November Learning: Expanding the Boundaries of Learning

Alan November

About Alan November
Senior Partner, November Learning, Marblehead, MA

Alan November is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. He has helped schools, governments and industry leaders improve the quality of education through technology. Audiences enjoy Alan’s humor and wit as he pushes the boundaries of how to improve teaching and learning. His areas of expertise include planning across curriculum, staff development, new school design, community building and leadership development. He has delivered keynotes and workshops in all fifty states, across Canada, and throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Central America.

Alan was named one of the nation’s fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Classroom Computer Learning Magazine. In 2001, he was listed one of eight educators to provide leadership into the future by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. In 2007 he was selected to speak at the Cisco Public Services Summit during the Nobel Prize Festivities in Stockholm, Sweden. His writing includes numerous articles and best-selling book, Empowering Students with Technology. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology and is most proud of being selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.

Pre-conference Session

Leadership: Managing the Transition

How can leaders maximize student engagement and academic achievement? How can leaders encourage teachers and students to collaborate with peers and professionals around the world?

The goal of this session is to provide school leaders with maximum capacity for effective leadership in the 21st Century. Alan will outline essential skills for leaders and offer practical guidelines and creative solutions for building accountability into the planning process. Articulating vision and managing change will be emphasized, along with the following:

• Alignment of curriculum to standards
• Designing more rigorous, demanding and globally connected assignments
• Building capacity for family and community involvement
• Addressing issues related to equity
• Developing critical thinking skills
• Designing staff development programs
• Defining new roles for students
• Sharing best practice

Main Session Workshops

Teaching Zack Webliteracy

Too many students are not sure how to separate fact from fiction on the Internet. The Internet can provide any version of the truth to support almost any belief. We can teach students how to read the “grammar” of the Internet and how to apply strategies to validate information on a website. This workshop provides step-by-step teaching tips that help students and teachers think critically about Internet information.

Leadership: Managing the Transition

This workshop will outline essential skills for leadership and offer practical guidelines and creative solutions for building accountability into the planning process. Articulating vision and mission, managing change and aligning technology to primary goals are emphasized. A shift in planning from technology to the quality and application of information and communication is a critical next step.

Getting the Learning Ecology Right

The only industry that has not changed its processes due to technology is education. Until we take a look at the basic organization of schools, such as homework, relationship with the family, definition of curriculum, staff development and model of assessment, technology will rarely make a significant difference other than the occasional successful project.

This workshop will look at system design recommendations, such as what we know as homework becoming class work. Research shows that if students make a mistake at home the brain records the error. Homework without immediate feedback is flawed and potentially harmful. The first order of business for schools should be, “Do no harm.”