My Brain Hurts (and that's a good thing)

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As stated in my last post, Wow, What a Difference!(SXSWedu 2014), "...we need you here. Here, of course being SXSWedu 2015.  Well it seems I am not alone in thinking this. A couple of folks who I palled around with wrote great posts about their experiences this year and are ready to get you on board for next year.

The first post I read was from Stephanie Sandifer, entitled #SXSWedu 2014 Brain Dump .  She and I spent a lot of time together so most of what she wrote, she and I had already discussed. But the call to arms line in there was "if you think there is a lack of teacher representation"...(then)..."organize and submit your own proposals..."

Next up was a post from Stephanie Cerda (yes, it seems I know a lot of women named Stephanie), "Hacking #SXSWedu." Her call to action was more direct since the post was primarily about taking control of the conference. As she said, "Take it as a call to action, and help to make a difference in subsequent years." I"m ready! Where do I sign up? Well she has an answer for that. She's already started a spreadsheet for SXSWedu 2015 that you can take part in.

A large presence in @ms_cerda's post was someone who became a large presence in my SXSW life. That would be Lindsey Own. She also wrote an excellent post with a call to action. Her post, "Myths, Reality and Relationship-Building in the Edtech Community at #SXSWedu" gives some ideas, as the title states, on building relationships between the Edtech entrepreneur and educators. It's a must read as you start planning on how you will put together your plan for SXSWedu 2015.

You ARE going to SXSWedu 2015, aren't you? Find other posts on SXSWedu 2014. Sign into the spreadsheet for next year and offer an idea or offer to be on a panel. Then stay tuned for information on submitting panel proposals followed by the all-important panel picker season when you get to pick panels that you want to hear.  We need you. And if you are like me all this thinking about next year will be hurting your brain - and that IS a good thing!

Wow, What a Difference! (SXSWedu 2014)

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Four years. The time it takes for the average student to go from middle school to college. The time it took me to go from high school grad to college grad. And you might say SXSWedu has gone from middle school to college in their first four years.

Four years ago, like a tween, SXSWedu wasn't sure what or who it was. At times it wanted to play with it's big brother SXSWi and at other times it demonstrated that it had no clue what it wanted to be when it grew up.

This year we can see the refinement in its style. It is starting to get its own character. Yet it is still treated like a junior statesman by its much senior SXSW brethren.  Wouldn't it be cool if it were included on the "official" posters (see image at top)?

So what was it like this year? The first thing that comes to mind is that there were a lot of people who I knew were here, but I rarely saw them because they were is sessions. For example, I saw one of my friends three times - while I was transiting on escalators. She was in one or two of the sessions I attended but only realized that from her tweets.  Were we avoiding each other? No, we just both had options - definitely a first for this conference.

There still weren't enough K-12 educators here, though. Why? Well, this is a terrible week for teachers in Texas because it comes right before Spring Break. Schools won't let teachers take off and teachers don't want to take the vacation days when they have vacation time coming up. For those outside of Texas, the conference is fairly expensive because of the cost of lodging and flights. Teachers and school districts have to be careful with their finances.

That isn't as true for education-related businesses and academia. There were plenty of these folks in attendance, yet it didn't feel as vendor-heavy as it did in 2012 or 2013.  There really was a nice blend of topics for both educators and entrepreneurs. And many of the panels had a mix of education people and business people on them.

I think SXSWedu is now a conference worth promoting in the education world. Prior to this many (most) of those I had talked with were hesitant in recommending the conference to their peers. I fully intend to promote the heck out of this conference when proposal time arrives. I am hoping that we can move to a situation where greater than 50% of the attendees are from the K-12 arena. Or, worse case, greater than 70% are K-12 or higher ed. 

I saw a lot of friends at this conference. The parties at night were fun and were great for networking. And I learned a lot in the sessions I attended. SXSWedu is an education conference. You are able to mingle with other like-minded educators and you can exchange ideas with education entrepreneurs (or edupreneurs).  

If you came during the first three years and you hated it. I can relate. But now, after year four, it is time for you to come back. If, on the other hand, you hadn't thought about attending this conference, then 2015 might just be the year. First step? Listen up for announcements about submitting proposals - we need you here.

Year 4 at SXSWEdu - My Schedule (Wed, Thu) Part 2 of 2

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"This week will be the 4th edition of South by Southwest Education (SXSWedu) and I have been to every one of them.  This year feels, somehow, different from those first three years and I'm hoping that is a good thing." That is what I wrote this past weekend prior to arriving for the first day of SXSWedu.

 As I said in part one of this post, I have found many sessions that I want to attend and I have found myself wanting to leave school and get over to the convention center as soon as possible each day because there really is a lot of stuff to learn. And I've tried to keep my guilt low - but it's getting harder to even feel guilty because I'm learning so much.

So here goes my Wednesday:  As I start my day I will  orient the day around making the "An Ecosystem Model to Scale Education Innovation" session.  The title might be scary but the panelists are people I want to hear from. That starts at noon so I'll need to work in things prior and that will depend upon when I actually get here.

If I get here by 10:30 I'll be going to one of three sessions. The one that sounds the most entertaining will be "Startups Should Talk With Researchers and Educators" with the self described trouble maker Audrey Watters.  Then there is "Education Equality: Is Common Core Enough?" and "ConnectED: The Future of Learning."

After the noon session I'll be hitting one or two sessions before I see Wendy Davis, who is speaking on "Great Schools: A Vision for the Future." Possibilities include "Teacher Level UP! Gamification of PD" and "Reverse Engineering to Teach Design in High School."

Thursday is the last day, so I'm not sure what I'll get to see but some things I'm hoping for include: "Making BYOD Work For Not Against You!," " Blurred Lines: Seamless Competency Across Grades," and " Competency-Based Learning: Lessons From the Field."

At Noon I'll be heading to see Jeffrey Tambor at the closing keynote: "Performing Your Life in The Classroom," and then there's the closing BBQ.

I look forward to writing my reflection post this weekend. It will take me a few days to wrap my head around all of the great things I've seen and learned.

Year 4 at SXSWEdu - My Schedule (Mon/Tue) Part 1 of 2

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This week will be the 4th edition of South By Southwest Education (SXSWedu) and I have been to every one of them. This year feels, somehow, different from those first three years and I'm hoping that is a good thing.

The first thing I noticed (about myself) is that I am planning times each day that I want to make sure I am there for and I want to attend lots of sessions. I am not able to take entire days at the conference without taking vacation days but I'll try to maximize my time.

I will still be going to school every day before heading into SXSWEdu. But I'll be getting there as early as possible. I told everyone that I will not be at school in the afternoons and I won't be back for after school meetings or helping students - not like previous years. Nope, I'm going to be in Austin every day and I'm going to stay there until I'm ready to go home. Goal number one will be to minimize feelings of guilt for not being at work. That's an impossible task - but I hope to be as guilt free as possible.

As I looked over the schedule I decided to look for specific people first. Then I went through and looked at the Session Themes. Themes that struck a cord included "Achievement Gaps and Educational Equality," Cognitive Process and Design Thinking," "DIY, Maker and Hacker," and "Gaming & Virtual Learning."  Using this process I ended up selecting 52 sessions. During some time slots, I had as many as 5 sessions at the same time! A nice problem to have.

I can remember the first year of SXSW, there were only about 5 sessions that weren't during the time I was presenting that interested me. That's another nice thing about this year - I'm not presenting so I can see whatever I want.  I also consulted EdSurge and their SXSWEdu Cheat Sheet. The main thing I found out on their site was that I was too late for signing up for their get-together on Monday night! Definitely blew it with getting signed up for social events at night. Next year, sigh....

Monday afternoon I'm focusing on Design Thinking. I've chosen to see either "Liminal Learning: Challenged-Based Design-Driven" or "In the Trenches With K-12 Design Thinking," which are next door to each other and at the same time, unfortunately.  Then I'll end the afternoon with "Getting Students Out of The Box to Redesign It."

Tuesday morning I'll be hitting sessions on gaming, cognitive processes, and closing the achievement gap. First up: "Small Town HOMAGO:Build, Make, Do, Play" which is opposite my friend Carl Hooker and his Zombies, unfortunately. It's a short session so I may have time to get over and play with the zombies. It is also in Salon C which is featuring short sessions throughout so I may just stay and see "Does Engagement Really Matter." Either way I'll just hang out, mess around, and geek out.

Tuesday afternoon I'll start with 2 hours of "Probing Needs and Prototyping Solutions: DT4EdTech ." It is opposite another design thinking session that has a summary that is incoherent - not sure how it made it through the panel picker! The folks on the "probing needs" panel can tell me what they are going to talk about and I know one of them.  

At 1:30 I am really torn. There's "Saving America's Black Boys"and "Failing to Learn: Building Resilient Mindsets." Both resonate with me and so it will probably come down to which one has a seat for me.  But I'll end the day with "Playful Calculation = Design Creativity."

Tuesday night I'll be attending the Advisory Board Mixer - one of the perks to being on the advisory board. I know I'll be exhausted heading home that night but there's still Wednesday and Thursday to go. More about that in part two.

Professional Development Planners Need Our Help

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On Wednesday I was able to sit through (survive) the first day of a three day professional development about literacy.

Thursday morning, prior to walking to the PD,  I put up a post about not being negative and helping teachers instead of being angry with them.

How are these two events connected? Well, I really wanted to write an entire blog post about just how bad the day's PD was. Then I was reconnected with one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, Blasphemous Rumours, and the line about God having a sick sense of humor.

Oh sure, I could have talked about the exchange that had us all shaking our heads: "Have any of you ever heard of Prezi? It's a way to do presentations. This particular Prezi will be riveting." But I won't.

I could have talked about "sitting and getting" for over 3 hours. But I won't. Nope. Not me. I want to analyze what was done to us today and offer other ways that this PD could have happened. Because I don't complain without offering a solution.

First, whenever you have a 3 hour block of time to present topics, especially dry but important topics, you have to deliver the information in chunks.  And, in between the chunks, there should be time for activity and movement. Just like in working with our students we need to have cooperative group activities that enhance the learning.

Some suggestions: What if tables were given certain parts of the learning and we held a jigsaw with tables presenting what they learned? What if there was a simulation of exploring standards and we used a socrative discussion or a fishbowl of the  process? There are dozens of possibilities for handling this part of the session.

Alternatively, we could have been assigned a reading to have been completed prior to the first day and we could have immediately gotten into groups to discuss what we read and to come up with questions that we still need answered.

What if, instead of not providing wifi, there was a purposeful use of internet sites to help us better understand the point of the learning. And, instead of asking us to share the information we got with our fellow teachers and then asking us to not use our technology, we were given a hashtag and were asked to share our favorite links that we found.

More and more of our teachers are entering classrooms that are 1:1 with chrome books, iPads, or other technology. We are expecting our teachers to use the technology to help our students go deeper with the information provided. We want our classrooms filled with activities and to no longer have our desks in rows. We want instruction differentiated and engaging. We use rules of thumb like "lecture for no more than the the equivalent number of minutes that coincide with the age of the student."

Why then would we expect less of the educators who are presenting material in professional development?  Presenters should be asking us to use technology to help us go deeper with the material. There should be activities and ways to differentiate. And the "sit and git" portion should never be more than 15 or 20 minutes.

In the past 2 years I have been to many professional developments and many conferences and un-conferences. In order of "amount learned" I would put them like this: Educon Philly, NTAC, Edcamps (at multiple sites), Margaret Kilgo's Unpacking the Standard's training, my own district's PD sessions, ISTE, TCEA, and SXSWEdu. Somewhere after that would be the other PD's I have had to attend.

What keeps the first three (Educon, NTAC, Edcamps) above the rest? First, at all three, I can choose what I want to learn. And, if there are multiple sessions at the same time, I can ask someone else to go to the other one and let me know what they learned.  Second, all three of those have a large on line presence. If I'm not in a session I can hear about it by checking my Twitter feed on the hashtag for the event. And the bigger/better known conferences will even have teachers who can't be there, with their own hashtag, such as #noneducon, where information is also flowing. The information is being shared instantaneously.

Where should these larger PD's start? They need to look at the "standards" that they want us to learn. Unpack them and do some backward design. Plan for activities and workshops where teachers can go deeper with the content. Think of ways to provide reflection at various points during the day. Give the teachers an opportunity to teach or lead a discussion on what they've learned. Oh, and make it fun...with food and coffee if possible.

Professional development needs to be done by people who understand proper facilitation of training.  It needs to be handled by people who understand how to teach in the 21st century. It needs to be handled by teachers. 21st century teachers. Because that's what we are, teachers in the 21st century.

It's All About the Conversations

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Anyone who has ever attended an Educon event knows that conversations are the key to having successful learning experiences at conferences.

In the standard conference we attend sessions where people talk to us, in a lecture format, and there may, or may not be time for questions. To truly have time to discuss what you just heard you have to join up (virtually or face-to-face) with others who attended that session or who have knowledge of the subject.

SXSWEdu is starting to have less lecturers and more facilitators of discussion and it is a welcomed change.  There are many things that are different, this year, from that first disappointingly bad conference two years ago. But, unfortunately, there is still too much emphasis on the business of education rather than the art of education.

So, if you want to have conversations about topics of interest, it is the hallways, restaurants, bars, and lounges where you will have the best and deepest discussions.  While in the hallways of SXSW you hear teachers talking with edtech people; startups talking with venture capitalists; and IT folks talking with school administrators.

Unfortunately, you don't hear many conversations between teachers and other teachers at SXSWEdu.  As a friend of mine said to me this morning, when I asked him how his week was, "They should call it an Education Industry conference.  It really isn't an education conference."

And this week was frustrating because of the huge emphasis on data.  There were startups who could give you a better dashboard for your data.  Edtech companies who could put all of your data from the various programs you are using into one data file.  There were companies who could do more meaningful data management.

Analyzing data can help teachers provide better and more meaningful instruction for their students. That is a true statement. God knows I spend hours upon hours of spreadsheet analysis of student scores related to various data points.  But with this much emphasis on data I felt like I was attending a math conference instead of an education conference.

SXSWEdu has grown in size and in scope.  It is immensely better than the poor excuse for a conference in 2011 that I had to attend - at my own cost even though I was a speaker. [Side Note: speakers at the other SXSW events get a pass to the conference]  But if we're going to call this an educator conference, let's bring in the educators in large numbers.  Let's have the break down be 70% educators and 30% industry folks instead of the current 70%(or more?) industry and 30% educators.

As I said two years ago and last year: Let's put together educators in the Central Texas area to sit on a panel and select key educators from around the globe and truly make this the "Can't Miss" education conference on the planet. Then we can discuss the data of its success.

PBL Session WIth BIE's Alfred Solis

        When I saw the schedule of sessions here at SXSWEdu this year I instantly saw the trade mark "8 Essential Elements" of PBL and knew it had to be from one of the incredible members of the National Faculty with BIE.org.  And I was right.  It was their nearly-famous (at least in PBL circles) Alfred Solis.

  The room was packed and I wasn't surprised.  When I mention I teach with PBL and that I'm associated with Manor TX,  people always want to talk PBL with me.  Educators are very interested in PBL. They want to know how to do it, why to do it, and whether they even should do it.

  Alfred really got things rolling with some great music and some nice SWAG.  But we weren't here for listening to cool music we wanted to know about PBL.  He didn't waste any time.  He immediately had us pondering the number 1,000,000 and when 1 + 1 doesn't equal 2.

  As an intro to PBL Alfred showed us the video on Public Arts from the Edutopia website.  He followed that by a listing of the 8 Elements: Significant Content, 21st Century Skills, In-Depth Inquiry, Driving Question, Need to Know, Voice & Choice, Revision & Reflection, and Public Audience.

  Once he had given a brief explanation of each he rolled into another video of a project from the Edutopia library and he asked us to evaluate the project based upon the 8 elements.  This gave us a chance to actively engage in the presentation

  With barely 5 minutes left he opened it up to questions.  There were some great questions but even more interesting were the number of audience members who stayed to engage him in conversation.

  About an hour after the session ended I talked with Alfred and he was still continuing conversations over in the speaker's Green Room.  PBL is a very hot topic these days and Alfred Solis provides a great presentation of the basics of this vehicle for instruction.

Greetings From the SXSWEdu Blogger Lounge

  First day in the Blogger Lounge at SXSWEdu.  We're located on the fourth floor fairly close to the Registration Desk.  The lounge is being presented by Compass Learning and will have interviews of key presenters at various times each day.  For example I'mm listening to an interview with Paul Smith of  LearnSprout as I'm writing this post.

   In the lounge you can relax, check email and twitter, write a post or just hang out with some cool folks.   There's coffee, tea, and water and a decent amount of places to plug in and recharge your devices.

   Come on in and say hello.

That Left Out Feeling

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     Ah, summer.  That time when teachers pack up their classrooms and move to the pool or the beach.  They are out there hiking, fly fishing, and sailing.  Isn't it great only working about 40 weeks of the year!  That's 12 weeks of kicking back and doing nothing.

     If only that were true.  Yes, there are some teachers who will take an elaborate (and well-deserved) vacation during the summer.  But most will find time to relax and reload with their immediate families.  They will do some much needed yard work or house repairs.  They will work on that one project that they've been meaning to do since last summer.  It really isn't that glamorous.  And, more and more, teachers are spending a huge part of their summer getting smarter.

     Many are taking graduate classes.  Many are taking part in conferences and professional development (PD).  Some of this training is required by their district.  And some are just teachers wanting to be the best they can be and recognizing that learning the latest techniques or being involved in conversations about the latest in educational topics will help them attain that goal.

     And, that's where this post is coming from - I'm envious of many of those educators who have been able to attend really great conferences or PD's and have shared what they have experienced on twitter (got to follow that hashtag!), on Google+ (gosh I wish they hadn't shared that with me - wish I were there too), or in a Blog Post (Wow!  They really brought that conference to life.  That must have been awesome!)

     Wouldn't it be great if airlines gave away "tickets to anywhere" for educators to use during the summer to attend these events?  All we would have to do is show our teacher ID and the attendance confirmation and "poof" we were on the next flight out.

     This summer's big sigh, for me, was ISTE12.  It seemed like everyone I know was there.  And, they were all romping around in my old stomping grounds - San Diego.   They were kayaking, visiting the zoo, and watching the sun set over the ocean.  And, most importantly, they were discussing the latest topics and learning from each other.  They now have shared experiences which make them seem closer sounding in their tweets.  They sound like old buddies on Google+.  Heck, as I see it, the entire future of education was decided by these few hundred people.  And all this was happening 1300 miles from my home.  It might as well have been happening on Pluto (and, as we know, that's not even a planet any more!)

     So, I will re-tweet their hash tags with a smile.  I will give them a + on a well written account of what they discussed at their silly conference.  And I will leave a pleasant comment on their very descriptive blog post; thanking them for telling us all about it and telling them how much I enjoyed the post.  Even though I want to tell them that I hate them!  What right do they have for traveling to places I can't afford to travel to?  Why do they have to enjoy themselves and then tell us about it?  

     Well, I'll show them!  I'll be there at EdcampDallas and I'll be there at TechForum Austin.  And then I'll save my pennies and I"ll head to Educon 2.5.  And, after that I'll be at TCEA 2013 and SXSWEdu 2013!  And finally, next summer, ISTE comes to San Antonio!  I'll be tweeting the heck out of those conferences.  They'll see!  Then we'll see who's envious.  Those guys will really feel left out of the loop.  I'll tell them about my speaker proposals, and my acceptance of the proposals , and my travel plans, and my parties that I accept invitations to, and my tweetups, and .......

      Hey, things are looking up already!  What a great summer....

What A PBL Teacher Does on Vacation

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     Today is the first day of my Spring Break and I am relaxing by watching NCAA Basketball, keeping tabs on SXSWi, thinking about how I will be mentoring a school doing a school-wide pbl, and planning my classes for when the break ends.

     There are teachers who will not do anything teaching related.  There are teachers who will travel and will not allow school to enter their minds.  And, there are teachers, like me, who other teachers will accuse of having no life.

     To me you can never really leave the classroom too far behind.  As a pbl teacher I am accustomed to reflecting on how projects are going and what, if anything, will need to change to make the learning successful.  And that's where I sit today.  The project I am leading in my freshmen class is not going exactly the way I wanted and we, for the first time, have a true client to report to.  But my students don't really have an understanding of what is required for this to be a success.

     In my junior class my students have checked out and are not focusing on what they need to do to be successful in their project.  The problem with this group of students is that they created the project.  They asked to do the project.  But they have not embraced actually doing the project and that needs to change.

     I teach two different classes with two unique problems.  My freshmen are in a class they are required to take and they will respond to whatever I ask of them with a minimum of resignation that the work has to happen.  My juniors are in an elective that all but one or two are in reluctantly.  They do not want to learn about  digital electronics and the maximum I can expect is the minimum needed to pass.

     I look at the coming week away from the classroom as a chance to regroup with both classes.  I will take the time to create new projects that can be launched as soon as needed after the break.  With my juniors I may decide that it means a total regroup immediately upon returning to class.  With my Freshmen I know that it will be a minimum of 2 weeks before I launch the next project but I can find ways to make the wrap up of this project go smoother.

    An additional element in my planning is that we are moving into the standardized test season.  I can expect tests during every week between the week we get back and the middle of May.  Some weeks will only effect the freshmen and some weeks will only effect the juniors.  Other weeks will effect both groups of students.  These testing breaks can really effect the flow of a project and must be planned for up-front.

     So I'm on Spring Break.  So what.  I've got a lot of work to do.  And the work I do this week will keep  the months of April and May that much more enjoyable.  I'll get my break in June.  Then I just have to start planning for the 2012-2013 school year.  Or should I start planning that now?

Thoughts on SXSWedu

SXSWEdu 2012 by @cfanch

     Yesterday was my first day at this year's South By Southwest Education (SXSWedu) conference in Austin, TX.  I spoke twice at its maiden conference last year and was wondering where it would go this year.

     It appears that SXSW has figured out a direction they are heading.  Last year it felt very awkward being here - was it supposed to be a TEA (Texas Education Association) conference, a vendor conference, or an educator's conference?  We never really knew.

     This year there is a definite feel that we are seeing this conference embrace edtech and education entrepreneurship.   And that's OK.  If they continue in this direction it would be great to see ways to get more educators in attendance.  I attended a session with about 40 people and when the panel asked how many were teachers there were two of us.  There was another higher ed person in the room but the rest were all from industry.

    As we get more and more startups creating products that can be used in the classroom, we need to have educators here to hold conversations with these company representatives.  An app or program is only as good as its usability.  Will teachers want to use the product?  Will students use the product?  And, most importantly, HOW will they use the product?

    I have met many startups as well at this conference.  One of the things at SXSWEdu is LAUNCHedu where startups/edtech companies can hawk their wares and attendees can ask questions.  This is a great idea and I see wonderful opportunities for future South By's in this arena.

     Finally, this evening, I was able to attend meetups hosted by many of the larger edtech companies at the conference and it was nice to be able to talk directly to their representatives about the conference and how it can be improved.  Then many of us were able to attend a party hosted by Tech & Learning which really made us feel like we were more than just "educators."  These type of parties are prevalent at the regular SXSW conference and it really gave a nice ending to a great day.

     SXSWedu will be in its 3rd year next year and I'm hoping that they find a way of getting more teachers to the conference.  I was able to talk with WeAreTeachers founder Sandy Fivecoat and she came up with a great idea of holding a contest on her site that would allow a certain number of teachers to win scholarships to next year's SXSWedu and I'm hoping that can become a reality.

     Over and over I was asked for my thoughts on the conference and without hesitating I was able to say that it was MUCH better than last year.  There was good interaction in most of the sessions I attended and presenters wanted to know where the teachers were.  I would like to see more interactive sessions with conversations and hands-on opportunities but SXSWedu is heading in the right direction and I look forward to what it looks like next year.