Connect, Collaborate, Educate - Trussville Rocks!

I had the incredible privilege of keynoting this week for the Trussville Education Technology Conference. If there was ever a school district I would work love to work at in Alabama- Trussville has got to be it.

From the Superintendent, Dr. Suzanne Freeman  to central office staff (including the IT director) all the way to the teachers and staff-- they "get it"!!!

Shawn Nutting and April Chamberlain put together the most amazing conference built around the easily accessible K12Online content. Registration was online, bios of K12Online presenters from the K12Online blog were featured.  Each session was assigned a moderator who watched the presentation in advanced and developed a set of discussion questions and online resources related to the content to deepen the learning. All the teachers/administrators from the Trussville district chose from a menu of live (members of the ABPC 21st Century learning teams) and K12Online presentations.

A Sharepoint blog space was created to keep the discussion going for each presentation. It was the perfect mix of real time, virtual, and Web 2.0. Alabama educators were exposed to a global perspective of Web 2.0, as well as keeping discussions aligned to their local context and district mission and goals. The synergy of being together gave it the feel of a huge "LAN party" and everyone had their laptops and participated online like at NECC.

During my keynote presentation I Skyped in Jeff Utecht and Chris Craft. Their spontaneous comments were incredible and helped to reinforce my key points. It was awesome.

Superintendent Weighs In
Check out this excerpt from an email the Superintendent sent out after the conference to all the employees:

After this morning at TETC, I am totally re-energized and was chomping at the bit to get back to work for our students.

First of all, kudos to our technology staff for their vision, planning, and hard work in preparing for today. Also, thank you for all those that presented.  I learned so much from Sheryl Nussbaum Beach’s keynote address, from Lisa Moore about digital storytelling, from Erin McGuyer on how to create a blog and then again from Sheryl about leadership in the age of conceptualization and creativity.  My battery is once again charged to work toward fulfilling our mission of how we can use technology to design engaging and challenging work that results in students learning important content at high levels.  Our work is so important!

Once again, it struck me that we have a moral obligation to prepare our students for the age of conceptualization and creativity.  The skills that they will need will be different than what we needed to be successful.  This morning, I heard descriptive terms and expressions like “collaboration”, “social networking” with people from around the world, “conceptualization”, “creativity”, “innovation”, “embracing ambiguity”, and from “do your own work” to “shared work”.  The world is changing so we must prepare our students to live and work in this new (flat) world.  I know that change can be difficult and stressful; it is stressful for me too.  However, we have each other for support and encouragement because we too are collaborative in our work and thus becoming a social network. 

Sincerely,
Suzanne

Administration Responds Immediately

The conference was such a motivator that the next day principals started creating wikis to collaborate and revamping their five year learning plans based on 21st Century skills using Web 2.0 tools.  Amazing!

It seems using a blended conference format with an empowering superintendent, an enlightened distict IT director and a motivated administrative staff on hand to help and support - just might be the right mix for educational reform.

Check out the Flickr set

Comments

[April Chamberlain]

I have heard nothing but positive comments and requests for more small group and individual training to begin using Web 2.0 tools. We chose the blended format for our technology conference because we wanted everyone to see what tool are available to connect, collaborate, and education but were concerned with who would present when only a handfull of teachers were already utilizing these tools. I had participated in the K12 Online Conference and liked Jeff Utecht's LAN party idea. All of our schools have wireless connectivity and every teacher has a laptop so every session was able to be hands on. We are very fortunate in Trussville that our Superintendent is committed to supporting technology integration.

[Pat Hodge]

TETC was a high point in my learning curve. The skype with Jeff Utecht was eye opening and showed the possibilities available to our teachers. Hearing his conversation reminded me that access to a vast array of expertise is just a click away from us.

[Suzanne Freeman]

WOW! We were honored that you (Sheryl) blogged about our technology conference in Trussville (thanks for the kind words). I think it was such an eye opening experience for our teachers. Thanks for reiterating how the world is flat and I think that was clearly illustrated when you were talking to another teacher in Shanghai via the Internet. After the conference, I reflected on what you shared about how we were leaving the information age and now entering the age of conceptualization and creativity; I had never thought about this before, but this makes sense to me. We really need to get busy (work harder and faster) to redesign our schools to better prepare our students for the 21st Century. Our students deserve no less.

In Trussville, we talk a lot about our mission which is designing engaging and intellectually rich school work that results in students learning content at high levels. This technology conference increased our repertoire of ways to make learning more engaging for students. It also showed us how we can use technology to further our professional learning by having access to a pod cast of each session and blogging with others about our learning. I just love living in the 21st Century!

[Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach]

Thanks for weighing in Suzanne and Pat! Be sure and check out Daniel Pink's book.

We will all be looking to Trussville for helping to lead the way into the 21st Century. Your student's will have a distinct advantage.

[Sunny Williams]

Sheryl,
Thank you so much for participating in our conference. As an administrator at the school level, I was inspired to look for ways to model using Web 2.0. In the short time since the conference, I have had more conversations with teachers about ways to incorporate these tools in their classrooms. Having teachers realize that we can't prepare students for the future by doing things the way we have always done them is the first step in truly revolutionizing our schools. The things you shared really started them down the road to that realization.

[Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach]

Thanks Sunny!

Trussville has the potential to really lead the way in Alabama. So many districts just do not understand the power and potential that 21st Century teaching and learning concepts hold for your students.

Rather than unleashing and empowering teachers and students with these tools, they feel they must shut them down. Change is always hard. But we have to realize that in this flat world tomorrow's adults will need these skills.

But is it is obvious that Trussville has vision. Your district is truly capable of preparing students to be successful in the future.

Thank you for all you and your team does on behalf of Alabama's children.

[Rosie]

These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.