#Edsec: Information Security and Privacy in the Classroom by @jessysaurusrex
There were so many great things about this conversation. One idea that I took away is creating low tech moments in your classroom to demonstrate the importance of protecting yourself online. I did not realize how fun this could be! Some tactics included bribing your students to change their passwords. See a student's mobile device laying around? Do a security check. Does their device have a passcode on it? Go on a phishing hunt and identify spam together. Conversations about protecting yourself online should not always be based on fear.
Doodling the C's: Creativity, Collaboration, Comprehension, & Connections by @jgough & @lottascales
Another valuable conversation that I participated in involved the magic of doodling. Inspired by Sunni Brown's Visual Literacy for a Smarter World, this discussion focused on how doodling can actually assist us in retaining knowledge. When we take notes while listening to information, our brain is competing with itself. However, dual coding theory teaches us that our verbal and visual skills live on two different channels of our brain. When we practice doodling while listening to information, we can produce valuable notes that encourage creativity and comprehension. There are two rules to sharing your doodles: 1) admire the doodles of others and 2) look for things to steal. To test out this theory, we doodled our notes while listening to Simon Sinek's TED Talk, Start with Why. Above you will see the notes that I produced while listening. After doodling through the TED Talk, we admired each other's work and discovered great ideas to steal. The art of doodling is a skill and therefore, it is something to practice in order to improve. I love that I've added doodling to my "to do" list.
Rethinking the Purpose, Promise, and Process of Professional Learning by @kristenswanson and @djakes
Besides gaining the value of perspective from having several different parts of the world represented at my table, this conversation challenged me to rethink learning. The first thing I discovered was to ask who decides the learning and why. The who answer to this question can usually reveal so much about the influence behind our professional learning. In discussing the different teaching models between elementary, middle and high school, some participants mentioned that while elementary school felt student-centered, in middle and high school it becomes subject-centered. Why is this? I have my own ideas but most importantly, it is important food for thought.
Additionally, there was much discussion about how we can create the conditions in which learning can take place. A brilliant example that Kristen Swanson gave was in asking the attendees how many of us rediscovered a hobby over winter break. Almost every hand went up. I know my hand went up. Why do we rediscover hobbies over our holidays? Well, for one, we have the time and two, we have the freedom. In school, shouldn't we create these same conditions in which all learners can discover and explore their interests? This has become known as "white space". This idea has really made me think about the power of choice and the power of time and what both of these look like in my classes.
There were so many powerful learning opportunities at EduCon. I didn't even mention the conversation about social entrepreneurship or what it was like to learn about the big picture in education from the Chief Education Office of Philadelphia city schools or what it was like to chat with Meeno Rami, author of Thrive. It was simply great. If you have the ability to choose your professional learning next year, I highly recommend EduCon.
