Learning, Teaching & Technology

Today I attended sessions at Educon 2.1 held this weekend at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia without leaving my living room. Using the wiki that was compiled by the organizers I read about sessions and then linked to live sessions using mogulus to view the live stream of the sessions with a chat in an adjacent window.

I learned about the rights of users that are protected by copyright laws from Kristin Hokanson’s session which will be useful as I work with our 4th grade multi-media projects this week. Then I participated in a chat with 60+ other educators in a conversation about what should stay and what should be changed in our ideal school of the future facilitated and recorded by Will Richardson. His Google Notebook for the session offered a list of related current writing. I listened to Gary Stager review his not so humbly titled “Best Ideas in the Educational World”. They are a good list to keep in mind; I especially like the thought, “Document success wherever you can…,” as I need to remember to share and publish what we are doing that demonstrates the creativity and learning of our students. While in the chats I recognized some participants and communicated with others I didn’t know. Will Richardson included those in the chat as a discussion group in his session and checked in with us online to connect us to the room. I found some new people to follow on my Twitter network and found new blogs, nings and student projects that gave me ideas for our schools. In all, a fun way to learn on my own terms in my own time.

Tomorrow I will change it up a little and participate in the two afternoon sessions with my K-12 colleagues Alice & Mike so we can have a conversation about what we see and hear. I would have loved to be there in person for the sessions and the times in between, but this new technology allowed me to take part in a stimulating professional learning experience from several hundred miles away.

Thanks to the organizers, the student videographers and all who made this experience possible!

Everyday I open my computer(s) and am bombarded by input, ideas and possibilities. My rich personal network of Twitter contacts, Ning memberships, Diigo messages and more add to the noises in my head about ways to move our teachers and students forward by using technology to excite learners and provide opportunities for success in their endeavors. A three day weekend brings even more torment as I have time to take in podcasts, work on my Images4Education class and join live webinars. Sometimes I have to stand back from the influx of new learning and options to carve out a direction that feels manageable and allows for the developmental process of our setting.

Yesterday I sat down and sent out an email to classroom teachers (grades 2-4) describing what I hope will help us focus our work:
1. Creativity of expression using many forms of media — writing, drawing, photography, video, voices, etc.

2. Audience — as our students use these various forms of media to create, I’m looking for ways we can share their work with audiences within the classroom, within the school, connecting to homes & families and possibly connecting to students around the country or around the world.

I’m hoping addressing these two goals will help to define what we do with classes and students. To me, it is the 21st Century skills and preparation for lives as creative communicators and innovators. For teachers and students I need to break it down into what we can do on a given day, at a given age within the learning goals of the curriculum.

This past weekend I was reading E. B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” to my nieces. At two and a half and five they have had it read to them before and of course they have watched the DVD many times. They were attentively listening and I was enjoying the deliberate language and word choices that make it so worth reading. Inevitably we needed to stop for a bit for a bathroom break. When all was done and we returned to the book, I picked up the book and said I remembered where I had left off. My younger niece looked at me with all seriousness on her face and asked, “Did you pause it?” Yes, I wonder about the range of media and technology that will be available to her in ten years… twenty years…

http://www.nhcmtc.org/ is the link to the New Hampshire “Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference” with Richard Sellinger. We went to some great keynote sessions by David Warlick and Yong Chao. Their focus was that we need to change what we are teaching in our schools if we want students to be prepared for the future. I tested my new flipcam to record some of Yong Chao’s talk and I was impressed by the qualilty of the audio and the video. Richard and I attended some sessions given by teachers, but we didn’t learn much that we weren’t already aware of. We had some good chances to talk and work with each other and I went to a good session on SCRATCH from MIT Media Lab. I plan to set it up in the lab and teach it to fourth graders.

Today I am seven weeks from my last treatment for stage 3 ovarian cancer. Two weeks ago I found out that my CT scan was clear and there’s every hope that I have eradicated my cancer through surgery and chemotherapy.

I’ve been told that I exhibited a “quiet determination” throughout. I’m working on owning that as a strength and set of resources I’ve been able to access. I certainly have never been as physically ill as I was after some of the treatments. What helped me get through it? The power of friends. Every time I went to an appointment or a procedure I took with me a person who cared and was openly there for me. I didn’t know if I could get through some of the times and there was always someone who would let me cry or talk or just be.

Among the many notes I’ve received since the startling day of my diagnosis there was one that spoke to the good things that would come during this time. This wasn’t a sugar coated thought, but one from a person I  know to be wise who had just experienced a tremendous loss due to cancer. It has stayed on my mind as a guiding thought and in the back of my mind I’ve looked for those prospects in the mix of the challenging times.

These are the professional development courses and workshops I have participated in since 2005:

Professional Development Activity, Date, Credits/Hours, Documentation
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 06, 8 hours, Certificate
NECC Conference, Atlanta, June 2007, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 07, 8 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference, October 08, 8 hours, Certificate
USM Course: The Read/Write Web, July 07, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
K-12 Online Conference07, 10/07-8/08, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
Yarmouth Writing Course, 07-08, 3 credits, Certificate
NH Tech. Education Conference, 12-08, 20 hours, Certificate

I plan to attend:

NECC Conference, Washington, D.C.,  June 2009, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 09, 8 hours, Certificate

Also, courses I taught each summer at USM and in the Yarmouth School District.