My humble contributions to this conference will be mostly about literacy. In fact, my opening keynote will be entirely about literacy and my urging that when considering the use of technology, that we think of literacy first.
But I am talking about a much expanded sense of what literacy is. Reading and writing, and arithmetic are still basic skills. But today, they are far from enough. When information has become increasingly networked, digital and abundant, then the nature of information changes – and so too should our notions of what it means to be literate.
My first breakout session will be about finding information. When I was in school, we learned to use an index, table of contents, and the Dewey Decimal system. Today, we Google it. New skills for finding information, and those skills are as basic as being able to read it.
My second breakout takes a slightly different twist. Fundamentally, it is about how teachers are using these new literacy skills to do their jobs. It’s about utilizing today’s prevailing information landscape to engage in daily, casual, self-directly and in-time professional development.
Online Handouts
- Finding ‘It’ on the Net – http://goo.gl/BLsNE
- Personal Learning Networks – http://goo.gl/03U1A
- Redefining Literacy (keynote) – http://goo.gl/HqWnj
- Backchannel Transcript – http://goo.gl/vqadh
What a magnificent state and what a shame that I won’t be able to hang around longer. I am tempted, however, to say no more venues that require a flights to get there. Would much rather have flown to Salt Lake City and driven the rest of the way 
