Presentation Descriptions Thursday, May 13, 2010 Welcome &
Opening Remarks 8:30 – 8:45 Keynote 8:45 – 9:45 Who Knows
What…and How do We Know it? (View Pre-Presentation Materials) Information evaluation may be the most important concept that we’re responsible for teaching. Yet once our mini-lessons are done, students abandon our rules and checklists. Frankly, they don’t believe that Wikipedia is untrustworthy. Who has authority when everyone is an author? Can technology help us judge the credibility of Web 2.0 sources? Let’s investigate the nature of trust, expertise and authority and figure out how to develop shrewd, skeptical learners in school and for “real.”
Strands
Please note: There is much crossover between the Integration
strands.
See the “Th Quick View” for room location of workshops.
Session # 1 10:00 – 11:00
A. Are You Connecting the DOTS to 21st Century Classrooms? Sandra A. Lathem, DOTS Program Developer How do you know if you are a 21st century
teacher? How can you improve your
practice to reflect the needs of your 21st century students? If you want to learn about a dynamic and
challenging program that helps you find a way to reinvigorate your classroom
practice, come to this session! You will learn about the 21st
Century Classrooms: Connecting the Dots program and how you too can get involved
next year. B. Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative: A K-12 Vermont Virtual Learning Community Jeffery Renard The Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative (VTVLC) provides K-12 programs and courses in a wide variety of subject areas for schools, teachers and organizations. What does this new effort mean to you? Come and find out how all of Vermont's schools and students will be learning over the next few years! C. Classroom Tested Curriculum for the 21st Century Student Pam Burke Pam Burke, Librarian & Technology Integrationist, has used AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner and ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards to transform outdated curriculum to suit today’s students. Come hear examples of fun & effective, technology & content-rich library units. Guaranteed to inspire you to use the new standards to improve your curriculum! D. Is a 1 to 1 laptop computer initiative possible in your school? Jean Campbell Students are entering a world where the ability to work with technology is an essential skill. Mt. Mansfield Union HS wants to provide effective technology related experiences as tools to help our students prepare for a successful life in today’s digital society. We strive to provide opportunities for enhancing, extending, and rethinking the teaching/ learning process and assist in preparing each student to be a productive citizen. In this presentation, MMU Principal Jennifer Botzojorns and Network Engineer Jean Campbell will discuss the evolution of increased technology use at Mt. Mansfield HS over the last few years and the 1 to 1 pilot program being administered this year (2009-2010). They will cover the process they have gone through in working towards a 1 to 1 computer initiative in their school. Topics covered will be the who, what, how, as well as obstacles and opportunities. We will include current data gathered via surveys given to students during the year and interviews given by Ms. Botzojorns to the laptop pilot families. We will talk about the integration of these tools into the curriculum and the vision of the program next year. E. What Do College Freshmen Need to Know? Charlotte Gerstein, Larraby Fellows, Daisy Benson, Marilyn Scoville, Will some of your current or former students enter college after high school? This workshop is for you! Warning: this is not for the faint of heart. Librarians from four Vermont colleges will lead a discussion on the information literacy needs of entering freshmen; sharing professors’ expectations as well as the instruction and supports available in college. Are we preparing our students as well as we could? Please join us for this important conversation. F. Speaking Out with VoiceThread Clarena M. Renfrow VoiceThread is a web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to create new ways of assessing student learning. It allows students to tell their story, respond to others and collaborate on a project. It can be used with any age group. It is blogging with a twist because you can use written, or spoken language to present and respond, include pictures and/or video and share your work globally or privately. It is very versatile, fun to use and your students will love it! G. How Many Things do You Know? Mara Siegel Vermont’s 23 Things is a VT Department of Libraries program that encourages learning about technologies that are changing how people, libraries, and society access information and communicate with each other. A self-paced program built on 2.0 technologies freely available on the Internet, the goals of Vermont’s 23 Things are wonderfully simple – to explore and play! The presentation will explain the program, highlighting its interest for schools. H. Map Mashup Mania - Part 1 Leslie Pelch You can create dynamic online maps showing features of interest to you (or your teachers or their students…) and you can embed those dynamic maps on your school’s web site! This workshop will introduce the concept of the map mashup and provide hands-on time to actually create your own using Google Maps! Bring information you would like to map (locations of anything relevant to you or the teachers you work with), links to photos (stored on Picassa, Flickr, etc.), and links to web sites, and you will learn how to create an online dynamic map that you can share with others, and that others can help create! We will also dip our toes into the potential of creating “real” mashups using the Google API and Google Spreadsheets. I. Scopia Desktop: Webcams Conferencing and Sharing Desktops to Bring Experts into the Classroom and Extend Professional Collaborations without Driving! Two Hour Workshop – Part 1 Arlyn Bruccoli Scopia Desktop is a component of the new Learning Network of VT (LNV) -- a video-conferencing system housed in schools around the state – that can be used with or WITHOUT the LNV cameras. Participants at this workshop will learn how to use Scopia Desktop to conference with multiple webcam users and share desktops. Participants will also learn how VT educators are using Scopia Desktop to bring experts into their classroom. Upon completion of a short follow-up task, workshop participants will be given their own virtual room to facilitate on-demand use of the system. No scheduling – it is a user-specific virtual room! Browser requirements: Internet Explorer Before you come: Select the Install Updates link at http://conference.learn.vt.gov and Install the Scopia Desktop client.
Session # 2A or A Lunch 11:10 – 12:10
A. Shifting Gears: Creating a 21st Century Classroom Pam Hunter, Jason Grote, Kathryn Grossarth Byrne In this presentation we will share our experiences as part of the Creating 21st Century Classrooms: Connecting the Dots program. We will share two units, one on the Civil War and the other on the Revolutionary War and discuss how this experience has strengthened the units and our practices The “Dots” experience has really stretched us and our thinking, as well as introducing us to many Web 2.0 tools. We hope that by sharing this experience it will encourage others to participate in the program. We know you will come away with some new and creative ideas.
B. State of the State Peter Drescher Join Peter as he updates schools and teachers on a range of initiatives and projects currently underway from the VT Department of Education. Topics will include Current state of the Vermont Transformation of Education, ARRA grants, IID competitive grants, VT Broadband for schools, state policy projects and other developments. Come with your questions.
C. Journey into the Wilds Jennifer Hill, Alex Houston, Mandy Drake Travel to the ecosystems of the world through imagination, literature, research and technology. This collaboration among librarian, teachers, a technology coordinator and a community member enhanced students’ understanding of the fragile world we live in. Using print/online resources, and PowerPoint, and working with the author of Choose Your Own Adventure stories, students created their own adventure into an ecosystem. Hear all about it from the teacher, librarian and students. D. Literacy Takes Many Forms – Writing and the Arts via Digital Tools Charles MacFadyen & Susanna Paterson These two short presentations will illustrate how high school-level Art (Creating, Maintaining, and Sharing Art Portfolios) and elementary-level writing students (Writing for Real In the 21st Century) are using digital tools to create portfolios, solicit feedback from students and professionals, and write more than ever! Digital tools allow teachers to implement best practices and students to share their work with the world. These presentations will illustrate the tools, processes, practices, sites, and software used to engage students in these literacies. E. Beyond Cut-and-Paste; What Research, Practice and Common Sense Can Tell Us about Teaching Students to Take Notes Debbie Abilock Are you playing cat-and-mouse with student plagiarists? Do they resist taking notes, print everything, and forget to attribute quotes or ideas? Why do our cut-and-paste "Millennials” see research as irrelevant to lifelong learning? Using research on effective educational practices, motivation, plagiarism and reading, we’ll examine student work and identify note-taking strategies that make sense to students. F. Welcome to the 21st Century School! John Dawson This presentation will explain how to implement a single, web-based dashboard for every member of your school. A dashboard that can be customized to meet individual needs while maintaining and encouraging the user's linkage to their various learning communities. We will demonstrate this suite of integrated, open-source tools and how they can help schools meet state and federal requirements for integrated technology, introduce personal learning plans, integrate electronic portfolios, and enhance parent participation all without additional costs or extensive training for the school, teacher or parent. This will be a collaborative, hands-on workshop. You are encouraged to bring a device that can connect to the Internet. G. eLearning across Vermont Gregory Young, Clarena Renfrow, Elise Guyette, Robin Lane, and Tim Bourne The e-Learning Project is rooted in the four core themes that constitute the necessary components of transformative technology integration: Engagement and Technology; Brain-Based Teaching and Learning; Pedagogically Informed Technology Integration; and Effective Professional Development. Six schools, ranging from elementary to high school, are exploring technology implementation projects throughout 2010. This presentation showcases the efforts these schools are making. H. Map Mashup Mania - Part 2 Leslie Pelch See description in Session 1 - H . I. Scopia Desktop: Webcams Conferencing and Sharing Desktops to Bring Experts into the Classroom and Extend Professional Collaborations without Driving! Two Hour Workshop – Part 2 Arlyn Bruccoli See description in Session 1 - I
Session # 2B or B Lunch 12:20 – 1:20
A. Life in a 21st Century Classroom: A Connecting the “Dots” Project Krissy Chambers, Caitlin Reck, Cynthia Hughes During the presentation we will share our experiences in learning more about expanding our own abilities in a 21st century learning environment. During this project, we created two units-... geography and folklore while focusing on 21st century tools and skills that incorporate students-centered learning and differentiated instruction. We will share our experiences with the implementation of these units and explain how technology allowed us to leverage new and expanded learning opportunities. B. That Light May Be A Train Dr. Gary L. Ackerman Technology has always changed how humans live and interact, but the rate at which technology changes today can be mind-boggling. In this presentation, emerging technology trends that have the potential to change how we create and interact with information and others will be discussed. C. Collaborating with Google Docs in Science Tom McSweeney & Linda McSweeney Students love the hands-on labs in their science classes, but when it comes to writing up the report they usually aren’t quite as enthusiastic. A science teacher and librarian share their work to improve student collaborative lab reports. Customizable templates for lab reports that include embedding Google Spreadsheets, Google Drawing, and other multimedia will be presented. D. "Collaboration, Connection, Creativity" Rebecca Tarling, Lauren Kelley Parren Join Rebecca as she demonstrates the ways she uses technology to foster collaboration among her students and her colleagues. Using a wiki, her students create short stories, support each other in research, share their learning with family and friends, and learn to be responsible digital citizens. For example, in an upcoming project her fifth grade students will be teaching high school members of an Amnesty International club about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights via their wiki. VoiceThreads is another tool used to share observations and reflections, and ideas for story beginnings. Students share their own written stories with the rest of the school by creating audio files that other students can take out of the library. As a member of the "25Things" online course offered at ANESU, she shares her explorations of effective technology integration with 31 other educators. Lauren will describe the ways teachers in ANESU demonstrate the ways they meet national ISTE tech standards in the district’s annual Tech Task review. Teachers like Rebecca are not limited by the existing tech GEs, but are encouraged to be creative in their new uses of technology. E. 21st Century Research Skills: The Library and Beyond Kimberley Musante and Sara Goldstein Jablonski What essential research tools do students need in an inquiry-based information environment? How will they use these tools to seek diverse perspectives, gather and use information ethically, use social tools responsibly and safely, and evaluate what they find? Help them develop information skills that enable them to use technology as an important implement for learning! F. Making a Difference One Book at a Time Phil Young and Jesse Cronin “Writers-for-Readers” is an interdisciplinary project where students publish and sell books on LuLu.com and donate the profits to help fill under funded libraries across the world. This year after becoming experts in reading nonfiction, using netbooks the students collaborated, researched and published a nonfiction book written at a second grade level. The students set the price, calculated the profits and decided where to donate the money. Technology made writing come alive, purposeful and showed my students they could make a difference. G. Web 2.0 Smackdown!--Tools for 21st Century Learning Donna Sullivan-MacDonald, Kristen Courcelle, SteveWebster Join us for a whirlwind tour of the best Web 2.0 tools for helping kids master 21st century skills! Kristen, Donna, and Steve will share their picks for the most effective tools for enhancing learning in a variety of categories. Participants will briefly explore recommended sites with the presenters. They'll also add their own Web 2.0 favorites to a shared Google Spreadsheet during the presentation. Come join the fun and learn some new apps at the same time! H. Book Talking Goes 2.0 – Part 1 Jennifer C. Parker Nothing gets students more interested in a book than a positive plug from a peer or books gone Hollywood. And competition doesn’t hurt either. Dust off the web 2.0 tools and 21st century skills to create dynamic opportunities to advertise all those great reads you have tucked away. Use Weebly, Glogster, Voki , Pixton or others to give your students’ reading efforts an audience to view their progress and an outlet to display their interests. I. Social Studies Gets Social: A Vermont Experiment in Social Networking – Part 1 Sigrid Lumbra The benefits of joining a “regular” social network are clear: keeping up to date with anyone from your old college roommate to your favorite independent band. But what are the benefits of joining a professional social network? This year, Sigrid Lumbra, the Vermont DOE social studies coordinator and the Vermont Alliance for the Social Studies decided to go out on a limb and find out. They are boldly transitioning their email lists to a social networking format. The Vermont Social Studies Educator Network premiered at VASS’ annual conference in December. It is currently the home of X number of content groups and a ton of other social studies-related events, discussions, blog postings, videos and images. Want to find a good speaker about Islam? Need to test out a new lesson plan about climate change? Need tips on how to better integrate social studies and technology? Use the tools of the Vermont Social Studies Educator Network to find out. In this two hour session, participants will:
This is a double hands-on session. Bring your own laptops.
Session # 3 1:30 – 2:30 A. 21st Century Tools and Techniques for studying American Media and Democracy Ron Eisenman In this workshop, Ron Eisenman will present a unit he created during the summer of 2008 in the Connecting the Dots, Web 2.0 seminar which was later adapted to a Moodle platform in 2009. Since the founding of this country, we have been concerned with the role of the media in creating an informed citizenry to ensure the success of democracy. In this unit, Ron Eisenman shows how to engage students using web 2.0 tools to explore the timeless issues of media bias and democracy. B. Building Professional Learning Communities Using Web 2.0 Applications Daniel M. French Web 2.0 applications are essential tools for educators to build professional learning communities in their schools, states, and around the world. This session will explore using various Web 2.0 technologies such as RSS, social bookmarking, Ning, and Twitter to support the professional development and growth of educators. C. Once Upon a Time… to the 21st Century Kelly Ahlfeld Learn the power of story and how to harness it. Researchers and great thinkers like Daniel Pink tell us that Story is vital for humans. This workshop explores low tech and high tech uses of the power of story: learn about high-tech tools like Voicethread, Photonotes, Webspiration, and comic strip generators. Help students improve literacy and life skills by bringing more stories into their lives. D. You Might be a 21st Century Leader if... David Wells A key component to 21st Century teaching and learning is school leadership. But what is a 21st Century School Leader? What skills and attitudes will enable administrators to promote 21st Century teaching and learning? This presentation will look at 21st Century School Leadership through the lens of ISTE's revised National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS*A). Participants will learn how to apply 21st Century skills to their own school leadership. E. Yes, You Can! Best Practice Considerations for Copyright, Fair Use and Transformativeness in your School Shannon Walters What can schools do to teach and model ethical use of intellectual property? What materials can legally be used in your classroom and/or published online? Explore the scope of the Fair Use exemptions, Transformativeness and the New Code of Best Practice for Fair Use in Media Education. Learn practical tools for considering copyright issues that commonly arise in school and library settings. F. 21st Century Learning Through the Eyes of a Fourth Grader Aimee Randall, Joanne Finnegan & Students Come and see how one elementary teacher enhances the curriculum by integrating technology: reading, writing, math, science, social studies...oh yeah, and tech. ge's! Aimee will show how she uses technology to provide students with opportunities to communicate, collaborate and share their work using a wiki, blog, moodle, flip cameras, digital cameras, movie maker, Skype and more! Student presenters will show you how technology makes learning fun! G. Using VoiceThread in the Classroom Maria Garland This presentation will demonstrate how to use VoiceThread to promote conversation, collaboration and creativity across the curriculum in the elementary classroom. Attendees will view VoiceThreads created by fourth grade students as part of a social studies research project. Learn how to join VoiceThread, download images and photos, and make comments to create your own free VoiceThreads which can be shared or embedded in your school website. H. Book Talking Goes 2.0 – Part 2 Jennifer C. Parker See Description in Session 2B above I. Social Studies Gets Social: A Vermont Experiment in Social Networking – Part 2 Sigrid Lumbra See Description in Session 2B above
Session # 4 Closing Presentation & Door Prizes 2:45 – 3:15
“Tomorrow is Here.” Thomas Corbett
Cushing Academy, an independent school in Massachusetts, made headlines when it adopts an all-digital approach to library services for 9th -12th graders. While this effort to deliver high quality library content through laptops and eReaders has challenged conventional thinking, Cushing believes it will better prepare students for an all-digital future. Tom Corbett, Executive Director of the library at Cushing, will talk about the challenges of this forward-thinking program.
3:15 – 3:30 - Door Prizes - Must be present to win! |
Download the Full 2- Day Program Description in attachement above.