EduCon 2.4

Last year I helped coordinate a TEDxYouthday event that brought together students from several schools to share ideas with each other. The day was truly magical. By the time EduCon 2.4 takes place I will have hosted and co-lead an event that will take place at 5 locations with students from 15-20 schools.

Hosting a TEDx Youthday event has the following benefits (this is not an inclusive list).

• It provides students with an opportunity to share ideas that they are passionate about with people around the world.
• While it is a competitive process to make it to the event the event itself is non-competitive.
• The event can be as student run as your school's culture can make it.
• It makes a contribution to each student's digital footprint.
• It's authentic. Student TEDx talks end up on the TEDx youtube channel. Their talk is watched by people at TED. If it is deemed worthy it could end up on the actual TED site.
• Students learn how to give a talk, not a presentation.
• In addition to giving a talk I recommend that school's have their student presenters blog about the experience to increase metacognitive learning and build a sense of community.
• I will talk about leveraging tools such as facebook groups to facilitate student networking focused on the sharing of powerful ideas.