Day 4 ISTE Conference 2011

8:30am Morning began with Helen Barrett, using Google sites as portfolios.

Helen Barrett, Electronic Portfolios.org

Helen is all about creating a comprehensive student-centered system supporting all three levels of ePortfolio development with Google Apps.

She suggest that students/teachers - create/collaborate/store/share artifacts in Google Docs, use blogging for reflection and feedback and presentation websites with Google Sites.

Helen is the GURU of eportfolio and she say after all these years, Google Apps for Edu is the best for the digital portfolio "process..."

Highlights of Helen's presentation (quoted directly from Helen...)

Developmental levels of ePortfolio development:
Level 1. portfolio as storage (collection of artifacts)
Level 2. portfolio as workspace (collection plus reflection/metacognition, organized chronologically)
Level 3. portfolio as showcase (selection, summative reflection and presentation, organized thematically--by outcomes/goals/standards)

GoogleApps can be used at different levels:
Level 1. GoogleDocs & Picasa for storage
Level 2. Blogger for reflection and feedback (formative assessment) (or Google Sites Announcements Page type) - I like this option!
Level 3. Google Sites for showcase/summative assessment

Primary URL resource for Helen's Presentation: http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/

Coming soon!!!! Hapara Teacher’s Dashboard is a set of extensions for Google Apps that makes the digital classroom environment safer, easier to set up and easier to use for students, parents and teachers, and easier to manage for school administrators. More info on this and more at: https://sites.google.com/a/ptengland.school.nz/googlefest/home/teacher-dashboard

9:30 - Student Showcases and Posters

• 30 Second Challenge with Animoto
• BookTalks Web 2.0 - Voicethread - All rubrics, etc associated with this projects are available here: http://globetrotters.wikispaces.com
• History & Literacy with Digital Storytelling
• Journals are out, blogging is in...http://kidblog.org/MrsWitsmansClass/
• There's an App for that! App Reviews
  

About Blogging:
"Although blogging in schools is still in its infancy, anecdotal evidence suggests that students' interest in, and quantity of, writing increases when their work is published online and -- perhaps even more importantly -- when it is subject to reader comments." Web article: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml

10:15 - Exhibit HAll

There are so many interactive white boards and devices it is simply overwhelming. ... also loads of online curriculum. What do yo choose, how do you determine whether or not you are missing the boat? You just need to know these things exist and as time goes by and needs to develop, maybe the exposure will help you make those connections to help find a good match in your school. I don't know... It is almost CRAZY! All I know is that I BETTER WIN SOMETHING! Like a trip to ISTE next year... that would work! :)

11:00 - Technology Robotics Playground... We have got to get a fundraiser going for this robot.

11:45 Google AppS

G21 - 21st Century Learning ... Tech Times Live Podcast... search for Googchland in Itunes...

Google's mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Overview of Google Offerings - Google Maps, Squared...blah - I utilized the time, listening but updating the resources here. Snooze - run over to another session...

Goldmine! GO HERE! 60 Web 2.0 Tools in 60 Minutes: http://60in60.wikispaces.com/

1:45 - 2:45: Creating Student Projects on the iPad
Very good BYOL... Story robe is a great app, make a digit story instantly. This is exactly what will work great for ell - but they need the new ipod touch to make it happen and then they are all set! They could take pictures of things around the school and at home - things for common english practice and then create and share stories...

Day 3 ISTE Conference 2011

Yesterday was packed and today will be the same. Some things on today's list - Google Forms for Teachers & Administrators - it better be good; Engaging Digital Age Learners (good); UDL Posters (A++ Excellent); Multimedia Authoring (BAD); Alan November Students as Creators (Excellent)....then Posters & IPad/IPOD discussion...

9am - UDL Playground
Can we please do more professional development for Universal Design for Learning??? Can we build all of our curriculum around it??? If we do our students will SOAR and they will LOVE School! I spoke with Whitney Hoffman who co-authored, "Differentiated Instruction Book of Lists" - it will be available in August. She mentioned a few good tools... For the IPAD, Audionote & Homework App. She mentions that the Livescribe pen can be incredible helpful to the ADHD llearner. And also, make sure they have a coach at school for help and checking in.

LiveScribe Pen- Watch the Videos.

GREAT UDL RESOURCE: http://www.cast.org/

Maybe we can start a book study:
http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/



Create your own book! http://bookbuilder.cast.org/

Let's offer these PD courses online to teachers for PD credit: http://udlonline.cast.org/home

UDL Activities

• Getting to Know You the UDL Way
• How the Learning Brain Works: Your Three Brain Networks

I could do UDL all day long - please comment below if you have any experience, feedback or ideas on how we can implement more UDL principals in our schools!

10:30am Google Forms for Teachers and Admins

Parent / Student Data - Create a google form to collect data from parents - name, address, phone, who should I call about blah, blah, blah, any other special considerations... Parents will LOVE that you are interested and you will love having that information!

Homework Reflection - students do the homework and then they go to the form and answer the questions - what did you choose, put the names in for them so you can sort by name.

This is for newbs...I need to look at the program and see what else to run to so I don't miss something good. This audience is WOW because you can save the form as an excel spreadsheet. What am I doing here?

Here's Rushton's site: https://sites.google.com/site/rushtonatiste2011/home

11:00 - I RAN across the hall to the Grandballroom A to listen to the 2nd half of The Global Learning Imperative, Help Empower Our Students to Take Learning Global...

Alan November recommends we read the CIPA - the ONLY Federal regulation.... you do need to protect children, but TEACHERS DO NOT NEED TO BE BLOCKED!!! CIPA is written so teachers can use their own judgement to get through a filter to determine and decide about what they think is appropriate and valuable for a teachable moment.

The top two - FACEBOOK and TWITTER - how parents choose to get information from the school.

Key ideas behind the GCF is there are two groups on two continents can teach and learn together. The engineering teacher in England teaches the students in US engineering and the US teacher teaches the English students "Global Diversity." Students use screenshare and skype to share conversations and models of learni1ng.

Student presenter says - they don't need a teacher in the room while doing this because it is "engaging..."

Random: Ask your students to get a List of Students in England that Study the American Revolution - Alan November tells me not one student in the US cannot find it - because they cannot search globally... on Google - hash tags for egypt, kids are incompetent in making the connections - the global connections... We need to teach them the basic literacy of being global students. try this site:sch:uk"american revolution" - if you change site:ac.uk "american revolution" it will look for universities...

12:15pm - Peter Scott, Presenter (peter.scott@cengage.com) Brain Based Teaching Topic...Cengage Learning - Largest Aggregator of Information... Gale Virtual Reference Library.

"Kids today are far more visual ..." Peter discussions the parts of the brain and what they do... neocortex, etc.

Brain Based Learning Presentation will address ...

• Stimulating, varied input
• Active, meaningful learning,
• Accurate, timely feedback,
• Safe- non-threatening environment

Thefuntheory.com

Compelling, relevant tasks and goal setting - closely related to video games... read "how video games can make you smarter cnn article" ..."require extensive problem solving, teamwork and dynamic decision-making skills." ... encourages fans to fall on their face and then pick them selves up and try again without ridicule or embarrassment..."

Video Games are structured - go through the game and learn things and then you get to the ultimate battle where you have to use the skills you learn to win the battle... isn't that what we want in school? We could learn from the gaming industry... using concepts/ideas to establish a ground for learning.

Kids are generally not laughing and joking when playing video games - they are working...actually working and they are serious about doing well.

Q2L-curriculum based on gaming - Check out: http://q2l.org/

Book - Brain Based Teaching, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Jensen, Eric. 2005. http://www.jensenlearning.com/index2.php Buy on Amazon



Check out the Freedom Writers -

1:15 - FIND Food - every place is packed in the Terminal Marketplace so I found a WAWA and grabbed a couple of wraps for Cam and I and we sat in the ISTE Central Lounge. Cam stays and I go...

2pm - Multimedia Authoring Tools - Well, I ran over here so I could here about PowerPoint. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I'm outta here....

2:15 - Coaching Best Practices...Coaches have been providing support and opportunity for technology growth in schools across Pennsylvania. In this session, school leaders share best practices in coaching from various perspectives.Maybe I can pull some ideas from here, on how to improve "coaching" in our district. email contact jgates513@gmail.com

Instructional Technology person speaks about how she spent all of her time fixing things, but when classrooms of the future (pa listserv) started it changed her experience. .... TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR LISTSERVS!

We need to do PD on UDL and Project Based Learning.

This is great - confirmation of how much time it takes to be a tech coach. If you agree to help a teacher with a project, you need to make sure you have the HOURS of time available to prep and work on that project... Other coaches speak to the importance of reading, research and own PD - so you can be able to help when people ask!

She says, "she answers questions almost 24/7" - I know that is important. People don't need help just during the school day - Much of my job is done at night and on the weekends. It is very rare that I "check out...." Glad I am not alone.

Resources: http://visalia.k12.ca.us/techcoach/ | http://www.auburnschools.org/ahs/lehayes/ | Job Description of Coach in PA |

There needs to be a shared vision - Superintendent, Assist. Superintendent, Principals, SPED, and teachers...

3pm - Time for a Quick stop at the Student Posters and then off to the Alan November presentation

3:45 - Where the heck is Cam - eating up bandwith somewhere on my iPAd...
Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors PACC Grand Ballroom B

Student shows Jing as a way to make math tutorials....and make things for "mathdream" app...

Kudos to Stephanie Karabaic - with your summer reading program - the online book club! Alan November highlights how students are motivated when you create a learning environment that they can reflect in and that is open and voluntary. They will out perform your expectations, they will outperform others in regards to their engagement in summer reading. Yahoo, 21st century learning... Do you think you can get the author to join you on a Skype session or book chat? Ask!!!!

Primary Pad for young children - similar to Google Docs for little ones...?

Math instruction - different students taking notes on a WIKI or BLOG so you can share and contribute...authentic learning.

Alan repeated a lot of information from previous sessions, somewhat dissapointing.

Exhibit Hall - A visit to a few vendors...

5:00-6:15 - Birds of a Feather IPAD IPOD IPHONE APPS - a great session with excellent resources... http://www.iear.org/

It has been quite a day... lots of running. We stopped at some additional posters sessions but mostly got handouts, posters are very crowded it is difficult to engage. If you are there first you can get the presentation but it is hard to walk into the middle of it. I recommend if you are going to do a Poster, to plan it well... make sure you have everything clearly defined in attractive posters behind you, that you have a computer display set up to show examples, handouts, with contact information and websites, etc. Make it easy for people to take a snapshot, a video, or simply grab a handout...and don't forget the QRT...codes.

Quick dinner and then to bed. One more day...where does the time go? I already cannot wait for the next ISTE conference!

Day 2 ISTE Conference 2011 6/27

This morning started out with a visit to the Student Showcases. It is always packed and full of chaos. It's difficult to focus on one particular project so it is better to go with a destination in mind. I was looking for the Universal Design for Learning Using Data Analysis- 7th Grade presentation...that was my main focus and I was not disappointed!

Implementing New Curricular Learning with Universally Designed Experiences....

Perth Amboy Home Page and Link to Grant - http://www.paps.net

ISTE Presentation: https://sites.google.com/site/istepa11/home

Next, Cameron and I hit the EXPO center and hit a lot of presenters - got our Tshirts and freebies, but learned a lot! For example, we can request that the CSPAN bus visit our school....AND...what Google is "presenting" we already know and our doing in our LebApps already....AND later I will post a video presentation from GenYes - and yes, I will be looking for someone who would like to be a GenYes advisor!

Yikes, it's almost 11am already and I've got to get to the BYOL session "Technology for Improving Staff Morale.." You don't want to miss BYOL because you have to register in advance for these babies and you are only allowed 1 per day.

11:00am Staff Morale Rushton Hurley, Next Vista for Learning - focused on being creative and finding creative approaches to pd - for kids and teachers. Keep 'em motivated! Ok the biggest value is the link to his website: http://www.nextvista.org/ - he believes in sharing so get those ideas and use them.

12:15pm - Great Discovery @ the Games and Simulation Playground. We were introduced to MathTappers.com! Wow~ Apps for IPAD to help with math facts and more! Cannot wait to share with Judy Ross - we were just discussing this last week! These programs are free and I can envision putting IPOD TOUCH in the classrooms that kids can use during rotation times, etc... just another way to engage! I will post a video on this later as well!

Quick get to Google to the MAX!

12:45 - http://www.drhowie.com and http://www.toolsfortheclassroom.com

Check out the links above for more info on Howie's presentation. I left his presentation early to get to the exhibit all because it was just one slide after another of things you can do with google- like book lit trips, etc. Not really engaging or stimulating for specific ideas so I took down the links and scrammed where the action is in the Exhibit Hall!

Collaboration Fluency: Creating a Learning Environment for the Digital Age Classroom Ian Jukes, 21st Century Fluency Project with Lee Crockett Collaboration isn't a digital age skill, it's a digital age essential. This session examines fluency and how to teach it in a problem-based learning environment. Watch the recorded session


1-2:30 - Exhibit Hall - Toshiba, Vex,

2:30 - Collaborative Communities with Google Sites..
We are doing it in Lebanon already! But we can do more - here are some of my notes from the session.

Collaborative Documents - to build projects/plan itineraries together; student writing, dynamic seating chart (google presentation)
Forms - Formative and Summative Assessments - Pre Assessment, - Formative - Modify your instruction as you go along; Student Surveys - HS has already done this!
GROUPS - Groups is a Google version of a listserv; Use it for class discussions...; Embed the group into your classroom site; Easily send out emails to students and have them send them out as well; Teach students how to use email for productivity!

The bigggest FREE online course is starting now. If you are interested in blended and online learning I suggest you look at this course.... a FREE course... has the most members ever... https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/ if you are interested in online learning.

SITES FOR PORTFOLIOS

• Both teachers and students create a portfolio
• Students be required to create a portfolio to demonstrate their projects, competencies, extracurricular, job shadowing, elo etc

Check out this video on how students have become the IT trainers for Google Apps for Edu!

3:30 - Exhibit Hall - I never did find Haiku but we were inspired with Robotics and programming:

Brainpop has new "games" added to the mix and special pricing for "districts" - we should find out what we are paying for Brainpop and see if we can pull it into at least a K-8 license. Also, I would trade Atomic Learning for Brainpop in a heartbeat - it is CHOCK full of things for teachers, students and even parents! Here's a little video presentation from the Brainpop booth:

Did I mention that "Blended and Online" Learning are all over the place? Blackboard, Edline - there's learning3.com which has content built into it...it just makes me crazy with all of these options!

Check this out: www.worldleadershipschoolcom

Funding Factory! I signed up the district for fundingfactory.com - non-profit, fundraising through recycling program... cartridges, cell phones get you tech equipment, sporting goods, other stuff...Each school should make a "club" or get PTA to organize...

Special Ed still looking for IEP writing resource? Check out www.iepwriter.com

There were tons of resources for math - online based programs K-12. Education City was kind enough to give us a video demo TBP

Take aways & Quotes from Day One, Sunday 6/26

Moving into day two, I can't stop thinking about how exciting it is to hear so much research being shared about the brain. There is a lot of focus on student centered learning, Universal Design for Learning and most importantly - that each learner learns in their own unique way!

Based on my experience in educational technology, this is the reason technology is such a vital part of the learning process. Not only are we providing skills students will need or need now, but we are now capable of giving students choice in how they "receive" and how they "demonstrate" learning. We are able to work in harmony with their digital brains.

The president of ISTE said in her introduction last evening, "Many teachers teach the way they were taught...we need to change that..." I believe in many classrooms across America, we have. But we still have a long way to go. "We need to tap into the interests of students..."

In regards to how do we get there, she points out that in her experience the Professional Development Coach has been the most valuable - providing just in time job training. This could be a technology facilitator, technology integrator - someone who works with teachers to help them develop their expertise...

"Great success comes in schools with strong leader groups whose vision and passion make it happen...creating student environments to unlock their potential and thrive in a complex and ever changing world."

Per Dr. John Medina, "Every brain is wired differently from every other brain and learns in ways unique to that wiring..." How's that for a teaching challenge! :0)

Iste Conference 2011 Sunday 6/26 Keynote

Dr. John Medina Keynote Speaker

Brilliant performance by Dr. John, who addressed how each brain is unique and that we are all equipped to learn in our own individual ways.

Watch it recorded on the ISTE Website

Everyone should read about Brain Rules before raising children or teaching! It is never too late. Check it out! http:http:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif//www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif//www.brainrules.net/

Welcome to Brain Rules from Pear Press on Vimeo.

Approaching Grantgivers, How to write and how to sell it!
Presenter: Sheryl r. Abshire (www.cpsb.org)

Key points:

• Did you lose out on a grant? Ask to see all the ones that were funded. Look at the comments from reviewers on your grant.
• Want to develop winning edge? Volunteer to read grants!
• Research & background information - Go online and learn about funding for your topic, history of your topic, other issues related to your topic...
• Follow the RFP - grantors pay attention to whether you can "follow directions..."
• Have your grant "proofed" by an outsider
• Align with District/Board/School Improvement Goals
• Don't overpromise - keep it realistic.
• Create a compelling argument
• Focus on outcomes when writing your goal
• Your objectives are what you will do to achieve your goal
• Even if they don't require it, offer to present to their board or create an electronic presentation...
• What other venues will you present at?
• Hot topics: critical thinking, higher order thinking, problem solving, STEM, math and science, bilingual, social science, sped, career, and parent involvment/adult literacy.

Use marketing skills, ideas, and techniques to gain a competitive edge.

Don't give up!

An idea generated:
Goal: Increase student participation in Universal Design for Learning by implementing a laptop "checkout" program through the library so students can "take home" the computer with wireless access and view the multiple means of representation, participate in multiple means of engagement, and having choice in multiple means of demonstration of understanding. .... this needs work but the idea can be "modified" ... bridging the digital divide, student centered, teaching teacher about UDL....