Technology Conference

I had the opportunity to participate in the 2012 Learning 2.0 Virtual Conference held August 20 - 24. There were many keynote speakers that presented at the conference. I participated in a conference with Gina Bianchine the founder of Mightybell. She is also the co-founder of Ning. Gina gave some background on Mightybell and the first version structure.  Her one mission in life is to bring software together to help people bring their passions, missions, and goals together. She believes that when you bring small groups of people together, that it is really the beauty and quality of life. She spoke about social software and how it helps bring people together.
I also had the opportunity to participate in Lucy Gray's presentation. She shared what she has learned about social media and how it impacts professional development.  She offered the statistics that 8% of educators are on Twitter, which she found to be astounding. In addition, she showed a video by Will Richardson who discussed what a PLN is. Ms. Gray discussed the definitions of social media.
Heidi Jacobs discussed how to prepare learners for their future. She address what schools need to look in the future. One question she posed is who owns students' learning. She has been doing a lot of work on 21st century learners. She suggested that we need to start thinking differently on what the day is and how we need to create new solutions. She feels that everyone within the school needs to agree on the implementation of tools for curriculum purposes as opposed to just telling an educator he/she has to implement a technological tool. Ms. Jacobs addresses virtual learning and how some students need more time in school. She mentioned we have 19th century schools with 21st century students. She quoted Winston Churchill and suggested we take the best practices and link engagements towards the new literacies, and practical children that we have.
I enjoyed listening to the speakers those who were able to ask questions to the speakers. It was really interesting to hear the input of educators throughout the world.

Learning 2.0 Technology Conference