I had the opportunity to speak at the New York City 140 Characters Conference yesterday. #140Conf is the brainchild of Jeff Pulver and the conference explores the powerful effect of social media on the world today. Jeff asked me to speak about the power of social media to change education, and for me, the chance to talk about some of the ideas I am most passionate about to an audience that most educators don’t often have access to. I’m incredibly thankful to Jeff for the opportunity to speak to the conference, and my only regret is that I had to zip in and zip out so that I could get back in time for Parent-Advisor Conferences. Here’s the talk:

My take-away from the conference — and from the reaction to my talk — is that people really are passionate about education, and that so many people outside the "echo chamber" of education / ed-tech folks get that something is wrong with where we’re going with school right now. There are some "Have To’s" that yesterday taught me:

• We in education have to continue to work hard to tell a better story than the current national story-line of "broken schools being taken over and teachers being fired."
• We have to understand that it is no longer enough to do powerful work if no one sees it – and that’s true for students and teachers.
• We have to be willing to be activists as well as educators.

What #140Conf reminded me is how much non-educators want to believe in schools… and how deeply they care about what is going on in education. Let’s have the courage to talk about what schools can be… about what keeps us from getting there… and about how we can involve the whole community in overcoming those obstacles.

Thanks again, Jeff, for allowing me to be a part of #140Conf… it was an amazing day.