I’m pretty excited about tomorrow.   Tomorrow, I begin this class: #

The K120
Online Conference is an online offering of presentations created by
educators and centered around new applications and new technologies.
It’s a way to address both teachers’ needs as well as the opportunity to
connect to an online network of professionals that can be drawn upon
for future professional development activities. #

There will be four
face-to-face sessions of this PST. In between each of these sessions,
participants will be expected to engage two sessions from the
conference, for a minimum of eight face-to-face hours and eight online
conference hours. #

Each participant will
write a two-page reflection and keep a log of the sessions attended.
The final face-to-face session will be a facilitated discussion about
what was learned, the benefits of the conference, and the next steps
for those involved in terms of taking their learning back into their
classrooms. This discussion will be recorded and released as a podcast. #

I’m excited about the class because it allows me to do two things that I think are pretty important: 
1.  Introduce smart people to new tools and opportunities.
2.  Take our time and do it right. #

    I think so many of the professional opportunities that teachers are afforded are races, mere dips of a toe into the waters of potential.  There’s lots to do and not enough time to do it.  Time is a precious, precious resource that is in short supply.  I also think that many of the tools that are influencing my network, and , frankly, me right now, encourage haste and speed and the like.  Twitter, on the short list of my favorite read/write web tools, can be reflective, but perhaps not richly so.  I wrote a tweet the other day that hasn’t left my head.  I was thinking about how busy I’ve been lately – racing from one really interesting project to the next, knowing that the excitement wasn’t a good replacement for the lasting learning that I knew just wasn’t happening for me: #

   
      Not much reflection, though – just lots of doing.  That’s not sustainable.  Or worth sustaining. #

I want sustainability.  I want reflection.  I think others want it, too.  we don’t learn by racing.  We learn by doing and reflecting and questioning.  It’s a recursive cycle, and one that doesn’t happen enough for me.  I wonder if it’s become too easy to communicate, in some ways.  Do I get so busy communicating that I haven’t bothered to say anything?  (Does that even make sense?)
    Which leads me back to tomorrow.  (Man, I really, really buried the lede in this post, didn’t I?)  Tomorrow, I begin a facilitated, slow and thorough look at the K12Online Conference, both the 2006 and 2007 editions.  Over the next four months, in two hour chunks, I hope to study and learn from the presentations of the last two years.  I want to dig in to the content that I felt whipped by so dang fast in late October when it was released.   This is what the conference invites, as  all the sessions are archived. 
    So we will.  I hope to use the class time as discussion time to talk about the different presentations, as well as an opportunity to think about how these different sessions might offer some ideas for change in our classrooms here in my district.   I’ll be asking participants, on a voluntary basis, to share their favorites with the group in 15 minute "spotlight sessions."  These, I hope, will foster conversation and inquiry into new tools and classroom strategies.
    I’m interested, too, in looking for ways to connect folks from all over to my district’s virtual classroom.  but before I do that, though, I want to meet the class and make sure they’re comfortable with that.  Stay tuned for further developments. 
    If you’ve any advice, or even a "must see" presentation recommendation for these first time K12Online Conference attenders, I’d welcome it in the comments – we’ll share your tips during our first session.  #

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