EduBloggerCon09: Great Opportunity for Co-Learning

One of the semantic changes I’ve made in the past few years is learning to refer to those engaged in the learning process less by the titles of “teacher” and “student” and more by the title “co-learner.” We can all be learners, and depending on the context, we can change roles from being expert learners to being novice learners. EduBloggerCon 2009 provided lots of great opportunities for co-learning, as approximately seventy-five edubloggers from around the United States and other parts of the world gathered together this past Saturday for a day of sharing and dialog prior to NECC09.

I was able to attend three sessions at EduBloggerCon this year and facilitate one. While I still would love to see the event follow the model of a BarCamp, I think the wiki organizational structure worked this year better than in 2008 largely because everyone was able to hold sessions they wanted to offer and there was NOT any voting. Half of the sessions I attended were in the hallways, but I was able to hear speakers fine and didn’t mind at all pulling up chairs and just circling up for a conversation.

I wonder how many school district leaders would be willing to take the approach of EduBloggerCon and ask teachers to organically propose as well as facilitate PD sessions on topics of interest, on which they have expertise as well as a desire to share? The participatory nature of EduBloggerCon is radically different than most teachers’ conception of “sit and get” professional development, but I find the participatory nature of the event to be precisely the thing which makes it highly engaging as well as relevant.

Given the speed of change in our society, a professional development structure like EduBloggerCon lends itself well to address both issues of concern to participants as well as emerging or new ideas. It is wonderful ISTE continues to support EduBloggerCon and provide the space as well as WiFi connectivity for participants completely free of charge. Many thanks to Steve Hargadon for his role in organizing the day and facilitating a super opportunity for co-learning with peers.

In reflecting about EduBloggerCon09, Lisa Thumann noted:

I think that we all know that change is hard. We also know that unless we commit to making change, it won’t happen. The fact is that there is uncertainty as to what jobs are coming down the pike. We don’t know what we are preparing our students for. So we need to create a model that they can carry into their adult lives. I’m working on putting together some short video clips on what educators are doing in their 21st Century Learning classrooms. I talked with a college student, April, yesterday about how she felt that her high school, which she classified as a 21st Century Learning school, helped better prepare her for college. I almost jumped out of my chair in excitement when she explained to me how.

Without EduBloggerCon09, Lisa might have not had that opportunity to dialog with April and have those learning experiences.

Jeff Utecht, also writing reflectively about EduBloggerCon09, noted:

This year….smaller, deeper, and more thoughtful. Exactly what I was hoping for and personally what I need to push my own thinking. It was one of those days where you went to one but watch others via Twitter. You wanted to go to all the sessions…and in some ways you did via the conversations that happened between the actual sessions.

As of this evening, just over 360 photos from EduBloggerCon09 have been uploaded and shared on Flickr using the tag “ebc09.)

I wonder to what degree does EduBloggerCon reflect the learning environment of the future for our students as well as ourselves? The day is filled with choice: Choices about sessions to attend, and sessions to lead. Virtually everyone has a laptop, and most people are actually using laptops during sessions to take notes and engage in backchannel conversations. WiFi is open, available, fast and free. Conversations extend from the scheduled sessions into the lunch hour, and continue online. Dialog is richer because of the online discussions which have taken place prior to the event, and are deepened as a result of the face-to-face time spent together.

When will students in our schools be able to experience a similar day of learning to what participants in EduBloggerCon09 were able to share? I hope that day is soon.

Similar Posts:

• Here comes EduBloggerCon 2009!
• EduBloggerCon09 and the BarCamp model
• Looking for Conference Live Blogging Models for NECC09
• Converse on the NECC Ning!
• The importance of online professional development

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