In-tu-it-think

During the past weekend I joined the geeks and participated in a Learning 2.0 conference at Concordia International School in Shanghai, China. In the distant past I would have shied away from what could be perceived as an intimidating environment. But in today’s world, we have no time to allow our fears to overtake our learning opportunities….within the first session I was twittering and ninging- instantly learning a little more about what it means to be 21st century literate!!!

I can’t recall in the past as a young(er) teacher ever being totally “blown away” by conferences….but it has happened numerous times now that I have come home feeling WOWed (and overwhelmed) by new learning. Is this a sign of the times? (and I am wondering whether our students get WOWed on a daily basis, but that’s another topic).

We educators have a huge responsibility to our students and learning for an unknown future. This is not an easy responsibility. We seem to be learning “just-in-time” skills that are outdated as soon as we learn them! We continue to fumble along…we can only guess! But the more we are aware of how this world is unfolding and evolving, the better our guess will be. And I am afraid that if we are not guessing right, we will be deeply hindering the learning.

So what will it take to move out of our industrial aging schools and to ascertain a bold learning environment that fully embraces the technological changes upon us? How long can we wait? How can we be smart about what we know and what we do not know?

I have returned from the Learning 2.0 conference to my own safe space to ponder! Technology is changing everything. While I do not believe that I need to be a technology geek (by the way, I love their humour), I do know I must be a passionate appreciator of technology. I also know I must re-imagine the learning and my work as an educator. We must develop a new mandate to pursue. What will that be?

Jumping ahead to find the cutting edge, here are some questions I am messing with:

• How can we brand our school?
• What innovative ideas can we develop?
• How can we re-imagine our role as educators?
• What part of our industrial aging school can we dismiss?
• How can our learning hub truly support and inspire learning?
• How can we use technology to truly blast learning into 21st century?
• How can we ensure bold learning?
• How can we take parents on this ride to the future?

Can you add to the vision? Please share any creative ideas that may help us (re)design a brand new school of thought and action?

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