Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning

November 4, 2008 - November 6, 2008
Online via the web and Second Life hosted by NMC

Rock the Academy, the twelfth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, will explore the kinds of ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today.

Revolutionary practices are breaking apart old models of teaching and learning; students are using new tools to construct meaning and contribute to the design of their own education; teachers are sharing the power that has traditionally been theirs alone. Examples of unconventional, yet highly effective, methods of teaching and learning may be found in pockets all over the world, at all levels of education. When the multitude of examples are taken together, we begin to sense a profound change in the making that will alter our concept of education itself.

image based on Creative Commons licensed flickr photo by Kevin Lim http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/2556340259/

Rock The Ideas! The symposium will examine themes such as open education resources and open content; social networking and global connections; guerilla learning, games, and activist learning; the next killer apps for education; alternatives to course management systems; real-time data, maps, and mobiles; backchannels and alternative communication tools; students who do research in their fields; and any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning.

Rock the Conference Venue!The symposium presentations will take place at the NMC Conference Center on NMC Campus in Second Life where we explore the boundaries of live 3D connectiveness. For those preferring not to enter the virtual world, we will provide a conference attendee web page where a live video stream can be seen and you can participate in the in-world chat discussion via a ChatBridge. See

About the Symposium

Why Rock? The face of education is changing. Slowly, subtly, yet unmistakably, the model of education as something that takes place in a classroom where a teacher lectures to a group of students is being altered. Everywhere we look, we are seeing new practices for education emerging – some that work, some that don’t, and some that have not yet been fully explored. Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning is about the kinds of change taking place in education all around us.

Creative Commons licensed flickr photo by by Aaron Schmidt http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronschmidt/281619803

Who Can Rock? This symposium is for teachers experimenting with new approaches, for technical staff working with such teachers, for those who support learners in traditional or nontraditional settings, for administrators seeking to embrace new practices, and for those who are thinking about the kinds of spaces – both online and off – that are needed for new practices to flourish. It is for learners who are taking the initiative to design their own learning experiences. It is for anyone interested in the future of education, whatever it may look like.

The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia

The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia (formerly the NMC Series of Online Conferences) is designed to explore emerging topics in education and technology, using current communication technologies to bring people together online in a way that offers many of the same affordances of a face-to-face conference. Of particular importance are opportunities for the kinds of social interactions that make in-person gatherings so valuable: hallway conversations, end-of-the-day informal gatherings, opportunities to speak with presenters in between sessions, and highly interactive breakout sessions that invite participation from the audience.

The Symposium is designed to encourage an examination of the ways communication is changing and to further explore both the positive and negative effects on learning, social interaction, creative self-expression, and more.

The event will be conducted entirely online in the virtual world of Second Life as well as streamed to an NMC web site. Sessions, which will be conducted live, can incorporate a variety of visuals and rich media, and are generally about 45 minutes in length, with about one-third to one-half that time devoted to dialog with participants using the audio tools of the environment.

Registration

Online registration is available September 15, 2008 - October 25, 2008, closing at 11:59 PM Pacific Time of the end date. Late registration fees apply thereafter.