I sense a change…

A few weeks ago I had the honor of attending and facilitating a Minds On Media session at the 3-day OTF conference Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century. This summer version was a repeat of a conference in February that filled up in minutes (I wrote about that day here).

The conference had and amazing vibe. An hour after starting there was an active twitter back channel conversation and a collaborative google doc sharing ideas. There were less technical difficulties and the internet worked well. The buzz was palpable.

I have a few theories about why the atmosphere at the conference was so wonderful. I think OTF along with Peter and Brenda have created an amazing package including Garfield Gini-Newman covering critical thinking, Will Richardson doing personal learning networks and then a Minds On Media event to wrap up and personalize the learning. This combination seems to me magical.

Maybe it also had something to do with the timing. Many participants were on a waiting list from February. It was summer so folks who were there were really interested in attending and brought their own computers instead of work ones.

Whatever the reason, the vibe was amazing and the learning productive. The participants took amazing risks and we really pushed our learning.