You Had Me at “China”
Alan Levine aka CogDog barked this June 27th, 2008 1:15 am
It is an understatement, but I was extremely ecstatic when I got an email in January from Jeff Utecht asking me if I’d be interested in speaking at the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai. Must details got fuzzy as I thought about going to China.
So I paused an appropriate amount of milliseconds before replying with my “hell yes” message.
Last year was the first iteration of the conference, and I remember reading bits of the blog coverage, and liking the different ideas they had packed into that first version.
I was just listening to Jeff’s podcast with Ken Carroll:
and am liking even more they ways they are trying to make this a different kind of format, with mixes of un-conference activities, hands on experiences, some Second Life-age, no paper, every session recorded/podcasted, and lots of social interaction. Oh, and they are asking the 8 presenters to do (among the 8 sessions we are supposed to do, is there a theme of “8″?), is to prepare a 7 minute “inspiring” opening session a la Ted Talk style presentations.
Oh, yes, I will pull out Al Gore.
Have I mentioned it is in China? I’ve never been, and just trying to think about an entire nation I know relatively little of is a bit.. well daunting an exhilarating. China…. Shangahai… I dipped into Tag Galaxy for an image taste:
This is all very exciting, because its going to be a swath of new educators I’ve never met before or have not swam in the exact same online circles, plus I am going all the way there to meet people I’ve read via blog but never met, like David Jakes, Ewan McIntosh, David Warlick, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach , etc.
Have I emphasized this is China? There’s something going on there over the summer, some other gathering. Must be a popular place.
If the conference rings any interest, check it out; it’s on “The” Ning http://learning2cn.ning.com/.
I’ll be there wearing a grin and snapping a bazillion photos. And I ought to take up Ken Carroll’s message in the podcast to get in a few ChinesePod lessons before September.
China!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
June 27th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Alan, I’m glad you’re excited about coming to China; Shanghai is a stunning place. I think it will really be an eye-opener. I look forward to meeting you at the Learn 2.008 conference.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:45 am
So where is all this happening???
A 7 minute “inspiring” opening sounds like a challenge…I imagine it’s a bit scary presenting outside your normal group/comfort zone.
I hope you enjoy the experience!
June 27th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Julie, its in Shanghai, at Shanghai Community International School http://www.scischina.org/
Full info is in the podcast link and The Ning ….
June 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Congratulations - that sounds really exciting for you.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:04 am
[...] in a school project database, like when I use words like “cat piss”, but he said apost I made about the Learning 2.008 conference had a great amount of correlation. What was interesting was he set this up as a project in a site [...]