FETC - Future of Education Technology Conference (Part 1)

Last week, I had the opportunity to take a few members of our district's technology planning committee to Orlando, Florida for the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC). I know, you think Orlando in January, and you think it is just a fun get-away. You would be wrong. This conference was outstanding. The sessions were meaningful and covered issues that were relevant to quality education and learning. Another important quality of the sessions was that the sessions were run by teachers and administrators, talking about their experiences. Many conferences are comprised of sessions sponsored by vendors.

This first post will focus on the Keynotes.

The opening keynote was Reshma Saujani (@reshmasaujani), who is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code. She shared her story and experiences as well as framing a need in America. There is a need for our students to understand engineering and technology. She was a huge supporter of STEM education and wants to close the gender gap in the areas of computer science and tech. That is why she formed Girls Who Code. Her goal is to provide computer science education and exposure to over 1 million girls by 2020, through summer camps and after-school programs.

The next keynote was Leland Melvin (@astro_flow), former NFL football player and astronaut. He shared his story of growing up with teacher parents, exposure to engineering activities, perseverance, and support. Here is a short video of his story. His ability to overcome failures and setbacks was impressive and motivating. We need to help our students experience setbacks and show determination to overcome them.

The last keynote was Sean McComb (@Mr_McComb), the 2014 National Teacher of the Year. He created a program for his school called AVID. This program allowed him and other teachers in his school to move with a group of students through all 4 years of high school. By building relationships, and using those relationships to encourage and push the students, they were able to increase their students’ achievement. Almost all of that group of students was accepted into a 4-year university. Here is a clip from one of his keynotes. His story is clear about the power of teacher/student connections, and the powerful impact teachers have.

I will post again soon, with some information about the concurrent sessions that were conducted.

Doug Unplugged

I was recently shown a picture book, and told I should read it.  It was about "technology."  So I read, Doug Unplugged, by Dan Yaccarino.  It was a cute little story about a robot that got plugged in to the network to learn all about what he needed to know.  One day, he "unplugged" and learned a lot about being a friend, having fun, and being part of a family.   He reminds us that sometimes we have to just "unplug" from what we do and have fun with our family and friends.  Spend a few minutes with Doug Unplugged.

Hilliard OILE Conference

I have the opportunity to present at the Ohio Innovative Learning Environments Conference in Hilliard this week.  I get to share Web 2.0 Tools with teachers from the area.  This is my slideshare for the conference.

Hilliard OILE Conference 2012 from Scott Sibberson

Skype for Open House

Our Chinese teacher has to travel between all 3 of our high schools.  Unfortunately, two of the schools had Open House on the same night, so we had a problem.  She came to me and asked if we could Skype into the classroom to allow the parents to meet her and hear from her, since she would be physically unable to change buildings in the 10 minutes allotted.  I thought it would be a great idea.

We were able to set up the computers and allow the Skype to occur.  She was able to share part of her Keynote presentation as well as talk to the parents.  I believe that the parents were extremely happy to see her talk about Chinese, since I was going to be the alternative.  She left her materials with me, just in case of technical difficulties.  She utilizes many different forms of technology in her class, and this was a way to directly show the parents her command of Skype.

QR Codes for the Library

Tuesday, I showed some of our staff members a QR Code and I posted a couple around the building.  The media specialists, Diane and Michael,  showed me a poster in the library that had a QR Code printed on it.  "Why would they use a code and not print the text?", was the question.  I demonstrated how, with my iPhone, I could go directly to the website associated with the poster.  No typing, no mistakes.  I piqued their interest.  How could we use this?

Today, two days later, I went to school to find out the media specialists had printed a QR Code with a link to the school's library website.  They were so impressed with themselves.  I had shared with them the QR Code post of Jeff Utecht, that contained information on how to print QR Codes as well as how to read them.  They utilized the websites and printed their specific code.  I am thoroughly impressed.  I believe they are going to print bookmarks for the students to take home with the code printed for their use.  I also believe they will add the code to other print material that goes home with students.  This will make accessing the website a little easier.

I also received a lot of feedback from one of our secretaries.  She had seen these symbols in magazine adds.  She brought me the Target ad from that week, that contained a lot of these same symbols.  Those codes were sending shoppers to Target online to purchase the product that was associated with the code.  Once we start to figure out how we can utilize these symbols - it may make access to material more efficient and accurate.  It is amazing how much can be figured out just by "putting something out there".  No explanation needed.

Kids and Technology

The phone rang at 8:30 today.  My wife looked at me like - "You are going lose your free day today" - as she was talking to my cousin's wife.  The girls were all going to see Wicked today and I was going to be alone to do some chores, watch some golf, and generally have a relaxing day.  The call was telling us that my uncle, who was going to watch my cousin's 5 year old boy, had the stomach flu and wouldn't be able to watch him.  What is next - I was going to be the fill-in.  I love him.  He is a hilarious, fun little boy, but my babysitting skills were a bit out of date as my own kids are now 10 and 19...

What I found out was that he was bringing some Wii games, his cars, and some other toys.  I was hoping the weather would break and I'd be able to take him to the zoo.  The Columbus Zoo is awesome and I haven't seen the polar bears, yet.  Options....   That's all I need.

When he got here, he showed me his Wii games.  I always enjoy some time with the Wii and he would give me a good excuse to play for a while.  Needless to say, I would be able to play and have some fun.  Does a 5 year old have the stamina to play for many hours?  Sure, he sure did.  We had a Wii marathon.  I am not the greatest player of video games, but I have to admit, he crushed me over and over and over.  We played three different games - Harry Potter Legos, Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario Brothers.  I  could not believe how much he could navigate the menus.

He could quickly navigate through the setup, then explain what was going to happen in the game.  He could teach me some basics of the game and then show me different things to do, which buttons to use, and what characters to use.  I asked him how he knew and he said that he played with his dad and that they figured stuff out.  He knew character names, button commands, which games needed nunchucks, and how the game would progress.  He even got frustrated with me if I didn't catch on fast enough.  I could really not believe how comfortable he was with the machine.

Spending the day with Jake makes me think about how much young kids could really use technology.  How do we get different gadgets in the hands of the kids.  They would be able to figure out how to do different things all the time.  They could play and figure out what would happen, then share with us.  I definitely swallowed my competitive pride, as I like to win, but Jake really opened my eyes as to what young children can really do and be comfortable with.  What can we do to get children comfortable with other forms of technology?  How can we get them to be as productive with other forms of technology as they are with gaming systems.  They have the ability.  We just have to give them opportunities to "play" with the  tools.

Teachers Getting Started

For teachers that are just getting started utilizing technology, there are a couple of things to do at the beginning that will help facilitate the process.  There are a lot of free online tools for teachers to use, but most require an email address to register your information.  I would suggest that you spend a half hour and create two email accounts outside of your school address, so you can easily become a user of these online resources.  The two emails that I would recommend creating are free and easy to setup, and they are Google Mail and Yahoo Mail.

I would recommend creating a free gmail account.  It is not necessary, but I have found it to be quite useful to have a gmail account.  First of all, I use it to log into my google applications.  I also use it to log into Blogger, so I can blog and tell you about all these wonderful tools.  Gmail is also rarely blocked by email filtering systems, so you emails sent to and from this account will likely get through to the receiver.  Google will then have your information, so when you add different applications to your repertoire, you will be able to log in and be able to work.

I mentioned that gmail is not necessary for use of the Google tools.  You can create a google login using any email address, but since the process is so easy, I would recommend getting a gmail account.  I do not spend a lot of time checking my google email since I do get most of my traffic through other accounts.

The other email account I would create is a free Yahoo email account.  Yahoo has some nice features on their website and being a member of Yahoo will allow you to customize your homepage as well as many other things.  The main reason that I created this account was so that I could join Flickr.  Flickr is the site that I use to upload photos and share photos.  I requires a Yahoo ID, so creating it early will be helpful.

I think that creating these accounts when you first get started, will allow you to be thoughtful and consistent when choosing your login names, passwords, and email addresses.  The more consistent you can be with your online presence, the easier it will be for people to find you, follow you, communicate with you, and share with you.  My feeling is that people need to embrace that fact that these online tools are here, and learn quickly what they can do to help facilitate growth.  It takes some work (or what I like to refer as "play time") to figure out, but the benefits are great.  Plus, you don't have to spend a lot of money for special programs.

I will try share information in the future about Google, Yahoo, and Flickr.  I just wanted to suggest that there is some simple work you can do help facilitate your successful use of the tools.  Spend a half hour getting your accounts and passwords set up.  It will help you with your work in the future.

Technology at Baseball Game

My wife, daughter, and I went to a baseball game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis last Monday. We were sitting in right field when we noticed a bright green rectangle behind home plate. I asked my family if they knew why there would be a green rectangle on the wall behind home plate. Does anyone know? I do....

If you watch a baseball game on TV, you'll notice that there is an advertisement to the left of the catcher, in that same location. That advertisement changes to different company logos every inning . They are using green screen technology to super-impose the company logo onto the green screen. Pretty cool for television advertisement, especially since the only people that can't see it are the people in the stadium - and they are seeing other signs all over the ballpark.

Next time you go to a game - probably only Major League games, since that is where the advertising dollars and television exposure is highest - take note of what is on the wall behind the catcher. Amazing what a little green screen can create as far as revenue. No wonder kids love using green screen in videos, once they've been exposed to its potential.

Reach - by Jeff Utecht

I recently picked up the book Reach, by Jeff Utecht, while attending BLC10 in Boston. I proceeded to read it very quickly, finding it contained many quick resources for teachers. I am going to share it with my staff at school. I had the opportunity to hear Jeff while at BLC10 and found his information to be practical and helpful. This book is both.

In the book, he shares information about communities and networks and how to make these communications work for you. He starts with the RSS feed and shows how it works for gathering information from the sites to which you subscribe. He provides tutorial videos and other information that can be helpful.

He also adds material on how to contribute to your learning community. There is everything you will need to help you start and set up a blog, wiki, ning, or other place to share your knowledge and experience. Again, he provides resources and support in the book. Along with that, you'll find information to help you build your personal learning network. What you need to effectively use Twitter, Skype, Facebook, and others is described and shared.

Jeff's book is a great place to start if you are getting just beginning in the area of using technology to learn and share with students and teachers.