Reflecting on the 2013 Schools of the Future Conference in Honolulu -- 8 Takeaways




Over 1300 educators from public and private schools attended the 2013 Schools of the Future Conference at the Hawaii Convention Center, in Honolulu, on October 17 and 18, 2013.

Kudos to the organizers for a highly successful conference!

The conference opened with beautiful singing by
the Mililani High School Chorus, directed by Keane Ishi.

These are my 8 takeaways:

1. The SotF mobile app, via Guidebook, was incredibly useful.

2. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening keynote speech: "Two Education Paradigms: What Defines and How to Create a World Class Education"Dr. Yong Zhao was entertaining and thought-provoking. He peppered his speech with solid research. The bottom line of his speech was that we should instill within our children an entrepreneurial and collaborative spirit, for the good of the world.

3. I attended the "Digital Citizenship and Digital Natives" session about Kamehameha Middle Schools' Digital Curriculum. ... Digital citizenship is taught in the advisory program and embedded in the curriculum ... I was surprised to find out that iSafe has a Hawaiian Curriculum! ... I loved that Kamehameha is thinking of having eighth graders teach seventh graders about digital citizenship.

3. "Connecting Learners in a Connected World: The Future is Now". I liked how Brian Lewis connected the world of education as his mother knew it to the present day.

4. "Next Generation Librarian Institute". I loved being part of the discussion of how teacher-librarians can "continue to play a critical and essential role in student achievement." A working rubric of the roles librarians play was distributed and discussed. I'll be able to use this information for our school's upcoming accreditation study.

5. Professor of Education at Stanford University and renowned researcher Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond's keynote speech "Creating Schools of the Future" was meaty. Dr. Darling-Hammond has written more than 400 books and I was fortunate to win a copy of Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do, in a drawing at the end of the  conference! I'm adding the book to our library collection, for our faculty.

6. I attended "Worldwide Voyage: Island Wisdom, Ocean Connections, Global Lessons" about the Hokule'a's Worldwide Voyage from 2012-2017.

How delightful it was to hear that the voyage is being documented with blogging and Google hangouts, to benefit the students of Hawaii.

One of the presenters, Miki Tomita of the University Lab School on O'ahu, will be a guest on our Google Rocks! Hawaii HOA on Tuesday, October 29, to talk about the voyage and also about the Hawaii School Peace Gardens. I am so thankful to have made this connection via Chad Nacapuy, technology integration specialist with the Hawaii Department of Education.

Google Rocks! HOA

7. "Like-Minded Session: Libraries". Lunch with teacher-librarian friends, both long-time and newly-found, was terrific! We had a wonderful time sharing stories and resources!

8. My presentation "Connecting with Google+ and Hangouts" went smoothly. (whew!)

Here is the Hangout On Air we did at the beginning of the session. Student Jasmine Doan and educators Annabelle Howard, JR Ginex-Orinion, and Elissa Malespina talked about how they use hangouts. So inspiring and fun!


Here is my slide presentation, with specific ideas for using Google+ and hangouts to connect: bit.ly/plusandhangouts

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The 2013 Schools of the Future Conference was about connected educators, willing to share and eager to learn. I got a lot out of the conference and I'm happy to share.
It was fantastic to meet for the first time people I "see" on Twitter, and Google+. And I enjoyed touching bases with friends I've made over the years in the education field. 
Again, congratulations and mahalo to the organizers of the Schools of the Future conference. Job well done!
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@mauilibrarian2
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