Blog Juice for Educational Technology

September has been a wonderfully relaxing month for me, with most of it spent at home.  Septembers and Mays are typically slow.  But for the last few days I’ve been on the road for one of only three travels I’m doing the entire month.  I got home, late last night, from working at a middle school in Fort Worth, and the day before, I worked at a very unique school in Las Vegas (which I’ll talk more about in an upcoming blog).  So, as much as I could, I’ve been following the Learning 2.0 conference in Shanghai through Hitchhikr and by following the Twitters of my friends who are there.

So here’s the question that just occurred to me.  Could something like this happen in the United States?  The conference in Shanghai is being attended by educators, mostly from international schools in Asia.  They are mostly private schools that mostly serve the children of families who are working abroad.  The conference is sponsored by ACAMIS (Association of China and Mongolia International Schools) and EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools).  There invitation is to…

“Come join the search as we together build the future of schools.”

I do not know what the turn-out was, but I’ve worked with international school teachers before and, well, most of them would eat this up. 

So, could such a conference happen here, in the U.S.?  Two years ago, I would have said … Well I wouldn’t even have asked the question.  Today, I see hope.  In fact, even though I haven’t attended Alan Novembers Building Learning Communities conference, I suspect that it’s close, if only because so many of the attendees are from outside the U.S. that it would be difficult to remain focused on test scores, as is so often the case at U.S. conferences — teaching better with computers.

I’m really not sure if I’m going anywhere in particular with this, other than simply making an observation.  Perhaps I’m simply, subconsciously, wishing I was in Shanghai — and, at the same time, so very happy I’m at home.