Richard West joined Jennifer Maddrell in a live webcast at EdTechTalk.com to discuss his perspective on how to design and support environments for fostering collaborative innovation, including his research on studio learning opportunities. Rick is an Assistant Professor in the Instructional Psychology & Technology department at Brigham Young University. 

• Rick's BYU bio: http://education.byu.edu/directory/view/richard-west
• Rick's personal website: http://richardewest.com/
• Rick's paper we planned to discuss "Learning to design collaboratively: Participation of student designers in a Community of Innovation" -> http://bitly.com/17iENnH
• Rick's other papers: http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/richard-west1/

This webcast is part of the Designers for Learning project. Find out more about the project at http://designersforlearning.org/

Organizers from IDEA democraticeducation.org and IDEC idec2013.org join us on this episode of TTT. This is the first of a series of ongoing conversations. Join us for Part 2 of Planning for IDEC on Wednesday, May 8 at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

On this episode, we share/converse/think aloud about the IDEC conference coming up on August 4-8 at Colorado University, Boulder.

IDEC, now in its 21st year, is hosted by teams of educators from different countries and continents. This is the first time in ten years that it has been held in the U.S. Democratic education is not a type of school or research-based practice.

It isn’t one kind of learning program or philosophy. It is a frame. There are thousands of people and organizations around the globe engaged in democratic education. IDEC 2013 is for all of them.

Another story of +Connected Learning on this episode of TTT.

We are joined by Ed Martinez, +Fred Mindlin, and Dan Spelce to discuss "Forage IV," a pilot program supported in part by NWP's collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Literacy Initiative.

Integrating art with environmental education, we support teachers in linking their existing curriculum to a student-led interest-driven project, collaborating with practicing artists.

The Project web site is http://forage.storyreach.com/

We are also joined by Jennifer Woollven, Joel Malley, Scott Shelhart and Kelsey Shelhart.

This is a story for the National Writing Project's Connected Learning Inquiry Group's Session 6 - Connected Learning is Production Centered http://connect.nwp.org/online-learning-connected-learning/p/16923

This story helps us put learning narratives next to this description of connected learning from The Digital Media & Learning Research Hub http://dmlhub.net/ :

Connected learning environments are designed around production, providing tools and opportunities for learners to produce, circulate, curate, and comment on media. Learning that comes from actively creating, making, producing, experimenting, remixing, decoding, and designing, fosters skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and productive contributions to today’s rapidly changing work and political conditions.

This webcast is one in a series that we've been doing recently where we are asking: Where are the classrooms that are doing this well and how do they ensure that the other principles are in place?

Enjoy!

On this episode of TTT we have a conversation about democratic education and IDEC 2013, the 21st annual International Democratic Education Conference, which will be held in Boulder, Colorado this August 4-8.

Participants in this episode of TTT are:

What is IDEC?
IDEC 2013 will be a unique international gathering of changemakers—practitioners, organizers, academics, youth, and educators—built around how we can transform our communities, schools, and learning to ensure that all young people can engage meaningfully in their education and gain the tools to build a just, sustainable, and democratic world. The experience will include a rich blend of pre-scheduled events and the fluidity needed to host conversations, workshops and strategy sessions using a hybrid of Open Space Technology. Be prepared for a conference experience unlike any other – we’ll be pushing the boundaries of what we mean by learning, sharing, connecting and creating.
http://www.idec2013.org/about/democraticeducation/
http://www.idec2013.org/registration/

What makes IDEC 2013 remarkable?
IDEC 2013 is a place where the world learns together about learning. IDEC, now in its 21st year, is hosted by teams of educators from different countries and continents each year. This is the first time in ten years that it has been held in the United States. From Korea to Israel and Brazil to India, IDEC offers participants the space, prompts, and process to learn about the future and history of learning.

What is democratic education?
In communities around the world, a story is unfolding of young people, educators, networks, and communities generating solutions to the challenges of today’s complex world. That unfolding story is the story of democratic education.

Democratic education is not a type of school or research-based practice. It isn’t one kind of learning program or philosophy. It is a frame. It’s a way of gathering together a vast set of ideas, resources, and visions so that a powerful story can be told that reclaims education for people and communities. There are thousands of people and organizations around the globe engaged in democratic education. Many have similar values but different definitions. IDEC 2013 is for all of them.