Two years has passed and I'm back at the ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) conference in Atlanta, Georgia with 14,000 others! Before heading to my first session today I popped across the road to the 'Centre for Civil and Human Rights'. It's one of the most moving museums I've ever visited. Their mission is to empower visitors to take the protection of every human as rights personally and they do it by harnessing Atlanta's legacy of civil rights tomstregthen the world wide movement for nhuman rights. I was particularly interested in segregation and it showcased one study showing the effects non young children. Children, Afro Americans, were asked to draw themselves and apparently they always pictured themselves as white....how the world has changed!
This afternoon it was back to the Convention Centre for the Global Education Summit to listen, share and network with like minded educators from across the globe. I heard about teachers who:
- had allocated time in their class for 'Genious Hour'' where students could work on their passion projects via a wiki connected to students their age from across the globe.
- participated in Mystery location, as opposed to Mystery Skype. This means schools can use whichever platform they wish to participate e.g. Google Hangouts. The idea was to build students ownership of their learning all whilst teaching the skills of collaboration. One brilliant example was a junior class studying governments and via Skype they were able to connect with classrooms across the globe to connect with other students, ask questions and learn.
- who had set up global book discussions via an edmodo wiki
Finally tonight we had the first Keynote and an hour prior the queue snaked through the centre format least a kilometre. The choice of speakers at this event is always interesting andin my opinion contentious. ISTE generally have 3 keynotes and each time I have been, two have been male leading educators/technology specialists and the third a female, however and sadly, each time an actress! Yes their story maybe relevant but sadly tonight it wasn't. Ashley Judd spoke well, she was gorgeous and had a story to tell, but one that would have been suited to a Women's Health and Wellbeing Conference. It wasn't so relevant to 8500 technology educators.
I loved that she talked about the love in her family, the strong intergenerational female to female role models. Her personal story was something I knew nothing about- 13 schools in 12 years, Diagnosed with depression in 1996, incest in second/seventh grade and no adults believed her. By 10th grade she was living alone but no one intervened. 'In her words, "Abuse is anything that is less than nurturing".
Re reading the tweets now, I see overall the US teachers all loved her, they loved that she recognised the work teachers do, they loved that she reminded them that its the little things that they say and do that can make a difference. Perhaps its just me, or perhaps it was the blokes sitting around me (you know who you are!) who all tuned out when she asked for a minutes silence whilst she said a Serenity Prayer!
Resource links:
Global Ed Day planning document: http://bit.ly/GEDplanning (Ignite talk slides will be available here)
Lucy’s Presentation Slides: https://www.haikudeck.com/p/jjsdp6FBzc/global-education-day
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FcZZnVnijIYSFEldJS_ijZ14zdDrFd4sDvmsL7QD_XM/mobilebasic
Betsy - global citizen understands global interconnectedness teachunicef.org for resources
Twitter Handles:
Mystery location via @mrsmorgansclass
Robyn Thiessen @robynthiessen
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