This is a glimpse of our mini conference from last month. The previous post is where you'll find the online handouts.
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Well.... for ICE COLD anyway! We had the most outstanding crowd of around 80 people. It was a really fun morning. The energy was was amazing. Thinking about all these educators who got up early on Saturday morning to gather together and learn makes me proud to be part of the ICE COLD community. The Mini-Conference was certainly a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday morning. Here's a run down of what we learned....
Dan Rezac reflected on the successes and failures of projects he has done with his students as a middle school technology teacher. If you haven't seen Dan's projects, you have to take a look at how he guldes his students through the project based learning process using Web2.0 tools. Check out Dan's blog for his presentation. Subscribe to Dan's blog. He is a reflective educator who we can learn a great deal from.
Deb Thomson put together a humongous list of Web2.0 tools to use in the classroom. This list should really inspire you. Her session got rave reviews! Thanks Deb for stepping in and putting a great presentation together at the last minute.
Internet Safety is a very hot topic this year. Sister Mary Therese put together this wiki together with some important resources.
Cathy Baker is a real Microsft expert. Her session on Excel was extremely informative. She put together this awesome wiki wiki that is extremely useful for anyone trying to utilize the Office Suite for school.
Even if you use Google every day, you'll find this presentation useful. I presented some crazy stuff Google can do. It was a great session - very interactive. I was adding to it right up until 9:00 a.m, thanks to Jon who had a few more tips for me.
Jon Orech presented Digital Storytelling as only he can do! Jon is one of premier experts on Digital Storytelling and those who had the opportunity to stop in his sessions really learned a lot! Here are his sources. Take some time to explore this wiki - it's full of great information.
Stop back at this blog. We'll be adding some pictures soon.
Mark your calendars now. Our Spring Mini-conference is April 24th.
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Join
us for a fun and informative morning where we'll learn some new ideas
that will add spark to the school year. Several topics will be
presented, such as how to integrate new Google tools into teaching and
learning, using along with some tips on how to use Excel 2008. In
addition, learn how digital storytelling can enhance learning for
students and see how social media is used for project based learning.
Internet Safety is a hot topic too! Great raffle prizes, like Flip
video cameras will be awarded to a couple of lucky teachers. We look
forward to seeing you there.
Watch for more information about Registration. Bring your friends and coworkers. We look forward to seeing you!
Watch for more information!
If you know you want to attend, go right ahead and register!
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Thanks to ISTE for broadcasting many of the sessions from NECC. One can't see everything at a conference, so I'm grateful that I can go back to see sessions that I missed here at ISTEvision. One of the sessions I think everyone should look at is....
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In a recent blog post, Dr. Scott McLeod put out an appeal for bloggers in the educational technology world to write about leadership. As I reflect on the posts of others and examine what it means to be a leader, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to my dear friend and mentor, Sr. Mary Therese Freymann, BVM. Sr. Mary Therese has been in education since 1955 - most of that time teaching 8th graders. (Anyone who can teach 8th graders for over 30 years has got to be great, right?) She's currently "retired", which is a ridiculous term for her since at least 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year she works with inner city schools - writing grants, organizing and facilitating professional development, helping the Archdiocese of Chicago implement their technology plan and pretty much doing every thing she can to make sure that students in her schools have the resources they need to be prepared to live and work in the 21st century. I'm quite certain that she's spending at least a few weeks this summer imaging machines (she's on a Mac, by the way). She is one hard-working lady. By the way, her accomplishments include a ISTE's Making it Happen Award, complete with Pink Jacket (not the one she's wearing here)!
She has a tremendous capacity to persist under the most difficult circumstances and she remains positive and enthusiastic (not to mention she possesses a wicked sense of humor). She is the epitome of a life-long learner. In fact, she just waits for her teachers to say, "I'm too old to learn this stuff," so she can remind them to take a good look at her and "do the math".
I've known Sr. Mary Therese since I began my position as a technology coordinator for a large Catholic School in suburban Chicago around 8 years ago. I can't remember exactly our first meeting but I'm pretty sure I met her at an ICE-COLD meeting. I do remember that soon after our first meeting she convinced me to take on the role of President of our chapter of ICE. I greatly appreciate how she must have seen something in me to encourage my own ambitions to be an educational technology leader. She brags about the time she encouraged me, "Of course you should present for the ICE Conference. You'd be great." I think she was prouder that I was this past year when I was asked to be a "Spotlight" speaker (something she's also done for the ICE Conference.)
When I reflect on what it means to be a leader, I believe that Sr. Mary Therese is such a person because she has vision, extremely high standards, and is influential because she takes steps to elevate those around her and expects us to use our gifts for the good of the students. If you want to know any of her secrets for remaining a life-long learner, you might send her a tweet!
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When one attends a conference like ICE or NECC, there are so many opportunities to learn about cool new tools. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's not about the tools, it's about how these tools can be used to transform learning in a way that could never be done without them.
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On the third day of NECC, I attended a panel discussion led by Steve Hargadon the founder of Classroom2.0. The panel consisted of 6 educators who are pretty well known in the educational technology world.
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My intention is to write about the many things I learned about NECC09 in separate posts, but I'm writing my "wrap up" post first.
This
is my second attendance at NECC - the first being in Chicago in 2001 as
a new technology teacher. That conference was a blur for me since it
was my very first experience of any ideas, concepts, or tools in the
ed-tech world. I do remember being so extremely excited about all I
learned that I created a 4 inch 3 ring binder with handouts and went
through them with my principal in a meeting the summer before I started
my position as technology coordinator. I must have been pretty
enthusiastic and passionate during that initial meeting, because she
spent the next several years quoting me, asking me to revisit things
she heard me mention, and basically letting me develop an awesome
technology program. I didn't meet many people and I made no lasting
friendships, but I saw amazing presenters (including Steve Jobs) that
were influential and help me expand my knowledge and certainly my
enthusiasm for all things Ed-tech. I remember being overwhelmed but not
in a negative way. Soaking it all up like a sponge was more the feeling
I remember.
I've gone in to so much detail about that first conference to make a point about this conference. After working in the ed-tech world for 8 years now, what I gain from this event is very different. First of all, I keep handouts in my delicious links or in a folder on my desktop - there are no binders. That's not the important part though. I'm not a newbie anymore and I have to carefully select the sessions I attend so that I can gain something from them. That's pretty tricky - more on that in another post. Here's what the Conference meant to me.
Here's what I'm wondering......
Being that ed-tech has been around for so many years, evidenced by the fact that the conference has been around for 30 years, was there anyone there this time that was "soaking things up like a sponge"? Did educators leave with enthusiasm and passion for new ideas, tools, and strategies?
I'm in a much different place now, but I think I'll go to NECC again. I'm still learning and I particularly like being validated by my colleagues in face to face chats and while listening to really smart presenters who I seem to connect with.
See you in Denver!
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