Schools of the Future Conference 2010 & Hilton Strike

Although getting into the parking structure at Hilton took awhile due to the strike in the morning, once I got settled into the Schools of the Future Conference with 1,200 other attendees, the rest of the day was full of learning and aha moments. Here are some of my highlights for the day:

1. Morning keynote by Sir Ken Robinson was refreshing. His main messages included the need to change the way we educate our keiki in today's world: a) we are living in a time of revolution, b) to meet the challenge, we need to think differently about ourselves and those around us, c) we need to act and behave very differently, including how we do things. I loved his quote, repeated several times - "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
   
2. Mobile Technologies, Teens & Education by Mark Hines & Bob McIntosh. I was blown away by learning how Mid Pacific Institute integrates mobile learning technologies into their school setting. We were even able to contribute to polls and provide live feedback using texting on our mobile phones during the conference. Presentation slides are available via the Schools of the Future ning site. I already signed up to play around with the tool he was using, Poll Everywhere. I also didn't you know that you could text Google to search for answers from your phone (GOOGL - 46645)...don't forget to check your sources and remind your students as well.
   
3. Embracing Change in the 21st Century - How Do We Get There? by administrators and teachers from Mid Pacific Institute preschool, elementary, middle and high school. It's amazing how their entire school has embraced change resulting on a transformation in their school culture. The various projects shared utilized various technologies as a tool for learning with the focus on students' voice and choice to inspire them to achieve critical problem solving and critical thinking skills.
   
4. During the last session, Nick Payne visually captured the presentation live through his artwork. I was amazed at his skill set and thought what a wonderful way to summarize for everyone. Of course light bulbs went off for me thinking how useful this could be to possibly capture future operational and strategic planning discussions. With his permission, here are photos of what he did for the day.

I'm glad I took time out of my schedule to attend the conference. I was inspired by what other schools were doing locally within our state. There's always so much to learn and so much more we could do to motivate our 21st century learners.