It often works that the things that you least expect to be of great value turn out to be really significant. I admit to not having Julie Lindsay and Vicky Davis’s Flat Classroom Conference high on my priority list. Not sure why this is but I think it might have something to do with the “radar” in Hong Kong which is a little more directed towards Asia and Europe and less towards what might be happening between the US and the Gulf states.

What has been happening here in the last 2 days has been really significant. It is about learning, sharing and doing meaningful things with kids. It is the student element of this conference that has really got me excited. I don’t know how much an external person can garner from the reading of the conference ning here. Maybe the instructions on this wiki might be clearer. In any case, you need to imagine a group of really switched on motivated students working flat out to achieve a goal that they believe in and know can make a difference in the world. You need to see that these kids are from different countries with different cultures and that they are in mixed teams and want to stay that way.

Running parallel to this is a fantastic program for teachers and leaders who really want to try to embed connected learning into their schools. This is supported by some great presenters and leaders including ISTE’s CEO, Don Knezek and their Senior Strategic Initiatives Officer, Lynn Nolan. These guys have been great at working with the teachers here to get them to reflect on where they have come from with their use of ICT for learning and where they might best invest time, effort and energy in the future.

In addition to all of this, which I have to say is better than the workshops and sessions I attended at BETT, there have been a lot of other great opportunities for sharing and for listening to great input from switched on Educators and authors. A highlight was a live link-up with Thomas Friedman, world renowned author of ‘The World is Flat’, Friedman addressed his talk to the students here and answered questions that were some of the most reflective and best framed that I have heard. I doubt if the adults in the room could have asked better ones!

I just came from a sharing session where Jeff Utecht did a great job with this presentation.