More on ISTE: the Feud, the Forum, the Final Keynote (updated with slides)

Who says panel discussions can’t be fun?

After the seriousness and pressure of preparing for my TEDxPhillyed talk on Saturday (more on that in a future post), several good friends and I presented the Learning Tools Family Feud at ISTE.  Click on the Unlocking Potential image below to view the hour-long session.

Perhaps we did not pack as much content into this one as we had in previous sessions, but I don’t remember EVER having as much fun presenting in my whole life.

The fabulous Jeff, who volunteered to help run our game show board, a.k.a. the educoncierge, offered a lovely description of the session in his posterous post:

Following a wonderful lunch, Kristina and I went to what was undoubtedly the most fun and interactive session of the event: ISTEFeud. Organized by three wonderful teacher librarians (and active members of the EduConcierge fan club), the event involved a battle of the sexes in Family Feud. But in this wonderful game, the surveys were conducted through google forms and were all based on teacher librarian [[actually learning]] tools. I had the pleasure of working with Kristina to run the big board and act as a judge when necessary. They did a fine job, and we plan on doing another fun session together at EduCon 2.4.

You can read the questions and responses to our crowd-sourced survey, compiled most seriously by Diane Cordell.

And, who says panels can’t be inspiring?

On Tuesday, the SIGMS Forum, led by Doug Johnson, featured a panel of brilliant practitioners, in a TED-like format.  Video is not yet available, but when it is, I will post the link, and you must watch all five of these leaders’ expressions of their vision for a Dawning Era for School Librarians:

• Anita Beaman: The E-volution of Books: Ebooks, E-readers and the Future of Reading or, Where Are We Going and Do I Have to Get in That Handbasket?
• Gwyneth Jones: Viva La Revolución! Make a daring digital shift for your practice & the community. Having a web presence, keeping hip with cultural literacy, transliteracy, & building strong personal learning networks is not just an extra burden, but a necessity for the modern teacher librarian. It’s never too late to start…and it’s easier than you might think! Advocate for our profession by embracing change & the digital shift: Don’t Hate – Appreciate! Viva la Revolucion!
• Shannon Miller: Be the Change You Want to See: Empowering students with a VOICE in education
• Cathy Jo Nelson: The Blind Leading the Blind: Be the trailblazer for newbies, veterans and students alike modeling the use of new tools for professional development and student learning.
• Buffy Hamilton: Libraries as Communally Constructed Sites of Participatory Learning: Creating Conversations and Connections Through Enchantment

Here are Buffy’s (enchanting!) slidedeck, Cathy Jo Nelson’s powerful presentation and videos on partnering with teachers, Shannon Miller’s inspiring experiences in connecting her library with the world outside and encouraging learners to make a difference, as well as a few pics to give you a pre-video taste of this outstanding event:

Filed under: teacher librarians, technology, websites