Live Blogging From Educon 2.1 - Day 2

11:51 AM: Sam is facilitating "Inquiry" at our table. He has provided us with a political cartoon, which features an Atlas-ian SLA student struggling to keep the world on his shoulders. Over the horizon, there is another person with a word balloon: "Need help?" Sam insightfully prompted us with questions to analyze the cartoon. He did an admirable job. Sam left us with this:


"Education starts with the student's ability to ask questions. We have to be taught the right questions to ask."

11:26 AM: Now Marie is at our table. She is presenting on the SLA core value "research." Her sample is a research project she completed on police brutality. Marie's research team chose the 5/5/08 incident involving three men in a car and about half a dozen police officers. Marie and her fellow students learned how to put their bias aside and use facts and concrete research to support findings. Marie's big takeaways about doing research:

-annotate your bibliography
-discern helpful websites from inadequate ones
-create questions before seeking out information to focus the search

11:18 AM: I'm at a session facilitated by SLA students about the values which underpin their progressive education here at SLA. Students are rotating through groups of conference attendees.

Last year I met an outstanding sophomore named Jasmine at SLA. She is an outstanding spokesperson for not just her school, but all young adults. Right now I'm listening to her present on the SLA core value of "Presentation." The five core values here are:

-inquiry
-research
-collaboration
-presentation
-reflection

Jasmine is so eloquent and composed! She told me that she definitely wants to teach for a career. I'm hoping I can hire her.