We Need To Avoid the Calculus Syndrome, Thoughts After ISTE 13

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The post-ISTE13 comments and blog posts I've been seeing have me worried.  There are many educators who are now questioning how basic some of the sessions were and how we need to ensure there are discussions and not just presentations in the sessions.  I think it's time for a quick reminder of where we have come from and how, extremely, far we need to go with conferences and educational "events" like edcamps.

When I hear some of the brightest education stars making these comments I am reminded about how most schools treat their calculus teacher. The best and most experienced math teacher on campus earns the right to teach calculus. And, because of this, the students who need to have the best teachers miss out on quality instruction. What needs to happen is that the best teachers need to be teaching Algebra 1 so that the foundation of math for the high school years is set.

Similarly I see the best educators, with the greatest ideas on ways to improve education, hanging around with the other best educators. Those teachers who need to hear great ideas and might be wavering on staying in the profession aren't hearing from these great teachers. We need to be increasing the number of edcamp-style events, shifting professional developments to a more conference or edcamp feel, and we need to be creating financial incentives to get teachers to the more expensive conferences.

ISTE13 was my first ISTE conference. I have been to NCTM conferences (both national and regional), I have been to a FETC conference when I was living in Florida, I have been to TCEA conferences,  I have been to an EDUCON in Philadelphia, and I have both put on and attended edcamps.  In addition, as a teacher in the New Tech Network I have attended their annual conference, NTAC, each year.

Almost all of those conferences, with the exception of the NTAC's, I have had to pay the bill or have had to sneak into the event to be able to be around what was going on.  Yes, I have found ways to get around the entrance fee at some of these events. I'm not really proud of that but I do what I have to do to be able to afford the conferences. Once inside, I am able to stay in the areas where people hangout and I can be a part of the conversations.

For me, the conversations at conferences and edcamps are where I get the biggest bang for my buck.  There are many educators who are discovering this and are finding great value in the discussions going on in areas set up as Blogger Lounges or some other catchy name.  There are usually comfortable chairs, good wifi, and power plugs. And the people who congregate here will usually have interesting things to talk about.

But that is exactly the problem and the reason for me writing this post. The most "famous" and knowledgeable educators are hanging out together in the blogger lounge. New teachers can feel intimidated by the number of people and the feeling that everybody knows everybody else "in there." Believe me, I am just as guilty as everyone else. At ISTE13 I stayed in the blogger cafe almost throughout but I was also at the conference on my own dime and so I was in on a free vendor-area badge.

We need to remember that the majority of teachers have not heard of ISTE, or FETC, or Educon. And a majority of those who have heard of the conferences, I just mentioned, won't attempt to go unless it is nearby to where they live. The cost is too much or they just have better things to do like spend time with their families. So we get down to the small percentage of educators who are, not only, familiar with the conferences but they have ways to fund attending the conferences. Again, we are talking about a very tiny percentage of educators attending these events.

So, when someone attends their first ISTE, FETC, or Educon we need to have plans in place to make them feel as comfortable as possible. ISTE has the Newbie area and they start the conference with an overview of what will be going on each day.  That is a huge help. Then we need to have more of the power hitters attending some of the basic sessions to help with the discussions. Of course some of the presenters in these sessions might be presenting for the first time. They may not be comfortable, yet, in this setting and the last thing they need is someone hijacking their session.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think conferences and edcamps need to start thinking about having a nice blend of both basic level sessions and "advanced" sessions which are more discussion-like with the session leader being more of a facilitator than a presenter. I know I hope to do a session at the next Edcamp on PBL with the discussion topic of "So PBL is the answer to all of our needs.  Is it really?" Or I'll come up with something better by then. But I know that someone will come up to me and ask me to do a "PBL Session" and I know that what they mean is I need to go through what the PBL process looks like. It will be very basic and it will be Standing Room Only - guaranteed.

ISTE13 Blogger Cafe Keynote Watching

Blogger Cafe ISTE, Tue Keynote

The Blogger Cafe is always humming but when the Keynote is going on this is the place to avoid going into the scrum of the auditorium.

We're all watching Steve Johnson who is talking about how old ideas can be revisited and recreated. He included ideas such as the WWW and even the theory of Natural Selection.

He also introduced us (most of us) to DEVONthink which is a way to stare databases.  How can we keep a record of ideas and compare them with each other? DEVONthink can do that for you.

Here's his Ted Talks which covers many of the topics he discussed today.

Monday at ISTE, My Day 2

Blogger Cafe ISTE 13, Tuesday Morning

If you read my last post on my thoughts on ISTE 13, then you know I came into San Antonio Friday night and spent Saturday at #hacked13. Unfortunately I had to drive back up to Round Rock that night and spent yesterday there. But this morning I got on the road early, arrived at my hotel at 7 AM and now the day can begin. [Side note, thank you to Crowne Plaza Hotel for checking me in that early - did NOT expect that.]

Observation #1: If you end up in the Blogger Cafe then you really don't need to go many other places during the conference.  Everyone who I was hoping to see during the conference, (ok, so there are a few of you who I didn't see yet and I don't want you to think I don't care about you. Just roll with it.), I saw between 8:30 and 12 today. If I started listing their names you would think I was just showing off, so I won't. But, trust me, it was a great experience. The networking is well worth the time spent there.

Observation #2: If you talk with the people working the conference, there are some interesting stories you can learn about.  The person I talked with about registering was Paul Hunter who authored No Love, No Charity: The Success of the 19th Child.    19th out of 21 kids, only one to go to and finish college. Now in San Antonio, homeless, and looking for a job. I'm hoping between twitter and this tiny blog post I can spread his name out there. Someone needs to take a chance with him.

Observation #3: Timing is everything. Last night I missed out on 3 different groups of people to hang out with plus a  final game of the NHL season. Unless you come with a core group of people and do everything together, you will be on your own to join people heading to lunch, happy hour, dinner, after dinner drinks, etc.  Last night I chose to be with a good friend and teacher from my school who was at her first ISTE. We went to dinner and then had the unfortunate experience of having to wait over an hour for our taxi to bring us back to our respective hotels. We could easily have met up with people at 10:30 last night but starting at that time didn't seem appealing to this old guy. [Side note: missed the hockey game except for catching the twitter feed of the last 5 minutes of the game while riding in the taxi.}

Duh Observation: If your hotel wireless sucks or becomes nonexistent, then it ruins everything. When I went back to change before dinner the wireless was out so I missed a couple of key tweets that might have changed my plans and when I got back it was still out and I gave up on getting connected. During that time I missed the last chance to say "What the heck let me just meet them."

Observation #4: Conferences shouldn't have great speakers set at the same time.  Yesterday I had to choose between Will Richardson, George Couros, and Chris Lehmann. They were speaking on relatively common topics and were, ironically, in the same big ballroom with dividers separating them. I chose Chris and really got a lot out of his thoughts and interactive approach. As I walked in he was setting up and he even said, "I wish I could be in Will or George's sessions." nuff said.

Observation #5: There are a lot of great people NOT here at ISTE.  See this post by Peter Dewitt: Education Conferences are Missing Out on Important Voices and my last post on the ISTE First Day Observations. 

Looking forward to the Tuesday Line Up. Wrap up post will be tomorrow.