Educon: Field Guide for Change Agents

A few months ago, I had a discussion with Ben Hazzard about how we might engage educators in producing an e-book to assist and encourage change agents. The result of our efforts was a workshop that took place this afternoon at Educon 2.2.

Instead of providing a 'presentation-style' workshop, our goal was to leverage easy-to-use collaborative web tools and to lead interested co-learners in the creation of practical, shareable content. Teaching by doing, we did our best to model:

1] how to build relationships among project participants;
2] how to contribute to shared documents simultaneously;
3] how to attribute Creative Commons licensed content;
4] how to offer 'choice' to participants;
5] how to take shared responsibility in creating a product;
6] how to engage remote participants in a meaningful way;
7] how to create and distribute a product for a real world audience.

Field Guide For Change Agents

View more presentations from Rodd Lucier.

"This Field Guide for Change Agents was developed during a workshop at Educon 2.2 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in January 30, 2009. As workshop leaders, we were honoured to have participation by educators from around the world, including remote participants who joined us via Elluminate."

The creators have agreed to license their work with an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons license. You are free to share or adapt the work, on the condition that the author page and photo attributions are included.

Late addition: One of our online participants, Lorna Costantini, has written a blog post about the experience that really affirms the value of the processes we adopted.

Educon: Harnessing Chaos

When students are actively engaged in their learning, they aren't necessarily sitting in desks and working with pens and paper.

Our first day at the Science Leadership Academy gave us opportunities to see a variety of learning environments in action, including what on the surface may have seemed to the uninitiated, to be a chaotic learning environment.

Click image for large version.

Today's podcast summarizes what happened when senior student tour guides led a group of visiting educators through Stephanie Dunda's grade 10 bio-chemistry class.

Wish You Were Here

It's my first trip to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and I have to say, I'm impressed. The hotel district is right in the heart of the city, meaning many interesting sites are within walking distance. The neighbourhood is populated with museums, towering buildings, and public art installations.



The highlight of Day 1 had to be meeting and dining with staff members and other co-learners at Fogo de Chao, where flipping your serving card to green, invited 'gauchos' to blade hot servings onto our plates. The conversation was intimate, familiar, and open; more evidence that the relationships we build online, are much more than virtual.

Today, over 500 attendees, including many from southern Ontario, will be networking at the Science Leadership Academy. It's Educon 2.2, and another day of learning; wish you were here!

A New Axiom for Educ(ati)on

One of the events taking place at this week's Educon 2.2, is Encienda Educon, an hour of 'lightning seminars' scheduled to take place during lunch on Saturday. Though I may be crazy enough to attempt an 'Ignite' presentation, I'm also smart enough to know that it's a highly challenging format; one worthy of rehearsal.

For those unable to join us at Educon, my 5 minute talk runs a bit longer when an introduction and closing comments are added:

A New Axiom for Educ(ati)on

View more documents from Rodd Lucier.

Let's Ban Chalk

A week from today, I'll be making a presentation called "Let's Ban Chalk". Assuming I'm successful in making the case: What will we do with our chalkboards?

I'm voting for IdeaPaint to help transform our classrooms.

Learning to Change: Changing to Learn

I'm hopeful that the realities expressed in by the luminaries in this short piece will open a few more minds. Here's to the death of Education; and the dawn of Learning: