Oh to have been in Boston now that summer is here

The Building Learning Communities Annual Conference in Boston is a bright star in the sky of educational conferences ... very little selling ( The conference design was superb. Following on the heels of NECC, the contrast is clear. Building Learning Communities keeps the scope of corporate sponsors, vendors, and salespeople to an appropriate place. )... lots of ideas from across the world and just full of wonderful, mind opening potential.

Unfortunately I was not there last week ... but a lot of my friends were and I hope to bring you some of their 'take-aways' at a later date.

The BLC Conference Ning has given me little of the meat of the conference so I have trawled the blogs to get my 'fix'. Reflections on Building Learning Communities 2008 is the blog of Richard Kassissieh is Director of Information Services at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. and his reflections are well worth a read.

I want to pick up on just a couple of things he says ... firstly:

... Ewan McIntosh and John Davitt focused too much on currently existing technology applications and their effects on social dynamics and power. The dominant educational technology discourse has been enamored with these possibilities for a few years now. We are ready for a more detailed exploration of the intersection of new technologies with specific pedagogical strategies.

This is so right ! It is time to move on .. the examples of good practice must be there and, when we think about it, we all know of some. But they are still in tiny pockets and the institutions don't run on ideas in tiny pockets. We have our 'mavens' and we are now urgent to make global changes in the way people learn and develop as they grow in to their lives.

Secondly:

Small, passionate groups make things happen. And I remember one of Ewan's nuggets from last year: forget the pilot. Come up with a great idea and launch it well.

This is so right ! As I go from school to school and LA to LA the number of 'pilot' projects that people are involved in seems to grow and have a life of its own. Remember the song ...



Hold the light sabre in your hand and the force will be with you ... courage of conviction.

PS

From my feeds today the Next Generation Learning in Kent has a neat summary of Harnessing Technology:Next Generation Learning .

The bit that really interested me, in reference to BLC Conference was what was left over from last time:

Challenges remaining from the first e-Strategy

• Unreliable and unsustainable school infrastructure and technical support.


• Value for money and effective technology management not being achieved.


• Range of technology use in schools is fairly limited.


• Teachers rarely realise the full benefits of technology.


• Use of digital resources largely regarded as optional by teachers.


• Technology not used effectively to engage parents.


• Few schools making use of the extended learning opportunities offered by technology.


• Levels of technology access high among learners when out of school, but in formal education expectations not being met.


• Whizzy web 2.0 technologies common at home, but not in formal settings.