Karen Cator – The Cruciality of Connected Educator Month

Why is Connected Educator Month so crucial right now, what lessons are we learning from it, and what is next for the Connected Educators initiative?

Key Questions and Comments:

• (08:48) We launched the National Education Technology Plan that really focused on “How do we actually power up the learning environment, and transform the system by leveraging the power of technology?”
• (09:23) How do you fully connect students with their own learning? How do you build agency? How do you connect in-school and out-of-school? How do you make sure that they’re connecting to their own personal stories?
• (09:50) How do we make sure everybody has the right feedback and the right information, when and where they need it, to progress on their own learning trajectory?
• (20:02) We thought if we could spend a month really engaging with all these folks who are doing amazing work…then we might be able to get a lot more educators connected, and make connections within ourselves as a community that’s already committed to online, personalized professional learning for educators.
• (25:43) I think that the idea of having a central place, if this can be sustainable, and something that we can continue on an ongoing basis–I would just highly endorse that we keep this going.
• (29:34) Instead of saying ‘[The U.S. Dept of Education] will control [Connected Educator Month] from on high,’ they came in with a spirit of connected education…without a lot of top-down kind of control. That has been an awesome model and has actually spurred the kinds of collaboration that I was hoping would happen.
• (34:08) There’s a lot of stuff that’s invisible to us right now…that I think is drawing people in. It’s encouraging and I look forward to having access to all of this throughout the years that continue to work with educators face-to-face, locally.
• (37:21) The way to really stay connected today in our technology-driven culture is to be connected and hang onto the internet as much as possible.
• (40:33) What can we do about the bottleneck of bandwidth at the schools and in the classrooms?
• (42:51) “I am interested in how we build an ethos of support among superintendents for connected learning? Key leaders who either control, explicitly or implicitly, the connection flow for kids and teachers?”
• (53:07) We use the word “personal” a lot. Aren’t we curious what might happen when we truly facilitate curiosities versus our assumed basic/foundational content?

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Karen Cator (Guest Speaker): Karen Cator is the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. She has devoted her career to creating the best possible learning environments for this generation of students. Prior to joining the department, Cator directed Apple’s leadership and advocacy efforts in education. You can Follow the Office of Ed Tech on Twitter at @OfficeofEdTech.
• Jeff Brazil (Moderator)
• Darren Cambridge
• Lisa Schmucki
• Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
• Stephanie Sandifer
• Tom Whitby

Resources for this webinar:

• The Connected Educators Month website
• Online Communities of Practice in Education – Draft Paper
• The “Teaching: Prepare and Connect” chapter of the 2012 National Education Technology Plan
• EdTech How-To: Become a Connected Educator
• PLP Network infographic: A Day in the Life of a Connected Educator
• Connected Educator Month: Getting Started (with Starter Kit)
• Google Fiber: Why Kansas City’s 1Gbps Internet Is Not That Impressive
• NPR: Comcast Announces $10 Web Access For Low-Income Families
• assess4ed.net’s Leadership in Motion group
• The Connected Educator Month Book Club
• Connected Educator Month Forum: Personalized Learning
• Connected Educator Month Forum: Professional Development in the 21st Century
• EPIC-Ed Community: empowering educators & admins to transition to digital learning
• The Shared Learning Collaborative: making personalized learning a reality for every U.S. student
• October 3, 2012: Banned Websites Awareness Day
• Scott McLeod: 26 Internet Safety Talking Points
• American Libraries Magazine: A Tale of Two Students