ISTE2014: Favorite Quotes

Broadband is the new electricity. (Jaime Casap, Google), Seize the limitation (Phil Hansen, Experimental Artist), Never underestimate the power of a kid who is driven by his passion to create (Rafranz Davis), The new divide is between those who have power and autonomy to choose their own learning path and those who do not, (Jennifer Roberts), RAKtivist (Tamara Letter), We must have a disrespect for the impossible (Jaime Casap), Iteration is the new failure (Jaime Casap), Making helps us see ourselves as producers, not just consumers (Dale Dougherty), We need to ask what if instead of settle with what is (Phil Hansen), Body language is the most democratizing interface (Guy Hoffman), It's time that we get uncomfortable for our profession (Jeff Charbonneau), Ask kids "What's your passion?" then help them find the best minds to follow (Alan November), It used to be the teacher's job to teach the information. Now it's the teacher's job to teach how to find the information (Alan November), I'm going to make stuff up. It's your job to figure out when I'm making stuff up (Alan November), We first need limitation in order to become limitless (Phil Hansen), What is your passion and how will you use it to impact the world? (Angela Maiers), You are a genius and the world needs your contribution (Angela Maiers), When you give students a purpose you give them the power to be masterful (Hugh McDonald), Passion is not what you like to do but what you are willing to endure for (Angela Maiers)

ISTE2014: Notes from Ignite Sessions, Day 2

So much discussion about augmented reality this year -- I feel a bit behind. I've had Aurasma on my iPad for some time now but admit I have not explored the possibilities! Enjoyed Tricia Anton's talk about AR including creating Aurasma iMovie trailors and AR flashcards as well as using augmented reality as a starting point for writing.
Another big topic at ISTE this year - Genius Time, 20% Time, Innovation Day, Play. Enough pop on this to make we want to explore, even though I only see my students for 65 minutes each day. Jennifer Bond talked about Nurturing Students' Passions with an Innovation Day that was dedicated to students creating anything they wanted to, a "Passion Time." I want to do some exploration on ways to get started with this in Jonathan Jarc also talked about 20% time from the perspective of 20% Inquiry Time, based on a Google idea. I did not realize that Google Maps and gmail came out of 20% time -- very cool! He challenges students to investigate, learn something new and produce something. They keep an activity log and turn that in with their digital product - an app, a game, a video.
middle school classrooms - departmentalized, short meeting time.
Liked Trisha Callella's challenge to close the generational technology gap by flipping the learning. Children teach adults through instructional video. This topic came up many times over the conference. Alan November pointed out that teachers' perspectives often fail to account for the new learners' feelings and process. We've known it for so long! Children can more easily explain to other children something that they have learned. I know I learn material/concepts best when I am asked to teach it to others -- our students do too! Great idea to have students create these instructional videos, both for adults and for other students.
Billy Krakower was the first person at the conference that I heard talking about Mystery Skype calls and I can't wait to try it. What a great way to engage student's curiosity, questioning and problem solving skills!
The more I heard about coding and how it increases students' ability to persist, to overcome failures and to learn from mistakes (Jack Lawicki) the more sold I was on teaching my students to code -- even if I myself am not a coder. I'll learn with them! Another tip from ISTE presenters - learn with them, it's okay to be uncomfortable, put ourselves in the place of learner just like our students.
Loved Tamara Letter's sharing of how she pledged to do 40 random acts of kindness and later took this into her classroom with student bloggers documenting the RAKs. She has inspired me to be a "Raktivist"!

ISTE2014: TakeAways from the Opening Ignite Sessions

My first ISTE and I was totally pumped up after the first round of Ignite Sessions! The format is wonderful for getting across a range of great ideas in a short amount of time - 20 slides, 15 seconds each, total of 5 minutes per presenter. Similar to Pecha Kucha. Really want to incorporate this into PD for our school - a learning and inspirational showcase that provides lots of jumping off points for following your own path.
Presenters and takeaways:

• Reshan Richards, developer of Explain Everything, different ways to do formative assessment, hence, the app! Can't wait to check out his constructivisttoolkit.com.
• Pat Yongpradit, Director of Education at code.org. Hard to believe that in today's world only 1 in 10 schools offers computer science. Mine does not, but I certainly want to get started with it! They are creating a K-5 curriculum and already have so many resources on code.org. Need to educate, advocate and celebrate computer science!
• Rafranz Davis shared about her son who followed his passion for making puppets, a great example of self directed learning. He learned watching YouTube and shared his work with others online. Love her quote, "Never underestimate the power of a kid who is driven by his passion to create." Check Braeden out at Braedensartplanet.blogspot.com. Her charge - "Make sharing a goal!" Learn -- Create -- Share.
• Tanya Avrith on digital citizenship suggests we have students create acceptable use guidelines and says we must look at children as "citizens of a connected world." We have to provide opportunities for them to be actively engaged online, to practice digital citizenship in our classrooms.
• Jennie Magiera shared on PD and the need for authenticity. She suggests developing IEPs for teachers - Individual Exploration Plans. Teacher need connection.
• Thanks to Nicholas Provenzano I now have an appreciation for Phineas and Ferb. My nephew watches this show and I never watched with him to see that it is a show about makers!
• Consider the difference between teaching content and creating collaborative learning spaces. "The new divide is between those who have power and autonomy to choose their own learning path and those who don't," Jennifer Roberts. Makes so much sense! In today's schools, how many students actually get to do this? How can teachers work to find the balance between district pacing guides and student self-directed learning paths?

What a great way to start the conference! Wish I could hear more from all of these presenters!

ISTE2014: Dembo's Digital Storytelling

Steve Dembo's session on Storytelling for the YouTube Generation was one that I joined late after leaving an unproductive session -- and I am so glad I did! Of course, he is an excellent presenter and simply being in the room lifted my conference-tired spirits -- but the takeaways -- wow! Dembo shared digital stories from teachers across globe who have remodeled, remixed and renewed digital storytelling formats. I realized just how old-school my storytelling models were!
Some ideas I will be exploring this summer and in the upcoming school year:

• Kinetic typography
• Using social media as a publishing tool during screencasting - a text conversation, a series of facebook posts, comments, replies and likes
• WeVideo, a Chrome app with an incredible range of customization and editing tools. This free app will let place a video within a video allowing students to insert themselves into the screen as they talk about what is playing in the background video. Great idea to download a starter kit of video clips from Discovery Education that students can use as material for creating their remixes.
• Remixing - love his example of remixing a Katy Perry video with goat screams! Yes, it is better! 
• Recapping a story in 1 minute in 1 take. Great Forest Gump example.
• So many more!

I am grateful that he shared his presentation materials - so much shared in so little time, it was difficult to keep up!