There and Back Again: Educon 2.7, Part 1

Educon is by far my favorite learning weekend and here's why: the learning is all around us.  It doesn't just happen when we are in the seats of classroom in SLA, it happens wherever there are people gathered.

When I arrived at SLA on Friday, I spent some time eavesdropping in classrooms. As usual the students and teachers showed what SLA is all about, an inquiry-driven, project-based learning environment.  In the robotics class, students were problem solving as they attempted to make their robots play a tune of "Three Blind Mice."  Ms. Hull lead an intriguing discussion around the topic of privacy through reading cautionary tales...I did not write down the title, but if memory serves me well, it was LOL...OMG!  The students in both classrooms were engaged and invested in the conversations around the subject at hand.

Later in the day, I saw a tweet from @jrichardson30 (Jeff Richardson) about inviting attendees to meet up and go to historical Philadelphia.  I decided to go meet up with my Southern twitter friend and his colleagues, Susan and Wendy.  It ended up being the Philly area native (me) taking 7 people (3 from Alabama and 4 from Vermont) on a little walk around the historical hot spots.  I posted pictures of our time together.  

My husband's comment, "That's a weird technology conference". My response, "It's conversations where we learn.  Not locations. ;)"

That was a huge take away for me and it happened only 3 hours into Educon.  Learning spaces are all around when we engage in conversation.  I have been learning more in nontraditional settings than traditional.  I learn more when I am seeking it on my own, than when someone is pushing it on me.  My learning can be on the sidewalks of historic Philadelphia, the tables in a high school lunch room, within the walls of classrooms or anywhere I choose to begin the discussion.

The rest of Educon was amazing...of course, but that is for another post.

How are we encouraging learning to take place anywhere, anytime with our students and colleagues?