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| Source: ASIDE 2018 |
This year’s
Building Learning Communities - Education Conference 2018 more than lived up to its goal of fostering dialogues between talented, dedicated educators. Sponsored by
November Learning (
@NLearning), the BLC18 conference took place from Tuesday, July 24, to Friday, July 28, 2018, in the beautiful and perfectly situated
Boston Park Plaza Hotel. The industry-leading keynote speakers and the expert presenters were all chosen personally by
Alan November (
@globalearner).
We don’t think we have ever been to an educational get-together, whether formal or informal, that created as true a sense of community as this past week's conference. The engaged, committed educators were all open and candid in sharing ideas and dilemmas, and the tone of the conference was set early by Alan November to encourage conversation among every voice in the room.
The opening keynote address by
Dr. Marc A. Brackett, PhD, (
@marcbrackett,
@YaleEmotion) stressed the importance of emotional intelligence, as he introduced the audience to Yale’s
RULER approach and
mood meter. The closing keynote provided a fitting bookend to this message as
Ted Dintersmith (
@dintersmith) author of
Most Likely To Succeed and
What School Could Be, as well as the film "
Most Likely To Succeed," talked passionately about how schools can reinvent themselves to better serve today's learners.
As non-computer programmers, we were somewhat bewildered by
Stephen Wolfram's (
@stephen_wolfram) talk on Thursday afternoon. We were amazed, however, by the potential of his
WolframAlpha search engine, which seems ready to upend modern information-gathering. Its “smart” algorithm coalesces data and far-flung facts on any topic (or combination of topics) to make most traditional homework assignments obsolete.
All of the presenters were clearly prepared and heartfelt in offering a good balance between practical teaching tools and theoretical learning frameworks. Some of our favorite sessions included:
We would like to thank all of the collaborative teachers and administrators who attended both of our sessions: "
Where Learning Meets Design: Taking Control Of The Visual Classroom" and "
Student Videos: Empower Creativity And Visual Journalism." We would also like to thank everyone for generously returning after the hotel fire alarm interrupted the first presentation. We greatly appreciate the range of questions and ideas that were shared during the talks, and we are grateful for the kind feedback we received.
We were also honored to be interviewed by Bob Greenberg (
@bobgreenberg) for his
Brainwaves Anthology series on YouTube. His videos celebrate teachers who make an impact, and his interviews with international thought-leaders highlight many of the progressive ideas changing traditional models of learning.
Finally, we would like to thank the tremendous conference organizers who staged such an incredibly smooth and well-run week of professional development. They fed us extremely well, with a full breakfast every morning, a welcoming dinner for presenters, drinks and snacks throughout, evening cocktail receptions, and, of course, the favorite dessert dance on Thursday.
If you are in the Back Bay area of Boston,
Erbaluce is a charming little Italian restaurant two blocks from the hotel, and
Lucca is an absolutely delicious extension near the Prudential Center of the popular North End establishment.
We look forward to seeing everyone at BLC19!
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