ASCD Conference 2010
Final blog update - Monday 
by Peter Pappas
Ryan Phillips - Touchstones Discussion Project
"Thanks to Touchstones our students are better listeners, better problem solvers, and much more considerate of each other."
~ Karole Campbell Director of Fredrick Douglass Academy II NYC
This is your brain on internet!
Marilee Sprenger
"The Digital Brain"
She showed us MRI scans 
of the brain on the internet.
But what does that tell us about what the brain is actually doing?
I interviewed Melanie Pritchett, Director of Educational Policy of CompassLearning
Today CompassLearning released the findings of The CompassLearning Pulse Poll of ASCD attendees
Brittany Paxman of the 
PulsePoint Group also joined us for discussion
of poll
Notice the difference between teachers and admin over the future of the text book! Are teachers still to tied to the text?
Melanie agreed, but also felt many teachers may be too caught up in day to day to have time to focus on the big picture.
Melanie cites the popularity of tech session at ASCD "Teachers know students are being forced to check their technology at the classroom door - they want to change but need training."
We had a lively discussion: 
  Is  tech being used by students or the teachers?
I'm on Facebook and think much of the contact is trivial - Farmville?? So when I saw this data, it said to me the majority of teachers might be networking for non-professional reasons.
Brittany (a recent college grad) said that through use of privacy settings on Facebook, her professors used FB as great instructional tool. 
I stand corrected!
My biggest concern about the use of tech in schools it that it too often automates what we already do. [PowerPoint instead of overheads?] I think it needs to be used to help students construct meaning in new ways. That led to a chance to introduce Melanie and Brittany to Wordle.
Here's their press release on the poll as a Wordle
In the afternoon I attended a great workshop"Gaming and Learning" given by Catherine Parsons.
She used Prezi!
Here's her avatar -
 Victoria Glouster
Parsons made a powerful case...

This is what software companies have figured out about teaching and learning to create successful games.
expanding circle of competence
cycle of constant achievement
no right answer - different approaches
constant feedback
teaches to mastery - don't advance to next board at 65%
learns through experience, practice and activity
continually making critical decisions - is that happen in classroom?
get people to work harder while having fun
everything done in context - our kids are in the history classroom but not getting to be the historian
identity - your role is important to everyone else and is valued
working within the rules - same set of rules applies to all.
involves a complex set of language, signs and symbols
student own their failure in a game. Will fail to learn a new section or tutor someone else.
World of Warcraft is the new golf!
Supreme Court Simulation 
http://www.fantasyscotus.net/
Energy Planning 
http://www.powerupthegame.org/
Well that concludes the conference and my reports
And all the walking
Top 75 words found in the press release
Games are a social experience
As I Twittered about the Gaming workshop, I received an email that I had a new Twitter follower - WOW Fan (World of Warcraft)
Socratic was always my favorite teaching strategy. I'm still using it in my PD!
EVOKE is a ten-week crash course in changing the world.
It is free to play and open to anyone, anywhere.
The goal of the social network game is to help empower young people all over the world, and especially young people in Africa, to come up with creative solutions to our most urgent social problems.
http://www.urgentevoke.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleopold73/3108947437/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos123115/2421805301/
http://www.peterpappas.com