icecold

Teachers Like to Learn on Saturdays!

We have pictures to prove it!

This is a glimpse of our mini conference from last month. The previous post is where you'll find the online handouts.

The Best Mini-Conference Ever!

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.

We'll See You on Saturday!

ICE COLD Fall Mini-Conference

Saturday, October 17, 2009
Lisle Junior High School
5207 Center Ave
Lisle, IL 60532
8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Cathy Baker will show you how to be an expert on Excel using the Microsoft 2007 Suite. "Explore the new interface, start using shortcuts and become familiar with the new features to enhance and better understand data."

Nadine Norris will show you some cool and little known tricks from Google.

Jon Orech will explore the implementation of digital storytelling. "Digital Storytelling allows students to explore and relate a significant event using words, voice, images, and sound… and then share it with the world."

Daniel Rezac will share his experiences and insights as a technology instructor as he implements project-based learning into his class.

Sister Mary Therese will share some really valuable resources for teaching and learning about digital footprints and internet safety.

Alice Hartel will present simple but powerful technology integration ideas that help connect technology to children's literature.

Bring your friends and co-workers. It's going to be a really fun morning! Go right ahead and register!

Here's a handout to share. Download FALLminiconference

Save the Date

ICE COLD Fall Mini-Conference

Saturday, October 17, 2009
Lisle Junior High School
5207 Center Ave
Lisle, IL 60532
8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

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!

More NECC Treasures

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....

Scott McLeod - Effective Leadership in an Era of Disruptive Innovation Dr. McLeod, one of the teachers behind the Shift Happens video really makes us think about how the world exists today and what needs to be done in schools to "think differently" about how resources are allocated. Rather than reinforcing the old system, he proposes that we instead take the more difficult path of trying to change the status quo. He makes the connection to business (particularly in the area of technology) to schools. I learned a great deal from this presentation and I highly recommend you give it some time.

A Leader You Should Know

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!

Embed 21st Century Skills

One of the sessions I attended at NECC was Building 21st Century Skills into Core Subjects. As much as I love learning about new tools, I purposely look for opportunities to explore specifics on how technology fits in to core curriculum areas. This session consisted of a panel of representatives from NCTE, NCGE, NSTA, and NCSS to discuss ways to effectively embed 21st century skills into core subjects.

I've been to the website, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The best way to explain this organization is to check the About page on the site.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

The resources available from this organization are quite significant. The workshop was introducing the latest in a series of curriculum maps the outline concrete examples of best practices in Science, Social Studies, Geography, English, and Math. These documents are definitely worthwhile for any teacher or administrator who is making decisions on shifting the learning environment to gain relevance in these changing times. The curriculum maps are a little hard to find. Here's the link to the page with all publications - scroll down to the bottom to find the maps.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - List of Publications via kwout

Just Show Me Something I Can Use

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.

Tammy Worcester did an amazing job presenting some really great tools and web based applications. She not only demonstrated how to use the tool but gave plenty of ideas about how students can use it in the classroom. I hope I can demonstrate in writing effectively enough to encourage you to try a couple of these ideas. 

Jam Studio is really cool. It's kind of a music making sandbox that allows the user, even a non-musical one to experiment with the program and create a really cool track - which by the way, can be used as a background track for a PowerPoint presentation, slide show, video, or podcast. Here's the catch: You can create a track for free and without signing up for an account (in the case of students). In order to "keep" the track, you have to sign up for an account. Unless, you can use this nifty workaround: Record the track you have created in Jam Studio using GarageBand (for Mac) or Audacity. You could even record it using the audio recording feature in PowerPoint. 

Vocaroo is a great tool to use as a way to enhance your wiki. Here's a scenario that I think would be a perfect use for Vocaroo: Say you have a few links on your website or wiki that you want your students to use. You have written directions for your students about what to look for or what you want them to do with a particular activity. If you have students with special needs who may have trouble with written directions, you can record the directions to the assignment and create an embeddable audio player for the students to click on to hear you tell them what to do. 

Once the student gets to the site, if the reading level is too complex for them to effectively use the site, the student can copy and past the text into the text box in VozMe. Once the text is pasted into the VozMe application, the user can create a downloadable mp3 that reads the text aloud. The user can download an mp3 to listen from a player like an iPod or from the computer. 

Tammy presented lots of other tools at that workshop. I'll show a few more in the next post. 

Is Web2.0 a Relevant Term

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. 

Darren Draper

David Jakes

Chris Lehman

Julie Lindsay

Vicki Davis

Sylvia Martinez 

The general theme was to explore the topic of Web 2.0 and how effectively it's being used in schools. Each of the panelists, along with many people in attendance are heavily involved in social media, using blogs and wikis, and belong to a huge Twitter community of educators. The discussion was met with some push back from an attendee. The panel was asked to define Web 2.0 and was chastised for focusing on the backchannel. It became quickly apparent that not everyone that not everyone was up to speed with the terminology and the impact on education social media has made. I'm not even sure if anyone who would be considered a "newbie" got the point of the whole discussion.

It's the push back that helped me learn. Those of us who have been involved in social media, blogs, wikis, Nings, Twitter...have to understand that the terminology is confusing and the concept can be overwhelming. One doesn't learn Web 2.0, and there is no real definition - only characteristics. The fact of the matter is at this point in time, the web is the web user created content so prevalent that anyone who uses the Internet uses Web 2.0. 

Here are a few examples:

• Check your email using Yahoo? Yahoo news features articles that have had the most "votes" and accepts comments on articles from the readership.
• Purchase anything from online stores like Amazon or Target? Other shoppers can create lists and comment about and rate comments.
• Looking for recipes? All Recipes is an extremely popular website that accepts recipes from members of the site along with allowing it's users to organize their favorites.
• Do you have family members that share photos online? Sharing photos online is a great example of a practical use of social media.  
• Have you ever seen a YouTube video? As of earlier this year, YouTube has 100 million viewers. That amounts to about 15 millions videos a month.
• Have you used Google to research any topic, particularly pop culture or current events? If you access any Wikipedia article, you are accessing a site that is based on the "wisdom of the crowds".  

So here's the thing: The term Web 2.0 has been used since 2004. Five years later, the Internet has transformed to include user created content, connectedness, collaborative writing, consensus building, and the wisdom of the masses. So it might be time for us to retire the term Web 2.0 - it's just a confusing term anyway. It's time to understand how we are answering the question, "How are we getting our children involved in opportunities to create content on the Internet and use Internet tools to collaborate and share information and media for instructional purposes?”

My Final Impressions of NECC09

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.

• I "hung out" with old friends from ICE, helping me further establish relationships that will help me with my contribution to my Illinois tech teacher community.
• I was able to put a face with a name for people that I know through Twitter and blogs I read on a regular basis - although I didn't do as well with that as I'd hoped.
• I managed to go to several really interesting breakout sessions in a variety of topics, and although I claim to be an expert, I managed to take away something new.
• I validated my disdain for anything commercial. Although I visited the vendor floor, I picked up no swag and made no new contacts. I didn't even pick up my personally engraved flash drive. (If ISTE could send that to me - I'd really appreciate it!) If you're looking for a pen or a T-shirt, I would not be the one to ask.

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!