Note: For short bios of each keynote speaker, you can go to http://novemberlearning.com/blc/keynote-speakers/
Keynote: Dr. Michael Wesch
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Digital Ethnography, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
What an interesting speaker! For one of his investigations, he studied a non-literate population in Papua New Guinea to see the impact writing would have them. More recently, he has led his university students in studies exploring human uses of digital technology. He has won several prestigious awards and received a standing ovation at the conference!
Here are some of his ideas:
We are in the information age; we find, sort, evaluate, critique, create.
Communication, thoughtfulness, and empathy are interrelated.
A good education takes us from meaning-seekers to meaning-makers.
When media changes, relationships change.
See video: Web 2.0 The Machine Is Using Us” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=channel
Examples of how we are participating on the web:
1. Viralvideochart – rating videos from YouTube, Google Video
2. Technorati – Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs)
3. USA Today Ad Meter- tracks the responses of a panel of viewers to ads and ranks them from best to worst
4. New commerce is now happening because of the web:
● Zilock-online rentals
● Swaptree = swapping your stuff
● Whipcar – renting peoples’ cars
● Prosper – money lending
To see contrasting publicity/propoganda on the web, see:
Dove – rainforest video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWaekMdpDDE
Dove- True Colors video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUsKIApTewQ&feature=related
See also the remix of Dove and Axe (same company) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk
Maxine Green coined the phrase “the capacity to invent”. We need visions of what the world could be and should be.
Watch this: A Vision of Students Today” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o.
People to follow: Shawn Ahmet – Reinventing how NGO’s work
Eric Whitacre – Opensource projects
Open Street Map – free wiki world map
Engage real problems
● start here – not with technology
● start with a problem you don’t know the answer to
● do the research with students
● harness the relevant tools
Diigo – like Delicious – to share links
See: An Anthropological Introduction to You Tube
Novemberlearning.com/blog
Keynote: Richard Halkett
Director of Strategy and Research, Global Educ., Cisco, London

There is a:
1. Need for cultural understanding
2. Need for personal understanding of one’s identity and purpose. How do we prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist?
3. Need to change the way we do things
Which changes are important; how to we determine this?
- Change “the script”- We need to re-engineer the learning process to move activities around. Reorder the learning steps. Students should engage in learning, collaborate.
- The role of the teacher and student must change. How to do this?
1. Peer Learning and the Cascade method- any person knowledgeable in any topic becomes the teacher.
2. Sharing Scarce Resources-coventry UK has a program where Spanish teachers use video to teach language
3. Project-Based Learning
4. Organizing Learning Differently-Luminere, Brasil
5. Co-Creating Content—“Show and Share” by Cisco
6. Team-based/ Authentic based Learning
In executing curriculum teacher must:
○ Plan for peer assessment
○ Establish global partnerships
○ Build interdisciplinary links
○ Develop global learning projects
Keynote: Rahaf Harfoush
New Media Expert; Member of President Obama’s Social Media Team; Geneva
www.rahafharfoush.com Books: Growing Up Digital, Yes, We Did
twitter@rahafharfoush

What was learned from the presidential campaign:
1. Power of strategy in an integrated media campaign
2. Online organizing equals offline action- get people’s attention online and then move them into the community
3. Consistent Branding and Design-Need a clear message, clear symbol
4. Iterations-Start with one step and then branch out (try and learn)
Funds raised: Obama–$750m, McCain–$360m
How can this knowledge gained from the campaign affect education? We must:
1. Redefine engagement and create new engagement opportunities.
Obama had profiles on 17 different social networks!
“wikinomics”- check on web. Focus on high engagement users. Wikibooks-open source for free educational books. Check this as they have free lesson plans.
2. Convert Low end Users
Hyper segmented -use personal characteristics and group students. You must value all student contributions. Ask high end users to do something, nudge low users.
Idea for teacher: User Facebook to have online hours for students to ask questions.
Facilitate existing behavior-Use phone applications to practice skilsl, prepare for SAT, etc.
3. Incent the right Actions–Obama’s team devised an activity index. Those most actively involved in working for the campaign were awarded.
Cramster.com-helps with homework. The more active you are, the more you contribute on line, you are rated higher and receive prizes. This is a cooperative site between teachers and students.
4. Personalize the Mission–Had personalized fundraising web pages. “I am raising $ to help Obama win for a personal reason, for____(ex. Better education for my son). This was put on Facebook. Donors were given choices about where to donate their $, then later they received a thank-you note.
Donorschose.com-raise money for school projects
5. Empower Co-Innovation
Obama campaign had “Find an event Near you”. Volunteers did some service projects wearing Obama T-shiirts. Called ObamaWorks.
Ratemyteachers.com
Book recommended: Misfits by R. Harfoush
What does this all mean?
Groups and networks have a Global impact, a new educational model emerges, and institutions are unprepared for it!
In the past, higher education
● Full time students
● Residential
● Age specific
● Homogeneous
● Front Loaded
By 2020, there will be more than 200,000,000 university students. Right now there are 100,000,000. Today 30 million are without access to education. Online models will flourish.
Think of Wikibooks:
● open-source community for free educational books
● anyone can edit them
● 38,000 pages of material
However, that is NOW CHANGING! The number of non-traditional students will grow. Growth in population will demand change. We cannot build schools fast enough to meet population needs.
Tech is changing
1. The way we think
● Instant gratification
● Rich multimedia experience
- Relationship with Information
Try Wikipedia navigation game- choose one entry point and an exit point, and race to see who can link the two ideas faster). ex: Canada, Donald Duck
The new literacy-Tech ability is not genius. Students need practice, techniques, have skills refined. We can now access info from anywhere, so what should our tests be testing?
We must teach students
1. to leverage online communities
2. how to critically evaluate information
3. To understand messaging
4. To triangle the truth-listen to different perspectives and make your own conclusions
5. Digital citizenship-we need to contribute to the web, not just be users and consumers
Future growth will favor the non-traditional students
Challenges for Educators:
1. Learn with your students
2. Become a facilitator
3. Bring an experienced perspective—ex. To recognize and combat cyberbullying
Keynote: Dr. Mitchel Resnick
Lego Papert Professor of Learning Research; Academic Head, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, Co-Director, Center for Future Civic Media, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA

Literacy = reading and writing
Literacy in computers= reading and CREATING (not just consuming information)
SCRATCH is a free piece of software, used to create animations and share them. People can see it, comment on it, make their own version of it. Kids build on the work of others, or “remix.” MIT released SCRATCH three years ago. It teaches kids to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Kids learn also that when someone else chooses your project to remix, it’s an honor! The community can be your inspiration as well as your critics. The language in SCRATCH can be changed, so this is an opportunity for GLOBAL sharing! Right now, there are 60,000 new Scratch projects per day!
Buzzwords:
Transmedia= from written to animated to tv series
Computational thinking= ideas related to computers, logical
For older kids, there’s Lego WeDo. This is used for robotic competitions. This now works together with SCRATCH.
Online community for teacher: SCRATCHED. Educators share ideas with one another on projects, lessons, support for students.
Next year there will be a new version of SCRATCH called 2.0.
SCRATCH Summer workshop at MIT: Aug 11-14.
http://scratch.mit.edu
http://scratched.media.mit.edu
Leadership From The Ground Up
Adora Svitak, Education Technology and Literacy Advocate, Teacher, Speaker and Author, Redmond, WA
www.adorasvitak.com

This 12-year old child prodigy impressed everyone at the conference! At seven, Adora Svitak published her first book, Flying Fingers; recently, she co-authored a second book, Dancing Fingers, with her older sister Adrianna. She advocates literacy and lifelong learning around the world.
I highly recommend that you listen to this young woman. This video was done at another conference, but the topic at BLC 2010 was similar.
http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html
www.mathtrain.tv to see examples of students tutoring peers.