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K12 Online Conference » 2014 » 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Category Archives: 2014

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-STEAM

Educator with a Maker Mindset

Published by:

Presenter: Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
Location: Santa Fe, NM, USA
@jackiegerstein

Presentation Description: Being a maker educator often requires developing a new mindset; a new set of skills and roles. Discover, through this presentation, first, why we are in a perfect storm for maker education in both formal and informal learning environments, and second, through a self-assessment, the characteristics and qualities of the mindsets of an educator who is embracing making education.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/the-mindset-of-the-maker-educator/

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

2014 2014-STEAM

Full Steam Ahead!

Published by:

Presenter: Melanie Thompson
Location: Jefferson City, MO USA
@mahsati22

Presentation Description: This presentation will illustrate how I transformed my library, creating a learning space for exploration and invention. The video will highlight the steps I took to make this change, from rearranging the physical space to the creation of an after school STEAM club/MakerSpace. I will explain the rationale behind my plan, objectives that guide the program, and explain what STEAM means to my students and me. I will share the planned calendar of topics, resources for activities, and show how easy it is to create a space and time for students to explore and engineer. I will also include tips for gathering materials. The video will include links to files, photos, and audio reflections from teachers and students.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://techtinkering.weebly.com/k12-online-conference-resources.html

Additional Information:
http://techtinkering.weebly.com/

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Genius Hour Passion Projects

Published by:

Presenter: JoAnn Delaney
Location: Hershey, PA USA
@jdelaneyJoAnn

Presentation Title: Genius Hour Passion Projects

Presentation Description: Genius Hour Passion Projects started with a pep talk from Kid President and 95 Hershey MS 6th grade students. The plan… What if students could learn whatever they wanted? What questions would students want to find out? What impact would students have on the world? Students were called to action to share their genius!

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
https://docs.google.com/a/hershey.k12.pa.us/document/d/1YktaX3V8paNkRhDhA-mVY7SA9cbiWcM_uGCzkRHa2G0/edit

Additional Information:
Genius Hour Passion Project Weebly

More Genius Hour Passion Project Resources on Weebly

2014 2014-STEAM

Coding/Making/Writing with Connected Learners

Published by:

Presenter: Melissa Techman
Location: Charlottesville, VA, USA
@mtechman

Presentation Title: Coding/Making/Writing with Connected Learners

Presentation Description: An overview of how to use Mozilla’s Thimble with students for creative approaches to writing. Thimble allows for easy website building and fun remixing of existing website templates. Following the success of Webmaker events with teens at the public library, Melissa Techman shares her forms, templates and methods so you can experiment with Thimble in the classroom. This creative approach to writing builds interest in coding and allows students of all abilities to have fun and experience collaborative and connected learning. While intended for grades 6 and up, the approach and the templates can be simplified for younger students.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://mtk12online.weebly.com/

2014 2014-Keynote 2014-STEAM

Making, Tinkering & Design

Published by:

Presenter: Karen Wilkinson – Director, Tinkering Studio
Location: San Francisco, CA / United States
@TinkeringStudio

Presentation Description: The Tinkering Studio is a public space within the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where we design opportunities for people to “think with their hands” in order to construct meaning and understanding through STEM-rich learning experiences. In this talk, I’ll touch on some of the underlying ideas behind this work and hopefully show why a constructionist theory of learning is ideally suited to maker-centered education.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/coursera

Additional Information:
http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/blog

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

Grab the MIC

Published by:

Presenter: Mister C
Location: Beavercreek, OH
@originalmisterc

Presentation Title: Grab the MIC

Presentation Description: Mister C shares and discusses the importance of Grabbing the MIC and using music in the classroom and discusses tips and tricks of music integration.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
www.learningfunforeveryone.com

Additional Information:
Mister C wants to make “Learning fun for everyone!” Visit: www.learningfunforeveryone.com or www.youtube.com/learningscienceisfun for songs and videos!

2014 2014-Passion-Driven Learning

A Key to Interest-Based Learning

Published by:

Presenter: Paul Allison
Location: New York City, NY
@paulallison

Presentation Title: A Key to Interest-Based Learning

Presentation Description: When we introduce Youth Voices to students we tell them: “We mean it! We really do want you to find your own area of inquiry, your own niche of expertise, exploration, and excitement. What are you already good at? What do you dream about, wonder over, and want to inquire into? What are you passionate about? That’s what good research is really about. Starting with 10 self and 10 world questions is a great way to begin!” http://youthvoices.net/questions

Next, we tell students: “Over time, along with your teacher and your peers you will be able to identify the “generative themes” (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chapter 3, pp. 96 & 97) that begin to bubble up in your writing. This type of really free, habitual freewriting is an important first step — and ongoing, underground spring — that allows your projects and essays to become “a practice in catalyzing passion and creativity,” not just another school assignment. Once you begin to write into an area of inquiry, your can take your next step “by finding niche learning communities that each kid might want to be a part of and build on that.” (John Seely Brown. Lecture, 1.18.05) Helping you to create and find these niches is what “creating discussions” in a school-based social network such as Youth Voices is all about.: http://youthvoices.net/freewriting

In this video, Paul Allison puts the “10 self/10 world questions” assignment into the context of the larger goals of Youth Voices, where we encourage students to allow their passions to brush up against disciplinary inquiry.

Learn more about this key to interest-based learning.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://youthvoices.net/questions

Additional Information:
http://youthvoices.net

2014 2014-STEAM

STEAMmaker: Merging Classroom STEM and Afterschool MakerEducation

Published by:

Presenter: Ginger Lewman
Location: Hutchinson, Kansas, USA
@GingerLewman

Presentation Description: If we truly believe that teachers teach how they are taught, then our professional learning should look radically different than most inservices and workshops currently do. This presentation outlines one approach to helping teachers learn and experience what a MakerSpace might look like inside either a STEAM classroom or as a club outside the regular school day.

At our STEAMmaker camp, students and teachers become true learners, as they experience a hands-on learning environment unlike their traditional school classroom. Here, they get to think, ideate, prototype, test, and publish answers to challenges that are issued to them, all while working on self-designed challenges. Students and teachers work in teams as parallel learners to create solutions to various challenges, all while fostering a sense of independence and joy inside collaborative learning. And as a result, both students and teachers develop understanding and leadership to be a core member of a STEAMmaker movement in their own schools/districts, should they choose to take summer camp back home!

If you want students and teachers to learn how to be risk-takers, to be hands-on tinkerers, to be active builders and growers, then you want a STEAMmaker Camp.