Presenter: Kevin Hodgson Location: Southampton, MA, USA @dogtrax
Presentation Description: Everywhere you look, young people are playing games and mostly, they are playing games on their screens. But are they merely consumers of content or are they creators of it? With a nod towards the ideas of gamifying the classroom, this keynote presentation will delve into detail around encouraging young people to design and publish their own content-area video games, while still meeting pedagogical aims of teachers. By tapping into the elements of “play” and teaching the concepts of “design,” educators can engage students of all ages in gaming in a very positive way.
Presenter: Wesley Fryer Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA @wfryer
Presentation Title: Igniting Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Presentation Description: What ignites your spark for teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom? What sustains your spark for creativity and innovation? What can be a spark of innovation to encourage teachers who are not early adapter / innovators in our schools? These questions and more are addressed by Wesley Fryer, Rachel Fryer, Brad Wilson, Autumn Laidler, Jess McCulloch, Cheryl Oakes, Amy Burvall, Richard Byrne, Kevin Hodgson, Brian Crosby, Jennie Magiera, Jason Neiffer, Diane Woodard, and Michelle Roundy in this opening keynote presentation for the 2014 K-12 Online Conference. Come travel with us from Oklahoma City to Michigan, Chicago, Australia, Maine, Nevada, Montana, California, New York and Wyoming as we explore the theme of “Igniting Innovation” for this year’s conference. Please take the challenge posed by Wesley in this video: Record and share a short (60 second) video answering one of these questions about “igniting innovation!” Share your video on YouTube with the hashtag #k12onlineIgnite under a Creative Commons license. By sharing with a CC license you will permit and empower others to engage in “combinatorial creativity” and make combined remix videos including your ideas! Also, please make sure your video is PUBLIC on YouTube. Share the link to your video using the following Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1j53vNvuSY6T3kqqyO3SyarNu-2UAeJEzQawjAH5DzuQ/viewform?usp=send_form
Presenter: Claire Kreuger Location: Moose Jaw, SK CANADA @ClaireKreuger
Presentation Title: Constructing Identity with an iPad
Presentation Description: “”¦everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
“ Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Join Claire Kreuger as she shares the ways in which she has used iPads in her classroom to help her students construct their own identity. She will show you a variety of different apps and how to use them. This presentation will be useful for all teachers interested in using or improving their use of iPads in their classrooms. It is also of particular interest for teachers in Canada looking for ways to integrate Treaty Education into their programs.
In Saskatchewan, teachers are required to teach Treaty Education at every grade level. This is a program that explores the historical relationship between the First Nations of Canada and the Canadian government. For a variety of reasons, up until now, few teachers, the presenter included, have successfully integrated this area of study into their programs. Over the past school year, with the help of a U of R research team, Claire Kreuger looked at how to use digital storytelling as a way of engaging students with learning about the treaties. She approached this project as a learner herself and aimed to learn and create alongside her students. The central question was “What does it mean to be a treaty person?”
Presenter: Laura McBain, Ryan Gallagher Location: San Diego, CA, USA @sdmcb, @dlmooc
Presentation Title: Deeper Learning Online
Presentation Description: This video shows what deeper learning looks like from the perspective of a superintendent, teacher and student. It also shows why we need deeper learning and defines the various aspects of it.
Presenter: Vinnie Vrotny and Sheryl Peterson Location: Palatine, IL US @vvrotny and @speterson224
Presentation Title: STEAM: Creating A Maker Mindset
Presentation Description: Look around a lower grade or early childhood classroom. You will see a flurry of activity, students building, constructing, and experimenting with materials. This dynamic changes in middle and high school, as these once confident students begin with questions such as, “Why are we doing this?”, “Am I doing this right?”, and “Is this on the test?” which changes to the statement, “I am not good at this.”
A new movement which is emerging, the Maker Movement, which now challenges students to become the learner they once were, willing to try and confident in their ability to learn. It is:
School Projects + Technology = Maker 2.0
During this session, you will learn how one school has transformed its space and created a STEAM curriculum designed to allow students to rediscover their inner kindergartner. The focus of this session will be on the curriculum is being built to allow middle school students to either explore and discover their passions or dive deep into a self-identified areas of passion so that they can become someone who is willing to try, confident in their ability to learn new things, often with the help of others, and a willing to prototype, fail, reflect, and rebuild.
This session will share the environment and classroom tools which will supplement this. You will find out how you can start small, for less than 0 and scale upwards from there.
Presentation Title: Leading by Example: Harnessing the Internet to Promote Professional Growth and Lifelong Learning
Presentation Description: This presentation will explore an educational professional’s ongoing journey as a leader and lifelong learner. It will examine free online resources for promoting personal professional growth including: social media-based communities of practice, Open Courseware, webinars, listservs, and blogs. This session aims to provide educational practitioners with ideas and inspiration for using the Internet as a tool for ongoing professional growth. Participants will see how a small investment of time can enable them to become active members in current communities of professional practice. The presentation will be produced via video though which the presenter will personally articulate her unique personal experiences and insights.
Presentation Description: I show a cool app by PEGeeks called Easy Portfolio. I demonstrate the basics of how to use Easy Portfolio on the iPad to create student portfolios electronically. It is a simple and neat app that is easy to use and very useful for assessment.
Additional Information:
I used Reflector and a mic to record this app from my iPad to my PC. There are parts that look glitchy. This is simple the video as I switch between screens on the iPad. The audio sounds great. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I had a difficult time figuring out how to record my iPad screen without simply using a camera while maneuvering through the app.
Presenter: Stephen Ransom, Ph.D. Location: Rochester, NY USA @ransomtech
Presentation Title: Making Space to Make
Presentation Description: The idea of making things is nothing new. It’s timeless. However, as culture and technology have shifted, we’ve moved, as Dale Dougherty points out, from making things out of necessity and just “being smart” to being much more consumers of things and of information. The culture of schooling has shifted right along with this as we watch standards and accountability take much more of a front seat, often resulting in kids’ making of interesting things and immersing themselves in interesting projects wane. In this presentation, I share from a father’s perspective how making at home keeps my kids’ interest and passion for learning sharp. The tools of the trade are very much of the traditional kind, yet new tools have opened up new doors and new possibilities for them as they are able to pursue their passions and discover new passions like never before possible. I suggest here that the same learning opportunity can and should happen at school and not be limited to a club or home experience. Our new technologies and new interest-based/passion-based learning spaces make this more possible than ever before.
Presenter: Kelly Dumont Location: Sandy, Utah @kdumont
Presentation Title: Creativity Rising
Presentation Description: There sure are a lot of changes happening in education today, mandated this and have to do that. One of the most important things that may be getting lost in this era is the chance for teachers and students to exercise creativity. This presentation will suggest ways to keep creativity rising to the top of what happens in the classroom, despite everything else that is being imposed upon teachers and students.
