My Learning Journey at #SXSWedu 2014

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For several weeks, I’ve been wanting to archive the learning sessions that I attended at #SXSWedu this year. Today, I finally got around to it.

My Learning Journey at SXSWedu 2014:

Monday, March 3, 2014

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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

IT’S ABOUT LEARNING: “Be Present: Mount Vernon Plays to Connect #SXSWedu Session & Creative Mornings Atlanta on #Childhood”

  • Meet-Up with Dr. Reshan Richards, 3.4.14, 4:30 p.m.
  • Mardi Gras Party Hosted by 4.0 Schools
  • Dinner with @am_gallagher, @scitechyedu, @SAISNews, @lndeutch, @kamithor, @elizabeth_lytle

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 Wednesday, March 5, 2014

STORIFY: “Wed., 3.5.14, Bo’s a.m. #SXSWedu #selfdirect #DisruptEdu”

  • Reverse Engineering to Teach Design in High School, 3.5.14, 2:00 p.m.
  • #AK12DC Mentors & Facilitators Conference Call, 3.5.14, 3:30 p.m.
  • Meet-Up with Julie Wilson, Institute for the Future of Learning, 3.5.14, 5:00 p.m.
  • Dinner with @scitechyedu, @jennzia, @WickedDecent, @treyboden, @lndeutch, @coachhkay, +some
  • #dtk12chat live from #SXSWedu

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Thursday, March 6, 2014

STORIFY: “Tapping Crowd Wisdom RE: #Badges #MicroCredentialing”

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STORIFY: “Reflecting on #SXSWedu 2014 via Tweets”

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Related: SAIS@SXSWedu

Be Present: Mount Vernon Plays to Connect #SXSWedu Session & Creative Mornings Atlanta on #Childhood

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How are you being present – being in the present – and playing to connect?

On Tuesday, March 4, thanks to Mary Cantwell, Trey Boden, a number of folks @MVPSchool, and the organizers of SXSWedu, I enjoyed a fabulous opportunity to facilitate a Playground Session at SXSWedu, in the “Hands On” category.

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Our game plan for the session can be found on Scribd and Google Docs. And Mary (@scitechyedu) captured much of the fun, in pictures, with her post “Mount Vernon Plays to Connect @ #SXSWedu.”

By playing, we were not preparing for anything in particular or readying ourselves for the future. We were playing to be present – to be in the present – and to connect with our fellow playmates, or learners. We were playing to connect with our inner child, our beginner’s mind, and our innate storyteller. We were playing to #HaveFun and thread connections among ourselves and others.

We were playing to…play.

Like kids on a playground.

Like we did when we were immersed in our own childhoods.

At the end of January, Shelley Clifford and I attended a Creative Mornings Atlanta. The theme was “Childhood,” and we heard Aretta Baumgartner and Patty Dees speak about puppetry arts as a way of reconnecting with our childhood — being fully present and playing to connect. As Aretta captivated us all, she strung us together in a game that put us in the role of puppets. And our biggest challenge was to BE PRESENT. To let go of our egos and to simply enjoy playing.

puppetry

 

During the #SXSWedu Playground session “Mount Vernon Plays to Connect,” we reiterated this point about the power of play — there is great energy and fun in being present and being in the present. Amidst the joy of doing so, we connect to a great many things, and, more importantly, to a great many other people.

When we play, we are like children embracing their childhood — playing to learn, playing to connect, and playing to…play.

Be present. Be in the present. Embrace your childhood. Connect. Go play.

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Moonshot teaching: “real-life problems that require hands-on solutions”

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“Getting Our Students to Own Their Educational Experience”
Raymond W. Cirmo
Independent School Magazine
Winter 2014
(HT @nicolenmartin)

If our interest and motivation are piqued when we work on tasks that interest us, that directly involve us, that have outcomes based on our abilities, and that succeed or fail based on our level of understanding, effort, and involvement, then why not apply this same logic to student learning in our classrooms?

To do this, we first need to realize that the students are not in our classroom, we are in their classroom. And the room is not set up for us to teach; it is here for us to be facilitators in the students’ learning. We are here for the students, not the other way around. This means that we need to educate them in a fashion that makes sense to them and the world they live in. And the best approach I have found is to assign them tasks involving real-life problems that require hands-on solutions — in other words, learning by creating and doing.

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How are you igniting #curiosity and wonder in your own backyard?

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new perspective creates wonder and inspires us to become explorers in our own backyards.

This quote comes from Louie Schwartzberg’s TED talk “Hidden miracles of the natural world.”

And this one…

What is the intersection between technology, art and science? Curiosity and wonder, because it drives us to explore….

Schwartzberg’s films are beautiful. And they originate from curiosity, wonder, and… field work. Getting out and exploring.

Last week, speaking to a group of educational leaders, I said that the school campus and surrounding area may be the single most underutilized learning environment in the world. What if we explored our own campuses more – in the same spirit as Schwartzberg explores and discovers? We might just reignite the curiosity and wonder of millions of learners.

Go. Explore. Observe. Discover. Question.

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