The Building Learning Communities conference run by Alan November and the November Learning Team was my educational highlight of the year (probably the last few years).
Alan brought together a number of the best thinkers from around the world to share their thoughts with us on issues ranging from student voice, through school design to the best uses of educational technology.
It is the only conference I can remember were I actually cried twice (that is quite something for a bloke to admit but its true) The first tear jerker was the speech given by Tim Tyson from Maybry Middle school and the second was a session run by three students working with Marco Torres. These sessions changed my thinking and made me realise we still have a huge challenge ahead of us regarding the effectiveness of our education system and how best to make it relevent for all young people.
The conference was aso unusual in that there was a real sense of community - a clear sense of oneness with no boundaries between presentors and delegates. There are loads of photos of friends at BLC07 on Flickr (the one here was uploaded to Flickrby Edublogger on 19 Jul 07, 5.47AM PDT. edu.blogs.com/edublogs/blc07/index.html).
There is lots of information, presentations and podcasts avaiable on Alan's site.
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This is great info to know.