John Seely Brown, PLP Live – Inspire. Collaborate. Shift. Keynote Speaker

 This year Powerful Learning Practice is hosting a new type of conference.  At PLP Live – Inspire. Collaborate. Shift. participants will find:

* Inspiration from top names in education such as John Seely Brown, Suzie Boss, Darren Cambridge, Bruce Dixon, Will Richardson, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Jackie Gerstein, Jane Krauss, Renee Moore, and more.

*Active, creative collaboration with educators and educational leaders from across the globe to solve issues from the classroom to policy makers.

*Most important, shift: why we need it, how to make it happen in your own teaching, your classroom, your school, your local community, how becoming a connected educator accelerates the shift, and how to inspire others to ride the wave of change with you

*Plus a one-of-a-kind opportunity: Lunch ‘n’ learn with the speakers – ‘Mingle and munch’ in casual conversation with the keynote speakers and breakout session facilitators. Ask your questions. Share your ideas. Discuss the issues. See the agenda for complete details!

We’d like to introduce our keynote speakers, one by one, and so we’ve come up with six questions for each of them.  These questions will give you a little peek into who they are, the message they’ll bring to the conference, and why you won’t want to miss meeting them at PLP Live!

Meet John Seely Brown, PLP Live – Inspire. Collaborate. Shift. Keynote Speaker

John Seely Brown, PLP Live Keynote Speaker

What do you see as the major shift needed in professional learning environments these days?

Many educators, consider the principle underlying the adage, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime,” to represent the height of educational practice today. Yet it is hardly cutting edge. It assumes that there will always be an endless supply of fish to catch and that the techniques for catching them will last a lifetime. And therein lies the major pitfall of the twenty-first century’s teaching model—namely, the belief that most of what we know will remain relatively unchanged for a long enough period of time to be worth the effort of transferring it. Certainly there are some ideas, facts, and concepts for which this holds true. But our contention is that the pool of unchanging resources is shrinking, and that the pond is providing us with fewer and fewer things that we can even identify as fish anymore.

Why did you agree to be a keynote speaker at PLP Live 2012?

We are entering a Cambrian Moment, a moment of unlimited opportunity to create new kinds of learning environments – ones that cultivate the imagination and create resiliency for a constantly changing world.  We need to change the conversation about what learning is and what the needs of today’s students are.  I hope giving talks and engaging in focused conversations will help shape a new view of learning for the 21^st century.

Can you tell us a little bit about the core message that you will deliver at the conference?

Preparing our students to be resilient, lifelong learners for the 21st century is a gigantic challenge. Indeed, many of the practices that work so well for the 20 century need to be recast, shifting our focus from a teaching focus to a learning focus and then onto thinking about how to design learning environments for cultivating the imagination. This talk will cover some of our newer thoughts building, of course, on some of the classic work of John Dewey but now with an eye for how to scale some of his ideas. And needless to say, these challenges are ones that we, as teachers, must face for ourselves. The road ahead is not easy but there are some techniques/ideas that can help us as orchestrators of learning.

Tell us a little about what (or who) inspires or motivates you?

I think that passion for your work is one of the biggest motivators.  What I’d love to see in the knowledge-sharing movement are efforts to make work more joyful. Every time you create an idea or something new, you have the right to hold that in awe. We are in a position to refocus current thinking and address the questions of awe and joy. And I think it can be done.

Where can participants find you online?

Websites: A New Culture of Learning, John Seely Brown

Twitter: @jseelybrown

 

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Christen Dodd

Christen is a Connected Learning Specialist for PLP. After earning her MEd. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Virginia, she began her career as a K-5 Computer Resource Teacher. She enjoyed collaborating with staff and creating technology lessons that engaged students, but caught “the bug” for presenting to educators on a national level. For eleven years, Christen trained educators both face-to-face and virtually with Verizon Thinkfinity. She also served as their Distance Learning Coordinator and Vice President of Professional Development. Christen has enjoyed working with Powerful Learning Practice since 2011 and continuing her work with educators, parents and students alike. Currently, she is also an instructional technology specialist at her children's JK-8 Catholic school.

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