What to Expect at CoSN 2014
This year’s Consortium for School Networking conference, to be held in Washington, D.C., March 19–22, is set to be another grand effort to bring the nation’s education leaders up to speed on the latest in educational standards.
The conference theme — “continuously connected, constantly learning” — speaks to the collaborative nature of a networked world and how educators can take advantage of the sector’s collective wisdom.
The learning aspect is geared toward student outreach, promising to give teachers the tools and skills needed to ensure students are learning in fresh, effective and innovative ways.
The conference begins with a town hall forum titled “Can Big Data and Innovative Digital Learning Play Together?” According to CoSN, the forum will explore whether the push for Big Data can enable customized student learning that improves outcomes, and whether formative data can inform instruction and stimulate students’ creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.
Featured Speakers and Workshops
Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, has long been an advocate for technology in the classroom and will take part in the town hall discussion. He recently participated in the Digital Learning Council’s 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning report.
Joining Wise is Yong Zhao, presidential chair and associate dean for global education at the University of Oregon, who has written and worked extensively on designing schools with a global perspective. Deb Delisle, assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the Department of Education, will moderate.
Conference sessions include workshops on digital best practices for educators and building tech-friendly lesson plans, as well as sessions on how to share your success stories and build classrooms for the 21st century. There will also be learning tours of the Library of Congress and the State Department, among other D.C. locales.
And for those bringing their smartphones to CoSN, there’s an app to make it easier to decide which sessions to attend and learn more about speakers and local hot spots. The app will also link to the conversation on Twitter around the hashtag #CoSN14.
David Pogue, former tech writer for The New York Times and current Yahoo columnist, will close out the event with a keynote on the implications of future technological disruptions for education.
The EdTech team will provide live coverage of the event, so stay tuned for upcoming posts and videos here, as well as @EdTech_K12 on Twitter.
