Workshop and Spotlight sessions I will be attending during iCTLT!

Workshop:

Learning 2.0: A Participative Discussion on the Power of Learning in a Networked World

by Mr John Connell, Cisco Systems

Schools no longer need to be merely the buildings where teachers and learners come together – it can become the hub for pervasive learning in students’ lives.

The workshop will discuss the concept of “Learning 2.0,” in which social technologies are brought to bear on the central issues and relationships in learning. It will introduce the notion of ‘network learning’ (sometimes called connectivism) and contrast it with constructivism as a paradigm for considering the changing nature of education in the modern world. Discussion will centre around the realities of creating pockets of ‘Learning 2.0’ practices in the real world of existing educational practices. It will also highlight the future of education in a world where the onset and permeation of digital technologies are transforming the way we live, work, and learn, including discussion on teaching, learning, and the shifting nature of schooling, the changing roles and relationships of teacher and learner and the developing concept of “network learning”.

Spotlight sessions:

1. Getting Tomorrow Right

by Gene Carter

To guarantee that today’s students are ready for their future, schools need to transform from being places of teaching to environments for learning. How can educators harness the potential of today’s technologies to ensure that students are prepared for 21st century success?

2. Learning in a Digital Age: The Differentiators

by Cheryl Lemke

Optimized learning is at times, personal, social, and/or collaborative. High tech tools serve as an extension to the student’s thinking — a place to explore ideas, research questions, test hypotheses, compose thoughts, and come to conclusions – in other words, to learn. These tools serve as vehicles for building skills, advancing thinking through multimodal learning, collaborating through social networking and increasing understanding through authenticity – highly effective differentiators of learning. Join this session to learn how technology can open doors to learning never before possible. The result will be deeper learning and more engaged learners. Take a look at how these tools are being used effectively by schools to advance literacy, scientific thinking, critical thinking, self-direction, global awareness, and cultural literacy.

3. Deconstructing and Reconstructing Pedagogy in the Age of Digital Media –12 Years of Shape-Reforming Against Conventional Wisdom in Education

by Yan Tien

The dynamic quality change in education is not brought about by mere introduction of digital media, but are certainly enable by it. The shape-reform in how we conduct education in the 21st Century needs to spearhead by challenging static ideas that had worked in the past. The real challenge lies in changing habitual beliefs. The speaker shares 12 years of knocks-and-fall in shape-reforming education for creative talent development; how conventions were deconstructed and reconstructed, pedagogy redesigned, digital media integrated, and staff realigned to form the basis of talent-centric curriculum in a creatively demanding field of digital media design.

4. 21st Century Learning – The New Balance

by Bernie Trillin

The creation of 21st Century schools and learning is the most fundamental challenge every nation on earth faces. There is a growing worldwide consensus on the key skills needed for success in 21st Century work and life – the “Seven Cs”. Combining the effective use of technology, a collaborative project approach to learning, an emphasis on innovation and creativity, and teachers skilled and committed to teaching in a 21st Century approach, are what is needed now.