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October 18, 2007
Jim Brazell: "The Future is Here"
Posted by Therese Laux, Blog Team, at 3:55 PM |
Breakfast Sessions
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“What are the skills that are relevant in today’s rapidly changing environment?” “What shifts will we have to make in order to increase options for our students?” These are but a few of the questions we need to ask ourselves according to Jim Brazell, from Texas State Technical College System.
Even the Army has embraced the change regarding the perception of the value of gaming in the educational process (Check out Army.com). In our “mixed reality” world, the blending of the physical, imaginary, and virtual planes offer us opportunities to see games as the next tool of educational technology.
If you’re thinking why, just check out Whyville.net. The Texas Workforce Commission is banking on its power to capture the attention of students, but especially females in the 11 – 15 years age range. If you’re a more “old school” learner, go to Ventureramp.com to get the free book download, Gaming: A Technology Forecast.
Being a huge fan of the works by Ray Kurzweil, I was excited to hear Brazell reference the futurist in our breakfast session. From mechatronics to micro-mechatronics and nano-mechatronics, our future may be so many years away, but it is truly just around the corner. A future where our students’ success depends upon a broad, deep, interconnected knowledge as opposed to specialized knowledge.
For a visual picture, think of the traditional “blue collar” becoming the new “gold collar.” Schools must have the educational pathways to produce tomorrow’s workers, and those workers are going to be coming out of our technical colleges. It’s not your grandpa’s community college anymore. It’s the integration of academics, career and tech ed, and the Arts that are going to propel our top performing students and schools.
It’s time to shift our thoughts from why this is happening to let’s make it happen now. Our futures and our country, depends on all of us providing our Millennial generation students with the real-world skills. Let’s get at it!
October 17, 2007
E-mail is for old people
Posted by Barbara Hunter, NSBA Staff, at 1:00 PM |
Breakfast Sessions
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Education Technology Issues
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Tools for the Classroom
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Say what? Being one of those old people, I found that insight rather startling coming from one of this morning's breakfast session speakers, Will Richardson. But he made a rather convincing argument that it was true. Sigh.
Here's the deal. Richardson says that educators and school leaders have got to get beyond our comfort zone and into our kids' world where networking reigns supreme. Kids have this amazing ability to connect online to learn just about anything. For example, check out this page from Qatar Academy that has a blog and a Flat Classroom so kids can share what they've learned and collaborate on projects.
And that's precisely where learning is taking place among kids. Another example Richardson showed is a site called Fan Fiction where students can write their own chapters to add on to existing books. Then, their peers comment on their stories. Imagine the possibilities for a classroom!
So our challenge is to rethink what a classroom can be and open the world up to connect learners around topics that are important. For a really cool overview of these thoughts and more, check out Richardson's wiki. And join him in today's online discussion on the same topic.
October 9, 2007
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
Posted by Christina Gordon, NSBA Staff, at 1:57 PM |
Breakfast Sessions
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Sure, your mother always told you breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but at this year's conference, there's a whole other meaning to that. Not only can you feed your tummy, but you can also feed your mind with the Breakfast Speaker Series .
The sessions offer a tremendous variety and wealth of knowledge for conference attendees. With such extraordinary speakers as: Bruce Dixon, president, Anytime Anywhere Learning; Joe Kitchens, superintendent, Western Heights (Ok.) School District; Will Richardson, author and learner-in-Chief, Connective Learning; Brenda Dyck, Master's Academy and College; Jim Brazell, consulting analyst, Digital Media Collaboratory, University of Texas, Austin; and David Thornburg, founder and director of global operations, the Thornburg Center, these sessions are not to be missed.
Advance registration is required for all breakfasts, at $10 each. You can visit the NSBA Registration Desk in Delta Lobby B for more information.
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