The conference dinner was absolutely spectacular, with excellent entertainment and food. There was rouge and baubles as far as they eye could see. Here are some pics from the big event:
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Our conference dinner was held last night at the Westpac Arena. With a theme of rouge, the rest was left up to delegates’ imagination - and what a party it was!
Prior to this year, CORE Education held the record for the largest sit-down meal at the Westpac Arena with dinner for 1967 people at Navcon 2K4. Last night, we exceeded this record with dinner for 2000!
104 staff were on hand to cater for our every need. Here they are, ready to wait on us hand and foot:
The second keynote was presented by Steven Carden. This was a highly entertaining talk with a profound message. I asked the twit network to reflect on the keynote as it was happening and you can see their comments in the image to the left (click to enlarge).
The take away message from this keynote:
We are facing or experiencing rapid, extreme change - discussions are needed about our future. What sort of society do we need to be to survive in a changing society?
Steven argued that we are not ready for this change. We forget how small we are (NZ) on the world’s stage. We do not have any profound answers… yet. Dialogue is needed.
Societies who are moving in a forward direction have three things in common:
Idea-generating
Ideas are needed to cope with a world that is changing
Idea-absorbing
Small countries like NZ can’t generate all the ideas we need. We need to absorb them from elsewhere.
Willing to change
Steven asks what does all this mean for NZ’s education sector?
- The workforce needs highly adaptive people. The nature of jobs is changing dramatically
- We need radically new ways of educating young people
- It’s all about YOU - the quality of the teachers in our schools is the key.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” (Alvin Toffler)
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Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach opened the ULearn08 conference with an inspirational presentation with examples of students using blogs to make a difference.
Laura is a young girl who lost her grandfather, she decided in his memory to make a difference to the world. She tells her story at her blog http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com.
At a conference Laura was asked a question.
“Laura can you tell us how do you come up with your ideas of who to help?”
She replied “I ask my readers.”
Laura has a voice. She knows her opinions are valued. She feels empowered to make a difference and contribute. Do we allow this in our classrooms? I use the word ‘allow’ pointedly. Do our students get to use their voices?
It makes me think of the joke of the young girl spending her first week at school:
“Dad, I don’t think I’ll go to school anymore there really isn’t any point.”
“Why is that?”
“Well I can’t read and I can’t write … and they won’t let me talk.”
21st century technologies allow us to have voices, to voice our opinion, to make a difference. These technologies are available for our students, our children. We must let students have their voices and we must make sure they know how to use these voices in an ethical manner and in a safe way.
That is our job as educators.
We have already had an exciting showcase to the future session, and the second one is now underway!
If you have seen an idea you like and want to find out more about it, check out the Presenters’ knowledge base on the ULearn08 website. There is a special category for the showcase to the future.
Just a reminder that the showcase to the future runs in the James Hay Theatre during each breakout on Wednesday and Thursday at the same times as other workshops (and not at the times incorrectly shown in the programme). Each presentation in a ten minute snapshot of a new idea or innovation. You can come and go as you please and don’t need to register beforehand, which is perfect if you’re looking for something else to do during a breakout.
Look out for the student media team who are looking stylish and happy in their blue and yellow ULearn t-shirts.
The media team will be capturing the spirit of ULearn08 on video. If you are approached by a student for a short interview, don’t be shy! Everyone who takes the time to support our media team will go in the draw to win a prize You can check out what their up to on their team’s wiki.
There is also a wonderful team of student runners supporting each room. These are the people to ask if you have a question or need support for your presentation.
The Ministry of Education supports ULearn08. Visit their team just along from the Registration desk to talk about the strategies, programmes, and research supporting and promoting the effective use of ICT in schools.
Learn more about the development of Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI), the Digital Technologies Guidelines, Digistore, Foundations for Discovery (ECE e-learning framework), The National Educational Network (NEN), e-Principals, assistive technologies, and Software for Learning.
Also, come and give your view on the Online Learning Environment (OLE) project and the ICT PD review.
Check out the at the latest reflections of ministry staff on the conference at the blog – www.lunchbox.org.nz
“Educating Leonardos” - multidisciplinary education
Helen speaks of the need for more creative thinkers, more innovators, and the need for schools/teachers to impart and encourage the joy of learning. She emphasises the new roles for teachers as facilitators, and the need to be inventive with the curriculum.
As far as attitudes are concerned, Helen speaks of the “open source attitude” - a positive attitude towards learning, developing, inventing, creating, sharing, hacking and innovating. A way to do this she asserts is cross-discipline or multi-disciplinary connections - for example bio-computing, and the development of organic machines. Helen advocates a managed approach to this, and spent some time talking about the future of education and the campus of the future.
Ewan McIntosh, talking about the need to explore emerging practice that matches the potential of emerging technologies - leading edge thinking, teaching and learning.
The 5 points he covered were
1. Audience - from classroom audience, or teacher as audience, to hundreds of thousands
2. Creativity - new publishing tools and options, animations, students sharing products online and for ipods and cell phones,
3. Differentiate - raising the bar; moving from page-based to digital media.
4. Authentic goals - authentic purpose and audience, leading to strong ownership and motivation.
5. It’s not about the technology, it’s about the teaching - an emphasis on old tools can be a barrier to innovative practice; computer games can make a difference.
Quote - “mobile phones need to come out of pockets and be on all day”
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