(Almost) all our content from 2006 to 2017 is archived and available online under a Creative Commons license. Please read this post from June 2018 for more background and updates about our conference and current status.
K12 Online Conference » Blog Archives

Author Archives: Karen Fasimpaur

Announcements

Calling all volunteers!

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we want you

The K12 Online Conference is an all-volunteer, noncommercial effort, which means we rely completely on the contributions of generous volunteers.

If you’ve ever thought about getting more involved with K12 Online, now is the time!

On Mon., Jan. 12 at 8:00pm ET, we will be livestreaming a video hangout here to talk about volunteer opportunities for the 2015 K12 Online Conference. There are a wide variety of ways to contribute, from marketing to presenting to working on live events. Some of these things only take a few minutes, while others are more involved. However you might like to be involved, there is an opportunity for you! Please RSVP on the Google Hangout if you can attend!

If you can’t join us for this hangout but are interested, please fill out this short form and we will also post an archive of the session here.

We greatly appreciate our community’s support and help, and look forward to a great 2015!

2014 Announcements

Thank you!

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credit: woodleywonderworks

Thanks to everyone for making the K12 Online Conference in 2014 so special!

This year we had a total of 38 presentations and almost 12 hours of professional learning presentations. We greatly appreciate all of our presenters, our committee members, our viewers/attendees, and everyone who helped spread the word.

We would appreciate your feedback on this year’s conference so we can make next year even better. Please take a couple minutes to complete this very brief survey.

And don’t forget that all of this year’s sessions, as well as those from previous years, will be here for you to reference whenever you like.

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Web 2.0 Tools That Will Increase Creativity and Passion in Your Online Courses

Published by:

Presenter: Courtney Kofeldt
Location: West Chester
@Ms_Kof

Presentation Title: Web 2.0 Tools That Will Increase Creativity and Passion in Your Online Courses

Presentation Description: Introduction to several Web 2.0 tools that will spark creativity and ignite a passion in your students, and a review of ideas for implementation.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://padlet.com/kofeldtc/creativity

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

An Introduction to Webmaker for Educators

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Presenter: Brendan Murphy
Location: Lindenhurst, IL, USA
@dendari

Presentation Title: An Introduction to Webmaker for Educators

Presentation Description: An introduction to the Mozilla webmaker tools.
Exploring webdesign with XrayGoggles. Creating webpages with Thimble. Remixing video with popcorn. Making web apps with appmaker.

Using webmaker tools in the classroom, teaching digital citizenship, and becoming digitally literate.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://dendari.makes.org/popcorn/2cdr

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Passion-Driven Learning in #clmooc- Supporting Teacher Agency in Making and Learning

Published by:

Presenter: Mallory McNeal and Anna Smith
Location: Denver, CO and Urbana, Illinois
@m_mcneal and @anna_phd

Presentation Title: Passion-Driven Learning in #clmooc- Supporting Teacher Agency in Making and Learning

Presentation Description: Making Learning Connected 2014 (#clmooc) was truly a hub for igniting innovation and inspiring passion in Connected Learning. Each week, our “Make Cycle” initiated a new strand of thinking that was taken up, modified, and remixed in a variety of ways. In our video presentation, we will briefly share the background of #clmooc, the theory of action behind establishing iterative “Make Cycles” as well as highlight example “Makes” that were created and shared. We will also share some of the resources that were developed during Making Learning Connected 2014 that might be useful for others thinking about this work in their own contexts, such as collected archives of weekly newsletters, webinars and Twitter chats.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
n/a

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Moving From “Some Study I Used to Know” to Inquisitive Learning with Genius Hour & Passion Projects

Published by:

Presenter: Michele Haiken
Location: Stamford, Connecticut, United States
@TeachingFactor

Presentation Title: Moving From “Some Study I Used to Know” to Inquisitive Learning with Genius Hour & Passion Projects

Presentation Description: How can teachers inspire and ignite learning in their content area among the demands of the Common Core and 21st Century Literacy? This video presentation addresses how one middle school teacher made the commitment to Genius Hour with her students over the course of the school year, set up weekly Genius Hour class periods, and cultivated student ideas and interests. In the process, Genius Hour projects promoted students’ ownership of their own learning and allowed students to explore and create inquiries that were meaningful, insightful, and creative. Students were engaged and excited to discuss their passion projects at any moment and used class time with gusto to research and create. The ideas students explored allowed for their teacher to reflect on her own best practices to inspire the same inquiry and interest into her English Language Arts classroom. This presentation includes student voices and shares projects created by students this past school year. Find out how Genius Hour was introduced to the students and how the teacher facilitated weekly Genius Hour periods to support and push students thinking and ideas. Resources included for teachers looking to start Genius Hour in their classroom and veteran teachers to get answers to sticky questions like moving beyond making cupcakes, to classroom behavior and technology challenges.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xFl9phtuOAwnHF4VsYVBr7Quvm9FJy09UEbh0fCM9Wo/edit?usp=sharing

Additional Information:
http://theteachingfactor.com
@teachingfactor

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Trust and Transparency

Published by:

Presenter: Bart Miller
Location: Tokyo, Japan
@barmill

Presentation Title: Trust and Transparency

Presentation Description: Support self directed, interest and passion driven learning in your classroom by building trust. Using simple tools and strategies to maximize transparency, we can empower students to explore their passions to engage in deeper learning and authentic inquiry.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4snKWNA9XIFSXEybW44RGZvVGs&usp=sharing

Additional Information:
http://independentinquiry.wikispaces.com

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Finding Your People

Published by:

Presenter: Cheryl Steighner
Location: Tacoma, WA, USA
@cherylsteighner

Presentation Title: Finding Your People

Presentation Description: This session will focus on the positive changes that can occur in our schools when one “finds their people,” or a group of other like-minded educators. I will discuss a variety of ways teachers can connect with one another on- and off-line to spark their individual passions, as well as provide tips for collaboration and passing on the spark. Examples include: EdCamps, Twitter (citing specific hashtags or chats), Google+ communities, Pinterest, worldwide educational events (Dot Day, Global Read Aloud, Hour of Code), and local and national conferences.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
none

Additional Information:
www.classroomquests.com

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Connected Learners Need Connected Leaders

Published by:

Presenter: Mark W. Carbone & Donna Miller Fry
Location: Cambridge ON and Thunderbay ON (respectively)
@markwcarbone  and @fryed

Presentation Title: Connected Learners Need Connect Leaders

Presentation Description:

This video presentation captures the importance of ‘getting connected,’ the journey and the impact of being connected through a series of interviews with several Ontario based education leaders. The context of this presentation relates to the TEDx talk by Donna Miller Fry and Mark W. Carbone as part of the TEDxKitchenerED event theme of Fostering Connectivity which is published at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEc666kN_i0

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEc666kN_i0

Additional Information:
Donna’s Blog

Mark’s Blog

Free Connected Learning Opportunities:
OSSEMOOC project blog