3rd Annual Information Literacy Conference - Mpls/St. Paul Area

Metronet is pleased to announce their 3rd Annual Information Literacy Conference!

Transformation from Within: Creating a 21st Century Learning Commons
Friday - June 19, 2009
University of Minnesota Conference Center – St. Paul
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Featured speakers: David Loertscher and Allison Zmuda

Registration fee is $40, but principals can bring their media specialist for free!

Visit http://www.metrolibraries.net for more details and the link to registration.

------------------------------------------

A Learning Commons combines library and computer labs into a client-side organization both physical and virtual. Its central idea is a facility built on the idea that if THEY build it, they will use it as opposed to the current notion that if WE build it, they will use it.

The Learning Commons is a giant collaborative, the center of school culture, the showcase of excellence in teaching and learning, the center of school improvement, and, is the place where technology is transformed into a force for high level thinking and achievement.

Allison Zmuda and David Leortscher will explore the creation of such a center and will demonstrate and focus on the types of teaching and learning demonstrated in the Learning Commons that can radiate out from the Commons into the entire school. The audience will experiment with various models for transforming traditional learning experiences into high-level thinking, high tech, and collaborative experiences co-taught by classroom teachers, teacher librarians, teacher technologies, and/or other specialists in the school.

The presenters will explore the differences between academic computing and instructional computing that help push Web 2.0 tools into the mix of learning strategies to meet 21st Century Skills.