Connected Learning: Time and Space

The fourth annual Connected Educator Month (CEM) kicks off today, a month-long exploration of key educational issues through online communities and networks, dedicated to broadening and deepening educator participation, as well as bringing online community and education leaders together to move towards a more fully connected and collaborative profession. CEM 2014 featured more than 300 organizations (including the National Writing Project) mounting more than 600 events and activities for millions of participants worldwide.

Educator Innovator, which is powered by the National Writing Project, will be a CEM Theme Leader this year. We’ll convene conversations and events around the theme of “Connected Learning: Time and Space.”

Powerful learning occurs when youth, driven by their own interests, are supported in being creators and not just consumers of knowledge. In this theme, we’ll focus on how we can create opportunities, time, and space for all youth to be agents in their own learning. In most learning spaces today, time and space are precious commodities, and learners, as well as their teachers and mentors, are challenged to find time to deepen learning through connecting passions and interests, personal or political, that cut across the different spheres of young learners’ lives. Join us as we use Connected Learning principles to support the sharing of ideas and strategies throughout October and beyond.

Additional themes for collectively building activities and learning will include:

• Future Ready
• Innovations in Assessment
• Social and Emotional Learning in School Settings
• Broadening Participation in STEM Education
• Sparking Creativity & Curiosity in Students and Schools
• Building Quality Beyond The Bell
• Innovations in Professional Learning
• Global Education and Diversity in the Classroom

Interested participants can sign up to receive updates about:

• Highly interactive webinars and other real-time events—many headlined by education, technology, and community leaders—that you can register to attend.
• Ongoing discussions—through multiple series of participatory activities—designed to generate practical takeaways and collective learnings to move the field forward on key education issues such as common core, personalized learning, STEM education, literacy, and 21st century classroom management.
• Showcases, open houses, guided tours, launches, exhibits, collaborative projects, hands-on demonstrations, and other special activities open to participation.
• Contests you can enter, badges you can earn, plus other resources ranging from starter kits, maps, and matchmakers to book clubs and courses to help you join the world of connected education.

Being a connected educator doesn’t begin or end in October which is why CEM is part of the larger, NWP-powered Educator Innovator network. Make sure you subscribe at the bottom of our homepage to receive our newsletter and blog post updates.