NAIS+2010

Reporting from NAIS in San Francisco:

2/24
 * De Bono System of thinking:** This is a way of thinking about problems that tries to get people thinking together, and therefore more effectively and efficiently, than if they are thinking in ways that are confrontational and adversarial. The thinking system--based on colored hats--is as follows: white hat (facts--what we know or what we need to know); red hat (emotional reaction or gut feelings); yellow hat (positives of the issue being discussed); black hat (negatives or concerns about the issue being discussed); green hat (creative options, even if they are radical or seem unrealistic); blue hat (organization, summary, and next steps). The idea is that, in a meeting or even in a class discussion, if everyone is thinking the same way at the same time, more ideas will be generated, and more ideas will get developed, than if everybody thinks and expresses various ideas at the same time. At first this all seemed silly to me, but after some reflection, maybe worth a try. The website is not so good, but you can learn more about the six hates, and other de Bono thinking systems here: []

2/25 This monring I attended a session on **innovation**, specifically on how to find innovators in a school and how to promote innovation. It was a bit simplistic, but again, there was an idea or two that I might think about implementing at RE. I am going to keep those to myself for the time being. The presenters shared this website though, which I would like to share with you, especially if you are looking for ideas for integrating innovative technologies into your pedagogy and curriculum: []

This afternoon it was a session on **design**, which was very interesting, except that was focused mostly on the elementary level. I did learn about the [|d.school at Stanford] which is a pretty interesting place. I am eager to peruse the website to learn more.

The second session this afternoon was a presentation by the Hotchkiss School on **service learning**. Their program is very robust with a global component. They offered some good ideas, some of which we are doing at RE and some of which we may want to consider. How to require service, and how to make service meaningful, and not simply, as they suggested "debit card service" are valuable questions to consider. Another important question is, in the first instance, what constitutes service?

Finally, a general session this afternoon offered a roundtable with four important educational thinkers about education in the digitial world. They talked, not surprisingly about design, mobile devicies, collaboration, innovation, flexibility, etc. But, they also talked a lot about John Dewey, relationships, and empahty. The participants represented google.com, New Tech Schools, Edutopia, and Stanford University.

I also spent a good amount of time today talking to exhibtors about student travel experiences. Sustainable Horizons, and World Leadership are two that seem like they might be very good partners for RE as we seek to develop a more robust menu of global experiences for our students. I am excited about talking a bit more with these organizations about possibilities for our students.

2/26 I began the day today at a session moderated by Pat Bassett, featuring John Couch, VP for Educaiton at Apple, and Michael Horn, author of //Disrputing Class//, a book on change in schools. This was a very thought provoking discussion about future trends in educaiton and how to position our schools to, as the title of the session sguested, "stay relevant." The discussion was framed by three overarching trends in the way that education is changing: content going digital, mobility (that is, the proliferation of mobile devices), and the blending of academic and social environments. Several examples citied to illustrate these trends were iTunesU, the use of ipods in leiu of langague labs, and Abileine Christian University which provides every student with some sort of mobile device and delivers much of its curriculum via iTunesU http://www.acu.edu/itunes/.

Well, it was a global afternoon. I attended sessions on "Teaching India," on a program called [|Global Nomads Group] that organizes videoconfereces for schools (really cool, I think we could do this easily at RE and it would be GREAT!), and I spoke with a number of organizations that organize student travel, including one called SAGE that was especially impressive. The presentation on teaching India was really about developing a global studies curriculum and thinking about how to teach non-western issues. Two faculty from the Windsor School (Boston) gave the presentation about their work during the last several years. It was enlightening and naturally, offered some good food for thought. One thing they have done is developed a junior year requirement that students take a "course pairing" in non-western studies--the option are "Literature and History of: India, Africa, the Middle East, and China." The Global Nomads presentation was really cool. It was given by a representative from this group, as well as a teacher and three students from the Oaskwood School. The best part was how much the kids valued their expereinces with this program. I will look into this quickly to see about implementing this at RE.

Well, that it. Conference is over! JAK