Management

Seen and Heard at #OETC14

The Ohio Educational Technology Conference is one of the largest ed-tech events in America. Check out some of the highlights from the first day of the 2014 show.

Jimmy Daly

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Jimmy is a writer and editor who publishes a weekly newsletter. You can find him on Twitter.

The Ohio Educational Technology Conference got off to an exciting start yesterday in Columbus, Ohio. The annual conference draws more than 5,000 ed-tech professionals from K–12 and higher education to share ideas and insights about putting technology to work for our nation’s students.

One of the focuses of the first day was the keynote, “Why Future Trends in Higher Education Demand Unlearning,” from author and futurist Jack Uldrich. The following excerpt from one of Uldrich’s recent blog posts provides a taste of what attendees heard at the conference:

Here’s what I see. I see a world where the students default setting is customization. They can go to a Starbucks and order their coffee in a hundred different ways. They can customize their music on their iPods or smartphones; their friends on Facebook; and their news through RSS feeds. Why, if they want to, they can even customize their shoe designs at Nike’s website.

Why, I continued, don’t you think they expect the same from education. The answer, of course, is that students are demanding this; the problem is that the educational establishment isn’t delivering–but therein lies the opportunity for innovation.

Here are some highlights from Uldrich’s talk, courtesy of a few social-media-friendly attendees:

Checking out keynote Jack Uldrich #OETC14 pic.twitter.com/Q8cnL8yBPG

— Mitch Wilson (@mlwilson10) January 27, 2014

"The riskiest thing we can do is play it safe, the safest thing we can do is to take some risks." - Jack Uldrich. #OETC14

— iTechnologyServices (@iTechServices) January 27, 2014

#OETC14 Can leaders embrace ambiguity? Things are rarely black and white. Jack Uldrich

— Kimberly Brueck (@kbrueck) January 27, 2014

"If you dot understand new technology, you might misuse it." Jack Uldrich. Get ready to unlearn certain habits moving forward. #OETC14

— Beth Backes (@Beth_Backes) January 27, 2014

"What we learned yesterday may not be true today. Our world is changing." Jack Uldrich

— Ricky Tompkins (@rickytompkins1) January 26, 2014

We will post videos from the talk as they become available. In the meantime, here are a few more social media posts from the first day, including tech-integration specialist Kevin Honeycutt’s drone video:

@mr_rcollins #tlah hacker = person who finds a clever solution to a problem #OECT14 #OETCx pic.twitter.com/z14Rfj2Gjd

— Andrew Jenkins (@allthejenkins) January 27, 2014