Overview

=**2007 BUILDING LEARNING COMMUNITIES** **CONFERENCE**=

It was the last session of the last day of our conference in Boston. We were reeling from three days of amazing presentations by world-class educators and already trying to synthesize all we had heard. As we listened to [|Margaret Meijers] talk about teaching videogame making to her students at Tasmania’s New Town High School, we were not surprised to learn that she was a 2005 winner of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Award. But we weren’t prepared for the emotional journey she would take us on when she described the power of this medium to unlock the talents of her most difficult student—a student with Asperger’s syndrome. For this young man game making was an entry into the “normal” world and social acceptability. For the first time in his life classmates came to his birthday party when he invited them.
 * **“Technology has redefined us. Globalization has redefined us. In a new global world we need to redefine talents and academic success.”**
 * //- Dr. Yong Zhao, BLC 07//** ||

On July 18-20 we were fortunate to attend [|Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference]. This was an international conference of approximately 600 educators centered around the theme of expanding the boundaries of learning. It was a conference of far reaching ideas as well as practical applications.

Throughout the three days we were invited to explore digital citizenship in a global economy. In his opening day keynote presentation, Dr. Tim Tyson shared videos from his middle school’s film festival demonstrating that his students are authentically engaged in knowledge work that has been put into global distribution. He said it is not about technology and connectivity but the meaningful contributions students can make through its use. If you visit the [|www.mabryonline.org] website you will be amazed by the level of scholarship demonstrated by 6th through 8th graders.

Marco Antonio Torres expanded on the concept of student contributions to the global community in his workshops about moviemaking. He started the [|San Fernando Education Technology Team] which gives his predominantly underprivileged, Latino students the ability to share personal stories with a global audience. The movies his students created had a profound effect on the audience. Torres spoke of the grammar of filmmaking in a world where multimedia is increasingly the literature of the common man. Video uses a voice that is universal and websites such as YouTube make it possible for anyone to publish their work to a global audience and have it be judged on its merits. He stressed that it is not about technology. It is about communicating.

Using digital tools for creative thinking was high on the list of topics discussed. What a treat to listen to Dr. Mitchel Resnick of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab describe the development of [|PicoCricket] and [|Scratch]. PicoCrickets are “tiny computers you can use to create musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, dancing creatures, and other playful inventions.” Scratch is a “tile-based visual programming environment and toolkit that lets kids make games, animated stories, interactive art to share with others on the Internet.” These applications were developed by MIT specifically for young people age 8 and up. Dr. Resnick explained that they were created with a low floor so even young students can easily get started, a high ceiling to accommodate high level projects, and wide walls to accommodate different learning styles. In just two months there have been more than 18,000 projects uploaded to the Scratch website.

Dr. Resnick was the second half of a dynamic pair of Thursday morning keynotes started off by [|Professor Angela McFarlane] of the University of Bristol. She discussed the latest research about online communities of learning and lessons from the worlds of game and play. The findings are fascinating and relevant for teachers everywhere.
 * **We don’t educate kids anymore. We train them. That is why they can decode text but they can’t read.**
 * //- Dr. Angela McFarlane, BLC07//** ||

Both [|Alan November] and [|Dr. Joyce Valenza], a librarian from Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania, gave presentations that dealt with 21st century literacy that can be taken directly back to the library or classroom. Alan November spoke specifically of web literacy in //Teaching Zack Webliteracy// and Joyce Valenza spoke of information literacy in //Web 2.0 Meets Information Fluency: Designing Projects for 21st Century Learners//.

No presenter at the conference, however, was quite as provocative on the topic of leveraging technology for student learning as [|Marc Prensky]. His writings on the use of gaming and technology in education are considered classics. He spoke of trends five to ten years in the future and as a result often jarred the educators present with his predictions.

The third day’s keynote was perhaps the most thought provoking as [|Dr. Yong Zhao], University Distinguished Professor, Director, Center for Teaching and Technology, Director US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence at the College of Education at Michigan State University, spoke about digital citizenship in a global economy. Dr. Zhao explained that today’s students will be consumers and citizens in the digital world where they will be making a living recreating that world as innovators and entrepreneurs. We walked away with a lot to think about and act upon.

In order to prepare our students for the 21st century we must give them 21st century sandboxes in which to play. Marc Prensky quoted one student as saying, “Teachers look at technology as a tool. We look at technology as a foundation—it’s totally integrated into what we do.” Marco Torres truly captured the essence of the digital immigrant/digital native divide when he said, “Adults see an iPhone as an expensive phone and kids see it as a cheap computer.” Margaret Meijers has given her students a [|digital sandbox] in which to play and as a result they are busy building castles.

Jane Reeves and Karen Mitchell Library Automation Team Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES Rochester, New York July 2007
 * **“The attitude we must all take is that we are all in beta.”**
 * //- Dr. Joyce Valenza//** ||