I have just finished attending the annual IB (International Baccalaureate) Conference of the Americas.  I joined more than 900 other IB educators from 30 countries in the Mexican city of Cancún.  As this was my first IB conference for the American region, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I need not have worried; the conference was just as good as those I have attended in other

regions.  It was superb and I had a wonderfully stimulating and enjoyable time.

My experience began with a full-day pre-conference workshop entitled “From Community Service to Service Learning”, led by Catherine Berger Kaye, on Thursday.  The theme of this day was that the traditional model of community service (in which inexperienced students, often from privileged backgrounds, venture in to ‘help’ the less privileged ‘needy’) is often arrogant, misguided and ‘unhelpful’.  Contemporary thinking therefore focuses on ‘service learning’ rather than ‘community service’.  Given that the focus and purpose of schools is to help young people with their learning for life, this focus on ‘service learning’ makes good sense educationally.

Service learning is characterized by:

1. •Academic relevance, rigor and application;
   

2. •Social analysis and high order thinking (so, for example, students would not simply help with a food drive; they would integrate it with an analysis of hunger, malnutrition, etc, based on sound research);
   

3. •Youth initiative (rather than being teacher-led and initiated);
   

4. •A high level of social and emotional integration;
   

5. •Enquiry-based learning, with clear purposes and processes;
   

6. •Global connections;
   

7. •A relationship with relevant literature; and
   

8. •Deep and purposeful reflection.
   

Catherine Berger Kaye illustrated the nature of service learning by citing a common type of community service – the canned food drive.  In many schools, an incentive is provided to students to encourage them to give canned food, such as pizzas for

the class that donates the most.  Clearly, this is not the right focus to encourage appropriate attitudes towards helping others.  She commented the for many households, the main reason to donate cans of food is to clean out the cupboards at home of the stalest cans of food, and research shows an overwhelming dominance of cans of pasta, lima beans and water chestnuts.

In one school where this was the case, a student who was helping with the canned food drive commented (bluntly) “this food sucks; who is going to eat this?”.  The teacher asked the student for a solution to the obvious problem, and the student suggested that the cans of food be used for a ‘thank you lunch’ for the teachers.  That was done, and (as you might guess), canned food drives took on a very different focus the following year. – one that was based on the educational principles of service leaving listed above.

At Awty, Mr Brian Kelley has been appointed as the Director of Service Learning (from August this year) specifically to develop

this important concept of service learning.  Wonderful and transformative though this transition from community service to service learning will be, it is ultimately not really an option; from 2015 the IB Guidelines will require a ‘service learning’ approach for all IB students.

The official opening ceremony for the conference occurred that same (Thursday) afternoon.  The highlight of the opening was undoubtedly a presentation (including spoken word poetry performances) by Sarah Kay.  A young IB

graduate herself (from UNIS in New York), Sarah’s presentation was perhaps even more moving than the piece she presented at the NAIS conference that I attended earlier this year in Seattle.  For the IB conference, Sarah described five life-changing experiences she had, interspersing these thoughts with some her sensational original spoken word poems.  Sarah was invited to this IB conference after her TED presentation in February 2011, and if you have never seen it, I encourage you to watch it at  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html.

I don’t want to try and summarize all the excellent sessions I attended.  It was very helpful, for example, to receive an update from the IB Director-General, Mr Jeff Beard, on recent and proposed initiatives within the IB’s four programs, and it was a privilege to hear the closing address by Dr Aaron David Miller, an expert in Middle Eastern affairs and conflict resolution, who

shared his ‘six propositions’ for building a better world.  There were a few good sessions I had to miss because the board scheduled a telephonic meeting early Friday afternoon, which was a pity.  Having said all that, there were two sessions which I found to be particularly insightful.

First, on Friday evening, we were treated to a viewing of Tony Wagner’s film “The Finland Phenomenon”.  This film explored the reasons why Finland consistently out-performs every other country in the world in academic results.  Copies of the entire film can be found on the internet, and the first two minutes (in which the theme is introduced) can be seen on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcC2l8zioIw.

In summary, the significant features of the Finnish education system seem to be the following:

1. •Very little testing
   

2. •Great trust in teachers (with almost no formal appraisal)
   

3. •Highly qualified teachers (a Masters degree is the minimum standard)
   

4. •Longer lessons than many other countries (75 minutes is normal)
   

5. •Small classes (usual size is about 20 students)
   

6. •Early intervention to address learning problems so that no student is left behind
   

7. •Students’ learning is largely self-directed, thus giving teachers more time to address individual needs
   

8. •Teachers spend considerable time observing master teachers 
   

In short, I found the film highly engaging, challenging and compelling.

The other session that I enjoyed immensely was on the theme of ‘Education and Technology’.  Presented this morning (Sunday) by Eric Lauzon, the IB’s Chief Information Officer (based in Singapore), this session provided many very stimulating thoughts.  I was particularly challenged by a quote from a student (not doing the IB, I hasten to add) who said “Every day I go to school I have to power down”.  In other words, many students today are living lives that require such a slowing of the pace of thinking and learning that they become bored.

Eric Lauzon explored a range of technological innovations with educational relevance, including Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” project, Nicholas Negroponte’s “One Laptop Per Child”, the Khan Academy, flipping the classroom, and Sebastian Thurn’s “Udacity”.

He also explored what he saw as the barriers to effective use of technology in the classroom, factors such as:

1. •Teacher technophobia
   

2. •Institutional conservatism
   

3. •Lack of resources
   

4. •Teacher practice (methodological inertia)
   

5. •Demands of assessment (which tends to focus on knowledge and facts rather than processes such as collaborative learning) and
   

6. •The curriculum (he emphasized that Technology must not be seen as a separate subject; it should be integrated through the curriculum, and urged the immediate dismantling of any remaining computer labs because they inhibit the integration of technology into lessons where it is relevant).
   

Lauzon argued that the big educational challenge today is to prepare children for a world of constant change in a way that they can play a meaningful role in that world.  He concluded with a quote that I liked from Stephen Heppell (CEO of heppell.net in the UK), who said of technology “It’s the death of education but it’s the dawn of learning that makes me very happy”.

Eric Lauzon used Prezi for his presentation, and his entire visual presentation can therefore be seen online at http://prezi.com/y7bm5myscljp/ib-conference-cancun-july-2012-eric-lauzon/.

In addition to attending the conference, I made the time while in Cancún to fulfil a long-term ambition I have had to visit the huge Mayan pyramids at Chitchén Itzá.  In the spirit of the travel diary I have been posting over the past few weeks, I’ll conclude with some bonus images (which can be clicked to enlarge) that show some of the wonder and grandeur of that fabulous place.