What Does Cyberlearning Mean to You? Cyberlearning Summit 2014

By Bonnie Bracey Sutton
Associate Editor

(Note: See Vic Sutton’s report on this conference. -Editor)

Teachers working in classrooms need ideas and frameworks and support for initiatives beyond the ideas that have been classified as regular education. Sometimes funding is a problem. Powerful partners get you permission to do wonderful things in the classroom.

My first involvement with a network of powerful people, learning ideas and new technologies was with Cilt. You can tell that it was some time ago. We called STEM, SMET. Here is a look at what we started with:

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We investigated, learned, shared and promoted ideas. Concord has wonderful free resources to share, and here is a summary:

The Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) was founded in October 1997 with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to stimulate the development and study of important, technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) learning. Four “theme teams” focused the efforts in areas of highest promise. CILT events, often workshops organized by theme, provided a collaborative forum in which people in the learning science community met to assess the progress of the field, define research agendas, and initiate new collaborations. Many of these collaborations form seed grants funded by CILT. In addition to these successful CILT programs, CILT has generated many resources for the learning science community, including tools, publications, and NetCourses.

In this day and time, people sometimes do not think that meeting people and sharing in conferences is necessary. But the leaders of Cyberinfrastructure have better ideas. They do a conference and put the ideas online. You have a choice. There are pieces of brilliant ideas, presentations and demonstrations, and even poster sessions for you online. 

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There have been two sharings of ideas from a new network of synergy. One of the conferences was held two years ago, the latest is here.

Consider me spoiled. I like talking with the people who created the initiatives and who have new ideas to put forth. It was also nice to meet old friends. It was a great learning experience. And I can access it online. It’s the best of both worlds.

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Recap of the Summit

The 2014 Cyberlearning Summit (see the program) featured 14 keynote talks, research posters, technology demonstrations, panels, collaborative sessions, a webcast, twitter discussion, hashtag bingo, and cybercitizen reporting of demos and posters through video. See a short report on the Summit by Jeremy Roschelle, Director of CIRCL.

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One Response

  1. […] By Bonnie Bracey Sutton Associate Editor (Note: See Vic Sutton's report on this conference. -Editor) Teachers working in classrooms need ideas and frameworks and support for initiatives beyond the …  […]

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