ISTE+2011


 * Event Title: International Society for Technology in Education**
 * Date: 6/26/11-6/29/11**
 * Location: Philadelphia**
 * Name(s) of Attendees: JAK**

Description of Workshops, Classes, Institutes, Etc.:
This is an overwhelming conference, but one I would recommend to everyone. There is something for everyone, and more than one person can reasonably take in. I would recommend three good days, but even I was struggling to stay engaged during the last day. From a keynote on brain research and learning (during which the speaker, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, said he thought what we know about how the brain works (which is very little) has not very much to say specifically about how we learn or should teach) to many sessions on google apps and google maps, to web 2.0, to the vast exhibit hall, there was much to be learned.

One common trend in many sessions was using web 2.0 to allow students to express their ideas with the world, and to connect and collaborate with the world. While I very much appreciate the merits of the latter, I'm not so keen on the former. This was debated. The very well known educational thinker Alan November, for example, thinks it is silly for schools to a) block ANYTHING, and b) to not allow students to publish work (i.e. their own writing or artwork, blogs, etc.) that is accessible by anyone. He argues that if we are teaching studnets to be global citizens, we should allow them to be global citizens. This is an interesting way of looking at the issue, though I think I am still on the side of caution; while I can see students having certain types of work open to global opinion, images of themselves, thier own opinions, their own personal information, and the like should be a bit more guarded I'd say, and frankly, I suggest this generally (which is why I am still not on Facebook!). The flip side though is the way that web 2.0 can allow students to communicate and collaborate with students all over the world. Using wikis, Skype, videoconferencing, blogs, etc there is no limit to the global scope our classes can have. Two places to explore these kinds of possibilities are iEARN ([|www.iearn.org]) ePals ([|www.epals.org]).

Students and teachers are also using google Apps in amazing ways, not least of all google.maps and google Earth. These two applications can be easily applied to almost any lesson in any class. One fantastic example, I think I have shared this with RE community before, is the [|Google Lit Trips] project. A new example that I learned about is the [|Google Historical Voyages Project]. Very cool--any of use could participate here. Many of us have discussed how one deficiency of students at RE is geography--some lessons with google maps could only help. Of course students and teachers are using google.docs to collaborate, but also to provide real time feedback, so students don't have to wait until the complete and essay to get some criticism from peers or teachers. This only works with some browsers right now (not Safari, for example), but how cool is this!: http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/

There were also many students showcases and poster sessions, which were nice because they allowed for more intimate discussions about specific projects. One of my favorites was learning about My World GIS software (http://www.myworldgis.org/). This seems relatively simple to use and there is a lot of potential for some excellent lessons in geography and demongraphy, as well as epidemology, or what ever -ology or -ography you can find data for, for that matter. Another good poster session was on the merits of the National History Day competition at the Middle School level. There were a good many sessions on iPad apps and several on using technology to promote sustainability (i.e. Greening). There are some projects that I will suggest specifically for faculty to consider.

I spent a good bit of time in the exhibit hall as well, and learned some good things about ActivBoards and ebooks especially. Still, despite all of the advances made recently and the scramble of publishers to get digital versions of their texts available, there remain problems with respect to compatibility with more than one reading device and returns policies. Both of those are issues for us at RE, since we are not providing uniform reading devices for our students and because our students drop/add courses so voluminously at the beginning of the year. There are a few items from the exhibit hall I will pass on to department chairs to consider.

How I See What I Learned Applied At Ransom, or, What I Would Like To Try at Ransom:
//Web 2.0//: We are well on our way using wikis, but we could very much expand our use of google.docs to facilitate internal communications as well as to expand collaboration among students, both with each other and with peers across the world. But not only things like google.docs, but also google Sketch-up, google.maps, and google Earth can be platforms for collaboration. There are also some ways to save audio (voice files) and other kinds of things that could be cool--see links to those sites below.

//Google//: I've already mentioned the way that google applications can foster and facilitate collaboration. But there is so much more to google. One thing I have thought myself before the conference, but was reinforced, is that we could make a more focused and concerted effort to ensure that our students are skilled in using google for searching the web. Especially when doing academic research, they should be doing much more than simply typing a search term into the window that comes up at google.com. See http://www.google.com/insidesearch/index.html and look under "Features" for examples.

//Activboards//: I went to several sessions and learned some tricks, I suppose, I could use when making my own flip charts. Starting with a grid, and them placing things in layers on top of the grid, and using "snap to grid" is a good tactic. Also, the use of containers seems to be something that could be helpful. I also learned about a new project with Channel 1, an educational news sites, that publishes espisodes on current events daily. They will be including the ActivBoard in both their broadcasts and in their support materials. This could be something that World Cultures and Global Studies courses, if not the Econ, and government courses as well.

//GIS//: See comment about My World GIS above.

Important Links, Resources, or Contacts:
[|Google for Educators]: All things google--tools for teachers to use in their teaching.

[|Aviary.com]: Kind of like Photoshop Elements, but on the web. This was a oft-mentioned application at the conference.

[|GoAnimate.com]: More appropriate for younger students (though, there may be more sophisticated applications as well), a place to easily create animations and share them.

[|VoiceThread.com]: This is pretty cool. A way to have group conversations on the web, organized around a prompt which could be another kind of file (image, video, etc).

[|Audio boo]: This is similar to Voice Thread, but with some different functionality.

[|Dipity.com]: A web-baed, easy to use, timeline application, to allow students to make timelines using text, images, video, etc.

[|JAK's Links]: I've also made a number of additions to my bookmarks collections with helpful links, organized by subject matter, that might be helpful to you for curriculum and teaching ideas.