The 2011 K-12 Online Conference is coming to a computer near you soon! This year’s FREE online conference will take place the weeks of November 28th and December 5th, 2011, with a pre-conference keynote on Monday, November 21st. The 2011 theme is, “Purposeful Play.” Educators and students worldwide are invited to respond to our 2011 call for proposals. Presenters create twenty minute, engaging video presentations shared during our two week conference. Please check out some of last year’s presentations. Not sure what the conference theme “Purposeful Play” includes? Bud Hunt provided a great description on his blog. “To play on purpose is to take risks.  To challenge what you know.  To ride the edge between what is and what might be, what never was and what should’ve been. How are you making time for play in your learning? And we mean “play” in the best sense of the word.  Fiddle.  Tinker.  Explore.  Discover.  Try.  Fail.  Reengage. ”

Deadline for proposal submissions is October 17th at midnight PDT. Selections will be announced October 28th. Ten presentations will be featured in each of our four strands for 2011, for a total of forty presentations. (*Note these dates have been revised as of Sept 19th.)

Sandbox Play – Just as children need a sandbox to explore and playtime to learn together and try out new ideas, we as teachers need sandboxes to try new things, risk, and sometimes fail in safe and collegial spaces on the web. Presentations in this strand will be appropriate for beginners new to the use of technology in the classroom. Jose Rodriguez is the strand convener.

Story Time – Everyone loves story time. Presentations in this strand will focus less on communicating large amounts of information and more on sharing compelling stories about the effective uses of technology to increase student engagement, global collaboration, and improve learning.

Team Captains – Playgrounds and schools need good leaders. Presentations in this strand will address key leadership issues for visionary school leaders. Students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community members all play important leadership roles in the school community. Wesley Fryer is the strand convener.

Level Up – In games, players ‘level up’ or gain ‘experience points’ by completing quests, overcoming obstacles, and for successful role-playing. Those who have taken student learning to new levels of engagement with technology will share their expertise. Ginger Lewman is the strand convener.

We would love presenters to involve students and include student voices when appropriate in presentations. (Student participation is NOT required or expected, but is welcomed.)

The 2011 Conference: What’s the same?

1. Price: Free!
2. Basic format: Each weekday of the two weeks of the conference, four presentations (two per strand for that week) will “go live” / be published on our conference blog.
3. Pre-Conference Keynote: Still the week prior to the “˜regular’ conference. this year it’s on November 21st.

The 2011 Conference: What’s different?

1. We are not going to have a separate “student voices” strand this year, but instead invite students to present with educators and individually in any of our four strands.
2. We are simplifying the presentation submission process this year for our presenters. Rather than directly uploading to Blip.tv and DotSub.com, presenters will share their presentation via our conference Dropbox account. Strand conveners will upload videos to Blip.tv and iTunesU.
3. Live Events: Our conference has always been primarily asynchronous (download videos and watch them whenever you want) but in the past as featured some live events. This year, however, we will not schedule any live events to coincide with the conference. We are encouraging people hosting live events focused on education to invite and feature many of our speakers, however.
4. Presentations will be in English, and selected presentations (based in part on presenter wishes / requests) will be translated into Spanish via DotSub.com. Due to time demands, we’ve decided to back off the Spanish language presentations a bit this year.

How Can You Help?

1. Spread the word! Share K12Online11 via your social networking connections, blogs, email, and face-to-face colleagues!
2. Submit a proposal to present! We love first-time presenters. It’s a 20 minute recorded presentation. Screencasting tools are better than ever today. You can do this. Hundreds of educators worldwide want to hear your ideas and your voice!
3. Encourage others to present! Each year many of our submitted proposals come after someone sends a personal invitation. If you know a teacher who should present, ask them to submit a proposal!
4. Volunteer! Our 2011 Call for Volunteers form is also available.

Volunteers are needed for the following committees:

1. Publicity / Public Relations
2. Live Events
3. Professional Development
4. Accessibility
5. Help Desk

Save the date for Saturday, October 8, 2011 12:00noon EDT/9:00amPDT: Classroom 2.0 LIVE webinar will feature the 2011 K12 Online Conference (intro/overview/history; upcoming features and keynote presenters)