IT Summit 2014 - Cool Tool Duel

The 2014 IT Summit in Saskatoon was capped off with a "Cool Tools Duel" between Rushton Hurley and Scott St. Pierre.

Scott's link:
http://bit.ly/itsummit2014

The theme is to make students creators of content!

Who will the winner be this year?

Tool #1:

Scott: YouTube Capture: https://www.youtube.com/capture
Rushton: Newsela: https://www.newsela.com/

Winner of Round #1 - Newsela!

Tool #2:

Scott: Google Hangouts on Air: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/onair.html
Rushton: What if? : https://what-if.xkcd.com/

Winner of Round #2 -Google Hangouts on Air!

Tool #3:

Scott: Skype Add-on Recorder for Mac (http://download.cnet.com/Call-Recorder-for-Skype/3000-2349_4-95407.html) or Super Tintin for Windows (http://download.cnet.com/SuperTintin-Skype-Recorder/3000-2150_4-10656468.html)
Rushton: Google Maps Gallery: https://maps.google.com/gallery/

Winner of Round #3 - Google Maps Gallery!

Tool #4:
Scott: Screencastify Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/screencastify-screen-vide/mmeijimgabbpbgpdklnllpncmdofkcpn?hl=en or Screencastomatic: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
Rushton: Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/


Winner of Round #4 -Tie!

Tool #5:
Scott: Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotation Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/awesome-screenshot-captur/alelhddbbhepgpmgidjdcjakblofbmce?hl=en
Rushton: tiki-toki Timeline: http://www.tiki-toki.com/
Winner of Round #5 -tiki-toki timeline!

Rushton is the winner of this year's Cool Tool Duel.

IT Summit 2013 - Cool Tools Duel - Dean Shareski and Ewan McIntosh

The 2013 IT Summit in Saskatoon was capped off with a "Cool Tools Duel" between Dean Shareski and Ewan McIntosh.

Who will the winner be this year?

Tool #1:

Dean: Popcorn Maker - Create your own pop-up videos - https://popcorn.webmaker.org/

Ewan: P Clock (Presentation Clock App) - allows  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presentation-clock/id391324914?mt=8 



Tool #2:

Dean: Haiku Deck - great presentation creation app using photos searchable from creative commons - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/haiku-deck/id536328724?mt=8

Ewan: My Script Calculator - helps students play with algebra and math https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/myscript-calculator/id578979413?mt=8 - WolframAlpha - look up historical data and data to get comparisons: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/wolframalpha/id334989259?mt=8 



Tool #3:

Dean: Twitter Archive of your tweets that is searchable - you can go in your settings and request your archive - twitter.com

Ewan: Earthlapse - lets you explore the universe as if you were in space - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earthlapse/id522003167?mt=8



Tool #4:

Dean: Aurasma - let's you attach virtual reality overlay to your photo - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/aurasma/id432526396?mt=8

Ewan: 360 Panorama App - Create an tour of a room - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/360-panorama/id377342622?mt=8



Tool #5:

Dean: Glympse - http://www.glympse.com/

Ewan: Paper Fifty-Three App - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8



Tool #6:

Dean: instaGrok - http://www.instagrok.com/

Ewan: Story Cube app - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/rorys-story-cubes/id342808551?mt=8 Street Museum - http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Resources/app/you-are-here-app/noflash/no-flash.html Apps Gone Free - http://appchronicles.com/category/apps-gone-free/

IT Summit 2013 - Ewan McIntosh - Design Thinking: Developing a Generation of Problem Finders

Monday Morning Keynote - IT Summit 2013, Saskatoon

Ewan's blog: http://edu.blogs.com

Creativity... is it something we are born with or is it something we can learn?

Asked everyone to sketch their partner as a warm up. So much fun! There are some very talented wanna be artists at this conference this morning.

How to sketch a human head:

What defines quality teaching? What qualifies as quality learning? Wanted to find the perfect algorithm by trying to blend the best of the creative industry and the best from the classroom and blending them together to create perfect learning.

Students like respect when they take up the challenge and responsibility to collaborate and come up with common learning problems. Making learning real and relatable for them. That way they can take their learning and transfer them into their own learning and relate them to their own world and their own experiences.

In terms of real things, we can tap into our students' own creativity - use a I Wonder Wall where students and teachers can ask questions.

Curriculum mapping allows teachers to map out the curriculum and see where students are at and what they already learned and where they are going. Students can see why they are learning something and where they are going. It organizes thinking, allows for deeper understanding and really allows students to understand the why.

Problem Finders - you need to find a problem that no one has solved and try to solve it.

Making provocative titles - Seven Days to Save the Mill, Playtime is Cancelled, You are not on the list so you can't come in. These are then taken and mapped out with the curriculum to showcase thinking.

Students have difficulty asking higher order questions because they are rarely challenged to ask these questions - Googleable/Non Googleable (an unGoogleable curriculum)

What can we do to make learning relevant to students? The Why We are Learning This.

What is your process? design thinking - immersion - synthesis - ideation - prototyping - feedback

Can we make learning joyful?

John Hattie - "Know thy impact"

Alec Couros - IT Summit 2012 Monday Keynote

Alec Couros - The Power of Networks: Why it Matters in Education

@courosa
http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/

Power of Networks

View more presentations from Alec Couros

It is importance of being a critical thinker in the digital age. Ideas can spread through society like viruses. Meme is a virus or an idea that spreads through a culture or society. Example - the video hoax about how to charge an ipod with an onion.
Meme can be used politically. Once you create one, you can get people to come back to the original story by sharing versions of it or by spreading the word through social media through sharing, liking on Facebook and retweeting something. Are you endorsing something by liking it? What is the impact of recommending a link to your friends on Facebook by liking something on Facebook or YouTube.

Digital Identity - Google Chrome commercial - A Dad writing emails to his daughter.
The average digital birth of children happens at about 6 months because people share information about their children, sometimes before they are even born through photos, video and social media postings. The best idea is to overload Google with good stuff so that anyone that searches your name will have only good things to read about you.

Network Literacy - understanding how networks function is the most important literacy of the 21st Century. How did Obama get elected? There are a lot of great places to participate, such as using hashtags in Twitter to be part of different conversations. Social and crowdsourced information can influence where you stay or where you eat.

The rise of the networked individual. We have evolved from little boxes in our classrooms, to connecting to others in our school or city and now we are connected to people around the world. We are connected now to a person than to a house. (Phoning a cell phone rather than a land-line).

You are the hub for all of your learning. It used to be the role of the classroom but now it is the responsibility of the individual to be in charge of your own learning. Classrooms are there to help guide us and ensure we know how to navigate the individualized learning path.

IT Summit - Tuesday Morning Keynote - Michael Wesch- Remixed Schools: Creating Learners in the 21st Century

Tuesday Morning keynote. Micheal Wesch: http://mediatedcultures.net

Students are finding it hard to find a connection to the classes they are required to take. There's something in the air that allows everyone around the world to connect using a variety of web apps. Trying to find From knowledgeable to knowledge-able. How to we move students towards this making education relevant in their lives.

The world is on fire - we need students to work together to solve the dire problems of our world. 

"Technology allows us to create connections without constraint. This has both positive and negative consequences."

Search out "Numa Numa" on Youtube for an example of world collaboration.

We express: individualism, independence, superficiality
But we value: community, relationships, authenticity
This creates a cultural tension- connection=constraint

Is learning only really all about acquiring information? What is learning all about? We only trust authority for good information that is beyond discussion because it is authorized information. Can authority be granted through discussion? example: Wikipedia

Transformations in Learning: 
"Receptive knowers" - Just taking in information
"subjective knowers" - Don't just take in information but discuss and filter information that they are taking in.
"procedural knowers" - ability to dig deeper and knowing more about the topic - "seperate knowers" - distance themselves from the subject at hand vs "connected knowers - making connections to the topic
"constructive knower" - develop the capacity of "what is" thinking develop participatory thinking.
Other source to check out: http://transformativelearningtheory.com

Knowledge-ability is a practice - we need to create an environment where this is practiced through a cycle of communication, empathy, and thoughtfulness.

IT Summit - Dean Shareski Keynote - Saskatchewan's Unsung Heroes of Educational Technology

My notes from Dean's keynote. Dean's blog is called Ideas and Thoughts

Heroes don't call themselves heroes. Heroes are people who are passionate about trying new things. In the end, they really want to make a difference in the lives in kids. Those are real heroes.

Tinkering and Play- Story #1
Connaught School in North Battleford - Leslie and Jim
How can we get the kids to take control and get them to where they want to go? Demonstrated use of 1:1 laptops and the integration of a SMART Board in Grade 1. They created a new sense of play and of wonder. What are the things that our students really do need.

Gever Tulley "You can figure out things by fooling around" - Ted Talk to check out.

Collaboration - Story #2
Shannon Auramenko and Stacey Monet - John Diefenbaker School in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division
The Grade 2 Teacher working with the Tech specialist for the division in a co-teaching role. Integrating new technologies and ways of learning.

Reputation Management - Story #3
Ken Sogge, Horrizon School Division
Communications Manager for the School Division. Working to develop a network of school websites that connects schools over a large geographical expanse. Creating a transparent view into classrooms. They are letting people know what they are doing in their different schools.

"It is no longer enough to do powerful work if no one sees it." Chris Lehman.

2.0 Objectives for information officers: Create, Transform, Listen, Co-create, Provide, Accept.

Social Glue - Story #4
Glen Munro from Prairie South School Division, Network Administrator
Glen has a real online presence and has a passion for photography. When a school division is spread out, you don't get to know people the way you do when you all work in the same building. Online tools like Facebook, Twitter and Four Square can build relationships online between people who don't get to work together under the same roof. Getting to know your coworkers is important to being able to do a good job.

Social Learning and Inquiry - Story #5
Joanna Sanders Bobiash from Regina Public Schools
Demonstration of social learning in the classroom. Students working together to create a website that taught others about the disaster in Japan.

How did you contribute to the learning of others? What did you learn from others?

Teacher Librarians - Story #6
Carlene Walters - Saskatoon Public
Talking about good digital citizenship and what makes a good question. Carlene's role is to help students get to those deeper questions so that the synthesis and real deep understanding is there.

We have moved beyond a narrow version of "who to trust" from the news to developing our own "trust network" to know that the information we are getting is accurate.

Rethinking Learning - Story #7
Shelly Wright - Prairie South School Division
Shelly's blog - Has transformed her classroom to create a new role for herself as a mentor and leader. Her blog documents in detail the transformation of her teaching. We need to rethink the way things are done today to teach the students of tomorrow.

Personal Learning Networks - Story #8
Powerful Learning Practice - taking networked learning and bringing it into an in-school approach. Teachers from Saskatchewan and other Canadian provinces working together to talk about strategies and teaching online. Providing collaborative professional development. Creates opportunities to create openness and sharing amongst educators.

Technology will never replace teachers. However teachers who know hot to use technology effectively to help students to connect and learn will replace those who don't.

We need to become connectors and not just dispensers of information.

Become a narrative champion - tell others about the work of other teachers. Start sharing because they are too humble to do it themselves.

K-12 Online Conference 2010

This year, I was busy juggling too many projects at work and home to attend the wonderful K-12 Online conference live. As I received emails and tweets during the conference, I saved them for a time when I could spend time watching, learning from and thinking about the many ideas shared by the many presenters at this year's conference. If you use iTunes, you are able to look at the sessions as podcasts, which I find quite handy, given my new love for the iPad. There are far too many wonderful presentations to mention. Check out the speaker list and schedule here and discover for yourself the numerous learning opportunities this online conference has to offer.

Here are a few that I found interesting:

Presenter of interest #1: Pre-conference keynote: Dean Shareski, The Moral Imperative
Shareski questions and presents the need as educators to share. Isn't that the moral foundation of being a teacher? He questions: Is sharing an obligation? Does my institution see the value in sharing? How will it help my students? After watching this video, I would like to know what you think. Obviously, if you are a reader of my blog, you will see that I am a very open educator who likes to share what I know and learn with others and provide as many opportunities for my students to do the same. This opportunity to make learning real and connected has made learning authentic for my students. I would love to know the opinions of others on the importance of sharing in education.


Cool tools I learned about in Dean's video that I need to check out were how to use my iPad as a teleprompter using iPrompt Pro and the around the neck microphone.  

Presenter of interest #2: Tony Vincent, Project Based Learning in Hand
This video was very inspiring to me. As a user of the ipod touch in my classroom and a frequent creator of authentic project based learning opportunities for my students, I couldn't help but be inspired by Tony's presentation. He managed to bring two topics together that I'm passionate about and inspire me to pursue new ways to use these devices with my students this year. This is a must see:



Presenter of interest #3: Britt Gow, Teaching Science to 21st Century Learners
As a Science Teacher to students in Grades 6-8, I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. In her video, Britt showcases how she integrates Web 2.0 tools into her lessons and includes student perspectives on the use of these tools.


There are many other speakers and topics to explore in the K-12 Online Conference. Check it out! I know you won't be disappointed.

Wednesday Closing Keynote at ISTE 2010

The closing keynote for ISTE 2010 was delivered by Dr. Jeff Pionteck who is an Author, and currently the "Head of School" of the HTA.


Bio from the ISTE 2010 Program:

"After many years in the New York City area as a science teacher and Director of Instructional and Informational Technology, Piontek is now "Head of School" at the Hawaii Technology Academy (HTA). A unique state charter school, HTA has been transforming public education through a hybrid model of individualized learning that combines classroom and virtual learning across the islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui, the Big Island, Lanai, and Molokai. The school performed at the top of Hawaiian public schools its first year, and doubled its enrollment to 500 students by its second year"

He is also the author of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh, My! Electronic Media in the Classroom.

The theme of his keynote was: Global Learners = Global Leaders and he began his presentation with a video about his school in Hawaii that was created by some of the students at his school. It was fantastic! Here is the longer version of the video that was shown:




 Pionteck's keynote was everything a keynote should be and more. It is no wonder he was chosen through a "crowd source" type selection process by ISTE members to be the keynote. He was visionary and thoughtful and had an inspiring delivery. He was a great wind up speaker for ISTE 2010 as his message summarized the themes and messages I had heard throughout the workshops and keynotes I had already enjoyed these past few days.

Here are a few of my notes from what Pionteck said during his keynote address:

• Change over the last 25 years will appear slow, compared to the next 25 years.25 Years form Now: What will be emerging?
• Social networking and mobile devices are what students are using today to connect. How many of us can use these tools in our classrooms?
• "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." -Prensky, 2001.
• A standardized test is a snapshot of the day the student wrote the test, when in reality, it follows them around for a whole year.
• S.T.E.M.: (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) S.T.E.M. needs to integrate into classrooms around the world. Classrooms need to get reorganized to make learning social.
• S.T.E.A.M. is the new STEM - (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Arts is important to teach creativity and innovation that drives the other parts of education. It helps us find our passion.
• Networking of this conference is important. It is essential to keep in touch with those who you met this week at ISTE. You are now educational technology leaders in your schools.
• It is not important what you look like or what you are wearing, but how you are engaging your students in your students.
• What is your Passion? What drives you? What do you want for your future? What do your kids want for the future?
• People under 20 are living a digitized world. Have your students create a blog or a wiki about their passion.
• All children should have a chance to give it a GO. After Grade 3, students are no longer given the chance to give it a go. To learn from their mistakes and to be creative and explore life.
• All children should have access to technology and the internet.
• ...it's innovation ... it's creativity
• There's no longer an excuse not know how. Students today need to know how to use the tools to find the answer. Eventually they will find what they are looking for. Students need to be culturally aware and remembering where they came from and where they are going.
• What do you consider excellence yourself? When people know that you really care about, they will come and do whatever they can to help you.
• It is time for a revolution in education. We need to give our students the tools they need to learn 21st century skills.
• Another great video made by the students in his school about exploring excellence. Fantastic!
• If you start a project with your students, finish it. Start something small, something you know you can complete. Take an idea that you saw this week and run with it.
• Have students take the information, immerse themselves in it and then create something with that material.
• Blue Mars - program to use to create videos.
• Final thought: It's a challenge- Our job is to nourish the dreams of our children - to make them all that they can be. Those dreams are our future.

Thanks for a great keynote to wind up another fabulous ISTE! I have a lot to digest this summer as I review my many notes and continue discussions with my PLN. Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic learning opportunity for all!

Innovation and Excellence - Words or Global Imperative - ISTE 2010 Tuesday Morning Keynote & Panel

ISTE 2010 got off to a great start this morning with a panel discussion featuring "a dynamic group of global education enthusiasts sharing their perspectives on the relevance and importance of excellence and innovation." (ISTE 2010 Program) You can watch a video of this panel on ISTE Vision later today.

I thought that this keynote panel was very well done and included an interesting mix of people. I felt it did its job to inspire and make us think and proposed some solutions for making a difference in education today and into tomorrow. It was well worth sitting in a cold and dark theater first thing in the morning.

The panel was moderatd by Jennifer Corriero from Taking IT Global.(Toronto, ON)

The panel consisted of four others:

• Karen Cator, Director of the Office of Education, Technology, US Department of Education (Washington D.C., USA)
• Jean-François Rischard, former VP of the World Bank (Paris, FR)
• Shaun Koh, Student, Singapore
• Terry Godwaldt, Director of Programming, Centre for Global Education (Edmonton, CA)

Here are my notes from the panel discussion: (I apologize in advance if there are parts that I miss or are unclear. I'm sure I missed some things that were said as I was processing what was said during the keynote this morning.)

Introduction:
Rischard: non educator perspective
Proposes three new agendas: (1) New global citizenship agenda, (2) New skills agenda, (3) New learning, teaching and education technoloy agenda. Talks about these three agendas working together to solve urgent global problems, developing and applying 21st century skills and turning students into producers, not just consumers of information and solutions to problems.

Godwald: classroom perspective
Gave example of live video conference from the UN CLimate Change Coference in (Copenhagen, 2009)
Students are charged to do reasearch for a problem. They then make smart goals to solve the problem. They network with other students working around the world on the problem, they contribute their ideas and solutions and then receive global feedback and propose new solutions.

Koh: student perspective
Loves to use technology. Technology is just an enabler for a passion for teaching. Just adding technology isn't good enough, but a good user of technology makes that passion come alive.

Cator: US Government Education Department.
Talked about the process of continous improvement. Talked about the formal environments for learning which need to be improved and reinvented. and then the Informal which transform and innovate to supplement and drive students inside and outside the formal learning environment. We need to change the discussion inside the classroom - 21st century skills emphasis - need to be able to think for yourselves and be able to read differently. Not just the traditional way, but in the new way so that students understand why they are learning the skills they are practicing.


Questions and discussion:
Koh: Key thing is to listen and observe your students to learn more about them. Keep an open mind and listen to the ideas of your students to help drive the learning in the classroom. Keep the flame alive in your students. What happens when the shift of the students' goals change from wanted to do big things in life to wanting to pass the year end exam. He wished that he had learned to learn. There are so many things out there to learn that don't fit into a certain subject.

Godwald: Techer challenge is to find the balance between covering the curriculum and embracing and teaching all the new things that are out there that also need to be taught.

Rischard: Conversations that need to happen in the classroom are around contemporary issues, such as the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf. World debt, global famine, air quality, etc. Wants to see students engaged in global issues and have them come up with solutions that affect their future.

Cator: problem based learning is not as hard as it sounds. Have students come up the questions and teaching how to ask good questions and coming up with solutions during these challenge based projects. You need all the traditional skills that were always taught. It would be great to design an assessment that measures the impact of innovation in teaching.

Godwald: Balance of individual needs and perspectives with the common goal of the classroom. Networking kids with others around the world to make them independant learners. Empowering them to become independant learners to meet their own needs. This is always a challenge with the diverse needs of the classroom and students.

Rischard: Curriculum change is required to make it possible to change

Cator: It is not a bad thing that everyone needs a certain level of reading skills and math skills. The change that needs to happen to make much more immersive learning environnments that are scaffholded and support learners to become independant. These new ideas need to bubble to the surface to make them more standard.

Godwald: We need to empower teachers by trusting them to do what they need to do.

Koh: How do you learn how to learn? Give students the framework to follow to learn more about what they want to learn about and where to begin to think about solving this problem.

Cator: We need to teach about how to stay in the question for a long time to solve the problem.

Rischard: Education systems need to change where they are factories that produce students who are consumers of knowledge. They need to change to be systems where everyone is working together where students become producers of solutions and make a much more deeply embeded learning.

Godwald: Talked about how the social learning works together on social networks with the back and forth questionning to give feedback in each other. It needs to be grounded in reasearch so that the students are reasearching their knowledge and solutions before they are shared.

Rischard: How do we create students who have a global mindset and have a global perspective? We need to teach world history. Make sure students understand how thin and delicate life is (biosphere). Teach problem solving with solutions and foster deeper learning. Think multiculturally. Put yourself in the place of other people before saying what they should do without understanding their perspectives.

Koh: Considers himself a global citizen. Likes to say he was educated in Singapore but grew up on the internet. A way to understand another culture is to watch their television programs and movies because you get to see and understand point of view of someone else.

Cator: Learning is empowered by technology by personalizing learning. This provides an opportunity to spark interest and get them to dig in and struggle with complex information.

Koh: His curriosity has been sparked by something is by watching TED. You can really see and be inspired by people who have a real flame for what they are passionate about.

Godwald: What would this teaching look like. Opprortunities for students to share and collaborate their ideas. It is grounded in a wealth of information that is facilitated by the teacher. It is about accessing the world.

Rischard: How do students really make a difference? They do this by getting involved in the solutions to the global problems. Engaging them at their level in the creation of these solutions. Concerned about the divide between those who dictate what is done in schools and those who are moving ahead and making change.

Cator: It is not about age, it is about mindset. With the internet and the ability of grassroots movements to inspire and create change.

Conclusion and/or last piece of advice:
Goldwald: Encourages us to take one thing that you have learnt or observed and take an action on it.

Rischard: ISTE members have this new mindset already engrained in what we need to be doing and we are well set-up to make the change, make it happen to open the door on the global citizenship agenda. His advice is to go for it.

Cator: Look for inspiration wherever you can. Reach out to your social networks and your students for inspiration.

Koh: Listen to your students and don't be dismissive. If you listen to what a student wants to say, you've got them and they will learn and grow with you.

Great panel and great discussion! Wonderful way to start off my Tuesday morning!

ISTE 2010 - Opening Keynote - Jean François Rischard

The time has arrived for ISTE 2010 to begin. After reuniting with old friends and "tweeps" from around the world, I made my way into the theater to listen to the opening keynote address and the presentation of a number of awards. Some of my convention colleagues prefer to watch the keynote from the Blogger's Cafe on the closed-circuit feed, but I like to enjoy the pomp and circumstance first hand. It makes writing my blog entries feel more authentic to really "live" the experience instead of watching it on TV. Tonight was one of the first times I've been disappointed with such an important keynote speech and wished I stayed in the Blogger Cafe and watched the keynote with my colleagues. Read my post to find out why..

The first item of business this evening was the address by the President of ISTE, Dr. Helen Padgett, who is just finishing her term.The theme of this year's conference is "Exploring Excellence". She talked about being an ISTE Explorer. She talked about transforming education and said that educators were making a difference in a place where people are known explorers. ISTE has been exploring the world and giving a boost to people who needed help to make their vision a reality. There are now 89 affiliated countries with ISTE. There is a common desire that is shared amongst educators around the world and that is caring for the wellbeing of our world's children. Digital age skills - expanded the reach and scope of NETS. ISTE has worked for a global reach for learning with a local impact.They have also worked with UNESCO and shares the belief that teachers keep up with the changes in technology. New standards are coming in 2011. She also spoke about the advocacy role for ISTE to ensure the sustained support of educational technology from government bodies.

During her speech, Padgett launched:

• the interactive learning area for teachers called ISTE Learning: http://istelearning.org/ 

• the launch of a new ISTE website (on ISTE.org) in September which will ensure easier access to resources and books and a better interface to navigate.

Some of this year's awards were presented tonight, the ISTE Young Educator Award, the ISTE Public Policy Advocate of the Year and the ISTE Public Policy Advocacy Trendsetter.

The keynote speaker tonight is from France, Jean François Rischard.
Rischard is a global leader in education. His book is called High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, 20 Years to solve them  which has been published in 15 languages.

His presentation was a number of very wordy power point slides. The theme was: Navigating in Turbulant  Times: The world's urgent need for an innovative approach to global problem-solving....and the crucial role of education in helping us get there.

Main 7 points of his presentation:

1. A 1000 year perspective on what we are going through: spoken (mid-evil times), printed industrial revolution), digital (current day). The time we live in now (digital) is a period of Hyper-change where change is growing at an unmanageable rate. This is also referred to as "Hyper-Complexity". The period is so complex because of population increase and the new economy. Two big forces are producing this explosion in change and complexity and are testing the limits of our planet. This is creating a large gap between these forces and human institutions and mindsets.
2. Global problems are left unresolved - these are problems that are too large for one nation to solve on its own. Ex: climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, water shortage, poverty, global financial stability, biotechnology research.
3. We only have 20 years to act because of the global credit crisis, the ageing time bomb, convention oil depletion, ecological footprint, dangerous climate change.
4. Sharing our Planet, Sharing our Humanity, Sharing our Humanity, Sharing our Footprint
5. Traditional solutions or mechanisms are not working: treaties and conventions are too slow, Big UN summits are too off and on and confusing, G8, G-20 type groupings are too reactive and super ficial and some 45 international organizations cannot handle global problems alone.
6. Global issues network as a solution: Proposed his plan for how this agency would work.
7. Vertical and horizontal: a new interplay between legitimacy. - There is an urgent need for getting  a critical mass ready to deal with these major world problem.

The keynote was disappointing. It did nothing a keynote was suppose to do. The speaker only depressed us with the world ending in 20 years and making fun of government. His slides were only words and hard to read in a huge theater. There was no energy or inspiration that came out of this speech. The audience was too polite (for the most part) not to leave and many had trouble staying awake. I was excited at first that the keynote speaker was from France (being someone who teaches in French), but I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up so high I guess. The only time the audience laughed was when the speaker made light of the role of bureaucrats and their inability to create change quickly. His message about the need for the world to address important issues and involving our students in the solving of these problems was lost in a mess of words and arrows in his Power Point presentation.

The very end was a bit redeeming as he spoke briefly about his 20 for 20 project with students from around the world. This is something that I would have loved to hear more about instead of it being an add on at the end of a rather dull keynote. I think that the Student News Action Ning is something I will visit for sure.

Finally, at the end of the keynote, his conclusion threw the challenge out to those who work in education to get young people the tools and knowledge required to deal with these problems.

KI2 Online conference 2009 - Getting Started Keynote - The Wizard of Apps

I didn't have time this morning to attend the live session of the K12 Online conference. Fortunately, you can watch the presentations online when it is convenient for you.

The keynote this morning was very well done. It was presented by Joyce Kasman Valenza and was entitled "The Wizard of Apps". This presentation featured "a sing-a-long" portion where high school drama students sang songs about the importance of web 2.0 applications to the tune of songs from the Wizard of Oz. The presentation itself is full of great Web 2.0 apps available for teachers to use in their classroom and Joyce does a great job explaining how these apps have been used in an educational setting.

The presentation can be seen here:


The slides can be found here:

Wizard of Apps

View more presentations from joycevalenza.

For more information and links mentioned in this presentation, visit: newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com

For more information on the K12 Online Conference 2009, visit: http://k12onlineconference.org/

Closing Keynote at NECC with Erin Gruwell

NECC 2009 Closing Keynote

Freedom Writers: Erin Gruwell

Gruwell is a teacher from Boston who's work with a group of troubled students was made into a movie in 2007 called "The Freedom Writers". Here is Gruwell's recount of the Freedom Writers' journey.

Talks about making connections to students by getting to know them: who they are and what their history is (background).

Believing in students that everyone has a story to write about in their marble journal.

Tell me your story. Every student has a journey. It starts somewhere – where will it go?

Anne Frank's Story

Toast for change - Teach to me, not to a test.

Meaningful assignment – raise enough money and write enough letters to get Mead Geese to come from Amsterdam to LA to meet the students.

“It's a win win because we did it together – but if she does come, your lives will never be the same.”

And then she came. Student prepared best cultural dishes.

My momma wants to read about the little girl who changed my life. - Maria

I have never had a hero in my entire life but you're my hero – Darius

No I'm not a hero. I simply did what I needed to do because it was the right thing to do. Please make sure that Anne's life was not taken in vain.

Stereotyped kids will begin to believe what others say.

Turned their journals into a book to give to the Secretary of Education.

Freedom writers go to Washington (150 kids) (They named their book "Freedom Writers" after the civil rights leaders from the south in the 60s)

They may not change the world, but they would change themselves.

#1 on NY Times best sellers list. Book funded these students to go to college – the first in their families

I got out because education was the only way to equalize an unfair playing field.

The blank screen gave them the power to be immortal.

Start an organization to help teachers learn what they need to know about what they need to know to connect to each of their students – the Freedom Writers Teachers' Bootcamp.

Why kids do the things that they do. Because doing dumb things doesn't make a kid stupid. Imagine what would happen if you told them that they are brilliant.
Leave a legacy – tell people what they need to know about our profession.

Education is about believing that every single kid can make it.

NECC09 Openning Keynote - Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell starts of NECC09 with a fantastic keynote!

Gladwell's keynote to NECC delegates talked about the importance of creating meaningful learning environments in our classrooms.

So what does it take to create these Meaningful Learning Environments? Here are my notes from his keynote:

When we look at someone who masters something, we tend to “telescope” how long it took to learn or master that skill. Meaning we skip over how long it actually took for them to really master a skill. Gladwell said it is important to talk about how long it actually took to master a complex task or enjoy success. Throughout his speech, Gladwell used the example of Fleetwood Mac. This band was not discovered overnight, nor did it enjoy instant success. It wasn't it's first album that was its first #1 hit, it was its 16th album.

1st lesson: Effort, Attitude and Practice:

Gladwell talked about his book Outliners where he discusses the idea of the 10,000 hour rule. His theory is that it takes someone 10,000 hours or 4hrs/day for 10 years of practice before they can be masters of a particular skill or talent.

Examples given:

• Bobby Fisher – 9 years of practicing chess before becoming a master.
• Mozart – first big Concerto: #9271 when he was 23 years old after 14 years of practice.
• Beatles – Practicing in a club in Hamburg 12,000 times live. In the end, the band played together live before coming to America 7 days/week for a number of years.
  

Implications of this rule:

Even with talent, you need to have a great attitude about effort. An approach that says that effort is crucial to me being successful.

Another example given by Gladwell was a story about a questionnaire consisting of 120 questions before doing a complex math assessment. Results of countries who are successful in teaching math are those who are successful in teaching or reinforcing the attitude of effort. To do well at math means you need to have a positive attitude and need to demonstrate an effort towards math.

Another statement, the only way to catch up when you are behind is to work hard and to put in the time to learn.

2^nd lesson: Compensation Strategy vs. Capitalism strategy:

The band builds on their failures. Compensation strategy is where you compensate for your weaknesses. Capitalism strategy is where you build on your strengths.

Hunger and effort are better gauges for measuring success than height, strength, looks, etc.

Leadership skills are important. Compensating for skills that people are missing or struggling with develop problem solving skills. Gladwell gave the example of someone with dyslexia. When they delegate to others reading and writing they are developing their problem solving skills and they are learning how to talk and be persuasive with others. In other words, they are developing their oral communication skills. Dyslexic entrepreneurs are those who managed to compensate for their disability.

Class size – students learn to compensate for the lack of teacher attention in bigger classes therefore they develop compensation skills.

Question: How do we create learning environments that encourage the practice of compensation skils?

3rd Lesson: Learning strategy- It is best to zigzag not follow a linear path – the best learn through trial and error over a period of time before becoming great.

Gladwell gave the example of an experimental inventor who finds their way to genius through trial and error.

Cezanne is an example of an artist who practices this type of learner.

Incorporates the idea of feedback – timely and targeted feedback.

Trying something and then the feedback helps make this a success. How the learning takes place is more important than where the learning takes place.

If you would like to watch Gladwell's keynote yourself, you can do so by creating a free istevision account. The link to the video is: Gladwell on ISTE Vision

Tuesday Morning Keynote IT Summit - David Warlick - Redefining Literacy

My notes from the presentation:

David used Prezi.com to make his presentation. Definitely something I'm going to check out for making future presentations.

Backchannel at: http://davidwarlick.com/knitter

Teacher must be a master learner and practice these skills in front of its students. Share something you learned in the last 24 hours.

Handout of the presentation: http://davidwarlick.com/handouts

Second Life Office: http://davidwarlick.com/sl/

Second Life allows us to create a library without constraints.

David is a result of a "perfect education" who performed repetitive tasks, in straight rows. Preparing a workforce who would work in a career for 30 years and then retire.

The telephone has changed the way we do things. It is now an example of redundancy where technology has changed to not require it anymore. Print newspapers are migrating to the web because they are too expensive to print anymore.

We are spending too much time teaching children on how to use paper. It is important to teach them how to manipulate digital information.

Webcams & Skype are breaking down the walls and allowing people to participate even when they can't travel or afford to go to a workshop, conference or class.

Conclusion: We need to stop integrating technology to teach how to use tools, but we need to teach literacy to be able to process and understand information landscape of the future. We need to be able to ask questions and be skeptical of any information that is provided to us. We need to question where it comes from. We need to develop critical thinking skills.

We need to be "digital detectives" and backtrack to see where our information has come from. Collect digital clues to see the source of the website. example: http://martinluthrking.org/ is really published by a white supremacy group called Storm Front. We were brought up in a generation where teachers gave us information and we could trust it because they knew the source. Digital information is different because we don't always know the source.

Exposing what's True!

• find
• critically evaluate
• organize
• apply

How to understand numbers: Library of Links from Landmark tools on http://landmark-project.com/, click on raw data. Demonstration of how to understand numbers using spreadsheets like Excel.

Writing: audience is wider by the way that final product is presented. Video is very powerful and shared with the world on the web. To whom are we communicating?

Expressing ideas in different ways: schools who don't prepare students for their future are sweatshops preparing students for our pasts.

We must include ownership of information in our definition of literacy... respect of ownnership, accuracy and infrastructure.

Definition of Contemporary Literacy:

• exposing what's true
• employing the information
• expressing ideas compellingly
• using information ethically.
  

Sharing of a website: We're Not Afraid.com a website made by a student the day after the London bombing. Anyone could post photos.

For a great concept map of his presentation, see it in Warlick's Conference notes.

IT Summit mid-day keynote- Telling the New Story Live

IT Summit 2009 Keynote: Telling the New Story Live
with Dean Shareski, Kathy Cassidy, Clarence Fisher, Darren Kuropatwa

todaysmeet.com/newstory
thenewstory.wikispaces.com

Shareski:
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman = Great Book!
I like how he is using the Identity 2.0 presentation format with lots of pictures in his slideshow.

Conversation format is interesting. Darren is live on a TV and not here in person and the others are sitting on chairs at the front of the room.

Clarence: making global connections made him aware of the world being a big place and needing to connect with others.

Kathy: started blogging and someone else commented meaning that someone else was reading it. Connected globally with New Zeland. Importance of getting kids getting globally connected.

Dean: nothing like getting kids to talk to other kids about what they are really living instead of learning everything from a book.

Darren: Alan Levine BloggerShop was inspiration for getting active online with students. Now blogs with students and professionally.

Sharing of their classrooms: what a day looks like in their rooms. Tech is integrated as part of what the students are doing all day in the classroom.

Authentic, real learning is done through sharing and world partnerships.

I like the idea of having students "writing their own textbook" that is good enough that learners can educate themselves reading the book. Darren has a "How To" for setting up the online textbook in the class.

How do you find the time? Everything is a choice. Making online learning a priority. You have to give some things up in order to change the classroom.

Jamie McKenzie - IT Summit Monday Morning Keynote on Reading across a Dozen Literacies

Monday morning kicked off with a keynote from Jamie McKenzie on Reading across a Dozen Literacies.

Websites mentioned include:

• questioning.org
• http://fno.org/mar09/dozen.html

Focus on student centered learning and questioning.

We need a broadened conception of reading. Movement from traditional comprehension of a text to comprehending a wide variety of objects and materials. "Students must be able to read a face as well as they can read a book."

Different kinds of information literacies:

• text
• ethical
• numerical
• technological
• mechanical
• social
• cultural
• environmental
• natural
• linguistic
• visual
• artistic
• emotional
• media

Is "digital" a literacy or is it a means of delivering or exposing people to the other literacies?

Media Literacy:
Dove commercial on "What is beauty" campaignforbeauty.ca "Dove Evolution"
Discussion questions after watching the commercial:

• What is real?
• What impact does the media have on our perceptions of beauty?
• Natural beauty vs. person created beauty?
• Can we trust Dove? What is in it for them? They make AXE too.
  

"Onslaught" commercial from Dove.
Student made parity. "Sloth made" Student synthesis which works in reverse of the Dove commercial to show a model becoming "ugly".

Students need more than just traditional literacy and numeracy. They need:

• information literacies: see above list
  
• curiosity
• pondering
• wondering
• comprehending
• wandering
• ruminating
• rsonance
• floundering
• considering processing
• dissonance
• questioning
• visualizing
• picturing
• guessing
• hypothesizing
• supposing
• wishing
• dreaming
• imagining
• worrying
• interpreting
• observing
• understanding
• considering
• inferring

Comprehending, Considering, Wandering, Wondering, Pondering all all forms of thinking that are woven together in the thought process when "Thinking"

Visual and Artisitic Literacy:
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus
It is French, English but a paid site. I think it is worth the money.

Discussion about photos: Which one is more beautiful?

Natural Literacy
-being able to function in nature reading the signs of nature to survive in the wild (ex: "Beware of the Bears") Having the capacity to "read" the information in that forum and being able to understand it.

Link between natural literacy and scientific literacy: the capacity to learn from observation and interpretation of what we see.

Scientific literacy used to encompass: natural and environmental literacy and they didn't stand on their own as important forms of literacy.

Emotional Literacy: Link between social and cultural literacy
How are we working to understand our differences and to work past them and learn from each other?

Numerical Literacy: nochildleft.com
- the argument against standardized testing in the US.
-trouble with text literacy - being able to interpret what the question is asking for
-tied to financial crisis: being able to read a mortgage document
-curriculum: students need to know how to interpret the paper to know what it means

Organizational Literacy:
"Corporate Head" sculpture image.
"Wikkilobbying" Google search: Steven Colbert on Comedy Central

Universal Design for Learning

My cousin sent me this link on the weekend. It is the keynote from a conference that was put on for teachers in BC called "Reaching Every Student in the Digital Age: A Showcase of Universal Design for Learning." Dr. David Rose from the Center for Applied Special Technology was the keynote speaker. The BCTF has now archived the webcast. You can find it at the bottom of this web page: http://www.bctf.ca/psas/LATA/conference/oct08conf.htm.


If you not had a chance to see Dr. Rose speak on the Universal Design for Learning, it is a great opportunity to learn about it.

I know that this is a long presentation (over 2 hours), but well worth listening to! On the website, you can either watch all or part of Dr. Rose's presentation.

Here are a few things I got out of it:

• I enjoyed Dr. Rose's comparison of the different note taking styles in his class at Harvard. Very good example of collaborative learning and differentiated styles of note taking.
• The explanation of the brain and the demonstration of what the brain looks like while it is learning new things was very interesting. MRI technology is fascinating.
• The sharing of the CAST website http://www.cast.org/ was very useful for differentiated learning using technology. I'm particularly intrigued by the Book Builder function of the site.
• The curriculum, in its current printed in black and white state, is what is disabling for students. A renewable, ever evolving curriculum would be better able to serve the needs of all students making it more universal.

I hope it generates some discussion. I found it very worthwhile to watch.