Today, I had the pleasure of attending Lhric's TLI Tech Summit. It was
hosted on a rainy, gloomy day at the beautiful Edith Macy Conference
Center. What a shame those that haven't been here before missed out
on seeing some of it's beauty. The Conference Center is nestled in
the middle of the woods. It is carved into a hillside. A lovely
locale for learning.
Today's
event may have lacked the usual beauty of nature, but it did not lack
for the learning. It was so nice to see so many familiar, friendly
faces. It was great to say hello to BOCES employees from projects
past, technology colleagues we've known for years, a friend from
college days that happens to be in the same field, and DEN friends
Carlos Ramirez and Steve Dembo. Additionally several members of the
technology department from my district were in attendance. The day
provided a great opportunity to get together, compare notes, and
reconnect.
There
were several concurrent sessions. Various topics available for most
people's needs. Here are a few notes from some of the sessions that I
attended.
Session
One:
The
first session that I attended was provided by Dr. Frederick M. Hess.
How did I not know about his blog,
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/?
He presented interesting reminders that it isn't about the
technology. It is about it's application. A great analogy used was if
a class 60 years ago lamented that they didn't have a full class set
of pens would they not still be accountable for good, solid,
educational instruction. If that same class received the full set of
pens, would that insure that learning would increase? Why do we allow
others to claim we need more, more and more equipment and stuff. The
stuff isn't exactly what helps the students. It's their proper use
with the students to enact educational change.
It
was suggested that we in education might want to return to an
emphasis on Learning Science. Not Brain Science or Neuroscience. But
Cognitive Science. Considering how people learn could help us assist
students in achieving greater learning. Methods of bringing about
Cognitive Learning:
- Working
Memory and Long Term Memory
- Deliberate
Practice and Expertise
- Motivation
- Tutoring
Session
Two:
The
second session that I attended focused on wireless preparations for
PARCC testing and other online assessments. Recently, NYSED decided
to scale back it's implementation of PARCC testing. Hopefully this
constant emphasis on high-stakes testing will fade with the falling
leaves. But unfortunately, I think it is here to stay. District's
need to be prepared. If not PARCC, you can only imagine that some
form of standardized online assessment is the wave of the future. So
as not to be wiped away by the Tidal-wave, district's should be
increasing their network capabilities and infrastructure. For those
seeking solutions this session provided an overview of the
considerations for development. Thankfully our district has been
considering these concepts for awhile now. And also, thankfully it is
not my role to make decisions regarding this. My role is to support
it's implementation once designed and installed.
The
second session that I attended was provided by Christopher Craft.
As Mr. Craft described the journey we have taken with search engines
from Altavista and Dogpile to Google, I was reminded of the
ridiculous ads for the Bing Challenge. Their media campaign was
probably not designed to remind me that Google is the Gateway to the
Land of Knowledge. But that was it's end result for me. As Mr. Craft
discussed Google came along with so much to offer we haven't looked
back. Hard to remember their was a BG (before Google era). Two time
frames in history have carved our world considerably since the
original BC. The new BC (Before Computer) and BG (Before Google).
Glad I was born AD (After Digitization).
Another
discussion that some of my colleagues and I had today involved the
fact that we probably no longer qualify for Young Educator Network
status at ISTE. Although, by far we aren't passed our prime, we are
sadly now, past the young educator bracket.
Quick
office was mentioned as an option for editing Word documents on an
ipad. I have quick office on my phone. Didn't realize
there was an Ipad app. I so prefer my droid environment then the
ipad. However, I am trying to embrace the change and experience what
my staff goes through when embarking on a new journey with a new
technology tool. So I am grateful for something that might make my
transition a little easier. Of course Google Drive was the first app
I downloaded on the work ipad. I think that is most indicative of my
mindset lol.
Someone
earlier in the day had used the hashtag #showmethepractice. I love
that this was quickly added to the presentation. Mr. Craft shared
that he had been challenged and inspired by that statement. He
readily accepted the challenge. Good for him, modeling life long
learning and connected education.
Session
4:
The
fourth session that I attended was provided by Steve Dembo, Discovery Education. As always Steve was quite engaging. And he discussed engaging
students in their learning. Steve has been a fan of gadgets. He
presented several at a recent presentation and was asked to share a
few with us today. So he breezed through
Toys
like these are important because you are challenged to add value to
the next player.
-
-
One
Second Everyday - www.1secondeveryday.com
(snippets
of videos captured from your digital life and entered into a mashup
to convey an overview of time lapse)
A
few interesting thoughts from the presentation:
The
world is changing. You will be famous for 15 people now. Not famous
for 15 minutes.
Creating
a positive digital footprint is becoming a new essential skill for
students.
Educators
need to consider how we are sharing the positive stories from our
teaching experiences.
Let
students tell the story of their learning journey in the classroom.
Would the videos look the same when designed by others?
Taking
something great and making it your own
Telling
your story and sharing it
Aurasma
is now licensing through Marvel AR
Session
5:
The
fifth session that I attended was also provided by Christopher Craft. Mr. Craft discussed the security provided to school district's that
opt to sign on with Google Apps for Education. He conveyed anecdotal
stories of his interactions with some Google representatives and how
our data is stored redundantly. Even if someone could manage to
connect to our data it would be 1s and 0s that would need to be
converted. If data is created on a Google Apps for Education domain
the district still maintains ownership.
Mr.
Craft demonstrated Google Forms with a sense of humor. The first
question asked us to choose our favorite presenter today. The
possible answers were skewed in his favor to elicit a laugh. However,
if you are cheeky enough to be that creative with your form
questions, then I am cheeky enough to answer “someone else”. *waves,
yes that was me, hehehe*
He
clarified for those that needed to know that Google forms allows text
questions, paragraph questions, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose
from list, scale questions, date options, and time option questions.
I did learn that Google forms will now allow Grid 2x2 questions.
After
that he suggested that we go...Beyond the basics
Let’s
level up… Get that mushroom (I need to remember to bring that
gamification vocabulary into simple tasks as he modeled for us)
Some
tools overviewed included:
- Using
Google forms for teacher obseration.
-
gClassFolders
- Can be run as school or teacher based on roster to create folders
for classes – http://edurls.org/ku
-
-
Ask
parents to input data through Google forms on Back to School night
Doctopus
(document sharing script built into GclassHub) -http://edurls.org/kw
Have
students keep running idea journals in class
Pagemeister
(Script for Google Sites) -http://edurls.org/kx
Flubaroo
(Script for grading Google Forms) -http://edurls.org/kz [but it will
only grade multiple choise questions]
Session
6:
The
final session that I attended was also provided by Steve Dembo,
The
Epitome for kids… being the lineleader
Let's
create a culture where moving forward is a positive.
School
work may be the best view of work. It is created in conjunction with
teachers. Why isn’t this searchable on Google? Many districts set
policies of not sharing with the public.
His
son is age 6… He and his wife need to decide if he may blog by
himself vs blog through the adult. My how our world is changing! But
this is their world now. We need to adapt.
Gretzky
- “I skate to where the puck is going to be… not where it has
been.”
Samples
shown of:
How
do we create the culture that facilitates this? Unconference, Google
Genius Hours, etc. I have had the benefit of experiencing the Unconference format. Google docs and Unconferences help create customized learning open to the collective conscious. "Please sir, may I have some more?"
As
always it is a pleasure to witness Steve in action. I have had the
joy of seeing him present (oh a time or two... hehehe). Watching
others where this was their first exposure to the great Steve Dembo
was enlightening.
Thank
you Lhric for a great day of connecting and learning!
