It was almost a year in the making. Nearly 100 students came together to attend the first-ever Student Empowered Conference, a conference created by St. Cloud area teachers as a way for students to teach and learn from each other.
The idea of a student-led conference came from an organically organized group of teachers from area school districts including St. Cloud Area, Sartell-St. Stephen, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Albany Area and Little Falls. Together, they formed the group EdCampMidMN Team. For the last few years, the team has been putting on EdCampMidMN for teachers to learn and collaborate with each other. This year, they incorporated their own conference idea into their district ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards for students. Hence, the Student Empowered Conference was born.
“In our EdCamps we talk a lot about personalized learning,” says Angie Kalthoff, technology integrationist for St. Cloud Area School District. “The group came up with the idea [of a conference] to have that same concept work for our students… Students can teach other students.”
It’s a way for students to teach what they want to teach and learn what they want to learn.
The planning started at the beginning of the school year with a focus on computer science. Each school was responsible for teaching three sessions, providing a variety of options for students to attend. Students chose the topics for the conference with each topic tied to a badge students earned after attending sessions.
Students from North Junior High School’s tech team represented St. Cloud Area School District this year. Their topics included: Minecraft and Kano; Creating with Code and Building Computers and Robots; Minecraft and Building Robots and Computers.
“They’ve been preparing and practicing [their presentations] since the beginning of the year,” explains Kalthoff. “They each did three interviews with people working in the field to learn about their topics. They’ve really come a long way.”
The students did a lot of research to put together their presentation. They interviewed experts in the field of coding and computers all the way from London to California via webcam. As data was collected, their presentations started to take shape.
Practicing their presentations in front of others began in January, and for some, it was a big step. Coaching by Kalthoff helped improve their stance, voice projection and comfort level speaking in front of a crowd.
“This [student conference] is actually pretty good for me,” says Liz Krause, an eighth-grade student. “I can be a bit nervous being in front of people.”
Krause, along with partner Bren Olson, kicked off the day with the first session. Krause presented the how-tos and advantages of downloading the game of Minecraft. Olson discussed the Kano product, a software program and DIY computer making kit.
Everything about this conference was technology based, even down to the QR codes outside of the doors. In between sessions, students scanned QR codes with their iPads to learn what the session was about before choosing a session.
The conference also integrated other technology learning skills. Older students from several district videography and photography classes participated in the conference by filming the sessions. It gave them a hands-on experience in videography and filmmaking.
Bangaly Kaba, a seventh-grader from North, enjoyed the conference so much he believes that this concept of learning should trickle down to the classroom.
“Teachers don’t always have to be in the front,” says Kaba. “Students can teach, too… It would be fun to do this. A student going up in front of the class may make a kid think differently, and they might connect to other students better than teachers.”
Students really engaged with each other during the conference. Hands raised without hesitation; students not only wanted to ask questions but also to share their own personal experiences.
With nearly 100 students participating in the conference, the plan has always been to grow the conference to include more schools in subsequent years. With the success of this year’s conference, students are already anticipating more Student Empowered Conferences.
