Growing the Movement

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about how to scale... how to grow the School 2.0 movement. I've gone back and forth about what is necessary... do we need a national organization to be a defining counter voice to some of the edu-capitalist organizations that seem to be getting a great deal of heat? Do we need advocacy in Washington that is more targeted? Or are we best as a grass roots movement that makes change every day in classes?

The answer, of course, is probably all of the above.

But what is doable, possible, immediate and powerful?

The more I listen to teachers and parents, the more I talk about the ideas that I am most passionate about, the more I hear people wanting road maps that will allow them to change their schools where they are, the more I am truly convinced that a smart, grass roots movement might be the thing we need.

What if we all tried to dream big about what we can imagine schools could be where we lived?

What if we brought together teachers and parents and students and community members if cities and towns all over the country and shared a vision and then discussed ways to move our schools closer to that vision?

And what if we aggregated the stories and ideas and dreams that came out of all of those meetings? And what if there were some common ideas to the structure and meaning of the meetings and those formed the core of a grass roots movement? How much change could we affect?

And maybe what we've been able to start with EduCon can be a model.

So let's start 1,000 EduCons all over the country. There are some models for that already. The folks at Co-Learning out in Colorardo have done it. But let's network the events. Let's aggregate the ideas. And, in the words of Arlo Guthrie, "Friends, they may call it a movement."

So here's the core values of EduCon:

1. Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members
   
2. Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with our students -- the 21st Century Citizen
   
3. Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around
   
4. Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
   
5. Learning can -- and must -- be networked
   

Here are the major pieces of the conference -

• The pedagogy of the sessions should match the pedagogy of the conference.
  
• Discussions, not lectures.
  
• Ideas over tools.
  
• Longer sessions.
  
• Time to reflect and talk.
  
• Share a meal.
  
• Involve students and parents.
  

People all over the country have amazing ideas. Let's come together and talk about them where we all live.

And then let's make sure we tell the world about it.

Who knows... we might just make a difference.

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