I recently had the chance to engage with so many influential educators at TCEA in Austin, and I have a lot floating around in my head that’s waiting to find a landing place. That conference is definitely one where part of the challenge is managing all the new ideas and considering what challenges you’ll accept before planning them all out over a period of time.
Since I find myself in the thick of wading through a sea of good ideas, I thought I would blog about it. I’ve picked ten ideas that stood out to me. These ten ideas stand out as concepts I’ll continue to come back to in order to push my thinking, especially with regard to technology in the classroom.
Admittedly, a lot could be done to unpack each of these ideas, but rather than sharing a series of mini posts, I simply wanted to share the big ideas that have stuck with me from my learning last week. So, here’s what’s on my mind lately.
“Our kids will not know the difference between a social media site and a website. It will all be the same.” – Kasey Bell
“You may be sitting next to the smartest person you don’t know.” – Steven Anderson
“We use social media for conversations because that’s how we learn.” – Steven Anderson
“Twitter chats precede faculty meeting conversation by 12-18 months.” – Tom Whitby
“Your comfort zone should never impede the learning of your students.” – Tom Whitby
“Our technology decisions should be based on education and learning, not on business sense.” – George Couros
“Quit telling people to think out of the box. It’s how you innovate inside the box that counts.” – George Couros
“In education, how often does ‘data driven’ mean we become ‘weakness focused?'” – George Couros
“Isolation is now a choice educators make.” – George Couros
“The higher up we go in the traditional hierarchy, the more people we serve; not the other way around.” – George Couros
So, there it is. There’s plenty to ponder, but I’m enjoying thinking through these ideas and considering how we can change to push student learning to a greater extent.
Help push my thinking. What do you agree with here? Disagree with? How are you making change happen based on these ideas?
Let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you!
Love your quotes did you make them yourself May I use them in my PD sessions? I will give u credit of course!
Thanks, Melissa! I made the quotes with two apps–Vanillapen and Typorama. You’re welcome to use them to encourage and challenge others!
Just today I was talking with a colleague about not limiting students because a teacher doesn’t think they know enough about a topic. Model being a life-long learner by learning from your students!
Thanks for highlighting amazing points from an awesome conference! My brain was on overload the whole time, & your post helped clarify some things for me that I can share with others.
You bet! Happy others can share in this learning!
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for sharing your takeaway ideas from TCEA with these weighty quotations. I too was at TCEA and really enjoyed George Couros’ sessions, but missed Kasey Bell this time; I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on the context behind her quotation. Is she meaning that kids stil need clarification and guidance on using Web-based media despite their ‘digital native’ label and immersion in social media? Or rather that anything on the Web is social media to them? Or that it only matters to them if it’s social in nature? As a teacher-librarian I’m always curious to hear tech-educators’ perceptions on these issues; my focus is cultivating kids’ digital and information fluencies which sometimes seems in conflict with the focus on tech integration and “curating” media today…in terms of the three possible meanings, I work on the first with students but use the other two to inform my approach…interested to hear more about her session!
Thanks,
Teresa
Hi Teresa!
I think what she was getting at was the idea that for many of our students, the web will have (or perhaps it already has) evolved into a venue for social interaction. I don’t think she was implying that students only care for what is social in nature, but much of what is driving traffic online now is so social that it is taking over spaces that once were much more static in nature than they are now.
If I can find the link to her session presentation, I’ll share it.
Hope you have a great week!
Hi Teresa! This was in reference to the social web in general and that eventually all websites will have some kind of social aspect.
[…] Bonus tip: If you come across great nuggets that you want to get noticed a little more, create a few images to Tweet out. Here’s a post that chronicles a few of the sticky ideas I came across last year. […]
[…] sessions and incredible educators, I’m just drowning in good ideas. Last year, I posted 10 Big Ideas From #TCEA16 after returning home, and I’m bringing back that style of post […]