Discovery/MACUL Event a Success!

(This is a cross post from the Michigan DEN blog.)

What an awesome day!  The Michigan Leadership Council hosted an in-person professional development day for teachers at Haslett High School.  This was co-sponsored by Discovery Education and MACUL (Michigan Association of Computer Users for Learning).  Mike Bryant, Discovery Regional Manager, made a surprise visit.  He announced that our Michigan event had the most people registered nation-wide!

In addition to the fabulous virtual presentations, ten hands-on breakout sessions were offered.  The MI DEN Leadership Council team facilitated sessions on a variety of topics:  DiscoveryStreaming Basics, New Features of DiscoveryStreaming, Podcasting, Digital Storytelling using Photostory, Global Collaborative Projects, MovieMaker, and Screencasting with Camtasia and Jing, and Interactive Websites.  Session handouts and other resources for the hands-on sessions are posted here. 

The virtual presentations will soon be available for viewing.  I'll post the link when it is ready.

FREE ONLINE CONFERENCE!

Mark your calendar!  The K-12 online conference is coming soon!  It officially begins the week of October 13th.   Session teasers, short videos to entice you to tune in, are available now.  Educators from around the world who are interested in innovative ways technology can be used to improve learning will participate.  The theme is "Amplifying Possibilities."  To help newcomers gain the most benefit from the conference, tips are available. Consider participating in both the live events during the conference, as well as asynchronous conversations.  I hope to see you there!

Getting Going with MOODLE

Oakland County Intermediate School District is now hosting MOODLE to all the districts in the county.  Their technical and instructional staff have been doing a fantastic job supporting us.  Questions are answered promptly and a MOODLE usergroup of folks like me who are the local district administrators has been formed.  In my district, it is beginning to take off.  I now have every secondary student loaded into the system, so that teachers who want to use MOODLE can do quickly (after some training, of course). 

Once teachers know that they can use MOODLE in many different ways, from a super-structured unit to a more informal "use as needed" tool, they become hooked.  Teachers can use one feature or all of them.  It can be used for two weeks or the entire school year.  The features that excite teachers the most are:

• The online discussion board forums.  Students can discuss topics they are learning about.  On occasion, teachers can set up the forum so that students cannot see their classmates responses until they post their own reponse. 


• The ability for students to submit assignments online.  Printing is no longer required, and teachers can open the files from home or school (no more fishing through student network folders, either!).  Providing feedback on MOODLE is quick & easy.


• Teachers can host a study session the night before a test using the chat feature.  It's like a safe environment for instant messaging, with an educational purpose! 


• Students can collaborate on group assignments using the wiki feature.  Teachers can see who is doing the work!


• Teachers can create self-grading quizzes. 

If you are a Walled Lake teacher, and you want to learn more about MOODLE, contact me today!

Discovery Educator Network Streamathon

I have not written here for a few weeks.  I've had some trouble with my account and have had my password reset a few times.  I think I'm back in business now!

Today was another indicator of why I love the DEN (Discovery Educator Network) so much.  The DEN hosted an all-day streamathon, with some amazing topics and presenters.  It was a great example of successful on-line professional development.  I was able to attend portions of some of the sessions throughout today’s Streamathon.  The chat rooms were lively and folks were very appreciative of the fantastic professional development offered.  The sessions will be archived for later viewing on the DEN national blog.

I posted some of the web 2.0 tools that Steve Dembo demonstrated on my district’s technology integration website.    Check them out!

Other professional development is readily available from the DEN.  Log on at http://discoveryeducation.com, and click on the Professional Development button at the top of the page. 

The Michigan DEN is planning a combination face-to-face and virtual conference in Haslett.  It will be an all-day event on October 25th.  Details will be posted in the near future on the Michigan DEN blog.

Back To School Motivator

This is a must-see for all educators at the start of a new school year. It is 9 minutes long and well worth the time.

Spice It Up Conference a Success!

Walled Lake Consolidated Schools' "Spice it Up!" Technology Conference was a smashing success! The day began with a bit of stress when Bruce Umpstead, our keynote speaker, was stuck in a one-hour traffic jam on I-96. He arrived about 20 min late, and handled it like a pro. His message was clear and it aligns with Walled Lake's philosophy - you cannot just throw technology at students and hope it makes a difference in student achievement. Instead, teaching must change to allow the positive changes to occur. Students must collaborate, investigate, create, and think - adding technology makes it easier to provide learning experiences that are differentiated and meaningful.

The staff at Sarah Banks Middle School understands the importance of customer service. The custodians worked extra hard to move furniture, shine floors, and make the school a beautiful place to learn. The secretarial staff worked like busy beavers - from providing directions and information about the conference on the phone, to purchasing and selling lunches, to making more copies of handouts. Lynn Dunn, the school computer resource teacher, worked with me on her day off to set up computers, projectors, power strips and other equipment. Bryan Koval, district technician, helped set up computers, install needed software, and made 30-foot long ethernet cords in case the wireless network had issues. Mark Hess, who worked with me as co-chair of the conference, provided exceptional leadership in every way.

Over 30 Walled Lake teachers, stepped up to share their knowledge and experiences as presenters. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I wish I had offered more Office 2007 and Schoolworld web sites sessions, these were packed! Teachers learned to podcast, create video, make websites, use web 2.0 applications, use MOODLE, among MANY other things.

Mike Bryant, regional manager for the Discovery Educator Network, traveled all the way from Illinois to present three sessions showing teachers how to incorporate DiscoveryStreaming video, audio, images, and more into any curriculum.

Laura Cummings and Mike Soudin, Oakland Schools, showed their support by presenting on a variety of topics and participate in other sessions.

Lunchtime was also a time for learning!  Mrs. Beverwyck, our Asst Superintendent of Curriculum, shared her thoughts about technology use. Next, we saw the video "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" to prompt our thinking, and finally asked questions of a student panel, five high school students who shared their experiences and ideas regarding using technology at school and at home.  One student stated, "One of my teachers recorded podcasts to help us review for tests, which was helpful.  However, if we could have created our own podcasts, we could have learned even better, because if you are teaching others, you learn the material better."

Mark Hess facilitated a half-day administrative session. I was able to sit in for about 20 minutes, and was very impressed with what he shared. He spoke about how he became interested in technology without ever having taken a computer class. He talked about vision, setting goals, and how to create an environment where technology use is a part of everyday school life.

I'll be creating an on-line survey to solicit specific feedback from the attendees. It's never to early to begin thinking about ways to improve the conference for 2009!

Back to Work

I actually wrote this entry last night, but was unable to log into edublogs for some reason... 

 

It's time to get back into a normal routine after a glorious summer.  I was fortunate enough to take two vacations with my family (TN and SC), attend the fabulous Discovery Educator Network Institute in Silver Springs, MD, and visit three college campuses with my daughter.  Now I'm rested and ready for the new school year!

 

The biggest day of the year for me is my district's annual "Spice it Up" Technology Conference, which is tomorrow!  Bruce Umpstead, Michigan Dept of Education Educational Technology leader, is providing our keynote address.  Mark Hess, one of our middle school  principals, is leading a half-day session just for administrators (Yeah!), and many talented Walled Lake educators are facilitatiing a wide variety of sessions.  See the conference offerings at http://www.lulu.com/content/3478169.  It's going to be a great day!