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Be a Presenter at ICE Conference 2010

ICE Conference 2010: A Learning Odyssey is months away, but the process of building the program for the conference begins right now. We have been working with a new company that will assist us with all phases of our conference planning and management tasks, and we are ready to unveil the first segment of that new system—the online proposal submission tool.

If you are interested in being a presenter at our next ICE Conference, please click the link below to access the online submission form. Our first priority is to get a full schedule of full-day and half-day workshops in place, but we are also interested in developing a strong and diverse program of general breakout sessions and poster sessions:

Click Here to Be a Presenter

People who conduct full-day workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday are paid for their services and those who conduct half-day workshops on Thursday and Friday morning get free admission to the conference for the remainder of the day of the workshop.

If you have developed some successful technology-infused classroom activities that you would like to share with other educators or enjoy demonstrating some of the exciting features of software applications or new Web 2.0 tools, please consider signing up to present at the ICE Conference.

If you have presented in the past, you will see a few changes when you use our new online proposal submission tool. You will be asked to create a new user account the first time you access the system, but once you have done this, you will use the same log-in information each time you wish to add new proposals, edit existing proposals, or sign up for other conference-related activities.

The expertise and passion that our members bring to the ICE Conference make it one of the premier technology conferences in the nation. Please consider sharing your knowledge and help other educators to learn more about the many ways that technology resources can be implemented in their classrooms. Thanks—have a great summer!

ICE Conference 2009 was a Huge Success!

Continuing in the pattern of steady growth that has characterized the ICE Conferences that have been held at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles in recent years, ICE Conference 2009 was the biggest event that ICE has ever hosted. We had over 1,800 attendees on Thursday alone and over 3,000 unique registrations for the entire conference. These are both new high water marks for our annual event. Many thanks are due to the large group of conference committee members, tech staff members, and ICE volunteers who worked hard to make sure that everything ran smoothly over the four days of workshops, breakout sessions, and special activities.

There were several new venues that were set up this year to offer additional information for attendees and to provide new opportunities to learn about emerging technologies. The ICE booth pictured above was expanded significantly and was filled with visitors throughout the conference. A new Thursday keynote luncheon event was held for the first time, and David Thornburg spoke to a sold-out audience at the Advanced Center for Training facility. The poster sessions, Assistive Technology Playground and Second Life Playground were all housed in the Marsalis Rooms near the Atrium this year, and the presenters were busy through all of the scheduled sessions on Thursday and Friday. Another new venue was the Personal Learning Network (PLN) Plaza near Preservation Hall, and it was also busy throughout the conference.

As noted above, special thanks go out to the dozens of committee members and volunteers who have met regularly since April, 2008, to plan and organize all of the procedures and activities that are essential for a successful conference. Each morning during the conference, an army of tech specialists wearing red shirts met to discuss the computer installations and network configurations that would be required to support the presentations and demonstrations for that day. In other locations around the conference center, dozens of ICE volunteers were helping attendees to get their materials and find the locations for the presentations they hoped to see.

ICE Conference 2009 is still fresh in our memories, yet the planning for the 2010 event will begin in just a few weeks. If you enjoyed the conference, please consider volunteering to help with next year's conference - "ICE Conference 2010: A Learning Odyssey." It promises to be bigger and better than ever!

Get Ready for ICE Conference 2009

Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are behind us and we look ahead to new challenges and experiences in 2009, it is a great time to remind you that registration for ICE Conference 2009 is already in full swing. Pre-Conference booklets that contain information about workshops, featured speakers, and special events were mailed to all ICE members and school officials at the beginning of December. If you did not receive a copy in the mail, you can visit the ICE Conference 2009 web page and download a copy of the booklet in PDF format or just click the link below to download the file.

Download Ice_2009

I encourage you to register now if you want to be sure of getting a seat in one of the many full-day and half-day workshops that are being offered this year.

Conference Details

Name: ICE Conference 2009: “Connecting to the World of Tomorrow”

Dates: February 24-27, 2009

Location: Pheasant Run Resort and Conference Center

Web Site:  Click here to view the site.

Online Registration Form: Click here to access the form.

Personal Learning Network Plaza

One of the new activity areas at the conference is the PLN Plaza, a place to expand your own personal learning network. Scott Meech is one of the organizers of this space and he has shared the following description:

Are you a blogger?  Do you use Twitter, Plurk, Ning, Facebook, MySpace, Listservs, or any other of the many social networking resources that are available to teachers and students today?

Even if you are not actively using these resources and are just curious to learn more about them, please plan to stop by the new "Personal Learning Network Plaza". Take a seat and open up a dialogue with your fellow ICE members. You will have a chance to learn more about "social networking" and meet others who are as passionate about education as you are.

The PLN Plaza is a great opportunity to meet people in person, face-to-face.  For many, the best part of a conference is the opportunity for conversations that go beyond the sessions.  It is always fun to meet people you have never spoken to in person before but with whom you have interacted online. Perhaps you will meet someone who is already in your network.  You might even meet someone who can become a part of your existing or new network.

Just as we are looking for ICE members to visit the new PLN Plaza at the conference, we are also seeking people who blog to commit to a 10 minute “meet and greet” session and talk about their blogs and their blogging experience.  There will be two Promethean Boards on display Wednesday evening and all day during the conference on Thursday and Friday.  The boards will display Twitter accounts, Summize.com, and Plurk.  Additionally, our bloggers will have their blogs on display during their “meet and greet” sessions. Look for more information on the ICE web site in the weeks ahead.

Regardless of your motivation, the new "Personal Learning Network Plaza" is a great place for open discussion and to interact with many other ICE members!

 

Mt. Vernon Conference

Educators from all across the southern region of Illinois will gather in Mt. Vernon on October 30 and 31 for the 29th annual Mt. Vernon Conference. I am joined at this event by ICE past-president Kathleen Molloy and Mindy Fiscus, a member of the ICE Governing Board and one of the planners of the conference. Other Illinois educators with links to ICE who will give presentations include Luke Allen, Meg Ormiston, and Kurt Strothmann, and many ICE members will be present at the conference.

I will be representing ICE at the Mt. Vernon Conference and I will conduct two presentations titled, "Illinois Computing Educators: Growing and Evolving to Meet your needs. Kathleen and I will also be available at the ICE booth throughout the conference to explain the opportunities and benefits available to ICE members, and we will encourage attendees to sign up to join our organization.

We also have big plans to promote ICE at the upcoming IETC in Springfield in November, and we will continue to explore the possibilities of establishing new ICE chapters in regions of the state that are currently too distant from existing chapters.

Beardstown Teacher Institute

ICE President Ginger Long and I are in Beardstown to represent our organization at the annual Regional Teacher Institute serving Brown, Cass, Morgan, and Scott Counties in the Western region of Illinois. We will set up an ICE booth to invite the educators in attendance to learn more about the programs and benefits that we offer, and we will each present breakout sessions as part of the Institute program. The keynote speaker is Christopher Koch, State Superintendent of Schools.

This teacher institute is the first of a series of events across the state in the next two months in which members of the ICE Executive Board will join me to promote ICE activities. On October 17, Kathleen Molloy and I will join leaders of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) and the Illinois Chief Technology Officers (IL-CTO) to host the second annual TechCon conference in Naperville. Kathleen and I will travel to Mt. Vernon on October 30 and 31 for the 29^th annual teacher conference coordinated by Mindy Fiscus and her colleagues at ROE 25 in Hamilton County and Jefferson County. Finally, several members of the ICE Executive Board will represent our organization at the 15^th annual IETC Conference in Springfield on November 20 and 21. ICE is a Gold Sponsor for the event and we hope to see many of our members at this great conference.

Remember that even though ICE Conference 2009 is still months away, registration for the conference will open in just a few weeks. Watch the ICE web site for more information.

Announcing the ISTE Season Pass Series

The phrase “win-win” is often overused to the point where it has lost much of its meaning, but our parent organization, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), has just announced an incredible professional development opportunity that can be of tremendous value to both your school district and ICE. The program is called the Season Pass webinar series and entitles school leaders to offer as many as 30 different webinar topics to all of the teachers in their schools or districts for a one-time cost of $795. Even better, each time a school district purchases one of the ISTE Season Passes, the ICE organization automatically receives a $100 check from ISTE. It is a great way to provide quality professional development opportunities for your colleagues and help support the programs with which ICE is involved at the same time.

The ISTE webinars are held all through the school year on topics that include Web 2.0 resources, digital storytelling, Google Earth, copyright issues, distance learning, Moodle, digital photography, and many others. Each webinar program is archived so that subscribers can access them and use them at staff meetings whenever school leaders prefer to show them. You can view the full webinar schedule by clicking this link.

Below are links to two documents that contain more information about the Season Pass program. It is important to note that ICE will not receive the $100 affiliate benefit unless the individuals who purchase the Season Pass program are also ISTE members and have updated their member profile to indicate that they are also members of ICE.

Download webinar_season_pass.pdf
Download season_pass_incentive.pdf

With the new school year at hand, this new program can be a significant and very cost-effective way for school districts to provide the vital professional development courses that are so important to all educators. Please feel free to contact me at the ICE office if you have more questions about this webinar series.

TechCon 2008

The Illinois Association of School Business Officials, the Illinois Computing Educators and Illinois Chief Technology Officers are pleased to announce the second annual:

TechCon: Technology and Financial Issues for the 21st Century Conference

Technology is changing society and education. From business managers to technology directors, investment in technology will change the future of learning. As access moves faster than understanding, education professionals must keep pace. Illinois ASBO, the Illinois Computing Educators and the Illinois Chief Technology Officers have created a conference to meet these needs.

Of special interest to educators is the fact that noted speaker Wesley Fryer will give the keynote presentation in addition to a breakout session later in the day. ICE members David Jakes and Charlene Chausis are also featured presenters during the day, and each will present sessions focusing on the challenges and opportunities that Web 2.0 resources present to teachers and school administrators.

The 2008 TechCon will be held on Friday, October 17, 2008, at the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville; 1801 Naper Boulevard, Naperville, IL 60563. For more information about the event and links to the online registration site, please click the link below to view the conference web site:

http://events.iasbo.org/techcon/index.html

Last year's conference was a great success and this year's event promises to be even more powerful. Please save the date and plan to join us for a valuable and thought-provoking program!

Be a Presenter at ICE Conference 2009

I hope that you are enjoying your well-deserved summer break! Even though the next ICE Conference is many months away, the members of the ICE Conference Committee have already been at work for the past several months planning the next event scheduled for February 24-27, 2009.

I am writing to let you know that we have just opened up the process for accepting proposals to present at ICE Conference 2009, and I would encourage you to consider sharing your expertise with other educators from across the state. We seek presenters for half-day and full-day workshops, general breakout sessions, and poster sessions. You can find more information on the ICE web site, and if you are interested in being a presenter, all of the online registration forms are on the site as well:

www.iceberg.org

Just look for the link labeled “ICE Conference 2009” and select the link to the proposal form that best matches your interest.

Our last conference was a resounding success and ICE Conference 2009 promises to be even bigger and better. If you know of other colleagues who might be willing to serve as conference presenters, please pass along this information to them. Be sure to save the dates and make plans to join us next February!

Join us at NECC 2008

Are you planning to be at the NECC 2008 Conference in San Antonio next month? If so, please plan to join us for the annual ICE reception and social event on July 1. ICE members and their guests from across the state will be getting together at the Zuni Grill to relax with good friends and enjoy some Southwestern-style appetizers and drinks. The Zuni Grill is just a short walk from the convention center and is located right on the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. Our private dining room features a large balcony that overlooks the river.

If you are planning to attend, please download the reservation form and send it by mail, fax, or e-mail so that it arrives at the ICE office no later than June 17. This will help us to know how many people to plan for as we make our final preparations with the restaurant staff.  You can also view and download the reservation form on the ICE web site.

Download icereception.pdf

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
4:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Zuni Grill
223 Losoya Street
San Antonio, TX 78205    
210-227-0864

$10/person for ICE members
$20/person for non-ICE members

Cost of admission includes two drink tickets that can be used for beer, wine, margaritas, and soda as well as a variety of Southwestern appetizers, fruit and cheese selections with baguettes, tortilla chips, and special salsa.  For more information, visit the restaurant’s website. 

While you are here, please take a few moments to leave a comment on this blog to let us and your ICE friends know that you are planning to attend the ICE Reception. You can also subscribe to the ICE blogs so that you can receive updates via e-mail or with RSS feeds to your favorite blog aggregators. Just use the tools in the upper right portion of the screen to subscribe. The chapter blogs are just being formulated, but we hope that you will watch those sites as well as they develop and take an active role in the ICE events in your region of the state.

We hope you can join us in San Antonio!

Welcome

Welcome to the new Illinois Computing Educators network of weblogs. In our effort to reach out to educators across the state, we have created this home blog page as well as individual blog sites for each of the chapters that serve our members.

My name is Dick Marchessault and I am the new Executive Director of ICE. It gives me great pleasure to serve in a leadership role in an organization whose mission is to lead the educational community in enhancing learning through technology. We have experienced strong growth in recent years and our members continue our tradition of sharing their expertise and their passion as they showcase the many ways that educational technology resources can enhance the learning experience.

Much of our focus each year centers on the annual ICE Conference at the end of February, but throughout the year, educators from around the state remain active in their own regions as they participate in the many events and workshops hosted by ICE chapters. It is our hope that we can use this network of connected blog sites to maintain a steady and open line of communication with ICE members in all parts of the state. All through the year, we plan to post announcements relating to ICE sponsored activities, pictures from events, information about professional development opportunities, links to valuable resources, and commendations for those members who have been recognized by their peers for their outstanding efforts.

All of the ICE blog sites generate RSS feeds, and you can be alerted to changes to the blogs through e-mail updates or with the help of your favorite aggregator utility. As the Illinois Computing Educators organization grows larger and more dynamic, it is a great time for all members to take an active role and enjoy the many benefits that come with membership.