Steven Kimmi
Strand: Getting Started
Traveling Through The Dark
Author Archives: dkuropatwa
“Reading Revolution: New Texts and New Technologies” Teaser
Laurie Fowler
Strand: Getting Started
Reading Revolution: New Texts and New Technologies
Announcing notK12 Online
K12 Online depends on the collaboration of many people to make this unique conference a success. This year, as we discussed what an online “unconference” might look like, we struck a committee to do some of the heavy lifting and thinking about our online unconference venue, notK12 Online. We asked Bud Hunt to chair the notK12 Online committee and he’s assembled an excellent team of educators to help us figure this out: Jackie Ballarini, Bill Bass, and Marcie T. Hull with substantial technical assistance from Andy Schmitz.
Our thanks to all of them; they’ve done some great work and will be continuing to volunteer their time and energy to help make this extension of K12 Online a blow out success. Here’s what they’ve come up with:
Not K12Online exists as one way to expand, and amplify, the possibilities of the K12Online Conference, to ensure that everyone has a way to add to the conversation(s) started by, inspired by, or missed by, the formal conference. Think of NotK12Online as one aggregator for content related to the possibilities generated by K12Online. To be honest, we hope you don’t need us, and we recognize that you really don’t. But we’re here anyway, a reminder of how you might use the power of digital tools to promote learning wherever, and whenever, you are.
NotK12Online, at this point, consists of two distinct channels of content that we hope you’ll consider submitting to.
Have a presentation you’d like to share relating to one of the four themes of this year’s conference? Check out the details of the “Presentation Channel” below and consider creating a presentation to share. Or not.
The other piece of NotK12Online is the “Critique Channel”. Critically examining our practices is important – as are divergent opinions. We are seeking to foster constructive dialogue about teaching and learning, as well as meta-talk about events like K12Online, in this channel. Submissions to this channel will offer constructive criticism and/or feedback on the K12Online sessions.
In the case of both channels, we’re seeking not to own the conversation, but to provide a venue for folks who would like to connect the work they’re already doing to the conference in an informal way. We’re also interested in your thoughts on what other channels we might’ve missed.
NotK12Online will “run,” meaning we’ll be open for submissions, from October 13th, 2008 until November 16th, 2008. After that, submissions will close, but the links will be around. The idea behind the extended time frame is to provide time for people to reflect upon and continue the conversations that ensue from their K12Online experiences. This also allows people time to create a presentation or critique that may have been inspired by the conference content. Of course, after November 16th, we encourage everyone to continue sharing presentations, discussing and networking, and reflecting on the work of others, but we won’t be the venue for that – we’ll count on you to use the tools of the open Web, as well as the K12Online website, to do so. (We really, really don’t think you need us at all – and yet plenty of good work isn’t ever shared. We hope to be the push that some might need to help them to publish.) We’re still working on our web presence where we’ll be taking submissions and aggregating them, but we wanted you to have a glimpse into what we’re seeking at the moment, both as a chance to get some feedback but also to take the opportuniy to give you a heads up – we hope you’ll consider putting something together. Below are our submission guidelines.
| Presentation Channel: Presentations can be submitted under any of the four themes for K12Online – 2008. The four themes are “Getting Started”, “Kicking It Up a Notch”, “Prove It”, and “Leading the Change” (Read the original strand descriptions here.). Presentations that, in some way, fit the strands of this year’s K12Online conference are welcome.
Guidelines: Critique Channel: Guidelines: |
We welcome your feedback about these guidelines and ideas, as well as NotK12Online itself. Ideally, a conference about self-directed learning should be, in part, about making itself obsolete. We hope NotK12Online will allow for some playing with, and stretching of, the boundaries of an online conference. And we hope you’ll be willing to submit the work that you’re doing to one of our channels. NotK12Online should serve as an amplifier of sorts. That’s all. Perhaps it’ll be the little bit of a push that you need to get moving on sharing some of the work that you’ve been up to. Or, ahem, not.
It’s certainly worth it to try.
As always we’re interested in your thoughts, suggestions and ideas; feel free to comment here and share them.
“Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy” Teaser
As in 2007, each week twenty different presentations will be posted here once the conference begins in mid-October. With so many choices, it may be helpful to get a better idea of the issues, tools, and concepts presenters plan to address in their sessions. Our presenters have been invited to create short, online videos (published to a website like YouTube, TeacherTube, etc.) which will give attendees a better idea of what their presentation will address. These “teaser” videos will hopefully generate and pique interest in presentations prior to the actual start of the conference.
Not all actual conference presentations will be shared as online videos. Presenters have freedom to choose their asynchronous publishing format. Conference presentations will be hosted (as in 2007) by the College of William and Mary.
Please take a few moments to let these presenters know how much you appreciate their creativity and are looking forward to their presentations!
Jennifer Kraft
Strand: Getting Started
Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy
Congratulations to the Help Desk Committee!
Without a doubt, the K12 Online Conference was an enormous success. Tens of thousands of educators from around the world came together to share, learn, and collaborate. As any conference organizer knows, an immense amount of work goes into making an event run smoothly, and the Help Desk committee truly did a phenomenal job of supporting those in need.
Whenever someone needed assistance, the members of the help desk stepped up and lent a hand. Whether it was sunrise in Shanghai or sunset in San Antonio, it seemed at times as though the members of the Help Desk were on call 24/7. From email to Skype, hanging out in the Meebo Chat room or supporting the Fireside Chats, these people dedicated their time to making sure that everyone else was able to enjoy a smooth, seamless conference.
When one of our volunteers had to step down for personal reasons, Jen Wagner was quick to step up. She was always ready to jump in and lend a hand whenever and wherever she was needed. I can’t thank her enough for volunteering her time and energy to make sure people had a positive conference experience.
John Evans and Susan Lister were truly the heart and soul of the Help Desk committee. In addition to the dozens of emails, and countless hours manning the live help desk chat window, the two of them combined for nearly 200 edits to the Help Desk Wiki! They truly went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that everything ran like a well oiled machine. Before the conference even began, John and Susan spent hour after hour brainstorming proactive solutions to problems people hadn’t even experienced, and thanks to their time and efforts, would never encounter. I wish to extend them my own personal thanks, for their dedication was truly inspiring and their efforts heroic.
Congrats to the entire Help Desk Committee on a wonderful conference!
One last note. I just want to also extend heartfelt thanks and congratulations to the conveners of this wonderful event. Darren, Wes, Sheryl and Lani have truly created something magical in the K12 Online Conference, that will keep growing year after year after year. This was truly a wonderful event, that participants won’t soon forget. If most of the attendees are like me, they’ve got enough professional development still queued up to last until 2008! Thanks for putting together one of the best professional development opportunities available, online OR offline.
Steve Dembo
Committee Chair
K12 Online Help Desk 2007
Understanding Time During K12 Online …
Participants at K12 Online span the globe. That’s why we use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in the publication of all events. Whenever we publish the date and time of any event we consistently link to a time converter that allows you to convert the time to your local time. This can be confusing if you’re not used to doing conversions to GMT; more so in countries that have daylight savings time when the dates of the conference span the change from Daylight (Savings) Time to Standard Time. Matters are further complicated when governments change the dates they observe Daylight Savings Time, as has recently been done in Canada and the USA.
Where this is most likely to be an issue is with our live events and in particular our closing event; When Night Falls. In order to find the difference between your local time and GMT you can visit this site:
Look for the dynamically updating clock that will show you the current time in your time zone and your offset from GMT. The site uses the settings of the internal clock in your computer to generate this data.
If doing the conversion is bothersome or confusing in any way try this site instead:
That last site will allow you to enter a particular date and GMT time and then generate a list showing what time that would be in cities and time zones across the world.
The time converter we have linked to in all our published material is this one:
If you live in a country where they are changing the clocks sometime during K12 Online, check back here anytime, before or after the clocks have been switched, to convert your local time to GMT or vice versa. Our time converters allow you to enter the date you wish to determine the time on and adjust for time changes accordingly.
Take My Hand
K12 Online is about teaching and learning on the bleeding edge. But more than that, it’s about making personal connections with like minded educators from across the globe. Past participants have remarked that the best part of K12 Online is the people they meet and, in many cases, end up collaborating with. As a result of the personal connections you make with others while participating in K12 Online you can form your own intimate personal learning network. Teachers need teachers too. Take My Hand is one way you can find the teacher you need to learn what you’re interested in, in your own time, in your own way, on your own terms. Here’s how it works:
As you take in each presentation you will find a link at the bottom of the presentation post on the conference blog with the words Take My Hand. Click it and you will end up on a wiki page devoted to connecting knowledgeable educators with those that want to learn more about the content in the presentation you just took in. If you’re already familiar with the pedagogy, tools or issues raised in the presentation volunteer and ask those that are new to all this to take your hand (powerful learning follows when you teach what you know). If you’re being exposed to these tools, techniques and thoughts for the first time ask someone to take your hand and show you more about it.
You are encouraged to share email addresses, skype names, twitter accounts etc. so you can mentor and be mentored about the things you are most interested in learning and teaching. Take My Hand is the place to connect mentors and mentees. Please, volunteer, and get connected.
Photo source: flickr user bliss_trevise, CC (By-No$)
K12Online Conference HELPDESK Launches
Looking for Quick Answers about anything K12Online? Visit http://k12onlinehelpdesk.pbwiki.com The site contains FAQ’s, Links to Tutorials and How-to’s, as well as options for live help (both text and audio). In an effort to aid newcomers to the K12Online experience there are Guides available providing such things as proxy servers to aid in accessibility as well as suggestions for making the most of this year’s conference offerings. Not to be missed is the “Keep Connected” section that identifies tags being used, important websites, email addresses and web 2.0 link-ups. Feel free to also email the HelpDesk gang at k12onlinehelpdesk [at] gmail [dot] com.
You will be able to access the K12Online Help Desk from every presentation posted to the conference blog. Look for the link Access Help Desk at the bottom of every presentation post.
K12 Online Closing Event: When Night Falls …
K12 Online 2006 is coming to a close …..
As David Warlick said in his opening keynote presentation, K12 Online is about extending the conversations that we’ve begun in the last two weeks. As night falls across the planet educators everywhere will come online and join a 24 hour long discussion about their experiences at K12 Online 2006.
Get skype (it’s free) to participate and read all about what we’ve got planned for you by clicking on the Live Events tab at the top of the blog.
One part of When Night Falls is to informally share your feedback about K12 Online 2006. We’d also like you to share your thoughts using our Feedback Form which will remain active until Sunday November 12, 2006.
Don’t wait, check out what’s waiting for you in the Live Events tab now … When Night Falls begins in just a few short hours! (Saturday, November 4 at 0:00 GMT; follow the link to find out what time that is in your time zone.)
See you there. 🙂
The Blind Peer Reviewers
You know who you are …. Thank You!
We had almost 70 different proposals submitted for K12 Online 2006; 36 were selected for the conference. The Keynote presenters had been solicited before K12 Online was announced on September 1. We wanted to ensure that every proposal would have a fair chance of being selected for the conference. This is how we did it …
Each convener found 3 or 4 volunteers to act as peer reviewers in their strand. When the close date for submissions arrived, midnight of September 30, each convener sent the peer review committees a summary of the proposals that had been submitted. Each convener organized this a little differently. In some cases the committees knew the other reviewers for their strand, in other cases they didn’t. The peer reviewers, based on the titles and abstracts submitted, chose the best 9 proposals in their strand. In most cases this was a very difficult thing to do. My committee was asked to pair down their choices three times and finally a fourth person was called in to make a tie breaking decision. Also, keep in mind, this entire process began on October 1 and had to be concluded by October 5 so that we could send out letters to everyone who submitted a proposal on October 6.
We structured the process this way in order to avoid both the appearance and possibility of bias by making the selections ourselves. I suppose we could be accused of bias in the selection of our committees. However, we did our level best to avoid it. In my case I chose classroom teachers who were diverse in terms of their teaching subjects, levels and geography. My colleagues also did their best to stay away from exercising any bias in the selection of presentations in their strands as well.
All along we’ve discussed how can we properly thank the people who agreed to be blind reviewers for K12 Online 2006. (Their identities are not being published in order to side step the possibility of hard feelings from anyone not selected to present this year.) Given the way we’ve structured this process, there is no adequate way to thank them. Nonetheless, inadequate though it may be, we wanted to publicly thank the people who agreed to act as blind peer reviewers … thank you; without you this whole thing would never have happened. You played an integral part in bringing it to fruition and we are very grateful for the work you have so selflessly done. We wanted to say it publicly.