Session descriptions (by title)

Sometimes I'd start in one session and then realize that it was not engaging me and so I would move to another room. That's not to say that the sessions I left weren't good; they just weren't what I needed. The sessions were perfect for people who weren't already into educational technology as much as it's been my pleasure to be. This was something that I need to remind myself of over and over again when I'd wonder why certain sessions seemed to be too basic. Googling the conference after the fact, I found that I was not alone in this. Check out Dan Meyer's blog.

Returning to my Pollyanna instincts, I just need to convince myself that the presentations weren't basic- they were just .... differentiated instruction.

8:30- 9:30 Concurrent Session 1

Technology and Differentiated Instruction

Focusing on Gardner's multiple intelligences to give examples of how it's not a case of how smart are you but HOW are you smart.  Saw this at a BTSA workshop back in 1997. Have revisited it often since then and so I'm moving on.... but I will add give you a link to help you pinpoint YOUR multiple intelligences. Take the test!

Podcasting to Improve Vocabulary Development ("Vocabucasting")

Even though most of the examples were for the lower grades, this would be an excellent and engaging tool for ELL (more ELL ideas from 'mizmercer'). Amazing to find presentations have been prepared on wikis, just like the one for  'vocabucasting.'  Even though this session is only an hour long, I will have hours worth of resources to sort through because of the foundation they have laid in their wiki. Missed the very beginning of the presentation but basically you:

1. choose a word.

2. define the word-On Macs, use the dashboard + sign and add the dictionary widget. Can't copy and paste from the widget, though.

3. find an image to associate with the word- need to figure out the filtering so as not to pull up inappropriate pictures. You'd be surprised at what pops up in Google Images under 'amazing.' Pics4Learning, Discovery Streaming Video has images. If the students have digital cameras to use, they can take pictures of each other (or short videos) demonstrating the words. How would you illustrate nebulous or justice? Perhaps it's not possible; their sentence just might have to serve. Contextual hints could be best in this case.

4. The presenters used GarageBand (Macs only) to create the vocabucast. Handouts are available within their wiki (click on the link above for the word 'vocabucasting') for step-by-step instructions. PCs could use PhotoStory 3, a free Microsoft download.

5. Very important to add citations for all resources that were used. That is one of the ideas that I want to stress in this open source world; sharing is wonderful but you need to give credit where credit is due.

KidPix, Photo Story 3, power point, many different tools could be used for this. Podomatic is not platform specific. Audacity can do more than GarageBand. Equipment page information lon the wiki ets you see how you can use what you already have.

10:00- 11:00 Concurrent Session 2

Instead of taking a break, I popped into other rooms to see if I could snag any interesting materials. Got the handout for on how to motivate teaching and learning but I think the presenter broke a rule of teaching; he didn't stay within the allotted time. I was expecting to see the vaudeville hook come from behind the projection screen; he was still talking 15 minutes after he should have let everyone go. I popped in to "Kids, Cartoons and Current Issues," (oops, wrong link) which seens geared to lower grades again. However, we teachers are SO flexible, we know how to tweak any idea to suit our purpose (grade level, subject).

Deadline: Magazine Production for Middle School Student 

• I'm hoping to resurrect the Bulldog Blog and so here I am. The presenters are from Wisconsin (5 blocks from Packer Stadium- "We miss Bret but we're coping."). The magazines that their students created ranged from fashion to sports, one student even created a mythology magazine. They do this with 3 'academies' (around 80 students). Only 1 person from each academy (or 'team') can do a subject (can't have 20 baseball magazines - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!). They use Microsoft Publisher to produce their work. Students are 'paid' in funny money.- they do not receive anything for it. It becomes a competition to see who can 'earn' the most. What if we had school scrip that could be redeeemed at the school store (run by Business Academy students) to buy Encina brand materials (pencils, etc.)?
• No clip art or internet images except for the cover. Magazine editor 'hires' others to contribute work- articles, artwork, research, etc. No one wants to hire someone who doesn't give them edited work. Students are given $2000 from the teacher to create a market ad. There is no verbal communication between students; they need to communicate through mail (teachers are the only ones to handle the mail in their model- I see lots of work in that- rethink) and check the bulletin board to see who is advertsing for what. "I'd like to write an article about Hercules." "Sure, I'd like to include this in my Mythology Mag. How much will you charge me for the article?" With 80 students, there were 80 different magazines to create. You could contribute to many different magazines.
• First task, read a magazine yourself. Identify who the readers would be. Create a survey. If no one is interested in reading about mythology, you might have a hard time hiring people so that you can complete your magazine.
• Write a business letter asking for $2000 in start up funds. Physical mailboxes (one 'in' and one 'out'), letters written on 1/2 sheets of paper. Need to keep the letters in order to solve disagreements. Expected to write 5 letters a day. I'm very impressed with the way they have organised this project. It offers wonderful real world skills for the students (Business Academy ELA!!!!!). Oh wait....standards:(not a problem...it just means that I need to do some research to see how they align).
• You want the teacher to check your work? These 'experts' are expensive. Students tend to do more of their work. There is even a loan process (and the teachers charge interest).
• Interesting! They cannot correct work submitted by others- this is considered plagiarism. They need to return the work, write a letter explaining what needs to be changed and do not pay until the work is submitted satisfactorily.
• Their school has a tech person who is responsible for putting the pages online. They also check for plagiarism. It takes 3-4 weeks before content is published.
• Legal rights explained- 1st rights, 2nd rights, all rights. The entrepeneurs start coming out of the cracks- they want to negotiate for 'all rights.' The implications of this are not explained to the students; they figure it out for themselves. Another wonderful real world lesson.
• Dispute mediation- figure it out on your own or 'hire attorney/teacher' to solve it, which is naturally an expensive option. Even if you (the teacher) have a gut feeling that you know, the truth of the matter, you must decide based on the documentation provided; this is a business. Teachers also serve as accountants. The expense sheet is initially modeled on an overhead to give the students a thourough introduction to the process.
• Very successful presentation. I was engaged and constantly thinking about how this could be tweaked to used in different classes. Hopefully I can adapt it for some future use at Encina.

11:30- 12:30 Concurrent Session 3

Decisions, decisions, where to go next. I'm torn between Professional Development models and online high schools. Two different corridors. I'll sit here in the corridor outside Peet's Coffee at the Marriott and continue charging my machine. It's so strange to me that power is not readily provided at the conference- no plugs available in the session rooms. Well, shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth; wireless internet is free at the convention center and $14/day at my hotel. Sixty-three percent should get me through a session. Love the battery on this MacBook. If I had my HP tablet, I would have died ages ago.

A Model for Professional Development; Sharing, Learning, Doing

• Clark County school district in southern Nevada. 5th largest district in the country. Encompasses nearly half the state. Principal of Elton M. Garrett JHS presenting. 85% Caucasian, 17% low socio-economic student population- 550 students over 3 grades. Now they're discussing where the money came from to get the grants for the computers....On to another session; this isn't what I was looking for though it would be a good session for those who don't have much technology at their schools yet.

Technology to Build Language Development in ELLs

• Photograph realia, Google Images- again, been there, done that, moving on....

Data Management Considerations for Online High School

• From the state of Wyoming- Wyoming e Academy of Virtual Education  This is their 5th school year. Presented by Katie Logan (Technology Director) and David Glick (external evaluator).
• Attending is a Visions technology leader- teachers still go to the students in the field. He has 4 programmers putting together SIS (student information system), LMS ( learning management system) and Virtual School Specific data. Nothing can deliver all 3 of these components unless someone builds an new program. Works with 3000+ students.
• Teachers aren't expected to build the courses (write the curriculum). That involves a different skill set and they are not compensated for it. Can find curriculum at National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) from the Monterey Institute. Available free at Hippocampus (so why pay?).
• Marketing concerns: is this something that we are just creating for our students or is it more broad-reaching? This makes me think of what Lynne Tracy has been talking about- having courses to hold Encina's newly registered students to help them catch up to where they need to be so that they can function in the classroom.
• No vendors (Infinite Campus, etc.) have successfully created a hybrid program that incorporates a Student Information System with a Learning Management System. Therefore there is a need to look at flexible scheduling, different definitions of attendance, individualized pacing, etc. Any online program invites greater scrutiny by the stakeholders.
• North American Council of Online Learning- professional organisation of online learning for K-12, Keeping Pace- Review of state level policies and practice in online education.
• Wyoming is paid on an average daily model (ADM), and students can roll their attendance over to the next year. They only give "the state the info they ask for." It's an October 1st count. Several schools in Wyoming are in deficit spending. California has a December count and an 'Aprilish' one. The problem with the Wyoming LMS is that there is no leveled access. Teachers can't see only their own students; they see everyone who is enrolled in the course.
• What confluences have to occur to meld the 3 main components of an online school? If the whole country used SASI and Blackboard (which is geared toward higher education- 13+) , then districts could have their Virtual School data 'talk' to these two. But there is also Moodle, eCollege, etc.
• Lots of good questions raised but there are no easy answers.

1:30- 2:30 Concurrent Session 4

Great minds think alike- I found Matt Cole in this session. He's the technology leader at Will Rogers (and teaches 4 classes as well).

My Tech Desk- High hopes for this session since first hearing about it yesterday.  I'm enthused by the scope of this free product. It's a way to create tech tickets/work orders for our site. Here's a basic power point that was used in our session and a brochure about the program. There are full and 'lite' versions- both are free to schools. This is the information on the upgrades. School districts who use MTD are listed on this XL sheet and here is another power point which discusses the program in greater detail and includes many pertinent links.

• Group manager controls access rights. Others are Staff (up to 35 members) and Customers/Requestors (unlimited).
• GM and staff log in on one page and customers log in on a different page.
• GM grants permissions to staff, so it is feasible to have student staff.
• As a GM, am I burdened with deciding who does what? Tickets can be self-assigned by staff. Many of these possibilities are detailed on the first ppt above.
• Requestors can enroll themselves and create accounts. It's also possible to create a group directory (but I don't kow that we would need this if we just use it at a school level and not district).
• More free stuff: edZone. Too many features to list so here is what they wrote on their page: The California K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) is offering a comprehensive set of tools to support teaching and learning in California classrooms. This free suite of tools, edZone, currently includes blogging, videoconference scheduling and a file sharing system where educators can upload videos, podcasts, images and documents. EdZone is an excellent tool to share lesson ideas, upload student learning objects, disseminate best practices, and more! Make sure you take advantage of these free resources provided by the California K-12 High Speed Network and the California Department of Education. EdZone will soon be expanded to include Instant Messaging, Moodle, Wikis, Social Networking, Moodle-an online course management system and other Web 2.0 tools to enhance today's classroom environment. Watch for these new tools coming soon!
• edZone assets- inventory tracking. Current system is able to crosscheck inventory. Works in conjunction with My Tech Desk. HALLELUJAH!!! IT APPEARS THAT MY INVENTORY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. Have to pour over the info in this blog when I've got the time.
• Connectivity info at K-12 High Speed Network- a secondary backbone when fully implemented. Has received funding to develop resources. One of the tools that it supports is MTD.
• It's all free....I'm wondering if I have to hand over my firstborn or something. This sure seems to good to be true.
• Ed Tech Voucher Program eligible box is available on certain reports.
• In addition to GenYes (only student tech support program that I had heard of so far), there is also Student Tech Corps (and the Mouse Squad) so I'll have to look into Tech Corps. Evidently, El Sereno is getting ready to use this. Spoke at length with Robert Myers (housed at SJHS for El Sereno) and promised to share this wiki with him. Jan Half (need to check her business card to see if I got her name right) told me about a session tomorrow afternoon at 4 that will have students demonstrating their tech support skills. I look forward to learning more about Mouse Squad.
• Time to figure out where I want to go for the last session of the day (boy, am I tired!).

3:00- 4:00 Concurrent Session 5

Using Technology to Create International Dialogue in the Classroom

• Global Connections and Exhange program (GCE) provides connections between US and Eurasian students.
• Gureau of Educational and Cultural Affairts at the US Dept. of State and administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). Contact Person: Mehri
• Gives students an authentic audience for their writing.
• It's an e-coaching model. Need to be flexible in the collaboration, particularly when working with residents of (somewhat) totalitarian governments. FULL collaboration model is still pie-in-the-sky.
• Designing and inplementing a lesson plan for curriculum based projects. Step 1- find common themes. Step 2- connect to the state frameworks. Step 3- do your research. Step 4- develop universal questions (and fix typos on your power points before you present them!) Step 5- Choose a product. (By the way, if you find typos here, check again tomorrow- I reserve the right to type quickly to get as much down as possible and then edit it at my leisure in the evening). Another presentation point- don't make the font so small that it gives your audience a headache as they strain to read the print....
• Lots of detail regarding starting up with technology. A little too basic for me but totally relevant to those who don't have much technology at hand.
• Getting grumpy because I'm getting tired and the air is blowing down on my head. Moving on....

I hear that ILC might be creating a spot for all of the presenters to upload their presentation materials. That would be really great. Went back to the hall in the evening to check out some of the vendors. Did I mention that I won a raffle for a year's subscription for Nettreker? Time to read the program to figure out what I'm going to attend tomorrow.

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