Education Stars at 140 Characters Conference
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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 04/26/2010
From teachers to principals, professors to bloggers, educators gathered online and at the 92nd Street Y in New York City to consider the future of education in a collaborative social media world during several sessions at the 140 Characters Conference held April 20–21. The conference, which considers Twitter’s effect on our culture, featured presentations on education, where speakers addressed the disconnect within schools today, most of which have failed to leverage online tools and social networking to engage their students.
“We will have irrelevant educators in a few years if we don’t get on the bandwagon,” says Tom Whitby, (@tomwhitby), a professor of English in Secondary Education at St. Joseph’s College in New York, during one of two panels on the Real-time Web and education.
Speakers were limited to 10 minutes, panels to 20 in a speedathon of ideas, suggestions, and challenges to teachers to bring their lessons and their students into the 21st century.
Presenters challenged educators to think creatively in using technology and Web applications to engage students. Case in point: a Twitter project that teacher George Haines used with his eighth graders at Sts. Philip and James School in Long Island, NY. Haines, who had his students tweet as characters in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, was on hand at the conference, along with several students, who performed a musical skit (below), which “brought the audience of Twitter-focused techie hipster digital evangelists to their feet in delight,” reported Calvin Reid in Publisher’s Weekly.
In a presentation on Social Media + Education, Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann), principal and founder of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, considered the practice of banning students from handheld devices. “We’re denying them the very oxygen they breathe,” he says.
In a follow-up email to attendees, conference organizer Jeff Pulver said he was especially pleased to have education as a particular focus of the 140 Characters Conference. He also noted that Lehmann (his presentation below) was the first presenter at the event to receive a standing ovation.
Photo by kjarrett
