Finding Voice: CEFPI Austin Conference, February 2010

Did you ever feel you were missing critical pieces of the big puzzle? Maybe a proposal receives the same brush off - again. Or you sense it is time for change but you need examples to crystalize your thinking?

Communication is the key to the world, but finding voice in an environment where all the tools and goals are new can be difficult. Using old language does not break the association with the old semantics.

In 2008 my school jurisdiction began a transformational process to address the disconnect between pedagogy and contemporary culture. Educators are very resistant when teaching practice is questioned. In the world of the independent teaching contractor this is their territory, not open to question and, by preference, generally hidden from view or assessment behind the closed door of the classroom. 

In a world where access to old and new knowledge is ubiquitous the role of the teacher and the learning environment needs to recognize every students' reality – which is life in a digital world. This is not easy to communicate when new world language does not transcend old world understanding. For the converted the need for change is obvious just as it is obscure to the reactionary.This great divide transcends language, intent and purpose.

For me the fog started to clear with the mid-year CEFPI Austin conference in February 2010. Presentations by Michael Horn and a discussion facilitated by Christian Long crystallized the nature of the cultural shift caused by the digital world.  Other presentations by S. Craig Watkins and Linda Garcia shared some of the characteristics of the minds and expectations of the millennial students and a discussion facilitated by John Weekes started the dialogue on the shape of the environments required to nurture this population. 

The conference was not all new information, but there is a new clarity when it is presented in an context that is out of the everyday work environment. The chance to discuss  common real world problems with colleagues helps to embed the information. Well worth the effort to get there, and what Canadian doesn’t like an opportunity to escape the winter cold.