Blogging Envy! or Why I am bummed I am not in Atlanta.

The official ISTE, National Educational Computing Conference has just officially started, but there was a lot of action yesterday as many of the nation's leading educational bloggers met to discuss the state of educational technology and what should be the next steps in the process of advancing the use of technology in education. In reading the blog posts from many of the attendees, I found a common theme, of information literacy. This is a topic I have written about several times in this space and it seems that the members of the discussion yesterday had some of the same issues I have had previously with 'information literacy.'

Some of the questions I have had with the idea of 'information literacy' are:

1) Is 'information literacy' separate from the larger idea of what it means to be literate, or is simply a subset of the definition of literacy?

2) How do we clearly define 'information literacy?' What skills are part of 'information literacy?'

3) How do we make sure that students are information literate? Do we need a national standard?

4) How do we measure 'information literacy' in our students? Do we need a test?

What are the discussions going on in Atlanta?

Will Richardson posted that this is the first of many conversations on the topic and that the conversation has finally pushed things forward in his own thinking!

David Warlick has divided things into four general areas with a list on each one.

- The School

- The Classroom

- The Learner

- Assessment

Vicki Davis on the 'Cool Cat Teacher Blog' has created a list of ideas that can be used to create a common message / definition for educational technology advocates to use when illicting support from political leaders and other decision makers. Vicki also posted on her 'take-aways' from the session and some next steps.

Mark Wagner, one of the presenters in the Google Teacher's Academy, had some additional thoughts on his blog and the need for more informal meeting time to allow the conversation to become more organic. (have a life of its own!)

Jeff Utecht, from 'The Thinking Stick' blog posted on what factors lead to a Virtual Learning Community based on the discussions in one of the sessions EduBloggerCon. There is also a post on a Second Life session.