I’ll be facilitating one of the opening workshops today at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference. I’m excited to be back in Arkansas as I went to college and spent my first two years teaching in this state. The AAIM Conference is in Hot Springs which is one of my favorite Arkansan (Pronounced like “Are Kansan”) towns. I’ll be speaking a couple of more times throughout the 3 day conference. Here are the resources from today’s workshop.
Workshop Description
Photo scavenger hunts get students moving while engaging them with course content. Well-designed photo scavenger hunts integrate 21st century skills and promote higher-order thinking.
The Instructional Design and Technology program at The University of Memphis (UM IDT) 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.
MONDAY, MARCH 21
Accessibility: Technology Enabling All Students
Register at http://umidt-accessibility.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Place: 310 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
ILife ‘11 in Education
Register at http://umidt-ilife.eventbrite.com.
Time: 5:45 PM – 7:15 PM
Place: 310 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
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TUESDAY, MARCH 22
IPad Tools
NOTE: This workshop is also offered on Wednesday.
Register at http://umidt-ipad01.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23
iPad Tools
NOTE: This workshop is also offered on Tuesday.
Register at http://umidt-ipad02.eventbrite.com.
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
Creating Media for iPods, iPads, and iPhones
Register at http://umidt-iosmedia.eventbrite.com.
Time: 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM
Place: IDT Studio, 320 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
About Bill Nye
Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. “My family is funny,” he says, “I mean funny in the sense that we make people laugh, not just funny looking.” Bill discovered that he had a talent for tutoring in high school, and while growing up in Washington, DC. He spent afternoons and summers de-mystifying math for his fellow students. When he wasn’t hitting the books, Bill was hitting the road on his bicycle. He spent hours taking it apart to “see how it worked.” <Read More>
Featured Speakers
Other featured speakers at the Summer Conference include Tom Barrett (a.k.a. @tombarrett), 21st century educator from Nottingham, England; Vaija Wagle, Harvard University Project Zero Group Leader; Carol Vukelich, distinguished educator in early literacy; and Tiffany Boyd, literacy coach and consultant with Heinemann Publishing.
Registration
Registration details for the Summer Conference are forthcoming. Sign-up to receive an email notification once registration begins. The 2011 Summer Conference will be held on Wednesday, June 15 and Thursday June 16, 2011, in Memphis, TN, USA.
This is my slide deck for my keynote presentation at today’s Tennessee Administrator’s Technology Academy. The following serves as an outline of some of the topics that will be highlighted and demonstrated.
Standards, 21st Century Learning, and Higher-Order Thinking Skills
More than 3,000 teachers were informally surveyed about the Web 2.0 tools that they and their students most commonly used. This presentation will provide a hands-on introduction to these tools along with teacher-created and student-created examples. Strategies for implementation will be shared.
A video advertising the 2011 Martin Institute Spring Conference was released today. It highlights some of the key benefits of participating in 2 days of high quality professional development. You are encouraged to share this video with friends and colleagues via email and social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Posterous, etc.) and you are invited to embed it on your own website, blog, wiki, etc.
Waze provides “real-time maps and traffic information based on the wisdom of the crowd.”
Here are a few items of note from the Waze website. (Source)
At waze, our vision is to work in cooperation with drivers worldwide to create the world’s first live driving map, providing users with the real-time road intelligence they need for better everyday driving.
Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road. 100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!
Waze is a social mobile application that enables drivers to build and use real-time road intelligence. The service includes constantly-updated road maps, alerts on traffic and accidents, and data providing users with the fastest route to get to wherever they need to go.
(Hat Tip to Wes Fryer for bringing Waze to my attention.)
Educational Uses
Waze could be integrated with geography, driver’s education, and social studies.
Data generated by Waze (collected from the live maps) could be used in math and science classrooms.
Please share additional educational uses in the comments.
Posterous Groups is the simplest way to communicate with your students, colleagues, family and friends. Posterous Groups may be the next evolution in email communication.
Messages and attachments submitted to the group will be emailed to everyone in the group. Send any type of file to your group and Posterous will convert it to the most web-friendly format available. Photos will be sent to your group members inline, and if you send multiple photos, Posterous will automatically create a photo gallery for you. Submit a YouTube URL to the group and Posterous will grab the embed code and automatically embed it in your site. Email replies can include photos, videos or any other rich media and will be automatically shared with the rest of the group via email and stored on the group website.
A Few Benefits
Most everyone has access to email and understands how to send and received messages and attachments.
No account required. Anyone can participate in your group simply by emailing your group address while receiving email updates without ever having to visit your site.
Your group can be public or private.
Posterous Groups have been optimized for viewing on mobile devices. Your students and their parents can access your Posterous materials from their cell phones and iPads.
Multiple people can have full control of your group. That means you can share administrative rights to the website/group with others if you choose to do so.
Worth Noting
Best I can tell (and I certainly hope I’m wrong) it isn’t possible to have a Posterous website and a Posterous Group integrated together in the same domain. This is disappointing because it means that we can’t connect blog posts and web pages with the group features in one site. This can be worked around by setting up a Posterous site and a Posterous Group and linking them together, but it means having to administrate two different instances. This isn’t difficult for teachers comfortable with technology, but will likely be a bit overwhelming to those entertaining the idea of developing their first class web presence. In this case, I’d suggest they simply stick with setting up a website (in most instances).
Get Started
Get started by creating a group for your classes, clubs, groups, teams, or students’ parents. You can also start groups for your family, friends, church, and more.
I recently discovered the following ToonDoo created by Angela Christopher and thought it was certainly worth sharing. I’m also pleased to mention that Angela is a doctoral student in our IDT program.
Skype in the Classroom is “a free directory that connects teachers and helps them use Skype to enrich students’ educational experience.” It allows you and your students to meet new people and connect with classes from around the world. Skype offers an immediate way to help students discover new cultures, languages and ideas, all without leaving the classroom. (Source)
“There are lots of teachers out there doing amazing things with Skype. But many of them say their biggest obstacle is finding other teachers and classes to connect with. [Skype is} developing a free online directory to make it easy for teachers to connect with other teachers and resources from around the world…Once you sign up with your Skype account and create a profile, you’ll be able to search for other teachers and classes by subject and region. You can also share inspiration and tips to help kids learn with Skype.” (Source)
Start by creating a profile, then explore the directory to find teachers and resources that match your interests. You can then share inspiring links, videos and tips with other teachers.? Feel free to connect with me, too.
