60 Seconds with the Face of The Global Education Conference
14 Nov
With the Global Education Conference right out around the corner, Bon had the chance to tap into the thoughts of Global Education Collaborative founder, Lucy Gray. Read on for the short and sweet 60-second interview stuffed with nuggets on 21st century skills, edtech and a conference preview!
0-5 Seconds: Can you sum up the mission of The Global Education Conference in a tweet?
An inclusive & free online conference designed to showcase the power of global collaboration by connecting students, educators & organizations
5-10 Seconds: Why free?
It’s free because many volunteers and presenters are donating their time and expertise to this cause. We think we’ll have greater participation if cost is not a barrier.
10-15 Seconds: What led you to get involved in The Global Education Conference?
In 2007, I founded an online community for people involved in education and interested in developing the necessary relationships for globally-connecting projects and initiatives. Steve Hargadon, founder of Classroom 2.0, another community that focuses on new and emerging technologies, approached me with the idea of combining forces with Blackboard Collaborate, a webinar platform, in order to produce a significant education event. Steve is also a consultant with Blackboard Collaborate.
15-20 Seconds: What should users/attendees expect from the Conference?
Attendees should expect 5 days of inspiring online sessions around the clock including keynotes by high level thought leaders active in the field of global education. Conference participants should come away from their sessions with practical ideas on how to implement global collaboration. They will also be inspired after learning of initiatives created by various global organizations. Sessions are recorded if you cannot attend a live online session.
Attendees should also expect to gain a great deal of knowledge from the participant backchannel chatroom that accompanies each session. Many attendees last year formed friendships and were able to network informally through these webinar chats. If participants attend several sessions, they may find themselves bonding with other educators around the world!
20-25 Seconds: How does technology play into the conference?
The Global Education Conference is not an ICT conference. We believe that technology sometimes is underutilized to connect classrooms, and we hope to inspire others to try webconferencing tools and other Web 2.0 applications for this purpose. Technology is really the support system for improving teaching, learning and connecting; it shouldn’t be the primary focus.
25-30 Seconds: Why do you think students should be involved in the conference?
Students should be involved in this conference so that they can experience a different way of learning and sharing. Our students need to understand the power of networked learning because as adults, they will likely need to be networked problem solvers, working on solutions for global issues across borders. The conference represents a wonderful opportunity to empower students (and adults) to make a difference on our planet.
35-40 Seconds: What’s your vision for the post-conference world?
Ideally, I’d love to extend the conversations into year round webinars, but the practicality of that remains to be seen. I hope that many people will be inspired to join or create their own global collaborative projects. I think that good relationships are the basis of successful collaborations, and hopefully, this conference will be the basis of those kinds of relationships.
45-50 Seconds: One bit of advice to remember when attending the conference?
Go through the sessions in your time zone and add ones that interest you to your own Google calendar. This allows you to have a personalized schedule and you can set reminders for sessions as well within Google calendar. Remember all sessions are recorded in case you can’t make the live session!
50-60 Seconds: Inspire us: Why now for the Global Education Conference?
Someone asked me a similar question recently, and my response is:
We have urgent problems that need to be addressed and, in order to prepare our students to work on these problems, we must connect them globally. We must teach them how networked learning leads to networked problem solving.
I would also add that because of the flux we find ourselves in globally, we also must learn to understand and tolerate each other better. There are more similarities than differences between people, I think, and it’s time to capitalize on the strength we bring as a cohesive whole, while appreciating the things that do indeed make us different!
The 2011 Global Education Conference will be held November 14-18, online and for free. It will take place in multiple languages and time zones. To attend, join the network.
Keep Calm and Learn on,
Image Available Under CC Licensure by joone4u