETS•S Release!
Lynn Nolan, ISTE with Don Knezek Monday
I'm curious to see what changes, improvements, adjustments are included in the new NETS.

Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society
Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Lab
I was listening to a presentation of Resnick's recently and found him very interesting...thought I'd go see him in person.

New Tools, New Schools: Starting the Conversation about Web 2.0
Gwen Solomon, TechLearning.com with Timothy Magner, Will Richardson, Lynne Schrum and David Warlick
Always interested in conversations held by the TechLearning team!

ESL, iPods, and Student Learning
Johnna Paraiso Torok, Rutherford County Schools with Dorothy Valcarcel Craig, Brandi Nunnery and Johnna Paraiso Torok
Looking for ways to help out our ELL students and teachers.

Standards for Us! Building Technology Facilitators and Leaders
Jo Williamson, Kennesaw State University with Traci Redish
I need to make sure "my own house" is cleaned up before I start preachin'!!

Staggeringly Good Things Integrating Media and Google Earth
Hall Davidson, Discovery Tuesday, 6/26/2007, 11:00am–12:00pm; GWCC Murphy 1
I really want to see Google Earth usage be not just "so cool" but meaningful. I always learn something in a Davidson session and, frankly, he's just darn entertaining!

Contemporary Literacy in the New Information Landscape
David Warlick, The Landmark Project
I've been intrigued reading Warlick's posts about changing nature of information.

Volunteer Shift: Ask Me Stations
Lisa Meinhard Sly, attendee
About time I gave something back!! I'll be in an Ask Me t-shirt from 7:00-10:00 Tuesday morning!

Educational Technology Vocabulary, revisited

Amen to the post on eSchool News, "Experts: Ed tech must change its message". (Thanks, Ryan Bretag for the heads up!) In the article, Dennis Pearce discusses the need to change our educational technology focus from tools to teaching. As technology trainers in our district, Ryan and I have been spending time trying to figure out how to do just that in our schools. The focus in technology integration has been, in my experience in the classroom and as a trainer, just that, "technology integration" -- not curriculum, not instructional design, etc. Our current mission, as I referenced in April, is to shift our focus to the teacher's instructional design, not the tools. A small but essential shift in our vocabulary can have a huge impact on that message. (Frankly, the content of my technology classes won't change all that much -- but the advertising will!) The main conversations with our staff should include more words like curriculum, engagement, collaboration, creativity, assessment, instructional design, professional learning, and problem solving and fewer words like CPS, SMART boards, Bluetooth, Web 2.0, MS Office and other techie talk. Not that those words are eliminated - certainly not - but they play supporting roles; not the lead. We need to talk with teachers first about their instructional goals-- and then we can have a much more impactful conversation about the tools that can support what teachers and students need.