Conversations

During each of the six breakout sessions throughout the weekend, a large number of conversations will take place. This site will help you organize your plan for the weekend and provide the relevant information for each conversation. After signing in, search through the conversations below and mark the sessions you are interested in to populate your personal schedule on the right (or below if on your mobile phone).

Anatomy of the wired history classroom

Session 3
Yolanda Wilcox-Gonzalez, Melissa Alkire, Geeta Jain, Rodney Yeoh, Kader Adjout

Sharing examples and looking at case studies of how technology enhances teaching and learning, this workshop will focus on a history/social studies approach to teaching with technology, but will present tools that can be used in any classroom environment. Participants will experiment tech tools that have worked well in our daily teaching and have been practical and efficient for students' learning, especially in a project-based learning environment.

Crafting a Digital Identity

Session 3
Rafranz David, Becky Fisher, Jeffrey McClurken, Jennifer Orr, Tim Stahmer

Everyone has a digital identity, like it or not. Responsibly developing and maintaining that identity are critical skills for educators and students. What role should educators play in developing these skills? What do educators need to do themselves to shape their digital identities and to serve as models for students?

Grades are stupid: Let’s promote and assess the process of learning, not just products.

Session 3
Reshan Richards

Emerging technologies, current research, and innovative pedagogies have supported the ways that students learn and demonstrate what they understand. Unfortunately, the archaic practices of grades and grading still dominate assessment conversations, even though assessment is much more than a static number or letter. Students now make their thinking visible more easily, and it is up to educators to recognize and harness the value in new approaches to assessment.

I abandoned my grading policy and you won’t believe what happened next: Mastery Tracking 101

Session 3
Sarah Prendergast, Michelle Leimsider, Lesly Lantigua, Tajanea Woodroffe, and Lissa Sangree-Calabrese

What does a student’s grade actually mean? Join a conversation led by NYC iSchool students and their teacher to learn how mastery-based learning and tracking can give students, families and teachers a genuine understanding of student knowledge. Find out what it’s like to really know what your students know while empowering students to take real ownership of their learning and walk away with plans (both big and small) to incorporate mastery tracking into your classroom.

Inquiry-driven project-based learning entrepreneurship at University

Session 3
Joshua Spodek

Two parts. One, since learning as much as I could about inquiry-driving project-based learning at Educon 2.6, I taught two classes in entrepreneurship at NYU that way and expect to teach a new class in leadership this Spring. I will give a progress report, open to constructive criticism, and look for ideas for teaching a brand-new leadership class. Two, assuming we want to spread the practice, let's find ways to do so, to find others practicing, and create community. Also, let's check that assumption. How does this style of teaching and learning differ in universities compared to K-12? What's easier or harder for the student, teacher, learning institution, etc?

Moving Beyond the Drive-By Model for Professional Development

Session 3
Eric A Walters

More often than not, professional development in schools follows the drive-by model: a guest speaker addresses the faculty, offering some practical advice for the classroom and then moves onto the next school. Faculty return to their classroom and then, eventually, are visited by another expert offering different practical advice. Without an opportunity for the faculty to fully engage in this professional development in a classroom setting, the lessons learned from each experience are often lost. How then do we reimagine professional development. We need a new paradigm in professional development as well as in teaching and learning. Instead of offerring self-contained workshops in blocks as traditional PD does, let's consider a new model that is continuous and sustainable (as evidenced by the highly successful Marymount School Making and Learning Institute). Participants immerse themselves as part of a making and learning culture in a variety of ways and choose from a menu of items that works best for the participant and not what is best for the PD organizers. Join us for a lively discussion to rethink PD models as we drive beyond the drive by.

Project Stargazer: Student-Led Collaborative Design and Education

Session 3
Derrick Pitts, Alexander Wroblewski, Andrew Roberts, Michael Thayres, and Morgan Caswell

This is a conversation led by the students of Project Stargazer. Learn about the process high-school students can take to develop their own collaborative projects, based on the experiences of a group of Science Leadership Academy students who created a student-led project in collaboration with The Franklin Institute and Boeing.

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