I’ve been pretty vocal about my view of conferences in the past. They seem to me to be a less than optimal format of professional development, and I feel inauthentic standing up and lecturing (presenting) about not standing up and lecturing in the classroom. In short, I don’t think that most conferences model the kind of professional learning we are striving for.

Another issue I have with ed tech conferences in general is that I think “ed tech” as an isolated area has outlived it’s usefulness. It’s time for technology to be integrated with other instructional pursuits. Having separate staffing, budgets, etc. for technology does not serve our students, in my opinion. (Yes, I know there are other considerations.) That’s why you may have noticed that I’ve been participating in more curriculum conferences and fewer ed tech ones lately.

Still, I believe deeply in technology as a tool to further learning and know that much of that is moved ahead by the “ed tech” agenda.

So this year, I’m doing something about this and trying to broaden the conversation with some innovative new models for professional learning.

At NCCE 2013 in Portland, Oregon, I’m helping to coordinate the “Make Your Future” pre-conference summit on February 27. We’ll have five different summits focused on a full-day of reflection, collaboration, and hands-on time focused on topics of critical importance to educators of all types.

• Leadership summit
  for superintendents, principals, and other school leaders
• Common Core summit
  for curriculum coordinators
• Teacher-librarian summit
  for teacher-librarians
• IT summit
  for information technology directors
• Teacher boot camp
  for teachers who are not “connected” in terms of using social tools for their own professional learning

I hope that these summits begin to build bridges for district and school teams to have thoughtful conversations across the disciplines. I hope that the participants find value in an entire day in which they can think about issues that are important to them and spend time planning how they can affect change in their own districts when they return home. And I hope to see you there.

Podstock Southwest is being held on Aug. 6-7 in El Paso, Texas.

I’m presenting sessions on open content resources, Web 2.0 and mini-laptops, and Web 2.0 applications for personal and school use. If you’re attending, stop by and say hi.

And if you can’t make it, here’s a wiki with all the session materials.

The newest episode of Karen’s Educational Mashups is now up. This show features podcasts from educational conferences. This is a great way to get the professional development benefits from conferences that you may not be able to attend in-person.

Image courtesy of Todd Fishburn.

The 6th Annual Michigan Handheld Computers in Education Conference is coming up soon. It will be held Nov. 9-11 at Washtenaw Intermediate School District in Ann Arbor.