Monday, November 29, 2010

Tuesday Live in Elluminate with Phillip Schlechty - Leading for Learning

Join me Tuesday, November 30th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Phillip Schlechty, author of Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into Learning Organizations.

Date: Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Pagehttp://www.learncentral.org/node/122522

From the Schlecty Center:  Phil Schlechty comes out of a background as fundamental as an Ohio farm and as lofty as The Ohio State University. He is an exceptional speaker, thinker, writer, and leader. He has deep, abiding passions for equity, excellence, the public schools, and American democracy—reading any of his books makes this clear.

Phil is a synthesizer and connector. He has often said that he "stands on the shoulders of giants," to whom he owes a great debt—thinkers and writers in the fields of history, sociology, education, and business, primarily. His unique talent lies in the ability to draw upon such diverse sources of inspiration and to develop coherence among them around issues of kids, schools, communities, and leadership.

Phil is a skillful, entrepreneurial leader. At the Schlechty Center he has assembled an energetic group of talented professionals, challenged them to develop their unique talents in building the organization and serving its customers, and then supported them aggressively in their work.

Phil is a storyteller, and his stories (often quite funny) are usually metaphorical, linked to some important point about why, and how, schools might be transformed. He bridges disciplines, cultures, and points of view—comfortably and with keen insight. He teaches us all how to do that. He leads by example, and by asking "what if…?" questions.

A state legislator once said to him, "Son, you have a way of being able to get the hay down to the ponies." That's Phil. You'd like to get to know him.

Phil is up and writing every morning around 4:30, same time as when he got up to milk the cows before school—that's when and how he thinks best.

He wouldn't have written this, however—too self-congratulatory. It was written by appreciative staff.

Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into Learning Organizations

Week of November 29, 2010 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

EPORTFOLIOS COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: THE TRIALS 2010 (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Mon 29 Nov 08:30PM New York / Tue 29 Nov 01:30AM GMT / Tue 29 Nov 11:30AM Sydney
Coach Carole. Data and results will be shared from the 2010 Eportfolio Implementation Trials.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115865

THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF A LEADING EDGE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: AUTHOR, DELIVER AND TRACK, REINFORCE, AND SOCIAL LEARNING (ELLUMINATE LIVE)
Tue 30 Nov 01:00PM New York / Tue 30 Nov 06:00PM GMT / Wed 30 Dec 04:00AM Sydney
Matthew Lloyd. This session will explore the key building blocks of a holistic and contemporary organizational learning environment. The role played by each component will be examined along with the various approaches that can be adopted depending on the unique context of your organization.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116003

CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENT’S ASSESSMENT. PART C (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Tue 30 Nov 02:30PM New York / Tue 30 Nov 07:30PM GMT / Wed 30 Dec 05:30AM Sydney
Manos Alisavakis. Starting from the practices and personal views about the planning of an exam, we will try to make: i) a reflection via the personal views of other peers, ii) a presentation of the fundamental and problems of assessment, iii) a conversation about the criticism and the side-effects that have been found from the research. We will try to clear up the misunderstandings about the procedure and the role of student’s assessment. The protection from side - effects will be the webinar’s conclusion. Webinar will be held in Greek language.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/122464

WEB TOOLS AND SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ORGANISATIONS (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Tue 30 Nov 06:00PM New York / Tue 30 Nov 11:00PM GMT / Wed 30 Dec 09:00AM Sydney
Rhys Moult. This session will involve an online presentation from Jane Bozarth, an international expert on use of web tools and social media for organisational improvement from North Carolina, USA with following Q&A.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/110578

INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP SCHLECHTY (FUTURE OF EDUCATION)
Tue 30 Nov 08:00PM New York / Wed 30 Dec 01:00AM GMT / Wed 30 Dec 11:00AM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Steve will interview Phillip Schlechty on his book, Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into Learning Organizations.
http://www.learncentral.org/node/122522

A DIGITAL TOOLBOX FOR THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Wed 1 Dec 04:00AM New York / Wed 1 Dec 09:00AM GMT / Wed 1 Dec 07:00PM Sydney
Anne Mirtschin. Britt Gow an innovative science teacher at Hawkesdale P12 College. Britt has expertly incorporated online tools into her classroom using her blog effectively as the communication platform. In this presentation, Britt will speak on her adaptation of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy for the 21st century classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/122505

DIGITAL TEXT, AT (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Wed 1 Dec 08:00PM New York / Thu 1 Dec 01:00AM GMT / Thu 1 Dec 11:00AM Sydney
Jenifer Gossman. Join Beth Poss and Chris Bugji as they explore how library media specialists can enhance the learning of all students by infusing Universal Design for Learning principles in their practice. They will highlight the use of digital text and other assistive technologies.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/112951

SEARCH IT, FIND IT, SHARE IT: BETTER WEB RESEARCH-PART 3 (AzTEA 2.0 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT)
Wed 1 Dec 09:00PM New York / Thu 1 Dec 02:00AM GMT / Thu 1 Dec 12:00PM Sydney
Peggy George. Join yolink evangelist Anne Kimbrel to discover ways to promote search literacy in your classroom. During this 3-webinar series you will come away with practical applications from teachers actually implementing and using these tools in their classrooms. With 2 weeks between each workshop you will have an opportunity to try the tools with your students and come back to share your successes and questions.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116298/

VIRTUAL HOLIDAY PARTY: GAMES, PUZZLES AND FUN! (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Thu 2 Dec 01:00PM New York / Thu 2 Dec 06:00PM GMT / Fri 2 Dec 04:00AM Sydney
Lou Russell. Join us for a purely fun celebration. We will play games, share gifts, solve puzzles and have a virtual celebration of the end of 2010! You deserve a celebration because you will have had an amazing year!
http://www.learncentral.org/event/64521

SMARTPHONES, HANDHELDS, AND APPS—ORCHESTRATING PRODUCTIVITY/LEARNING (ADMIN 2.0)
Thu 2 Dec 07:00PM New York / Fri 2 Dec 12:00AM GMT / Fri 2 Dec 10:00AM Sydney
Jason Borgen. As access to mobile devices like smart phones and wifi-capable handhelds has increased, the number of applications or ‘apps,’ programs written to run on one or more of these devices, has grown at an even faster rate. The rapid development of apps for all ages, from adults to preschoolers, is encouraging educators to reconsider ways smart phones and other mobile devices can be used to support teaching and learning. Attend this Webinar to learn about basic considerations when allowing mobile technologies on campus and to explore apps that will help you be a more productive administrator and that teachers can use to support student learning.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/107358

A WOMAN'S WALK IN GRACE - CHAPTER 6 (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Thu 2 Dec 08:30PM New York / Fri 2 Dec 01:30AM GMT / Fri 2 Dec 11:30AM Sydney
Catherine Martin. Join Catherine Martin and others worldwide for the Chapter 6 Discussion For A Woman's Walk In Grace Study. This study is open to all who want to discover the magnificence of God's extravagant grace and experience it for themselves. You will learn that grace is God's love in action and it is "the face that love wears when it meets imperfection, weakness, failure, sin. Grace is what love does and is when it meets the sinful and undeserving."
http://www.learncentral.org/event/100304

THE BOOK WHISPERER (CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE)
Sat 4 Dec 12:00PM New York / Sat 4 Dec 05:00PM GMT / Sun 4 Dec 03:00AM Sydney
Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George. Donalyn Miller, known as the 'Book Whisperer', will share strategies she uses to integrate technology and foster the love of reading with her students.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/121728

APGS: TRANSFORMING THE SPIRAL OF LIFE (MATH 2.0)
Sat 4 Dec 02:30PM New York / Sat 4 Dec 07:30PM GMT / Sun 4 Dec 05:30AM Sydney
Maria Droujkova. Join Dani Novak for his presentation of APGS, software for dynamic mathematical art.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/119732

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The 2010 Edublog Awards - Nominations Open

This year I'll be helping to host the Edublog Awards again.  Now in its seventh year, this is one of the more enjoyable events of the year, and celebrates the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology.

The call for nominations is now open.  The nomination process is described at the Edublog Awards website.  Nominations close on Friday, December 3rd.  Voting will end on Tuesday, December 14th, and the final awards ceremony will be Wednesday, December 15th, live in Elluminate.

The categories this year are:
  • Best individual blog
  • Best individual tweeter
  • Best group blog
  • Best new blog
  • Best class blog
  • Best student blog
  • Best resource sharing blog
  • Most influential blog post
  • Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
  • Best teacher blog
  • Best librarian / library blog
  • Best school administrator blog
  • Best educational tech support blog
  • Best elearning / corporate education blog
  • Best educational use of audio
  • Best educational use of video / visual
  • Best educational wiki
  • Best educational podcast
  • Best educational webinar series
  • Best educational use of a social network
  • Best educational use of a virtual world
  • Best use of a PLN
  • Lifetime achievement
Like any awards program with "winners" it's important to stress that the "edublogosphere" as a whole benefits from all who participate.  So large or small, your participation using social media in education is appreciated, and we hope to honor the community as a whole by providing a chance to recognize significant achievement.  We hope you will join us!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Tuesday Live in Elluminate with Matt Levinson - From Fear to Facebook

Join me Tuesday, November 23rd, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Matt Levinson, author of From Fear to Facebook:  One Schools Journey.

Date: Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Pagehttp://www.learncentral.org/event/121827

A graduate of Teachers' College, Columbia University, Matt Levinson is the assistant director and head of the middle school at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, California. Prior to moving into school administration, he taught middle and upper school history for fourteen years at Princeton Day School in Princeton, New Jersey.  In 2007 Matt Levinson moved from New Jersey to California to start a 1-to-1 laptop program at the Nueva School, confident that his knowledge of technology would help him accomplish this goal. He never imagined the challenges he and Nueva would face. So that other schools and educators can learn from Nueva's lessons, Levinson shares his experience integrating a laptop program and how teachers, students, and parents discovered, dealt with, and overcame challenges.

"From Fear to Facebook is an insider's view of the journey from peril to possibility with digital media in school communities. Matt Levinson gives a clear picture of how communities need to work together to create safe, innovative opportunities for kids to learn with digital media. From Fear to Facebook tells the story of the cultural shift happening in schools with technology and provides a road map for how to navigate this sea change with buy-in from all key stakeholders. The stories [Levinson] shares are grounded in the day-to-day challenges and opportunities that accompany digital media. From Fear to Facebook should be required reading for schools looking to figure out how to optimize technology to enhance teaching and learning." ---Jim Steyer, CEO and Founder, Common Sense Media

From Fear to Facebook: One School's Journey

Week of November 22, 2010 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

TECHNOLANGUAGES LIVE - THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT THE IPAD IN THE LANGUAGES CLASSROM (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Mon 22 Nov 04:00AM New York / Mon 22 Nov 09:00AM GMT / Mon 22 Nov 07:00PM Sydney
Jess McCulloch. A discussion on ideas making the most of iPads in the languages classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116888

STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS: THE NON-READER (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Mon 22 Nov 05:30PM New York / Mon 22 Nov 10:30PM GMT / Tue 22 Nov 08:30AM Sydney
Nicole Lakusta. This webinar will describe the non-reader, give examples of what you can do to help this student and provide you with strategies that you can use to help this type of non-reader.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/120895

TECH TALK TUESDAYS -PING: AN ONLINE MUSIC PROGRAM FOR SCHOOLS (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Mon 22 Nov 11:45PM New York / Tue 22 Nov 04:45AM GMT / Tue 22 Nov 02:45PM Sydney
Anne Mirtschin. PingMusic.com.au is a social network for music education. During 2010, Ping has been delivering recycled percussion and singing activities to 15 rural primary schools in victoria. During 2011 Ping will roll out beginner guitar, drum, composition courses and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's VCE Music materials - Post 1910's composition. Ping integrates with Noteflight.com to enable scoring in the browser. In addition to this Practice tools, tuners and metronomes are being developed to make PingMusic.com.au a practice tool with social networking feeds. Ajax McKerral - PingMusic's project manager will present highlights from 2010 and demonstrate features arriving in 2011.Dont miss hearing about this innovative program.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/121080

21ST CENTURY LEARNING: CARING FOR ANIMALS IN THE CLASSROOM. (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Tue 22 Nov 12:00AM New York / Tue 22 Nov 05:00AM GMT / Tue 22 Nov 03:00PM Sydney
Leigh Hofman. Join Leigh Hofman, Educational Crusader at Habitat Heroes as she takes you through a whole new world of learning options that integrate traditional learning requirements into these 21st century themes. Learn how to find and use the various applications of Habitat Heroes and how they might apply in your classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/118768

BECOMING THE GREATEST TRAINER: 7 STRATEGIES FOR ADDING VALUE AND MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN TURBULENT TIMES (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Tue 23 Nov 01:00PM New York / Tue 23 Nov 06:00PM GMT / Wed 23 Nov 04:00AM Sydney
Bob Pike. Do you want to be a great trainer? Do you know what it takes to be one? Bob Pike CSP, CPAE-Speakers Hall of Fame, says that a great trainer is one that adds value and makes a difference. In this fast-paced, content rich webinar Bob will share great tips for becoming a great trainer.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116002

CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENTS' ASSESSMENT. PART B (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Tue 23 Nov 02:00PM New York / Tue 23 Nov 07:00PM GMT / Wed 23 Nov 05:00AM Sydney
Manos Alisavakis. Starting from the practices and personal views about the planning of an exam, we will try to make: i) a reflection via the personal views of other peers, ii) a presentation of the fundamental and problems of assessment, iii) a conversation about the criticism and the side-effects that have been found from the research. We will try to clear up the misunderstandings about the procedure and the role of student’s assessment. The protection from side - effects will be the webinar’s conclusion.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/120652

21ST CENTURY LEARNING: CARING FOR ANIMALS IN THE CLASSROOM. (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Tue 23 Nov 04:00PM New York / Tue 23 Nov 09:00PM GMT / Wed 23 Nov 07:00AM Sydney
Leigh Hofman. Join Leigh Hofman, Educational Crusader at Habitat Heroes as she takes you through a whole new world of learning options that integrate traditional learning requirements into these 21st century themes. Learn how to find and use the various applications of Habitat Heroes and how they might apply in your classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/118770

MATT LEVINSON - FROM FEAR TO FACEBOOK (FUTURE OF EDUCATION SERIES)
Tue 23 Nov 08:00PM New York / Wed 23 Nov 01:00AM GMT / Wed 23 Nov 11:00AM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Join Steve Hargadon as he interviews Matt Levinson about his book, From Fear to Facebook.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/121827

ET@LKING: UNCONFERENCE - DEBRIEFING AFTER VIRTUAL EVENTS (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Wed 24 Nov 04:00AM New York / Wed 24 Nov 09:00AM GMT / Wed 24 Nov 07:00PM Sydney
Coach Carole. Come and here what Allanah Kirby has to say about the organising, scheduling, managing and reflecting on a virtual conference. Join us to discuss your experiences in the recent Global Education Conference and unpack some of the learning, the inspiration, the challenges and the experiences of a full week of Elluminate conference sessions. We'll provide a glimpse of back stage preparation for a collaborative presentation at the GEC - Classroom 2.0 Live meets the Australia Series.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/121591

BUILDING TEACHING SKILLS THROUGH THE INTERACTIVE WEB (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Sat 27 Nov 09:00AM New York / Sat 27 Nov 02:00PM GMT / Sun 27 Nov 12:00AM Sydney
Jeff Magoto. Teacher training for EFL teachers. Today's focus is ANVILL and its possibilities for web-based training in F2F and DE.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/121678

Monday, November 15, 2010

Week of November 15, 2010 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

SEARCH IT, FIND IT, SHARE IT: BETTER WEB RESEARCH-PART 2 (AZTEA)
Mon 15 Nov 10:00PM New York / Tue 15 Nov 03:00AM GMT / Tue 15 Nov 01:00PM Sydney
Peggy George and Kim Thomas. Join yolink evangelist Anne Kimbrel to discover ways to promote search literacy in your classroom. During this 3-webinar series you will come away with practical applications from teachers actually implementing and using these tools in their classrooms. With 2 weeks between each workshop you will have an opportunity to try the tools with your students and come back to share your successes and questions.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116295

CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENT’S ASSESSMENT (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Tue 16 Nov 01:00PM New York / Tue 16 Nov 06:00PM GMT / Wed 16 Nov 04:00AM Sydney
Manos Alisavakis. Starting from the practices and personal views about the planning of an exam, we will try to make: i) a reflection via the personal views of other peers, ii) a presentation of the fundamental and problems of assessment, iii) a conversation about the criticism and the side-effects that have been found from the research. We will try to clear up the misunderstandings about the procedure and the role of student’s assessment. The protection from side - effects will be the webinar’s conclusion.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/118303

LEARNING IN TODAY'S WORLD: BLENDING THE BEST OF FORMAL, INFORMAL AND SOCIAL APPROACHES- LESSONS FROM (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Tue 16 Nov 02:00PM New York / Tue 16 Nov 07:00PM GMT / Wed 16 Nov 05:00AM Sydney
Lance Dublin. The buzz about informal, formally-informal and social learning continues to grow in intensity. Organizations know they need to jump onto this bandwagon, but they wonder both are these approaches valid and how can I ensure I’m successful. Formal learning is well established and is well understood. But nformal learning while seemingly obvious appears too broad, formally-informal seems too ill-defined and the definition of social learning is still evolving. Come and join me in this webinar series to learn how to blend these new learning approaches in news ways to extend, enable and enhance learning to meet the needs to today’s world.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116000

JAMES TANTON'S INTERVIEW BY SUE VANHATTUM (MATH 2.0 WEEKLY)
Wed 17 Nov 09:30PM New York / Thu 17 Nov 02:30AM GMT / Thu 17 Nov 12:30PM Sydney
Maria Droujkova. James Tanton will talk about "Math Without Words" and his other Thinking Mathematics books and projects
http://www.learncentral.org/node/119730

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL ISSUES IN GIFTED CHILDREN (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Thu 18 Nov 02:00PM New York / Thu 18 Nov 07:00PM GMT / Fri 18 Nov 05:00AM Sydney
Margaret Keane. This webinar examines the social emotional needs of gifted children and suggest strategies for their support.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/101859

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING (EDUTOPIA AND WINGS FOR KIDS) (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Thu 18 Nov 06:00PM New York / Thu 18 Nov 11:00PM GMT / Fri 18 Nov 09:00AM Sydney
Betty Ray. Edutopia and WINGS for Kids present this live chat on integrating social and emotional learning into your school or classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/119066

VSTE WEBINAR: ADINA POPA (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Thu 18 Nov 07:00PM New York / Fri 18 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Fri 18 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Virginia Society for Technology in Education. This webinar will discuss VSTE.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/98354

A WOMAN'S WALK IN GRACE - CHAPTER 5 (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Thu 18 Nov 08:30PM New York / Fri 18 Nov 01:30AM GMT / Fri 18 Nov 11:30AM Sydney
Catherine Martin. Join Catherine Martin and others worldwide for the Chapter 5 Discussion For A Woman's Walk In Grace Study. This study is open to all who want to discover the magnificence of God's extravagant grace and experience it for themselves. You will learn that grace is God's love in action and it is "the face that love wears when it meets imperfection, weakness, failure, sin. Grace is what love does and is when it meets the sinful and undeserving."
http://www.learncentral.org/event/100302

USANDO ELLUMINATE PARA PARTICIPANTES DE HABLA HISPANA (AULA 2.0)
Thu 18 Nov 10:00PM New York / Fri 18 Nov 03:00AM GMT / Fri 18 Nov 01:00PM Sydney
Rodolfo Calderon Vivar. Será una sesión de una hora, con media hora de presentación de herramientas de Elluminate y media hora de interacción con los participantes
http://www.learncentral.org/event/117373

MINIMAL MENTORING FOR MAXIMUM GROWTH (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Fri 19 Nov 01:00PM New York / Fri 19 Nov 06:00PM GMT / Sat 19 Nov 04:00AM Sydney
Lou Russell. As businesses do more with less, growing staff has taken a back seat. Mentoring is an important strategy for growing future leaders, but many companies believe that they don’t have time or staff to do it. In this session, learn ideas for scripting minimal mentoring leveraging online assessments and tools to maximize value while minimizing the time commitment.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116001

CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE - TEACHING GENERATION TEXT (CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE)
Sat 20 Nov 12:00PM New York / Sat 20 Nov 05:00PM GMT / Sun 20 Nov 03:00AM Sydney
Classroom 2.0 LIVE Co-Hosts. Lorna Costantini will share innovative ways to use technology to involve and engage parents into the classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/node/119573

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The 2010 Global Education Conference Starts Monday

The free, all-online 2010 Global Education Conference takes place this coming week, November 15 - 19, 2010!

We currently have 397 sessions from 62 countries scheduled, as well as 63 keynote speakers--an amazing lineup.  Please take a look at all that is taking place:  http://www.GlobalEducationConference.com.

The conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort to significantly increase opportunities for globally-connecting education activities. Our goal is to help you make connections with other educators and students, and for this reason the conference is very inclusive and also provides broad opportunities for participating and presenting. While we have an amazing list of expert presenters and keynote speakers, we will also have some number of presenters who either have not presented before or have not presented in Elluminate--please come to encourage and support them, as they are likely to be a little nervous!

There is no formal registration required for the conference, as all the sessions will be open and public, broadcast live using the Elluminate platform, and available in recorded formats afterwards. There is a limit of 500 live attendees for any given session. To verify that your computer system is configured correctly to access Elluminate, please run the self-test at http://www.elluminate.com/support.

Please tell your friends and colleagues about this event, and watch for the Twitter hashtag #globaled10.  See you online!

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Week of November 8, 2010 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
Elluminate, Inc.

TECHNOLANGUAGES LIVE (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Mon 8 Nov 04:00AM New York / Mon 8 Nov 09:00AM GMT / Mon 8 Nov 07:00PM Sydney
Jess McCulloch. This activity will focus on discussing ideas for ICT based group work in the languages classroom. Group work is a great way of creating a student centered classroom where students work independently and make choices that interest them and utilising ICT can assist in this.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/111273


MINI-GEEK FEST MONTHLY ONLINE CONVERSATION-NOVEMBER, 2010 (AZTEA)
Mon 8 Nov 10:00PM New York / Tue 8 Nov 03:00AM GMT / Tue 8 Nov 01:00PM Sydney
Peggy George and Kim Thomas. Do you get excited and energized by talking with other educators about technology tools and resources? Do you often feel overwhelmed with all of the new tools and feel you don't have time to keep up with everything? If you do, then the Mini-Geek Fest is here for you! No homework, no assignments, no cost—just an hour online, once a month to listen, share and discuss technology tools for your classroom, websites and more. Join co-hosts Kim Thomas and Peggy George in AzTEA Elluminate from the comfort of your own home. Professional Development credit (1 hour) will be available. The show is on the second Monday of each month from 8-9PM (Pacific). It's not a presentation or a tutorial, but a conversation--think of it like a "show and tell" where ALL participants can contribute. Shows will be recorded and archived so if you can't participate in the live sessions, you can listen to the recordings later. We look forward to an exciting and interesting conversation! Feel free to share this invitation with your "tech-loving" colleagues.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/109786


TECH TALK TUESDAYS: BLOGGING ISN'T JUST FOR BIG KIDS (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Mon 8 Nov 11:45PM New York / Tue 8 Nov 04:45AM GMT / Tue 8 Nov 02:45PM Sydney
Anne Mirtschin. In this session, Kathleen McGeady, whose class blog reached 20,000 visitors this week, will cover some of the following in regard to blogging with her grade 2 class.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/114875


21ST CENTURY LEARNING: BIODIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM. (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR SERIES)
Tue 8 Nov 12:00AM New York / Tue 8 Nov 05:00AM GMT / Tue 8 Nov 03:00PM Sydney
Leigh Hofman. Are you looking for a new way to teach biodiversity? Would you like to get students excited and engaged in a way that embeds the learning and gets them active? Biodiversity is an important issue and is currently being highlighted by the UNEP in this Year of Biodiversity. Join Leigh Hofman, Educational Crusader at Habitat Heroes as she takes you through a whole new world of learning options that integrate traditional learning requirements into biodiversity fields. Learn how to find and use the various applications of Habitat Heroes and how they might apply in your classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/109413


21ST CENTURY LEARNING: BIODIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM. (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Tue 9 Nov 05:00PM New York / Tue 9 Nov 10:00PM GMT / Wed 9 Nov 08:00AM Sydney
Leigh Hofman. Are you looking for a new way to teach biodiversity? Would you like to get students excited and engaged in a way that embeds the learning and gets them active? Biodiversity is an important issue and is currently being highlighted by the UNEP in this Year of Biodiversity. Join Leigh Hofman, Educational Crusader at Habitat Heroes as she takes you through a whole new world of learning options that integrate traditional learning requirements into biodiversity fields. Learn how to find and use the various applications of Habitat Heroes and how they might apply in your classroom.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/109418


1 TOOL AT A TIME (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Tue 9 Nov 07:30PM New York / Wed 9 Nov 12:30AM GMT / Wed 9 Nov 10:30AM Sydney
Kate Christo. 1 Tool at A Time is proudly brought to you by SIGMS and SIGILT.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/113231




The 2010 Global Education Conference
A Collaborative Worldwide Conference on Global Education, November 15 - 19
MultipleTime Zones, Multiple Languages, Multiple Tracks, and Free
For more information, to volunteer, or to keep informed:http://www.globaleducationconference.com




ET@LKING: MAHOODLE / GOOGLE (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Wed 10 Nov 04:00AM New York / Wed 10 Nov 09:00AM GMT / Wed 10 Nov 07:00PM Sydney
Coach Carole. So what can you do with a Mahoodle Google for your online classes?
http://www.learncentral.org/event/117192


SURVIVORS VOICE (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Wed 10 Nov 02:00PM New York / Wed 10 Nov 07:00PM GMT / Thu 10 Nov 05:00AM Sydney
Mayte Esponda. The Strongest Oak Foundation, an international NGO based in Calgary, Alberta, is honored to present two very special guest panelists: Charles Mugabe and Jean de Dieu Tuyisenge. Charles and JD are Rwandan genocide survivors who, as young children in 1994, endured one of history’s greatest tragedies and overcame insurmountable odds to stay alive, despite most or all of their families. Today, they strive to build a better life for themselves and others by leading social and educational projects for those in need. Charles (connecting from a village in Rwanda) and JD (connecting from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver) will share their incredible stories in a motivational encounter like none other, certain to inspire you with their passion for life and unwavering resilience.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/111842


GAGA FOR GOOGLE DOCS PART 4: SPREADSHEETS (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Wed 10 Nov 05:00PM New York / Wed 10 Nov 10:00PM GMT / Thu 10 Nov 08:00AM Sydney
Rochele Rodrigo. Having access to a free and easy to use spreadsheet application is great; however, the power of Google Spreadsheets is in it’s collaborative and publication abilities. Come to this webinar to learn various tips and tricks to using Google Spreadsheets. We’ll also talk about ways to incorporate Google Spreadsheets into various teaching and learning activities.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/92765


2010 K12 ONLINE CONFERENCE POST-CONFERENCE SESSION WITH DAVID WARLICK (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Wed 10 Nov 07:00PM New York / Thu 10 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Thu 10 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Kim Caise. Please join us for a lively discussion with world famous presenter and speaker, David Warlick. This event will close out the live events of the 2010 K12 Online Conference.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115946


UN ABRE BOCAS A LA CONFERENCIA MUNDIAL DE EDUCACION (AULA 2.0)
Wed 10 Nov 09:00PM New York / Thu 10 Nov 02:00AM GMT / Thu 10 Nov 12:00PM Sydney
Tomas Chaskel. El objetivo de este taller es mostrar las diferentes ponencias que hay y como se participa en la Conferencia Mundial de Educación. Ademas compartir un momento con miembros de Aula 2.0.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/117532




Hold unlimited, on-demand meetings and classes with a 50-seat Elluminate vOffice for only $49.95/month.
It's your personal virtual room with a fixed moderator name for you and up to 49 other simultaneous participants.
The power of Elluminate Live! in a single-room configuration.
https://www.learncentral.org/products/vOffice


GLOBAL BLENDED LEARNING IMPLEMENTATIONS - FIELD-TESTED STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Thu 11 Nov 01:00PM New York / Thu 11 Nov 06:00PM GMT / Fri 11 Nov 04:00AM Sydney
Cindy Huggett. Using best-in-class examples from experience in the field, author and expert Cindy Huggett will demonstrate how recent blended learning implementations have achieved results including consistent leadership and management development across geographically dispersed learning audiences.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115996


EXPLORING GAMING, CULTURE & EDUCATION WITH PROFESSOR ROGER TRAVIS (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Thu 11 Nov 02:00PM New York / Thu 11 Nov 07:00PM GMT / Fri 11 Nov 05:00AM Sydney
Barbara Lindsey. In today's session, members of BeyondWebCT have the opportunity to learn exactly that as they talk with Professor Roger Travis about his unique Video Games and Human Values Initiative and his innovative application of gaming environments in courses in classics—including both culture and language courses. This promises to be an engaging and illuminating session and we welcome fellow educators with an interest in the use of gaming in education.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/116095


RESEARCH PROJECTS, REVISITED (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Thu 11 Nov 04:00PM New York / Thu 11 Nov 09:00PM GMT / Fri 11 Nov 07:00AM Sydney
Kimberly Lightle. Science and literacy instruction in the elementary grades is the focus of a new series of web seminars for the 2010-2011 school year. The series is sponsored by Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, an NSF-funded project that provides professional development and instructional resources to elementary teachers.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/89905


THE KNOWLEDGE SHARING PLACE - 21ST CENTURY PD (KNOWLEDGE SHARING PLACE)
Thu 11 Nov 07:00PM New York / Fri 11 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Fri 11 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Dean Mantz. Join the Tina and Barbara of LiveBinders and Dean Mantz as they talk with Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom on Twitter) on establishing and developing successful 21st Century Professional Development.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/111224


A WOMAN'S WALK IN GRACE - CHAPTER 4 (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR)
Thu 11 Nov 08:30PM New York / Fri 11 Nov 01:30AM GMT / Fri 11 Nov 11:30AM Sydney
Catherine Martin. Join Catherine Martin and others worldwide for the Chapter 4 Discussion For A Woman's Walk In Grace Study. This study is open to all who want to discover the magnificence of God's extravagant grace and experience it for themselves. You will learn that grace is God's love in action and it is "the face that love wears when it meets imperfection, weakness, failure, sin. Grace is what love does and is when it meets the sinful and undeserving."
http://www.learncentral.org/event/100260


CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE - TEACHING GENERATION TEXT (CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE)
Sat 13 Nov 12:00PM New York / Sat 13 Nov 05:00PM GMT / Sun 13 Nov 03:00AM Sydney
Classroom 2.0 LIVE Co-Hosts. Join Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George for a session with Lisa Neilsen and Willyn Webb for a discussion about cell phones in the classroom and 'teaching generation text'.
http://www.learncentral.org/node/117828


HIGH TECH HIGH -- COLLEGIAL CONVERSATIONS (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINARS)
Sat 13 Nov 03:00PM New York / Sat 13 Nov 08:00PM GMT / Sun 13 Nov 06:00AM Sydney
Ben Daley. Educators gather virtually to look at students' work and discuss educator dilemmas.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/100005

Friday, November 05, 2010

The Divided Stories of Education Reform, Personal Cognitive Revolutions, and New Superheroes

A few months ago I interviewed John Taylor Gatto for my “Future of Education” interview series. From 1989-1991 Mr. Gatto was recognized as the New York City teacher of the year, as well in 1991 as the New York State teacher of the year. In the summer of 1991 he retired abrubptly, and in a very public way: in an op-ed piece published in the Wall Street Journal where he claimed by being a part of the public school system he was harming students more than helping them. His 1992 book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling then became a seminal work of the homeschool movement, but was not widely known in traditional education circles.

What struck me as I interviewed Mr. Gatto was how much his message—that factory-model schooling was not just ineffective but actually harmful to most students—a message which had been so radical and out of the mainstream twenty years ago, actually sounded very much like the messages of my other guests. Sir Ken Robinson, Seth Godin, Anya Kamenetz, Tim Magner—guests both well-known and more obscure—were now singing similar tunes, but the audience of traditional educators now seems much more open to it. In fact, in most of my interviews, I might venture to say that we start from the baseline of the factory-model “story” of education being “broken,” and then work toward understanding where we might go in the future.

If there's a more general acceptance that the story, or narrative, we've told ourselves about the purpose and value of education for the past 100+ years is now broken, there's also an awareness that we don't have a ready replacement for that story. Stories help us to place our lives and activities in context, and without a new story, we have a crisis of “meaning:” it's not clear how to measure what is important or not, and how to move forward with some relative assurance that we are accomplishing things of worth and value. As the Internet revolution opens the door to dramatic changes in the power and organizational structures within (and between) societies and cultures, many of the other important stories we've relied on are breaking or broken as well, especially and including economics and politics. Finding a new story (or stories) for education becomes imperative because so many other aspects of our lives are dependent on our vision of how teaching and learning take place.

It's telling that while the Internet has become an unparalleled platform for learning, intitiative, participation, productivity, and creativity, almost all of this happens outside of formal educational institutions. Where we were largely passive media consumers before, we now have a web that encourages and even favors participation. We have online leaning, anytime and anywhere connected devices, a crowd-source encyclopedia that has displaced a 200-year old cultural bulwark, free courses from MIT, and a content licensing system (Creative Commons) for purposefully sharing content. We have Open Source Software, open textbooks, and 2.0 versions of activism, politics and government, and volunteer work. We have an incredible new electronic long-tail of creative and business opportunity, personal expertise being built on blogs and wikis, student portfolios more powerful than any resume, and worldwide network facilitating innovation and collaboration at speeds almost hard to believe. We have a social network whose membership, if it were a country, would make it the third largest in the world. We're unleashing the cognitive and social energies of mankind in what may turn out to be one of the most fundamental shifts in what it means to be human that's ever occurred. And yet, our schools remain almost unchanged, and unable to prepare students for this new world.

Out of a world being reinvented by these computer capabilities, two somewhat opposing stories about education have been raised to the fore, each vying to replace the old broken factory-model one, each proposing a view or rationale of the roles and aims of educational institutions. The first is very visibly at the heart of the educational policies being pursued by the current administration in the United States, and is characterized by the buzzwords of testing, tracking, and accountability.

I will not hide my perspective on this: I find this focus not just counter to research into productivity in knowledge-based activities (see Dan Pink's Drive for references), but believe it actually invites into the educational arena the short-cut numerical achievement tactics which have characterized the economic debacles of our day. As the easy successor to the factory-model story, this approach represents continuity of practice more than change, and can be understood as the predictable reaction of an institution facing significant challenges to its relevance. The ironic pathologies of large institutions are that they often invite or perpetuate the very problems that they were created to solve, they engender an internal conceit that they are best suited to address these or any new problems, and they are often unable to change in the critical ways that are actually needed. This approach to reforming education, from the inside and using high-stakes testing and punishment / reward metrics, will not serve our students or our societies well.

The second story now more actively vying for our consideration (also strengthened by technology) is based on technology as a liberating force: allowing for individualization of education, focusing on flexibility and personal interests, considering engagement to be more important than the particular content area, placing the learner as an active driver of his or her education, and at its core helping through participative communications tools to build a passionate or intentional learning culture. While this story interestingly more closely mirrors the workforce needs and realities of modern businesses, it's justification can also be found in rich pedagogical roots that took a back seat to the factory-model but whose flames were kept alive in alternative or progressive schools and through parts of the homeschooling movement.

Somewhat diametrically opposed to the testing and accountability story, which depends on centralization and the control of an obedience culture, this alternate story provides rich meaning for all constituencies--especially teachers--who have the responsibility to build local learning cultures together. Rather than using measurement to blame and isolate, this story is highly reminiscent of the Total Quality Movement in business, for it recognizes the need of administrators, teachers, parents, students, and the community to solve problems together--where measurement tools are taught to be used by those on the front line, and not arbitrarily (and often unconscionably) held over them to motivate through fear. It also opens our understanding of educational successes with diverse methods: KIPP, High Tech High, Big Picture Schools, and thousands of other successful public, private, chartered, and home schools which don't have identical methods or systems, but which have built learning cultures that drive and inspire achievement.

These two stories are not new, rather they are profoundly different ways of thinking about education that are just finding new advocates as the power shifts of the Internet are opening the institution of education to scrutiny. However, a new and, to most people, a surprising learning super-hero has been actively championing this second story: the educational technologist. This does make sense. Often early adopters of Web 2.0 tools, educational technologists are usually on the front wave of computer trends, and many of them feel the Internet Revolution as a personal cognitive revolution—a transformation of their own learning and quality of life. This powerful, but often unrecognized, passionate group lives below the surface of traditional educational policy discussion, but its strength is strikingly manifested in self-organized professional-development communities and conferences, like in the nearly 50,000 members of the Classroom 2.0 educational social network. Now organizing and holding conferences around the world and online, they have stepped into the kind of grass-roots leadership role that is becoming the hallmark of cultural change in our new era of the Internet. Often their own educational experience models individualization, flexibility, and engagement much more than is the case with traditional teachers. They blog, they tweet, they vod- and pod-cast. They push the boundaries, looking at at gaming and virtual worlds for educational models. They model "learning how to learn" and building “personal learning networks” around the world of like-minded individuals, and then they work--not just with students but also with colleagues, staff, administrators, parents--to help reshape the learning environment they are a part of. Unlike the obedience culture of the accountability story, which seeks to mandate the teaching of specific sets of “21st Century Skills” to students, these pioneers recognize that “21st Century Skills” can't be taught or supported by those who aren't in a 21st Century work environment themselves, and they seek to reinvent both the larger and their local educational systems and environments.

There may be a temptation to want to gloss over the cultural dialog that will have to take place if we want resolve the two stories into the broader cultural understanding, an understanding that we need in order to make sense of and direct educational efforts. We must be careful not to succumb to that temptation, as that dialog will help us to test our theories and ideas against the reality of our cultural and individual needs, and help in the process of refining our understanding. But don't be surprised if the voices of educational technologists begins to take on an increasingly prominent role in this discussion. Their perspective is worth listening to carefully, as they are tapping into and giving new life to a tradition of progressive educational ideas that we will need to fix our broken educational story--at an intriguingly important moment in our collective human history.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

2010 Global Education Conference #globaled10 - Check It Out, and Looking for Help!

The online 2010 Global Education Conference kicks off on November 15th for 5 days.  As co-chair of the conference, I'm both nervous and excited! The conference has garnered incredible support--we currently have over 90 partner organizations, 120 international educator advisors, 36 keynote speakers, and over 300 worldwide presentations--all around helping students and educators to connect globally.  Check out the amazing schedule in your own time zone.

First, I just want to encourage you to attend as many sessions as interest to you, and to also let others know about the conference. All the conference sessions and keynotes are free, and to say that this is an historic event might even be downplaying it. Globally-connected education is becoming an incredibly important educational topic, and to be gathering so many terrific people for a first-ever event of this kind is producing tremendous synergies and connections--which is the goal. All of the sessions will also be recorded, available after the conference, and also downloadable/distributable for those in low- to no-bandwith areas.  On the website there some widgets/badges you can use to promote from your blog or site.

Second, and very IMPORTANTLY, we really need volunteers who know the Elluminate online environment to help moderate sessions. Even with lots of live training sessions and detailed Elluminate written/recorded support materials, there are still likely to be many presenters who may not be fully comfortable using Elluminate. Their inability to respond to unknown variables during their presentations might reduce their effectiveness, dampen their enthusiasm, or even diminish their sense of the potential for connecting globally in this way. We're hoping to have someone to help in every session.

If you have experience moderating Elluminate sessions, WE COULD REALLY USE YOU! To the degree that you are able (and if you are really gung-ho, there is no limit!), we are hoping you will volunteer to moderate conference sessions. You will have no organizational or heavy-duty responsibilities--just to make sure that the presenter gets some help if they have any trouble with Elluminate features, and to help participants in the same way. We expect a large number of attendees who've never been to a virtual event like this before, and your being there to answer questions in the chat or to help field Q&A will make a huge difference.

To volunteer you go to http://globaledconmoderating.youcanbook.me and select specific time slots (again, you can't pick too many! :) VERY IMPORTANT: Remember 1) to change to your local time zone before making your selections, and 2) try to come in 5 - 10 minutes BEFORE the time(s) you select to help the presenter feel comfortable. Once you have listed your available times, we will email you in the coming week to solidify your session assignments, give you log in information, and also send you a link to a short recorded moderator orientation session.  We will also have a conference "lounge" Elluminate room running 24x7 during the conference, so if something comes up and you need more help, you will be able to come into the lounge and grab some of the other organizers to help! :)

The Twitter account is http://www.twitter.com/globaledcon.  The hash tag #globaled10.  :)  Now you're social-media ready!

Thank you so much!

Monday, November 01, 2010

Live in Elluminate Early Wednesday - Finnish and American Perspectives on Learning Communities

Join us early morning Wednesday, November 3rd, for a special live and interactive FinNode Social eLearning webinar:  Transforming the Learning Environment - Leveraging Learning Communities:  A Finnish and American Perspective.  School leaders from the US and Finland will share best practices on their successful learning communities and how it is transforming learning in their schools and expanding these learning communities outside their schools.

Date: Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Time: 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern / 3pm (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Pagehttp://www.learncentral.org/node/115993

We are delighted to invite you to a FinNode Social eLearning webinar. During this webinar, four school leaders from the US and Finland will discuss how learning communities helped them transform their already successful schools into learning environments that open the world to their students. Topics will include:
  • Schools' pedagogical beliefs and approaches
  • How learning communities help extend the learning environment beyond the four walls of the school building through physical and virtual communities
  • Preparing teachers using rich social media tools
  • How we know we are effective - documenting best practices and results
  • Building, replicating, and sustaining effective learning communities - starting with physical communities and adding value through social media tools
The school leaders will share their current practices, their future plans, and discuss the barriers they face in implementing their vision. The speakers will also compare and contrast the differences they observe between Finnish and American approaches, constraints, and solutions.

Moderator: Peg Maddocks, Ph.D., CEO, Maddocks Learning

Panelists:

1) John Puglisi, Superintendent, MESA School, Santa Barbara, CA (Public School)

2) Ben Daley, COO, High Tech High, San Diego, CA (Charter School)

3) Jukka Miettunen, Headmaster of Patamäki Primary School in the City of Oulu, Finland.

4) Petri Lounaskorpi, Primary School Teacher,  Pedagogical Consultant and Researcher, Jyvaskyla, Finland


Thursday Live in Elluminate: Steven Farr on Teach For America

Join me Thursday, November 4th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Steven Farr, Chief Knowledge Officer at Teach for America and the author of Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap.

Date: Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Pagehttp://www.learncentral.org/event/115992

Steven Farr leads Teach For America's efforts to discern what distinguishes teachers whose students in low-income communities achieve dramatic academic growth. He joined staff as vice president of training and support in 2001 and has managed the research and development of a number of Teach For America's training texts. He has contributed to the development of the Teaching As Leadership framework and rubric, as well as Teach For America's online resources built around those ideas. Farr taught high school English and English as a second language as a part of the 1993 Teach For America corps in the Rio Grande Valley. Farr is a graduate of the University of Texas's Plan II Honors program and Yale Law School.

Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap

Week of November 1, 2010 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

ANVILL: SPEECH-BASED TOOLS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ESL EDUCATORS (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR SERIES)
Mon 1 Nov 06:00PM New York / Mon 1 Nov 10:00PM GMT / Tue 1 Nov 08:00AM Sydney
Jeff Magoto. Foreign language and ESL educators looking for speech-based web tools to complement their instruction should find the University of Oregon's National Virtual Language Lab (ANVILL) a useful addition to their online offerings. This first webinar of this academic year focuses on the core features of ANVILL, including: setting up a course of your own, designing spoken language tasks, and creating other kinds of lessons. Creating media-rich lessons in ANVILL is simple and straightforward. There are templates for audio, video, and image tasks; there are also tools for voice-based discussions forums. Whether you're linking to existing web content, or uploading your own texts or media files, ANVILL simplifies the process. ANVILL is free for all educators, and is aimed at both teachers in traditional face-to-face situations as well as at those who are doing distance or hybrid courses.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/113553/

EYES TO SEE: USING DIGITAL IMAGES IN THE CLASSROOM (TL CAFE)
Mon 1 Nov 08:00PM New York / Tue 1 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Tue 1 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Gwyneth Jones. With the advent of inexpensive, simple to operate digital cameras, teachers and librarians have the opportunity to involve students in activities that are engaging and enriching. "Eyes to See" will explore various ways to enhance curriculum through the use of digital images.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/102392

PARENTS AS PARTNERS W/GEORGE COUROS PLANNING PARENT ENGAGEMENT (PARENTS AS PARTNERS)
Mon 1 Nov 09:00PM New York / Tue 1 Nov 01:00AM GMT / Tue 1 Nov 11:00AM Sydney
Lorna Costantini. George Couros, principal in Stony Plain Alberta joins show host Lorna Costantini in the 38th in a series of webcasts to talk about Planning parent engagement in his school.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/114680/

TECH TALK TUESDAYS: DIGITAL CHATTING: FAVOURITE WEBSITES, ONLINE TOOLS, ISSUES, CHALLENGES. (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Tue 1 Nov 12:45AM New York / Tue 1 Nov 04:45AM GMT / Tue 1 Nov 02:45PM Sydney
Anne Mirtschin. Bring along your favourite websites, projects, online tools, challenges, issues etc and we will discuss and share with each other. Upcoming conferences will also be discussed.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115097

VICKI ABELES ON "RACE TO NOWHERE" (FUTURE OF EDUCATION)
Tue 2 Nov 08:00PM New York / Wed 2 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Wed 2 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Join Steve Hargadon for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Vicki Abeles, director of RACE TO NOWHERE: The Dark Side of America's Achievement Culture. Concerned mother turned filmmaker, Vicki "ams her camera at the culture of hollow achievement and pressure to perform that has invaded America's schools." This culture, she argues, is "destroying our childrenʼs love of learning and feeding an epidemic of unprepared, disengaged, and unhealthy students."
http://www.learncentral.org/event/90720


ET@LKING: EMPOWERING LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Wed 3 Nov 05:00AM New York / Wed 3 Nov 09:00AM GMT / Wed 3 Nov 07:00PM Sydney
Anne Mirtschin. Christine Redman is interested in using technology enhanced discussions to improve learning.The potential in WIKIs and Blogs to progressive student’s understandings in collaborative ways seems like highly positive way forward. This session will examine a structure that implies and supports choices for the use of technologies.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/113291

FINNODE SOCIAL ELEARNING WEBINAR (FUTURE OF EDUCATION)
Wed 3 Nov 11:00AM New York / Wed 3 Nov 03:00PM GMT / Thu 3 Nov 01:00AM Sydney
Maria Pineaar. We are delighted to invite you to the next FinNode Social eLearning webinar. During this webinar, four school leaders from the US and Finland will discuss how learning communities helped them transform their already successful schools into learning environments that open the world to their students.
http://www.learncentral.org/node/115993

MORE EVIDENCED-BASED ACTIVITIES TO BOOST YOUR HAPPINESS (ELLUMINATE LIVE EVENTS)
Wed 3 Nov 01:00PM New York / Wed 3 Nov 05:00PM GMT / Thu 3 Nov 03:00AM Sydney
Tracy Tagliati and Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan. In this second webinar on happiness, we share half-a-dozen activities that increase your level of happiness in a measurable and sustainable fashion. In the two relationship activities, you learn how to react to bad news and good news from your partner. In the two strength-based activities, you learn to identify your strengths and to leverage them to in your professional and personal lives. In the two optimism activities, you envision your best possible future and bounce back resiliently from setbacks. Each of the six activities is supported by evidence from research in positive psychology. The session will also include a question-and-answer period.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115995/

GAGA FOR GOOGLE DOCS PART 3: FORMS (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Wed 3 Nov 06:00PM New York / Wed 3 Nov 10:00PM GMT / Thu 3 Nov 08:00AM Sydney
Rochelle Rodrigo. Having access to a free and easy to use online survey tool is great; however, the power of Google Forms is in it’s collaborative and publication abilities. Come to this webinar to learn various tips and tricks to using Google Forms. We’ll also talk about ways to incorporate Google Forms into various teaching and learning activities.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/92764

IMAGINE EDUCATION: TEACHING MATH THROUGH STORIES AND GAMES (MATH 2.0)
Wed 3 Nov 09:30PM New York / Thu 3 Nov 01:30AM GMT / Thu 3 Nov 11:30AM Sydney
Maria Droujkova. Join Scott Laidlaw as he gives interview to Colleen King, and ask questions about Imagine Education project
http://www.learncentral.org/event/115780


EDUBLOGS FINE FOCUS - FACE TO FACEBOOK (THE AUSTRALIA SERIES)
Thu 4 Nov 07:00PM New York / Thu 4 Nov 11:00PM GMT / Fri 4 Nov 09:00AM Sydney
Jo Hart. This week Jane Curry will Elluminate you with ideas on how to use Facebook with ESL youth. There are so many ways of collaborating on FB with a group of students, teachers, volunteers and social workers and other friends. Photography, discussions, posts, chatting, links to wallwisher, youtube, events and that's not all!! Collaborative teaching and learning, ....we are all learning.

INTERVIEW WITH STEVEN FARR ON TEACH FOR AMERICA (FUTURE OF EDUCATION)
Thu 4 Nov 08:00PM New York / Fri 4 Nov 12:00AM GMT / Fri 4 Nov 10:00AM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Steve Hargadon will interview Steven Farr on Teach for America and his book, Teaching as Leadership.

A WOMAN'S WALK IN GRACE - CHAPTER 3 (HOST YOUR OWN WEBINAR SERIES)
Thu 4 Nov 08:30PM New York / Fri 4 Nov 12:30AM GMT / Fri 4 Nov 10:30AM Sydney
Catherine Martin. Join Catherine Martin and others worldwide for the Chapter 3 Discussion For A Woman's Walk In Grace Study. This study is open to all who want to discover the magnificence of God's extravagant grace and experience it for themselves. You will learn that grace is God's love in action and it is "the face that love wears when it meets imperfection, weakness, failure, sin. Grace is what love does and is when it meets the sinful and undeserving."


MATH AND TECHNOLOGY (CLASSROOM 2.0 LIVE)
Sat 6 Nov 12:00PM New York / Sat 6 Nov 04:00PM GMT / Sun 6 Nov 02:00AM Sydney
Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George. Join Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George for a session with TED Talk's, Dan Meyer. Dan will discuss ways he uses technology in math instruction.