Just a reminder… there’s only one week left to submit proposals for EduCon 2.0. Given all the folks who have either signed up or told me their coming, I think we’re going to have an amazing conference. But we still want more proposals for conversations… be sure to submit yours!

[Update: Link to the conference — Link to the Proposal Entry]

I’ve realized something.

Project-based learning is the easiest thing in the world to talk about because it’s almost a guarentee that no one will disagree with you. Everyone will nod their head and agree that it’s a good thing… but — and Wiggins and McTigue write about this as well, by the way — true project-based learning is an inversion of our traditional classrooms in powerful ways.

Here’s why:

Project-based learning is not what you do after you’ve given the test, as supplimental to the test, as anything other than the primary method of assessment of student learning.

In a true project-based learning classroom or school, you may give quizzes to check-in or dipstick for comprehension, but when it comes time to assess what students really, deeply understand about a unit, they do an authentic, student-centered assessment — a project.

If authentic student work is not the highest-order assessment in a classroom, that classroom is not project-based. It is still relying on a teacher’s sense of what students must know for its highest moment of learning. A project puts it into the kids’ hands to demonstrate and apply knowledge, skills, content and (if there’s a reflective piece) meta-cognition.

Ask yourself, challenge yourself — if you really want to know what kids know and can do, how do you assess that? When do you really feel like you know what kids can do?

And ask yourself this, how much control do you give over to the kids every day to really own their learning? Have you ever been surprised by that moment when a student took a piece of schoolwork in a direction completely unexpected? And what did you do in that moment?

I’m in Nashville, at the Technology + Learning conference hosted by NSBA. I did a three hour workshop today on 21st Century School Reform. Here was the conference write-up. (And yes, I did use that much edu-speak… but I meant it!)

What does the Department of Education’s School 2.0 initiative really entail, and how do we create schools that can realize that vision? Can we really build a pedagogical framework that allows all stakeholders to use technology to change the way we think about schools and create a transformative experience for all involved? Examine the issues of technology infrastructure, staff development, curriculum design in a One-to-One environment, home and school interaction in School 2.0, and the pedagogical framework necessary to make School 2.0 a reality.

(And yes, there is a level of both hubris and insanity to think that I could tackle that topic in three hours.)

I’ll do a longer write-up about what I thought of the session later… I will say this — the audience feels different than it did a few years ago. When I asked who had heard of moodle, 90% of the hands went up. But we’re not changing our practice fast enough, because when I asked whose districts were using it, every hand went back down.

But, as you can see from the slides, this really was about vision and pedagogy first, and tools second. And that, of course, is more what I like talking about anyway. Here are the slides (this was too big for a GooglePresentation. Rats.) And I’ve created a quick wiki with all the links and the backchannel conversation that was going on during the presentation.

(click the slides to move forward… anyone know how to embed the movie so that people can move backwards as well?)