cc licensed flickr photo shared by alexindigo
In January 2011, my eyes were opened to an awesome way to share conversation and learning when I attended Educon in Philadelphia. Through my experience of connecting and collaborating using social media, these connections were made extremely strong through face-to-face connections that were made. The conversations were also deepened on what we were doing in education. This was not the “stand and deliver” type conference that I have attended in the past. Educon was something different.
Through one of my conversations with Dean Shareski and Alec “Google Doc” Couros, we wondered why do we not have something like this with a Canada wide focus? Many of the conversations that happened at Educon often turned to things that really didn’t apply to our situation in Canada (No Child Left Behind, etc.). Through my conversations with Alec, Dean, and others, we talked about some essentials:
- Students and parents were involved.
- It was held in a school.
- It was participant driven.
- It was affordable and focused on treating educators awesome!
- It was in a large center that had a major airport so it would be easy for participants to get there.
- It shares innovative practices that we can take back into our schools.
- It is not focused solely on any particular grade set (good teaching is good teaching) and was open to all educators.
- It would change locations yearly.
Through talks with Neil Stephenson, his school (Calgary Science School) has graciously offered to host this conference in May 2012 (May 25-27). As this is the first one and we want to keep it in a school, there would be room for about 300 participants.
As we REALLY want this to be participant driven, I would love some ideas from everyone on the following:
- What would be a good name for this conference?
- What are some things that would be essential to make this truly a Canadian conference? (To all of my international friends, you are more than welcome to join us!)
- Any other questions?
Also, if you are interested in joining us, please take time to fill out this short form.
P.S. Thanks to Chris Lehmann and SLA for the inspiration.
We would love to hear your thoughts!
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As I mentioned in Twitter, I'd stay away from 'unconference' in the title, although I'd certainly like to see an unconference format (at least for much of it). I'd also look at Learning 2.010 (Shanghai last year) that has a cohort-driven approach with an unconference portion. That's really an excellent conference. Taking some of the best pieces from Educon and Learning 2.010 would be a good way to start, certainly.
I think the name should be simple, clear, and to the point, so your suggestion of the Canadian Education Conference is good. Maybe we can call it the Canadian Education Summit so that it is distinguished somehow from a traditional conference. Canadian Summit on Education? Too fancy, probably. Turns people off, and we all think about all those failed summits our politicians set up.
Canadian Education Unconference? Too many people going to wonder what the point of that U and N are in front of the word conference. However, it does certainly give lots of opportunities for discussion.
We could also include the actual group of people invited in the conference title, so that it is more obvious to parents and students that they are welcome to come. However this could result in some ridiculously long names, like "The Canadian National Conference for Parents, Students, and Educators interested in Education, and it's also an unconference so bring your thinking caps."
Having tuned in to Educon via distance I really appreciated the experience and I apologize but it was the first time I heard of George having watched a session he presented in. I'm a former teacher, principal, tech coordinator and Director of Education and Labour Force Development for IT and BioScience here in PEI and now run a site called PEI Schools. The goal of PEI Schools is to foster discussion on 21st Century Learning here in PEI Schools.
I would definitely attend to broaden my experiences and to support the agenda. I would then share these through our educational social network at http://www.peischools.com
Since my Educon experience I have found a wealth of resources to follow on Twitter, Facebook and through like minded and sometimes not so like minded people who are passionate about 21st Century Education.
Anything I can do to assist, gladly offered…
Keith Tompkins
PEI Schools Founder
Name suggestion -Canadian Learning Exchange. #CLE. Simple and brings learning to the forefront.
Why not call it EduCan!! A take off from Educon but acknowledging that it is in Canada.
Can't wait for this conference to happen. I will definitely be there. If I can help out in anyway just tweet me @kaminskiterry
That is what we wanted to call it but “EduCan” is a furniture store
How exciting this sounds! Keep thinking that the word "connect" or "connecting" needs to be in this….but that's me!
This sounds exciting! I would love to travel to a conference within my own country! Any idea on a cost yet . . . the flight will eat up a good chunk of my PD funds.
As for names, I like all that have been suggested, but feel the big “Yes!” hasn’t come forward yet.
So far, I like:
1 – Learning Exchange of Canada (sounds a bit like a bank, but maybe could go on the theme of knowledge being currency) — or Canadian Learning Exchange
2 – Canadian Education Summit — or — Canadian Edutech Summit
3 – Too bad about the furniture store as I do like EduCan. I don’t think we have that store in Ontario… never heard of it.
4 – CanConnect
@technolit
[...] Canadian Educators Conference via @gcouros [...]
It would be so nice to have a conference in Canada as it could focus on issues that pertain to education in our Country. There are some amazing conferences in the US, but their issues differ from ours in many certain ways.
Regarding the name for the conference, I like David's idea of 'Canadian Education Summit'
I love the idea of a Canadian Educator conference, as I heard nothing but amazing things from this year's EduCon in Philadelphia! I really liked "EduCan" and am sad to hear there's already a furniture store. Who knew! Looking forward to having it in Western Canada! Please let me know what I can do to help
Great ideas so far! How about CanEd or CanLearn? I'll be retired by then and would love to attend but perhaps my contributions can be more through networking. I have recommended George, Alec and Chris Wejr to the ASCD Canadian Education Network as potential speakers. This could be a great way to spread the word, in addition to the Twitterverse, of course!
I will stay tuned for details regardless, but keep me posted if this is open to parent groups/organizations from Ontario!
@SheilaSpeaking
Great! I am sure that something will come up on the radar that will fit just right! On the lookout….
What a great idea George. I am curious as to your thoughts, or any one else on what could be done to make this more Canadian. I am not an expert on nor have I experienced American education systems, so I am very curious as to the approach that would be taken to focus a Canadian theme into the conference.
I wondered about that too. Each province can have both the same and different approaches/issues in education. Is the theme/focus of student learning more "universal"? Could ed orgs that are national help focus/find common threads?
What about ConnectEd Canada?
Great name….Carolyn Cameron from Greystone suggested that today.
Like Canada all spelled out! Like ConnectEd too
Would love to be involved! At the Canadian Education Association we've been working with teachers, students and principals across Canada as they work together to create classrooms that are more intellectually engaging, motivating and relevant to students. Our big question is how do we transform such a large, complicated and entrenched system such as Canada's public school system? This sounds like a great event and we would love to stay in touch to see how we could participate or connect some of the folks we've been working with to this conference. We also have some communication vehicles that could help spread the word about the ideas coming from the participants to help reach a broader audience. Let's talk!
Will you have service vendors there? With booths, for information, sales, service offers and such? Open to all industries that would like to offer their product?
Call it, "The May Pole" that would be in connection with the wildy fun, school playground game of yesteryears, and at the same time, sound similar to "The Maple" of Canadian national heritage.
I'd love to be part of the planning team for this – let me know if you need a hand.
Just wondering if this conference will become a reality? It sounds like a great idea. I've taught in 3 provinces and know that there are more than subtle variances between provincial systems. I think a national conference that would bring provincial participants together to discuss best practices would benefit us all. Any new information would be welcomed. Cheers.
My forte is conference presentation and as such, I do not like giving presentations for nothing. My last one at the leadership 11 in October was very well recieved as it dealt with the implementation of coming trends and 21st century learning. If you wish to expand on it, I would gladly share it with you as a springboard to your conference as we face the demands of the new government and Inspired education. This I would like to do at a time and place that would work well for you (i.e. the first week of January)
Please note that I said implementation as all my work relates directly to the dynamics of the classroom.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Paul