In this week’s episode of the EdTweet Show, Dave and Jess cover tweets about the Kindle Fire, microblogging, and more.
Be sure to tune in next week, and check out of the full list of our favorite Edtech Tweets below.
The EdTweet Show: Microblogging, Blended Learning, and More [VIDEO]
October 14th, 201110 Tips to Maximize Your Presence at EDUCAUSE
October 14th, 2011Getting ready for the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Philadelphia? Here are 10 ways to help you make the most of the conference. For more EDUCAUSE-related blog posts, click here.
1. Prepare.
Take a look at the program, decide what sessions you want to attend, and think about your goals for the conference. Whether you’re eager to network with a certain subset of people, gain knowledge in a new area, or conduct vendor research, setting out your goals ahead of time will help you create a general plan of action for the conference.
2. Don’t let work distract you.
From October 18-21, your work should be attending EDUCAUSE: going to sessions, networking, and sharing knowledge. Don’t let yourself get so sucked into email and other work responsibilities that you miss the opportunity to learn from others and immerse yourself in the EDUCAUSE experience. Instead, give yourself “assignments” during the conference: consider writing a short summary every night, including lessons learned, action items for once you get home, and any ideas or contacts you want to follow up on. Reflecting and organizing your thoughts for just a few minutes before bed each evening can bring your conference productivity to a whole new level.
3. Put yourself out there.
This one might sound obvious – after all, what are conferences for if not networking – but it can be easy to fall into the pattern of sticking with your colleagues or existing contacts. Instead, take advantage of the opportunity to create new relationships. Spur of the moment chats after sessions or during downtime can be the most productive part of the experience. If you are attending EDUCAUSE with colleagues, make an effort to attend different sessions to bring maximum benefit to your institution once you’re back home.
4. Visit vendors.
The opening reception, as well as daily morning and afternoon breaks, will take place in the Exhibit Hall. Touch base with any vendors your institution currently uses, and make a goal to check out at least one or two new vendors that interest you. EDUCAUSE can be a great opportunity to nurture existing vendor relationships or begin new ones. Even if you’re not in the market for new services, checking out vendors can help give you a better sense of the services and technology that other institutions are leveraging.
5. Attend all different types of sessions.
Does a session sound really interesting — but not very relevant to your job? Attend anyway. Sessions that don’t seem directly applicable may actually end up being the most productive. You’ll gain insight into a new area or issue and be able to offer an outsider’s perspective. The less at home you feel in a session, the more you’ll pay attention — and the more you’ll learn. Be sure to ask questions too. You’re at the conference to learn, so don’t worry if your inquiry seems “basic” — there are no stupid questions!
6. Make a business card plan.
Decide ahead of time your strategy for exchanging contact info with other attendees. Whether you’re into old-fashioned business cards, or want to use a virtual business card service like Bump or Hashable, make sure that your system is reliable and easy to implement. After all, networking is one of the largest benefits of the conference — you don’t want to be stuck scribbling your email address on a sheet of paper your new acquaintance will almost undoubtedly throw out (whether by accident or on purpose!).
7. Don’t try to do everything.
Pick a reasonable number of activities, and be sure to allow time for wandering around, grabbing a bite to eat or a drink with new contacts, and relaxing. Be strategic with your time, and don’t overbook. Focus on a few key topics. If you try to stretch yourself in all directions, you’ll just end up frustrated and tired.
8. Enjoy Philadelphia!
Hey, EDUCAUSE is a “vacation” too! Check out our list of the Top 10 Walkable Destinations from Educause 2011 for cultural excursions, bars, and restaurants. Just a few trips outside the Convention Center will help you come back to the conference with fresh eyes and renewed vigor.
9. Join an EDUCAUSE Constituency Group.
Joining a Constituency Group, or CG, will allow you to interface with colleagues dealing with similar challenges, learn from their mistakes, and share your own experience. Most CGs interact online on listservs during the year and meet up at EDUCAUSE to discuss pressing issues. Click here for a list of EDUCAUSE CGs.
10. Set aside time to reflect and share knowledge after the conference.
Create an action plan and list out any projects that you’ve committed to or envisioned during the conference. Share notes with colleagues, offer to give a presentation to your department, and set aside time to go through your notes and brainstorm possible uses for the new knowledge and information you’ve received.
College Readiness News Roundup: More Accountability in High Schools, Florida’s New Readiness Agenda, and More
October 14th, 2011
In this week’s College Readiness News Roundup, check out stories about accountability in college readiness, Florida’s new college-readiness agenda, and more.
1. Call for More Accountability in College Readiness
“If states want to get serious about college and career readiness, they need to track student completion of college-level coursework in high school. A policy brief by Jobs for the Future, a national Boston-based nonprofit, advocates better accountability and incentives for schools to prepare students for college success.” Read more in this post from Education Week’s College Ready blog.
2. Suburban Colleges Try to Get Kids College-Ready
Community colleges in suburban Chicago are offering bridge and developmental courses to help get students up to speed for college courses — but many say that better alignment between high school and college standards is key to increasing college readiness rates. Read more in this article from the Daily Herald.
3. Universities Drop Remedial Classes as Part of Reform
The majority of the nearly 40% of Ohio students who need remedial courses will take them at community colleges instead of universities this year, thanks to a new statewide plan to save students money and improve credit transfer between institutions. Read more in this article from the Dayton Daily News.
4. Testing Ground: How Florida Schools and Colleges Are Using a New Assessment to Increase College
A new report discusses “how Florida’s Division of Colleges worked with K-12 partners to design, plan, and launch an ambitious college-readiness agenda with a new college placement test as its centerpiece.” Click to read the full report.
5. Report Calls for Inclusion of Asian Students in College Agenda
“Despite being one of the fastest-growing minorities in the United States, the Asian American and Pacific Islander population has not been adequately researched or its needs considered in the the higher education agenda, a new report released today says.” Read more about the findings of the report, entitled “The Relevance of Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders in the College Completion Agenda,” in this post from Education Week’s College Ready blog.
6. “Unlocking the Secrets of College Retention” Free Webinar: 10/18/2011
This free webinar from Education Week will discuss efforts to improve college retention, a growing problem across the country. Register here.
7. The Problem with Continuous Improvement
A new bill drafted by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would “relieve states of having to meet federally specified achievement goals in math and reading,” requiring only that students show “continuous improvement,” as opposed to proficiency or college readiness. Richard Rothstein objects to the bill’s standards in this post on the Washington Post’s The Answer Sheet blog.
EDUCAUSE 2011 Speaker Spotlight: Dr. Jim Linksz, President of Bucks County Community College
October 13th, 2011
EDUCAUSE 2011 is fast approaching. As a lead-up to the conference, we’re interviewing some of the speakers who will be sharing their knowledge and experience in Philly next week. It’s our hope that these interviews will spark conversation and give conference attendees a better sense of this year’s speakers.
Dr. Jim Linksz is the President of Bucks County Community College. He’s speaking at a session entitled Online Learning: What College Presidents and the Public Think About Its Future. Dr Linksz was kind enough to answer a few questions about his own perceptions of online learning, and the ways in which Bucks is embracing technological change.
For more EDUCAUSE-related posts, click here.
1. You’re leading a session at EDUCAUSE about perceptions of the future of online learning. Can you talk a bit about how your own perception of online education has changed over the course of your career?
In the 1980s I was chief academic officer at Catonsville Community College in Baltimore, which already had a commitment to distance learning. It was expressed through on-line cable courses delivered on our own cable station as well as in collaboration with Maryland College of the Air managed by our local PBS channel. Now at Bucks, we have made a substantial commitment to delivering courses through 21st century methodologies we did not even envision in the 1980s, including learning spaces, chat rooms, Internet 2, etc. Equally important, our support services have grown to match academic skills – on-line library and tutoring and orientation for example. We have evolved new techniques for teaching lab courses on-line and participative courses like Speech. Our faculty development work has also grown to support these efforts, including specialists to help develop materials and strategies that support interactive courses. And, many of these mechanisms are now working their way back into traditional classes.
2. How has Bucks’ approach to technology and online learning changed in the time since you became president? What do you consider Bucks’ most important goals for the future with regard to online learning?
When I came to Bucks in 1992, distance learning was really just a conversation a few key leaders were having. Today 2000 student registrations a semester are in distance learning and it has become a fully integrated part of our offerings strategy, with several curricula available on-line. Our winter mini-semester is totally on-line. This represents about 20% of Bucks credit production. More important, we have moved from the canned course in a box to much more integrated and interactive course dynamics.
For the future we want to see even more integration of distance techniques into our non-credit offerings. In certain areas like emergency services training, we already have a world presence and we see that growing through the use of distance coursework. I see credit based distance education growing another 10% before the turn of the decade.
A number of years ago Bucks was a leader in beginning the Pennsylvania Virtual Community College – an amalgamation of all of the courses then available from all 14 community colleges. As competitive pressures emerged and all colleges grew their own distance portfolios, inevitably the idea was sidelined. But I think with recent national efforts to create great course catalogs shared interstate, perhaps even PA will come around.
3. Part of the description of your EDUCAUSE session reads: “The public, in particular, questions whether students engage as effectively online as in a brick-and-mortar classroom.” How do you feel about this skepticism? What do you think it would take to convince the public of the merits of online learning?
The ‘public’ really is three separate publics. The first is the faculty inside colleges – they need to be convinced first. Part of that convincing is done through effective development of key faculty opinion leaders who embrace the technical aspects and who can see that on-line learning is an effective way to reach a student set that otherwise might not enter their traditional classrooms. The second is the employer community. They need to be convinced that colleges are serious about protecting their traditional classroom quality metrics and that the results are measurable in terms of skills learned and able to be applied. I include in this set of folks, those in further education institutions who accept college courses in transfer – for example Colleges of Pharmacy accepting science courses from other colleges that have on-line labs rather than traditional wet labs. (At another time we should digress and speak about the separation between credentialing and education.) The third is the general public wanting the best for children and wondering whether the on-line experience can do the job that a traditional college education has done in educating the whole person, which includes face to face interactions in social as well as educational settings. I suppose that the last set of folks is the students themselves, perhaps included in this general public, now increasingly digital natives, but still wondering if frat parties, football, and on-line learning go together really. No amount of adherence to Quality Matters rubrics or similar external validation really addresses this issue.
The for-profit national universities have created models for on-line learning that traditional colleges have yet to adopt. We are in a temporary greed/growth induced hiatus; but I really believe something major can happen if some key players take the obvious next step.
MBA Admissions Tip: Common Recommendation Dilemmas
October 12th, 2011This MBA admissions tip comes to us from our friends at Clear Admit. For more expert b-school admissions advice, check out their blog or previous Clear Admit posts on our blog.
As many of our readers are aware, letters of recommendation are a central part of the application process. We would like to take a look at how to handle the snags that often arise for applicants in unique employment situations.
The applicant who is most likely to have trouble finding a suitable recommender is either self-employed or works in his or her family’s business. First, self-employed entrepreneurs by their very nature do not have a direct supervisor. Similarly, an applicant who works for the family business may have trouble finding a non-related supervisor, or someone who can offer a truly objective opinion.
Applicants who find themselves in this dilemma should not despair. Some applicants might be in a position to solicit a letter from a client or customer with whom they have worked extensively. In an ongoing relationship like this one, the applicant is accountable to the client, and in this sense the client may act as a supervisor. A letter from a client or customer works best, of course, when the relationship has been intensive and ongoing; the writer should be familiar with the applicant’s responsibilities and the way he or she fulfills them, as well as his or her career trajectory.
Another option is to look to former supervisors for a letter of recommendation. This is a good option for an applicant who has maintained a close relationship with a previous employer. I n this scenario, it is important that the applicant has kept the recommender informed about any developments in his or her career goals. This way, the letter will be oriented towards the future even if it draws on anecdotes from the past.
For applicants who have pursued extensive community involvement outside of work, yet another recommendation option may exist within a volunteer organization. Someone who has contributed to a nonprofit for several years and has taken on responsibilities at the organizational level would be in a great position to explore this option. Again, applicants in this position should look for a recommender who ranks above them in the organization’s hierarchy and has first-hand knowledge of their contributions.
Following these criteria, in conjunction with some of the more general guidelines, applicants can acquire insightful, enthusiastic recommendations that bolster their entire applications.
The Twitter Guide to EDUCAUSE 2011
October 12th, 2011At a conference as tech-oriented as EDUCAUSE, tweeting is an integral part of the agenda. Heading to Philly for the 2011 Annual Meeting and want to make sure you stay connected? Here are a few Twitter feeds to keep an eye on.
Tweet us (@Knewton) with any other suggestions! For more EDUCAUSE-related posts, click here.
Official EDUCAUSE Twitter Feeds
This one’s a no-brainer. Follow @educause for up-to-the-minute announcements and tips preceding and following the conference. After you’ve left Philly, check out EDUCAUSE’s tweets for links to relevant podcasts, articles, and webinars; information on other EDUCAUSE events; proposal deadlines; and more.
If you’re leading a session at EDUCAUSE 2011, want to lead one in the future, or are just interested in improving your public speaking skills, this feed from the EDUCAUSE Speaker Concierge is a great one to follow. In addition to EDUCAUSE-specific presentation tips, @EDUCAUSESpeaker posts helpful links to articles about general presentation do’s and don’ts.
Want more info about the Speaker Concierge? Sign up for Weekly Concierge Updates, check out the Scoop.it Speaker Concierge Collection, and read the EDUCAUSE Speaker Concierge blog.
Follow @EDUCAUSEPodcast for news and discussion about the latest EDUCAUSE podcasts, which “provide information and conversation about a wide range of topics in higher ed.” One of the latest podcasts features an interview with General Session speaker danah boyd.
Superhero-Themed EDUCAUSE Twitter Feeds
Okay, this one’s just to keep you on your feet. @EDUCAUSE_HULK is a legend from the 2010 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA. During last year’s conference, attendees noticed a curious participant in their Twitter chats. That’s right: @EDUCAUSE_HULK. Hulk shared his 140-character EDUCAUSE insights in limited superhero speak — OH, AND DID WE MENTION HE ONLY WRITES IN CAPITAL LETTERS?
If you want to get a sense of The Hulk’s style, here’s his Twitter bio:
EDUCAUSE HULK GO TO EDUCAUSE EVENTS! BE NICE! LOOK FOR EDUCAUSE HULK! EDUCAUSE HULK GREEN AND 8 FEET TALL! EASY TO SPOT! EDUCAUSE HULK FOLLOW BACK!
The feed was the brainchild of Michael Richichi, Director of Computing and Network Services at Drew University. If @EDUCAUSE_HULK’s recent tweets are any indication, it looks like he might be making an appearance at #edu11 as well!
General Session Speakers’ Twitter Feeds
@zephoria
danah boyd
A Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research and a prolific tweeter and blogger, danah boyd will be leading an EDUCAUSE General Session talk on Thursday at 10:30 – 11:30 AM, entitled “Privacy in an Era of Social Media.”
@thisissethsblog
Seth Godin
Though author and entrepreneur Seth Godin doesn’t tweet, you can follow this Twitter handle, which retweets his blog posts. Seth will be leading a general session talk on Wednesday from 8 – 9:45 AM, entitled Invisible or Remarkable?.
@aneeshchopra
Aneesh Chopra
If you’re interested in the U.S.’s IT-related initiatives, be sure to follow Aneesh Chopra, U.S. CTO, who will be leading a general session talk on Thursday from 9 – 9:50 AM, entitled “There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be an Innovator.”
Other Speakers’ Twitter Feeds
This isn’t by any means an exhaustive list, but if you’re planning on attending any of these speakers’ sessions, be sure to check them out on Twitter ahead of time. Consider it your homework.
@billallison
William Allison, Director, Campus Technology Services University of California, Berkeley
Session: You Need to Go Mobile Now, but How? The UC/UCLA Mobile Web Framework
@lucyappert
Lucy Appert, Director of Educational Tech, Liberal Studies Program, New York University
Session: The Sakai Open Academic Environment: Envisioning Learning, Curriculum, and Networking in a Global Context
@markaskren
Mark Askren, Chief Information Officer, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Sessions: Updating the Value Proposition: Using Services to Define Your IT Organization, Seminar 01A – Discussing the Big Questions for CIOs and Enterprise IT Leaders
@sab2
Steve Brukbacher, UWM Security Officer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Session: Mitigating Cloud Security Risks Through the Right Partnerships
@jryoung
Jeffrey Young
Senior Writer, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Session: Chronicle Tech Trends: Challenges for the Future “Unbundled” University
@johnfoliot
John Foliot, Manager, Stanford Online Accessibility Program, Stanford University
Session: Developers’ View of Web Accessibility: Pitfalls, Gotchas, and Solutions
@jmgetman
Joan Falkenberg Getman, Director, Educational Technologies, University of Southern California
Session: Going the Distance: Outsourcing Online Learning
@judalicious
Jude Higdon, Director of Innovative Learning and Academic Technology, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota
Session: Opportunities and Challenges in Leveraging and Supporting Cloud Computing and Personal Devices
@IHEpublishing
Scott Jaschik, Editor, Inside Higher Ed
Session: Collaboration by Design, Innovation with Purpose
@bmaas71
Bruce Maas, CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Session: The Right Stuff: Insights for Next-Generation Technology Leaders and the CIOs Who Mentor Them
@semetros
Susan Metros, Associate Vice Provost/Associate CIO/Professor, University of Southern California
Session: Going the Distance: Outsourcing Online Learning
@digitalfluency
Glenda Morgan, e-Learning Strategist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Session: Seeking Evidence of Impact: Impact Assessment 101
@markmilliron
Mark Milliron, Deputy Director, Higher Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Session: Analytics Today: Getting Smarter About Emerging Technology, Diverse Students, and the Completion Challenge
@jjsuess
John Suess, Vice President for Information Technology/CIO, University of Maryland
Session: Higher Education’s Role in the Identity Ecosystem
@jtwetten
Jim Twetten, Director, Academic Technologies, Iowa State University
Session: Desperately Seeking Community: How to Create and Sustain Successful Ed Tech Collaboration
Don’t worry, we’ve put all these accounts and more onto this handy Twitter list for you: http://twitter.com/#!/knewton/educause2011
Critical Reasoning Tip: What’s the Difference Between a Conclusion and an Argument?
October 11th, 2011
Recently, a few of our students had some questions about this Critical Reasoning problem:
Some ecologists claim that forest fires are a natural part of the ecosystem in certain types of forest environments. Botany experts support this claim, citing the fact that some plant species have adapted to survive and even thrive in fires.
Which of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the argument above?
(A) Recent campaigns to eliminate forest fires have saved thousands of plants from burning.
(B) Many forest plants have seeds that do not germinate unless exposed to intense heat and smoke.
(C) One technique used to limit the spread of forest fires is to burn the area surrounding the fire to the ground.
(D) Despite intense human intervention and innovation, huge forest fires break out every year in the United States.
(E) Some plant species release many potentially toxic chemicals into the atmosphere when burnt.
The conclusion of the statement above is the ecologists’ claim that “forest fires are a natural part of the ecosystem in certain types of forest environments.” It seems like both B and D strengthen this conclusion; I would certainly argue that this is the case. B clearly strengthens the conclusion: if the seeds of some plants cannot germinate without “intense heat and smoke,” it seems like such plant need forest fires to reproduce. D tells us that forest fires continually occur despite human attempts to prevent them: on the assumption that human intervention is not a “natural part of the ecosystem” (a questionable, though, in my opinion, allowable assumption), D also strengthens the conclusion.
So am I saying that this is a flawed question?
Of course not! If you read the question stem carefully, you are asked to strengthen the “argument.” An argument, by definition, is a conclusion supported by at least one premise. Only B strengthens the connection between the premise (that “some plant species have adapted to thrive” in forest fires) with the conclusion. D might strengthen the conclusion, but only B strengthens the argument.
This is an important distinction. Consider the following:
Some political scientists have concluded that drinking large amounts of alcohol is conducive to achieving success in electoral politics.
There is a conclusion above. But there was no argument. This is an argument:
Some sociologists have concluded that drinking large amounts of alcohol is conducive to achieving success in politics. To support this claim, they cite that Yeltsin, who drank heavily, was one of Russia’s most popular elected leaders, whereas Gorbachev, who rarely drank, never achieved electoral success.
Because the conclusion was supported by at least one premise, we can call the passage above an argument. If we were asked to strengthen the conclusion, a premise such as this would suffice:
Winston Churchill drank large amounts of alcohol, and he was one of Great Britain’s most successful prime ministers.
But the premise above would not strengthen the argument, because it does not strengthen the connection between the evidence and the conclusion. The following premise would strengthen the argument:
The majority of respondents to a recent survey claimed that they trusted Yeltsin more because they knew he was a heavy drinker.
Remember: an argument always contains a conclusion, but is defined by the presence of a conclusion supported by at least one premise.
MBA News Roundup: B-Schools Opt Out of Ethics Rankings, Admissions Advice from Stanford GSB Dean, and More
October 10th, 2011Welcome to another installment of Knewton’s MBA News Roundup! This week, check out articles on why some top b-schools aren’t participating in ethics rankings, the difficulty of molding leaders in MBA programs, and application insights from the Dean of Admissions at Stanford GSB.
1. Top B-Schools Opt Out of Ethics Rankings
Five of the top ten U.S. b-schools decided not to participate in this year’s Aspen Institute ranking of MBA programs’ ethical and environmental impact. What gives?
2. Why MBA Programs Don’t Produce Leaders
This week, check out this Forbes staff writer’s take on why MBA programs aren’t conducive to breeding leaders. Next week, check out a different staff writer’s take on why they do!
Stanford GSB Dean of Admissions Derrick Bolt offers some unlikely advice on what he’s looking for in an application.
4. Business Schools Must Be Wary of Short-Term Myopia
Myopia (Greek: μυωπία, muōpia): lack of imagination, foresight, intellectual insight.
Tuition set at about thirty thousand gypsy tears per year.
The Speedy Road to Insufficiency
October 10th, 2011Here’s another quick tip for those of you still struggling with the pitfalls of Data Sufficiency.
Let’s take a look at the following Official Guide DS problem:
If p and q are positive integers and pq = 24, what is the value of p?
(1) q/6 is an integer
(2) p/2 is an integer
It just so happens that this is a value-based question: When we’re asked “what is the value of p?”, we’re being asked to provide a single value for p. If a statement or combination of statements cannot give us a single value, then it must be insufficient.
So, before you go all crazy trying to set up equations, think about what I like to call “The Speedy Road to Insufficiency.” What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, it means that when approaching a statement or combination of statements, you should treat it as “insufficient until proven sufficient.” In other words, go into it trying to demonstrate insufficiency. Why? Well, in short, because it’s faster. How so? Well, in order to prove insufficiency, all we have to do is find two different possible values for p that satisfy the statement(s). If we can quickly locate two such values, we don’t have to do any more work. We know the statement must be insufficient.
Can we do this for Statement (1)? Well, if q/6 is an integer and pq = 24, then q could be 6, 12, or 24, and the corresponding values of p would be 4, 2, and 1, respectively. We just found three possible values of p. Guess what? We’re done with Statement (1). Definitely insufficient. And in truth, you could have stopped the moment you realized p could be 4 or 2. Two possible values of p are enough to demonstrate insufficiency.
What about Statement (2)? Well, if p/2 is an integer and pq = 24, then p could be 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24. Definitely not just one value of p, so we know Statement (2) is insufficient.
Now, I’ll just give this away and tell you that Statements (1) and (2) are still insufficient when combined. But before reading the next paragraph, see if you can spot the speediest way to determine that.
Did you find it? Well, notice that Statements (1) and (2) both say that p could be 2 or 4. That’s it…don’t do any more work! You’ve got two possible values of p, and thus you’ve shown insufficiency.
This strategy also works for “Yes/No” questions, which include phrases such as “Is x odd?” or “Is y > 2?” These questions don’t ask for a specific value but instead ask you to answer “yes” or “no” to a specific question. But the strategy is the same: ”Insufficient until proven sufficient”. If you can show quickly that the answer could be either “yes” or “no”, you’ve shown insufficiency and can move on. See if you can apply the strategy to this official problem:
If x ≠ -y, is (x-y) / (x+y) > 1 ?
(1) x > 0
(2) y < 0
Don’t just post your solution! Also include the way you made things speedy.
Top 10 Walkable Destinations from EDUCAUSE 2011
October 10th, 2011
EDUCAUSE 2011 is going to be busy. If you wanted to, you could certainly stay within the Philadelphia Convention Center for the duration of the conference without getting bored. However, chances are you’re going to want to pop out into the “real world” at least once or twice. Whether you want to do some sightseeing, chug a quick beer, or grab a bite to eat, we’ve got suggestions for you on the best walkable destinations from EDUCAUSE 2011.
For more EDUCAUSE 2011 blog posts, click here.
1. Relax with a drink
Being around all those edtechers getting you wound up? There are plenty of good watering holes within walking distance of the Convention Center. Your best bet might be to walk around and find one that suits your fancy, but if you’re a planner by nature, try Tria (1137 Spruce Street), which bills itself as “Philadelphia’s destination for wine, cheese, and beer lovers” or Oscar’s Tavern (1524 Sansom Street) for a classic dive bar experience.
2. Ogle at William Penn
Philadelphia City Hall — the largest municipal building in the U.S. — is only a 5 minute walk from the Convention Center. Check out lavish public rooms like the Supreme Court Room and Conversation Hall; crane your neck up at the station of city founder William Penn on top of the building (it’s one of 250 sculptures that Alexander Milne Calder created for the building); and travel up to the building’s observation deck to get a view of the whole city.
3. To Market!
Reading Terminal Market, that is. A 5 minute walk from the Convention Center, this historic indoor market is a food court on steroids. Vendors line every square inch of the space, but the food is worth the crowds. Try Delilah’s Mac and Cheese, voted best in the country by Oprah Winfrey and featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network and don’t miss dessert from Bassetts Ice Cream, “America’s oldest ice cream company since 1861.”
4. Check out Chinatown
Philadelphia’s Chinatown is within a 10 minute walk of the Convention Center. Walk under the Chinatown Friendship Gate, a symbol of cultural exchange between Philadelphia and its Sister City of Tianjin, China on on 10th and Arch. Hungry? We recommend David’s Mai Lai Wah at 1001 Race Street (it’s open until 3 AM on weeknights and 4 AM on weekends!) or Sang Kee Peking Duck House at 238 N 9th Street.
5. Visit America’s most historic square mile
About a mile’s walk from the Convention Center, Independence National Historical Park serves up a powerful history lesson along with green space and fresh air. Marvel at the Liberty Bell and don’t miss Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written.
6. Be artsy
Just a stone’s throw away from the Convention Center is the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which features not only a world-class school of fine arts but also an impressive collection of 19th and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. The museum is open 10 AM – 5 PM on Tuesday through Saturday and 11 AM to 5 PM on Sundays. Adult admission to the permanent collection is $10 ($15 to see the special collections).
7. Get your caffeine fix in
Want to get in a short walk along with your cup of joe? Check out Old City Coffee in Reading Terminal Market or Ray’s Cafe & Tea House at 141 N 9th Street in Chinatown.
8. See the magic
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, a “folk art environment, gallery space, and nonprofit organization,” is just over a mile away from the Convention Center by foot. The Magic Gardens features the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar. If you need a quick recharge from making small talk and typing furious notes on your laptop, this colorful, unconventional art space might be just what the doctor ordered.
9. Get jazzed
Want to cap off a busy day of sessions with some relaxing jazz? Check out Chris’ Jazz Cafe at 1421 Sansom Street for food, drink, and great music.
10. Bring your own… tequila?
At Lolita, a Mexican restaurant at 106 S. 13th Street, you can do just that. But even if you’re not feeling quite so feisty (after all, you want to be awake for those early morning sessions, don’t you?), you can still enjoy the modern Mexican cuisine at this sophisticated Market East restaurant. Think chipotle mango guacamole, hazelnut-crusted duck, and more. Entrees generally run from $18 – $24.
