Graded, The Amer­i­can School of Sao Paulo has teamed up with the Amer­i­can School of Bom­bay, Lau­sanne Col­le­giate and Frank­furt Inter­na­tional School to pro­vide the Amer­i­cas with this Lap­top Insti­tute event. In plan­ning the con­fer­ence we con­sid­ered The Lap­top Insti­tute, ASB Unplugged, Learn­ing 2.011, K12 Online Con­fer­ence, Educon 2.4, and oth­ers. Will Richard­son, Mick Ebel­ing and Scott Klososky will join for­ward think­ing edu­ca­tors from around the world in “Re-imagining School”.

Inno­vate 2013 Learn­ing Structures

In an effort to com­bat the Edu­ca­tion Myths That Shape Con­fer­ences, Inno­vate 2013 is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing a vari­ety of learn­ing struc­tures to sup­port par­tic­i­pants in inves­ti­gat­ing inno­va­tion and plan­ning for trans­fer in ways that are pow­er­ful for them personally.

Two-hour Open Space Slot: Open Space Tech­nol­ogy was cre­ated in the mid-1980s by orga­ni­za­tional con­sul­tant Har­ri­son Owen when he dis­cov­ered that peo­ple attend­ing his con­fer­ences loved the cof­fee breaks bet­ter than the for­mal pre­sen­ta­tions and ple­nary ses­sions. This block of time is designed to hand over the con­fer­ence to par­tic­i­pants to deter­mine what kinds of dia­logue need to hap­pen that we at Inno­vate 2013 missed in our planning.

Cohort meet­ings:  Sched­uled three times through­out the con­fer­ence, cohorts are a group of 20 – 25 indi­vid­u­als that gather reg­u­larly to exchange ideas, reflect on learn­ing and cre­ate con­nec­tions that result in mean­ing­ful, per­son­al­ized out­comes from the con­fer­ence. Orga­nized and focused by a facil­i­ta­tor, par­tic­i­pants are encour­aged to choose into a cohort that best defines where their dri­ving ques­tion about edu­ca­tional inno­va­tion may reside. This learn­ing struc­ture is designed for par­tic­i­pants to build a plan for tak­ing learn­ing back to their organizations.

Cohort strands to choose from include:

• Lead­er­ship
• Instruc­tional Tech­nol­ogy Facilitators
• The Peo­ple Behind the Scenes: Infrastructure
• Dig­i­tal Citizenship
• Differentiation/Special Needs
• Assess­ment
• NCTE Twenty-First Cen­tury Literacies
• The Arts
• Col­lab­o­ra­tion in local and global communities
• Phys­i­cal Education
• Stu­dent

90 minute work­shops and three-hour insti­tutes: We invite YOU, our par­tic­i­pants, to share your work and ideas with every­one by pre­sent­ing at the con­fer­ence. Come and share how you or your school are inte­grat­ing tech­nol­ogy in the class­room, chal­leng­ing the sta­tus quo, or pur­su­ing strate­gies that place stu­dents in the cen­ter.  Share your expe­ri­ences launch­ing and imple­ment­ing a 1-to-1 pro­gram, uti­liz­ing dig­i­tal tools to sup­port assess­ment prac­tices, build­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive com­mu­ni­ties, or exam­in­ing strate­gies that add to the dia­logue of edu­ca­tional innovation.

Call for Proposals

Graded School is seek­ing dynamic and for­ward think­ing pro­fes­sion­als to facil­i­tate learn­ing ses­sions at the Inno­vate 2013 Conference. Innovate 2013 marks Graded School’s com­mit­ment to re-imagine the school that best serves and inspires stu­dents for tomor­row.  Please join us and inno­va­tors from across the globe to engage in a dia­logue designed to ignite new ideas result­ing in build­ing a foun­da­tion for the change our stu­dents deserve.