Make Your Preparations to be at Podstock 2010

Having been part of Podstock 2009 I can confidently say that Podstock 2010 is going to be an excellent weekend of professional development and fun.

The Podstock conference held July 16 & 17 in downtown Wichita, Kansas is for educators…who want to share technology integration strategies, acquire new instructional techniques and strengthen established learning networks. (Source)

The following video was recorded by Wesley Fryer and provides a preview of some of the things you can expect at Podstock 2010.

Using Facebook Pages

I’ve recently setup a Facebook page for Clif Mims.com which includes my entire educational website and this blog. This provides us additional avenues for sharing resources and engaging with people that share an interest in education, technology, instructional design, curriculum, professional development, technology integration, Web 2.0 and social media, and more. I’ve added fan box widgets to my website and towards the bottom of the right-hand menu of this blog which show off a few random avatars of people that have already become fans.

Please click the gray “Become a Fan” button and join the learning and fun.

Free Apple Seminar for Educators

Reaching All Learners:
The event for forward-thinking education and IT leaders

Monday, February 8, 2010
9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
The University of Memphis, FedEx Institute of Technology

At this interactive event, you will have the opportunity to experience a digital learning environment first hand and see how Apple technologies can help you meet the diverse needs of today’s learners, including those with special education and language literacy needs.

Who Should Attend?
This event is designed to host leadership teams from your school district or private institution: Superintendents, Curriculum Supervisors, Board of Education members, Special Education Directors, Title I Directors, and Education Information Technology professionals.

Full details and registration is here.

New Diigo Group: Mobile Technology and Education

I’m a big, big fan of Diigo. I appreciate that I can save and share bookmarks, highlight and leave comments on webpages, annotate resources, host and participate in groups and forums on particular topics, message and interact with friends and colleagues, and much more. It’s a very big component of my personal learning network (PLN). I’m also impressed and pleased that the Diigo founders and employees listened to its community of teacher-users and developed Diigo for Educators (More fondly referred to as EduDiigo). Here are some thoughts about about why teachers and learners might use Diigo.

New Group
I started a new group dedicated to the topic of mobile technology and learning. I invite everyone with an interest/expertise in the topic to become an active member.

Other Groups
FYI, consider joining these other groups, too.

Friend Me
Please feel free to friend me because, as I frequently say, “Together we learn more.”

Planning District-Wide Technology Professional Development

Brenda McCombs, Drew Polly, Clif Mims and ALBHS Science Department
2009 Midsouth Technology Conference

We’ll be sharing information about the Impacting Kannapolis Program today at the MidSouth Technology Conference (MSTC). This program is in its 2nd year of funding through the IMPACT Technology Grant sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. My involvement with this program consists of providing several weeks of professional development in instructional design and technology integration each summer.

This presentation will describe the approaches to designing and implementing district-wide professional development in a high-need, Title I school district. The workshop will share approaches to supporting teacher learning and teacher leaders, and also highlight technologies and projects that have been used in schools.

NOTE: Visit the collaborative wiki page for this presentation at Learning Telecollaboratively for additional information and resources. Photos from this presentation are available at Lifestreaming from My iPhone (my Posterous).

View more presentations from Clif Mims.

Conference Tag: #mstc09

Connecting the Classroom and Outside World (Feedback Requested)

Educators, what are some strategies for connecting the classroom with the outside world?

NOTE: I’d like to share responses in an upcoming workshop/presentation and on my blog and wiki. You can submit your ideas using the form below, share your text/audio/video reply in the Comments section of this post or respond via Twitter, Plurk or on your blog using the tag #thruwalls. You can also view the compiled database of suggested strategies on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.

Share this post using http://tr.im/104.

Conversation tag: #thruwalls

Free Educational Technology Workshops

The Instructional Design and Technology program at The University of Memphis is pleased to offer FREE workshops on Apple tools and applications. These will be conducted by Tim Matheny, a Senior System Engineer with Apple. Seating is limited and registration is required…but these top-notch workshops are FREE.

Use the links below to discover additional information and register.

Tuesday, November 10

First Session: iLife ’09 and MobileMe
Register for This Session
Time: 4:00 – 5:45,
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall

Second Session, Apple Show and Tell (Quick demos of Leopard, iWorks, iTunesU, etc.)
Register for This Session
Time: 6:00 – 8:00
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall

Wednesday, November 11

First Session: Mobile Learning (iPhones, App Store, Apps for School, etc.)
Register for This Session
Time: 4:00 – 5:45
Place: Room 310 Ball Hall

Second Session, Digital Video
Register for This Session
Time: 6:00 – 8:30
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall

Thursday, November 12
One Session, Enhanced Podcasting
Register for This Session
Time: 6:30 – 8:30
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall

21st Century Schools

Dr. Stephen Heppell‘s video about 21st century schools provokes you to consider what lies ahead. Wes Fryer states that this video “makes a strong case for blended learning where the learning connection between home and school is seamless.”

Day of Discovery in Memphis

Day of Discovery
(Repost from Tennessee DEN)

When
Saturday, September 26, 2009
8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Where
St. George’s Independent School
1880 Wolf River Blvd.
Collierville, TN 38017

Cost
FREE!

A continental breakfast will be provided starting at 8:15 am. Lunch will also be provided. Door prizes will be awarded in the closing session.

Participants should bring their laptops.

There are still spaces available! You can register here.

You can see the agenda for the workshop here as well.

This is going to be an exciting day of workshops and networking! Don’t miss it!!