FETC 2016 Recap

A few weeks ago, I attended a week-long conference in Orlando Florida, the Future of Education Technology Conference or FETC.    The purpose of this conference is for teachers to collaborate and share ideas on how to incorporate technology into their curriculum and schools.  I would like to share some of what I learned.  Throughout any conference, I regularly tweet my notes.  So, if you have a Twitter account, you can follow me @mrsmartinusa.  

The first two days of the conference I spent at an Executive Summit - two intense days with administrators and leaders of education giving keynotes and leading roundtables on the future of education.  Much of the conversation was around schools NOT being places where students learn content, but rather a place where students learn valuable 21st century life skills.  This is a result of the abundance of information that is available to them at the click of a button.  There are six main skills that need to be taught so that students can become lifelong learners. 

Skills needed for lifelong learning include:

1. Gathering, organizing, and analyzing data.
2. Evaluating processes and products and drawing conclusions. 
3. Thinking analytically, critically and creatively to pursue new ideas, acquiring new knowledge and making decisions.
4. Understanding and applying principals of logic and reasoning - developing, evaluating and defending arguments.
5. Seeking, recognizing and understanding systems, pattern, themes and interactions.
6. Applying and adapting appropriate strategist solve new and increasingly
   complex problems.    

Thank you George Couros!