Crash Course on ASCD – My Day 1
March 15, 2009
I am one of the lucky few who is currently attending the ASCD conference in Orlando. ASCD is a “nonprofit educational leadership association that develops programs, products, and services essential to the way educators learn, teach, and lead.” I am quickly learning that ASCD is the leading curriculum and professional development organization in the world. Apparently, they have a whopping 175,000 members from over 119 countries.
My initial impression of ASCD is that they “get it.” The conference theme was the excellent “Learning Beyond Boundaries.” There was also a focus on 21st Century Skills – and particularly how to inspire creativity in students.
I felt more comfortable at this conference than others ed tech conferences because it was centered around teaching and learning. Often times, education technology conferences seem disconnected from instruction.
The conference organizers have also been extremely friendly to mew media. The organizers created a Twitter tag, #ASCD09, and have been giving bloggers and members of the press equal conference privileges. The ASCD communications team is also doing their own live-blogging on the ASCD web site.
There was a variety of vendors at the conference including: technology; professional development; furniture; garment; publishers; and others.
The technology companies that attend ASCD are mostly established players with a demonstrated track record who are selling enterprise level solutions. The other unique aspect of the vendor crowd is that senior level executives were manning the booths that I visited.
While I only had the chance to attend one workshop today, I understand that they were a mixed bag.
The workshop that I attended was Borderless Learning: Using Technology to Connect Classrooms Worldwide. I was hoping this session would present a guidebook on “how to meet international partners.” Unfortunately, it went over the same tired Web 2.0 tools that I was already familiar with. One person asked the great question, “How do I connect with people in other countries?” The presenter’s answer was weak and uninformative.
I have been studying how to find international partner schools and the best examples that I have found are The Flat Classroom Project, the Global Education Collaborative, or Classroom 2.0. (There is also this great thread on Scott McLeod’s site with more ideas.)
One of my colleagues attended a session titled, Grading that Facilitates and Reflects Learning. The session was taught by Assistant Superintendent of Grand Island Public Schools, Stephen Burkholder. My colleague described the session as “excellent.” The overall idea was to stop using grades as punishments or as rewards – but instead to start using them to reflect what the students are learning. For example, instead of a grade for Reading, they may have rubric-based marks for Fluency, Decoding Strategies, and Comprehension.
Overall, it is wonderful to see an organization as large as the ASCD embrace global collaboration. Collaborative technologies create a wonderful channel to connect with like-minded individuals who are passionate about similar topics. Technology allows us to build Personal Learning Networks beyond boundaries. The ASCD is doing a great job of helping educators understand this trend and ready themselves for the massive changes underway.
Comments
One Response to “Crash Course on ASCD – My Day 1”
Got something to say?
Hi. Several of us will try live Tweeting the AERA conference next week in San Diego
http://www.aera.net/Default.aspx?id=5348
We have set up a wiki
http://aeratweetup.pbwiki.com/
and a twitter stream
http://twitter.com/AERAtweetup
Paul Baker
AERA Communications and Outreach Committee