Sept+25+F2F

=September 25, 2008=

=Agenda=

=Resources=

//Learner-centered, lifelong learning has been the cry of knowledge society visionaries for the last decade. Yet learning continues to be delivered with teacher-centric tools in a twelve week format. Society is changing. Learners needs are changing. The course, as a model for learning, is being challenged by communities and networks, which are better able to attend to the varied characteristics of the learning process by using multiple approaches, orchestrated within a learning ecology.// - George Siemens

=//Worth Thinking About//=

//We should be thinking from the ground up. That's different from changing everything. However, we first have to understand how we got the education system that we now have. Teachers are wonderful, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who are creative and terrific, but they are operating in a system that is completely out of time. It is a system designed to produce industrial workers.//

Alvin Toffler
I//'m a wordsmith. I write books. I love books. So I don't want to be an accomplice to their death. But clearly, they're not enough. The textbooks are the same for every child; every child gets the same textbook. Why should that be? Why shouldn't some kids get a textbook -- and you can do this online a lot more easily than you can in print -- why shouldn't a kid who's interested in one particular thing, whether it's painting or drama, or this or that, get a different version of the textbook than the kid sitting in the next seat, who is interested in engineering?//

Alvin Toffler
= =

//EETT- Leadership Theme Topics//
> Connectivity has a tremendous impact on the way leaders will, and should, communicate. This segment of the workshop will provide leaders with an understanding of Web 2.0 tools and provide hands-on practice with several powerful tools that should be part of their leadership communication strategy. > . > As the physical and virtual worlds converge to become the 'real world' of teaching and learning, virtual exchanges, online mentoring and other Web-based environments will play increasingly important roles in educational reform. The "new" Web affords us an amazing opportunity to pursue our passions within online communities of like-minded learners from around the globe. Participants will learn valuable lessons for designing and leading global collaborations.
 * Top Web 2.0 Tools for Leadership
 * Engaging Staff & Students- Using Web 2.0 Tools for Global Collaboration