LHRIC - TLI Tech Summit Notes

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:

1. Working Memory and Long Term Memory
2. Deliberate Practice and Expertise
3. Motivation
4. Tutoring

Also, with my vision abilities, I learn somethings that aren't necessarily intended. During Dr. Hess' presentation he incorporated graphics from http://www.glasbergen.com/education-cartoons/ and http://www.andertoons.com. These will be worth investigating later.

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.

Session Three:

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

• Life of George, http://george.lego.com/en-us/ (an idea is presented on a card, then you use bricks and make it, then photograph and share)
• Cubelets - http://www.modrobotics.com/cubelets ,learning programming before even learning language (programmable digital blocks with sensors)

Toys like these are important because you are challenged to add value to the next player.

• Makey Makey - http://www.makeymakey.com/ (simple sensor robotics controllers)
• Leap Motion - www.leapmotion.com (sensors that recognize motion activation)
• 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.
• FormEmailer – http://edurls.org/kt (A script for Google Apps
• gClassFolders - Can be run as school or teacher based on roster to create folders for classes – http://edurls.org/ku
• gClassHub - http://www.gclassfolders.com/gclasshub (A script suite)
• Autocrat (built into gClassHub) - http://www.youpd.org/autocrat (mail merges in Google Drive Script) – http://edurls.org/kv
• 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:

• Fake Amazon product page… you being the product ...write a public review of yourself
• Create About Me pages to represent yourself to the public
• Google Unhangout from MIT - one central session then splits you into small group conversation
• Projects by Jen Wagner - http://projectsbyjen.com/ Steve played one of her videos from the Oreo Challenge. It was interesting watching the audience root for the children involved. We do develop that personal connection through connected learning.

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!

Postcards passé?

Several years ago there was a song “Video Killed the Radio Star”. This song is echoing in my mind as I go about some preparations for a conference. And organizer politely asked if we could each bring post cards to represent where we are from. What a great idea! Of course I agree to grab one. Then I begin the process of thinking of where to point my vehicle to find one. Okay, so I used a little modern technology to help. I called a local grocery store:

Me: “Excuse me, do you sell postcards?”

Store Employee: “Do we sell what?”

Me: “Postcards. You know like for travel with pictures on them of places.”

Store Employee: “Oh, no. We don't sell postcards.”

Hmm where else to try. I emailed a local historical landmark. There they were very helpful. Although they don't have current postcards they were willing to loan me a vintage postcard if I returned it. I thanked them kindly for the generous offer. That would have been a huge help. Glad I found another alternative as I'm not sure I want the responsibility of caring for a vintage postcard that needs to be returned after 150 educators or so examine it. But I was indeed grateful for their kindness.

I had called a local bookstore. Remember those things. You know, an organized set of store shelves where you can buy (I know get this!) a book. Those hard bound or soft bound items of yesteryear that have words with meaning between the covers. This lovely local establishment carried postcards. The small businesses of America deserve our patronage. So here is their website: http://andersonsbooksny.com/. They were very sweet postcards for the next town over. As I was running out of options, I took them.

On the same street is a stationary store. I figured they were worth a shot. To my surprise they had a sundry of postcards. Those from my state and those for 5 or six of the towns in the local area. I snapped up a few as representation of the area. I now have postcards to bring to share. Yay!

But as I look at my newly acquired collection I was struck with the thought: Why, were these so hard to find. Has digital media killed the postcard industry?! As I purchased the first set at Anderson's, I commented to the shopkeeper. “I guess e-cards have sort of ended the use of postcards.” His response was “And mobile phones, you take a picture of where you are and send it to those you want to share it with instantly.” An excellent point! The handwritten note is becoming less and less utilized. It seems to me perhaps postcards on the decline now too.

Not too long ago, our town was captured in a project and book that is a collection of beautiful images from the town, http://www.101010nr.com/Slideshow/aerials/aerial_slideshow.asp. When I look at these amazing images that were collected, I have to wonder why this image is the one I was able to purchase. I am grateful to have a postcard to bring. But, is this the representation of where I am from that I wish to present. Our city has indeed become more of a city lately. But couldn't that have been captured with beauty? If you consider all the amazing images that appear in postcards of New York City, this is the representation of our town. I think I know the next project for school. Have students design postcards for our town. We are celebrating a milestone year of existence as an official town after-all. I think this might just be a great way for our students to participate.

Bloom's Taxonomy Adjusted

Back in my Education 101 courses we learned about Bloom's Taxonomy. Thank you, Brother. I still hear you in my head, "Child of Grace, these should be at the heart of all your teaching." The original skills of higher order thinking were: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. In recent years, this theory has been revisited. It has received an update by several in the field. The new skills are: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. 

First, I like that they have been changed to verbs. Our learning and knowledge acquisition should be active – therefore verbs should be used. But some have taken time to pigeon hole modern technology applications to fit these new standards. Honestly, at first I too thought this was a great idea. I was about to jump on the bandwagon. I jotted down the skills. I started to think about the applications teachers and students have at their fingertips at our school. I started to align to Bloom's work. 

I placed one tool (Socrative) in a category. I moved to the next category. I realized hmmm the same tool could fit here too. I moved to the next. Hmm it could fit here, here, and here. I realized maybe the skills haven't changed but our tools have. It isn't so much about the tool anymore as it is how we use the tool. 

I admit, last year I did a great Digital Learning Day event about the tools we have as teachers. Insert Elvis lip here on me. Maybe I should have focused on the skills and what tool to use to reach that skill or skills. This year in September, I will be hosting a Technology kickoff in my building for teachers. I don't want to ruin the surprise by revealing the theme now. But I realize that this year's theme I believe is more on track in a colorful way.

How can one tool meet several areas of the Bloom's Taxonomy? It depends on the application of the skilled educator. Thankfully I work with many such individuals. I am merely their guide to assist with integration. For example, if a teacher is interested in using Google Docs in the classroom. I could easily fit “Remembering”. If all they are doing is providing a lesson outline with it for students to read. If they created a flash card like deck in Google presentations. But it can do more. It can also fit “Understanding” if a teacher let's a student summarize what they have learned in a Google Doc. It feels like an infomercial going off in my head. “But wait, there's more...” It could fit “Evaluating” if teachers give students the flexibility to debate their new knowledge in a shared document. It could also fit “Evaluating” if a teacher presents a passage and request students to critique it. Still more. Of course Google Docs is an excellent tool for “Creating”. Students can publish their own stories, poems, and more. Hypothesize a theory for their predicted learning and then revisit and organize the notes from their new actual learning process that developed.

Things that make you go hmmm. So I could be painstakingly evaluating all the applications we have at school and aligning them to Bloom's Taxonomy. Instead I write this blog post to share my thoughts and will go pour a cool glass of iced tea. It is summer after all. Teachers are off July and August, right?

Oh if only those not married/involved with teachers knew the truth...

Seeking Personal Professional Development

background image by Usien
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dany_Reyes_juggler.JPG

A member of my PLN, Jerry Blumengarten, recently tweeted, "You should not have to wait to get PD you need. Be a constant learner on your own with great resources & support online." As I read these words the following image formed in my mind. Seeking professional development in our hectic, busy, Common Core, Data-driven lives is definitely a juggling act. Some will sit and watch the balls or rings fall and collect at our feet and have no idea what to do with them (let them fall). Some will pick up some and throw them away (toss them up). Others will pick up a few and run with them to put them to good use. Others yet will find a way to keep the cycle going. Toss some up. Catch some. Pass them around. Share them. Add new balls or rings. And keep it all moving fluidly. On different days I can be at different phases of the pd juggling cycle. However, in reading Jerry's words I find myself interested again in helping others to reach out and catch some new balls or rings and take them to heart (The perfect finishing act.) As someone who spends "free" time catching up with my PLN on Twitter, Google+, Edmodo, Facebook, etc. I obviously believe in receiving new balls pitched into my circle by friends. But it is up to me to keep the energy in motion or just let them collect at my feet. Thanks Jerry, for sparking this thought based on your words tossed back into the share-able collective instead of collecting at my feet.

ISTE Conference 2012 Power

Friday, June 22

Friday, after the closing of the school for the 2011-2012 school year, we headed to beautiful San Diego, California. We were headed out to #ISTE12 (International Society for Technology in Education Conference 2012). With great expectations in mind and business cards printed, we packed our bags and were on our way. Well almost... The heavens decided to open up on our way to the airport. We wondered if a monsoon had descended upon us. Of course, this meant the airline would have issues. Plane coming to get us was stuck in the Carolinas. So they sent another plane instead. Once we were finally seated on our plane the delays continued. Then the announcement comes over the loud speaker, “Does anyone have a medical background on board? A doctor or a nurse? One of our passengers could use a little medical attention at the back of the plane.” I feel bad for the person that needed medical attention. But seriously!?!?! Finally we are off to the magic that is #ISTE12.

Saturday, June 23

We were scheduled to attend the Discovery Educator Network ISTE pre-conference that next morning. However, with getting in so very, very late we unfortunately had to pass on this day of professional development and fun with our DEN friends. But as our plans had now changed, we had the flexibility to explore the city and check in for the conference. We picked up our conference bags and went for a walk around the Seaport Village. After such a hectic May and June at school, the beautiful scenery was much appreciated.

Sunday, June 24

Our conference experience began. ISTE provided a Kick-Off celebration to help get things underway. Peggy Shehy and Mario Armstrong provided great comic relief as they reminded us of other famous dynamic duos: Batman and Robin, Spock and Captain Kirk, Princess Leah and Luke Skywalker, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, and of course Mac and PC. We were encouraged to network and find our own partnerships. We met some lovely ISTE members during their networking activity.

During the conference, ISTE Award winners were recognized. Of course, our camera shutters clicked away in rapid succession as our Director of Technology received our Third Place SIGOL (Special Interest Group for Online Learning).

We then proceeded to the USS Midway for a light reception sponsored by an Interactive White Board vendor. They presented success stories in the field from some schools that had increased their student achievement rates. Karen Cator, Director of the Office of Educational Technology US Department of Education, addressed the group discussing the need to challenge our students and foster our teachers that are interested in researching that which works in Education.

Afterwards we went for dinner at a “World Famous Restaurant” that was quite an enjoyable way to end our day. We returned to our hotel to rest up for the next day's #ISTE12 adventures.

Life-long Learner

For students, summer is approaching.  Tomorrow they all return to their families for the next few months without the daily check ins with us from 8:27 to 3:15.  I know they will be excited for this "freedom".  Not spending their days with their wonderful educators at our school will have an effect on their development.  Some parents will organize enriching trips and visits to the library.  Some will encourage reading and some will encourage vegetation.  Hopefully more parents will choose wisely.

I love that we have many online resources that continue after the bell tomorrow.  Students will be able to "play" with Brainpop (http://brainpop.com), Starfall (http://starfall.com), and Discovery Education (http://discoveryeducation.com).  How little do they realize they are increasing their knowledge base while doing so.  Summer should mean put learning on simmer not turning off the gas.

Personally, I will be getting ready to attend an international technology conference.  I will making additional connections on Twitter.  I will be spending the summer exploring the features of Edmodo, updated Microsoft Office and Google more in depth.  Our goal should be to foster a sense of life-long learning.  I am grateful that my PLN helps me to be continually growing.  I enjoy modeling this desire for life-long learning.

What are you eager to explore this year? What do you hope to learn more about during the summer? I'd love to hear what everyone is up to now that we have "free time".

LHRIC Tech Expo

 LHRIC Tech Expo

April 27, 2012

The BOCES Lower Hudson Regional Information Center hosted a technology expo yesterday in Briarcliff Manor. It was hosted at the beautiful Edith Macy Conference Center. (#LHRICEXPO, Website Information). This full day conference occurred on a Friday. What a great way to begin the weekend. Feeding our #edtech brains with the nourishment to ponder new ideas, re-evaluate current practices, and strive for a better tomorrow for our students. Oh and did I mention as always the Edith Macy Conference Center provides the most wonderful food to nourish our physical selves while the Ed Tech discussion feeds our thoughts.

Here are some of my notes:

Keynote Session Attended:

David Warlick, 9:00 – 10:00 am

http://davidwarlick.com

Twitter: @dwarlick

This was not my first time hearing Mr. Warlick. But each time the experience is just amazing. What an eloquent, engaging, and informative speaker he is.

Notes from the keynote:

• We should strive to be a learner. He presented a photo of Stonehenge and informed us that scientists and mathematicians are attempting to recreate and calculate the sound that might have been heard inside Stonehenge. He claimed that he did not know this the day before he presented to us. I love this modeling of being a life long learner.
• The core of teaching should be to become a master learner.
• Mr. Warlick gave us a website with links to his resources. They can be found at http://idave.us. (Please becareful. I typed it incorrectly with a .com.... this is not the correct page. Please note the .us).
• And event notes could be found at http://colearners.idave.us.
• A really ingenious idea he has on his page. He uses an addon of a Google map that plots where he has been for a presentation. What a great day!
• Mr. Warlick also demoed a cool tool, http://knitterchat.com/. A backchannelling site of sorts.
• We have moved from an information scarcity society to an information abundance society
• Children today have no ceiling.
• Information today is networked, digital, and abundant
• We live in a “culture of hyperconnectedness”.
• Rather than necessarily bringing video games into the classrooms, let's figure out what it is about video games that we can learn from and bring that experience to the classroom setting.
• Mr. Warlick demonstrated the use of Scratch. This made me wonder if Scratch could be downloaded onto an offline computer. Then students could create but we wouldn't have to worry about the implications of the share button. Teachers could share by manually sharing the created files without having the automatic public sharing.
• We should be teaching digital responsibility – copyright, appropriate use, etc
• We learn from traction (the hard places). Excellent point. Makes you think about kill and drill vs. inquiry and exploration.
• Education should be a Responsive Experience
• The web moves at the speed of light http://personalizemedia.com/the-count has the data
• What can we learn from Gaming? Students need goals. Students need appropriate rules. How do our rules help us accomplish our goals?
• Start small. For example with an image. Then let students question their way into a topic.
• Good education provokes conversation.
• In gaming (and as it should be in education) It inspires personal investment. Children succeed by getting it wrong! How often do we learn from the wrong answer in the real world. We should be preparing students for this life skill.
• Mr. Warlick showed us doodlebuzz.com, http://doodlebuzz.com/
• According to their website, “DoodleBuzz is a new way to read the news through an experimental interface that allows you to create typographic maps of current news stories.”
• An interesting idea. Search on a topic through the news. Draw a doodle, line, etc. News articles will shoot off the doodle. Draw another line from a specific line of news to see more information.
• Students should be guided by safely made mistakes in order to grow
• Let's make it not about what you have been taught but about what you have taught yourself

First Session Attended:

Amy Rosenstein, 10:10 – 11:00 am

http://www.nysut.org/newyorkteacher_14270.htm

• Mrs. Rosentstein is a third grade teacher in Ardsley.
• She played an informative video on Skype. If this was your first time seeing Skype it did a wonderful job highlighting the tool's features. I have used Skype for many years. I did not know that you could drag and drop files directly to your connected partner through the Skype software.
• Mrs. Rosenstein showed a video synopsis of her program where students connected to individuals around the world.
• She mentioned Skype in the Classroom, http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/ and Epals to find connections.
• Teaching students to ask good questions is an important skill. Questions that lead to discussion are much more conducive to conversations online then yes or no questions are.
• Someone asked if Skype sessions can be recorded. Mrs. Rosenstein suggested Vodburner. I should try this again. I had attempted it before but was not successful. But after listening to Mr. Warlick remind us that we learn from getting it wrong, maybe it is time to revisit the tool.

Second Session Attended:

Rus Healy, 11:10 – 12:00 am

http://www.annese.com/

Well the useful points from this session were that we need to define the structure around beginning to think about Bring Your Own Technology. You need to define your intended audience. Will you begin with teachers, students, community, or any mix there of when designing your program?

Our goals should be:

What resources do we want members of the wireless network to access?

What users should we support? And how will they be supported?

Where will we provide this access?

What control level do you need to provide?

Pleased to have had lunch with my colleagues from New Rochelle and Adam Bellow. It was great to catch up and compare notes.

Third Session Attended:

Adam Bellow, 1:10 – 2:00 am

http://www.edutech.com

Twitter: @eduTecher

I have had the pleasure of knowing Adam for a few years through both the Discovery Educator Network and ISTE Young Educators Network. It is always great to hear him speak. I always come away with a wealth of information and new ideas.

It's funny, as I am about to blog, I notice I begin to write my notes as “Adam shared a soapbox link, http://bit.ly/TechForum2012.” Interesting how my edtech voice changes when it is a member of my PLN. Above I wrote respectfully “Mr. Warlick gave us a website with links to his resources”. Why am I not now beginning this section of notes as “Mr. Bellow”? Perhaps it has to do with Adam Bellow's kind nature. Although he has many accolades behind his name, he never fails to greet those he knows and remembers warmly. I feel honored that through the DEN and ISTE I have met many wonderful, highly reputable ed tech leaders. Many of whom I am graced with the privileged to call friends. These members of my PLN would not be addressed Mr. Dembo, Ms. Naugle, Mrs. Parisi, Mr. Davidson, Mrs.Sheehy, Mrs. Sharoff, etc. The wonderful thing about PLN's is that P. Yes Paula L. Naugle (my former roomie is always special in my heart). But I mean PLN as in Personal Learning Network. The P for personal is what makes it such a great social learning experience.

Now please forgive me as I address Mr. Bellow as Adam in my notes:

• Adam shared a soapbox link, http://bit.ly/TechForum2012.
• Love the term he used “a fremium service”. He discussed how some tools eventually require a fee. Although I agree with the companies an excellent tool is worth the fee. I also agree with Adam that companies should work with educators to make the fee reasonable. And teachers should have a plan B, C, D, E, and perhaps F and G.
• Technology evolves so should Education.
• Adam played a video regarding the History of Ed Tech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ0nlh5FU5A It was interesting to be reminded where we came from and where are now. It is exciting to consider where we will be?
• As always, Adam's sense of humor and whit came out in his presentation. He talked about being college (showed an image of a set of desks) and career (showed a cubicle) ready (showed a headstone). His presentations are not those horrid presentations of black text on a white screen with too much information to absorb. Adam models teaching digitally.
• IEP should be for all students. Doesn't an Individualized Education Plan sound like a universal idea?
• Any teacher that can be replaced by robots should be.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Qc_nmSUGQ Love this video. So glad Adam incorporated it into you his presentation.
• A slide mentioned several tools that I was familiar with however, I am not familiar with http://www.wolframalpha.com/. Thanks Adam! I love learning about new things in passing. It wasn't necessarily something that he was presenting on. Just happened to appear. Digital Learning at its finest.
• Edmodo is training wheels for exploring social learning. Great analogy. I hope to borrow that for a presentation of my own that I need to do for my superiors regarding a recent project.
• You can't predict the future. We need to build it. Here here. Not to be dripping with Discovery references but Let's Build It Bigger and hopefully better than it has been. Bring on the interaction. Bring on the enjoyment from learning. Bring on the future.

Fourth Session Attended:

Dr. Annette Lamb, 2:10 – 3:00 am

http://www.eduscapes.com

• Dr. Lamb (hmm back to that respectful professional tone) covered all the basis of the Google Search left hand navigation panel. So many cool new features have been added. Some I have been taking advantage of for awhile. Some were newly introduced to me by Dr. Lamb.
• It would be wise as she modeled to go over the left navigation search panel and show students all the possibilities they have to them.
• In Google similar image search you can now drag and drop an image from your desktop. This was a very cool feature Dr. Lamb showed. I have used the url image and the upload app to tell Google what image we want to find similar images of on the web. I haven't done this via drag and drop methods yet. Very cool
• Life magazine images are now available in Google Image Search.
• Youtube has an educator/schools portal. Youtube for schools. FAQ.
  • Appropriate education channels can be limited to view and exclude the extras that are deemed inappropriate
    • BBC
    • Discovery
    • National Geographic
• Blog search is available on the left navigation search panel. Filter results from the search engine to just blogs.
• Google patents – find the original primary source documents regarding the filing for any particular patent.
• Google applications – search for related applications to a search term.
• Some google skills:
  • Generate questions
  • Identify key words
  • Select google tools
  • Analyze google snippets
  • Identify main ideas
  • Connect to questions
  • Evaluate resources
• Bubbl.us – web graphic organizers for video, audio, graphics and text
• If you search in Google by action words they will find videos
• Reading Levels search by basic, intermediate, and advanced
• Teach students that the url has changed after clicking on a Google result. You are no longer in Google. Teach them to look at the url address bar to see where they are “located”.
• Analyze who created the page, why should we believe the information
• Google Search stories – 7 options of searches (I have been asked to draft a direction sheet on this. I will do so shortly).
• Google now has hotel finder and flight (show time and distance of any flight)
• Google Elections
• I know to Google myself to stay aware of what is written on the web. But use Google Scholar too to see if your referenced in articles.
• http://www.goorulearning.org/ Gooru for learning tools
• Google Science Fair
• Gwigle Game (http://gwigle.varten.net/) to practice searching

What an amazing amount of material was covered quickly.

Fifth Session Attended:

Web Tools to Make Your Classroom Rock

Adam Bellow, 3:10 – 4:00 am

http://www.edutech.com

Twitter: @eduTecher

A second helping of information on tools to bring to our classrooms were showcased by Adam.

• He mentioned that Educational technology should be about what the stuff let's us do, not about the stuff.
• http://mentimeter.com/ A response system creator for phones
• http://www.thinglink.com/ Make your images interactive
• http://www.thinkbinder.com/ for online study groups
• http://fur.ly/ shorten multiple urls into one easy url shortener
• http://tildee.com/ How to direction list creator
• http://www.wevideo.com/ Online video editor and collaborator
  • Private and shared libraries can be created
• http://present.me Put yourself into your presentations. Video over slideshows overlay. Really cool tool. This was demonstrated to me at a DEN event in the fall. But I had unfortunately forgotten about this tool. Grateful for the reminder.
• http://www.ujam.com/ Can't wait to share this one with teachers. This tool was very new too me. Record audio and convert to instrumentals
• http://ifttt.com/ Great task created if this then that. Set up parameters to put the web to work for you.
• http://www.stixy.com/ A popup sticky wall of notes. Similar to a wall of online Post-its
• There is no finish line. Love that statement. The goal should be lifelong learner and tools constantly change. There really is indeed no finish line.
• EduTecher, http://edutecher.com/, has a back pack feature where you can save your favorite tools
• What fabulous resources for everyone to explore and possibly integrate!

What a great day of social learning and socializing! The day concluded with a raffle giveaway. One experience that was quite comical was when I was asked to choose one of the raffle tickets from the bag for the numbers to be called. I quipped, “I don't want to pull the raffle ticket. I want to have the winning raffle ticket.” The number I happened to choose was one digit away from my own number. Too comical for words. Thank you LHRIC for providing such an amazing day. Thank you presenters for a wonderful learning experience. And a very special thank you to the vendors that helped make the day possible.