ISTE (formerly known as NECC) is the largest national educational technology conference in the U.S. This year it will be in Denver, Colorado June 27-30.
Generation YES will be there in full force with a booth (#855) and other events. If you will be in Denver, we hope you will come by and say hello!
Pre-conference event- The Constructivist Celebration, Sunday June 27
Held once again the day before ISTE starts, this is a day-long workshop focusing on creativity and computing. For a very reasonable $60, you will receive free creativity software worth hundreds of dollars from the world’s best school-tool companies, breakfast, snacks and lunch, and a full-day workshop led by Gary Stager and other members of the Constructivist Consortium. Added bonuses: a free just-released “ImagineIt2″ DVD and a TechYES mini-kit. It’s always a sell-out, but right now there are still a few spaces left to join in the fun, so register today – you won’t regret it!
Sessions
Dennis Harper – Establishing Student Technology Leaders Programs for Districts, States, and NationsWednesday, 6/30/2010, 8:30am-9:30am, CCC 605. Discover how districts, states, and nations can establish effective student technology leaders organizations that meet integration, infrastructure support, and technology literacy goals.
Sylvia Martinez – Tinkering Toward Technology Literacy Wednesday, 6/30/2010, 10:30am-11:30am, CCC 605. Combine tinkering and technology and you have a time-honored tradition that allows imagination and creativity to lead the way to technology literacy.
Events in the Generation YES booth #855
Adora Svitak (12 year old author, blogger, and the youngest person to be invited to speak at TED) will be sharing her ideas for education from a youth’s point of view.
We will be sharing a new technology literacy study by a well-known researcher making the case for project-based technology literacy assessment. (more about this soon)
GenYES and TechYES teachers and students from nearby schools will be in the booth sharing their projects and tech integration tips.
Plus… we will be printing handy business cards for any teacher who forgot theirs at home!
San Juan Unified School District in San Juan, California, is a proud GenYES district. Many of their schools were funded by EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) funding from the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, Title II, Part D. In California, the EETT is focused on grades 4-8. Their website has a wonderful video explaining how GenYES students support the goals of the EETT and the whole district in regards to technology.
“The core of GenYes is the establishment of collaborative partnerships between students and teachers, with the express purpose of facilitating the integration of modern digital technologies in the practices of teaching. GenYes is well suited to meeting the needs of middle school students because it provides them with the opportunity to engage in their own learning. Expectations in the GenYes classroom are high and students and teachers come to see each other as capable partners. GenYes students also learn sets of skills relevant to project planning and implementation, as well as communication, that form the core of complex thinking skills which are critical in both today’s learning and workforce environment.
The GenYes experience involves a wide range of technical, academic, cognitive and social skills. Students are expected to become proficient and critical consumers and producers of education technology as well as use these skills to help teachers improve their personal and classroom use of educational technology. This requires a strong understanding of technology tools and then the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with someone who may have a different point of view. When building collaborative projects, students must understand the needs of the partner-teacher, frame problems productively, seek out appropriate tools and information, then plan and manage their time and work in order to accomplish a discrete project within a specified timeline. Additionally, GenYes students, through working with their partner-teachers, develop an appreciation of sound pedagogical practice, including: the identification of learning objectives; the consideration of assessment strategies, and the alignment of projects with state academic content standards.”
The page explains how GenYES is part of their well-rounded approach to technology integration. Besides GenYES, San Juan provides a wide range of teacher professional development, from on-site coaching to ongoing workshops and summer institutes, plus hardware and software.
We are really proud of the teachers and students who make GenYES happen in San Juan schools, and the administrators who support and encourage technology use with such a holistic approach!
Sylvia
If you are considering attending ISTE 2010 in Denver, CO this June, I hope you consider this great pre-conference experience, the Pre-ISTE 2010 StoryKeepers Camp. While ISTE is a large, sometimes overwhelming experience, an event like this offers personalized, hands-on learning within a supportive community. It’s a great way to ease into the conference, and get the widest range of professional development.
StoryKeepers camp is run by the fabulous Bernajean Porter. The camp is 3 days right before ISTE, June 24-26, 2010.
Pre-ISTE2010 StoryKeepers Camp is a a one-of-kind artistic, learning adventure meant to lift the spirits, imaginations and skills of educators. Participants will not only be ready to take the art of digital storytelling back to their students and other colleagues but also be prepared to guide the reading/writing of ANY multi-media communication.
Expect to make new friends, learn a lot, have fun and leave enchanted with new skills for creating future storytelling!
And if you decide to come to Denver for the StoryKeepers Camp, you can also come to another wonderful pre-conference event – The Constructivist Celebration. StoryKeepers Camp is Thursday-Saturday, the Celebration is Sunday and will be over in plenty of time to attend the opening events Sunday night at ISTE.
The February 2010 issue of Principal Leadership, the magazine of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is all about “Real Work”. There are dozens of wonderful articles on project-based learning, service learning, civic engagement, advocacy and more.
We are proud that the New York State Student Technology Leaders (NYSSTL) project is showcased in this issue in an article by Teh-yuan Wan, Stacy E. Ward, and Dennis Harper – The Power of Student Learning Through Leading.
“When students become the technology leaders in their schools, they help teachers and peers while learning about leadership.”
The 3rd annual Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute will be July 12-15, 2009 in Manchester, NH USA (near Boston).
In addition to master educators and edtech pioneers, the Constructing Modern Knowledge 2010 faculty includes history educator James Loewen and bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me; popular provocateur and author, Alfie Kohn; MacArthur Genius and incomparable school reformer, Deborah Meier; and children’s author, illustrator and animator, Peter Reynolds. Cynthia Solomon, Brian Silverman, Sylvia Martinez (that’s me!), Gary Stager and John Stetson round out the amazing faculty.
Constructing Modern Knowledge is a minds-on institute for educators committed to creativity, collaboration and computing. Participants have the opportunity to engage in intensive computer-rich project development with peers and a world-class faculty. Inspirational guest speakers, pre-conference expedition and social events round out the fantastic event.
Constructing Modern Knowledge is about action, not listening to speakers. It’s where we learn together how to make project-based learning happen in real classrooms with real software and real computers.
Spend four cool summer days in New England making puppets roar, robots dance, animations delight, movies move, simulations stimulate, photos sing and leave with memories to last a lifetime! See you there
The Constructivist Celebration is an opportunity for you to let your creativity run free with the world’s best open-ended software tools in a great setting with enthusiastic colleagues who share your commitment to children, computing, creativity and constructivism. You might think of this stimulating event as a spa day for your mind and soul!
Best of all, the Constructivist Celebration @ ISTE is being held within a few minute walk of the Denver Convention Center, home of the ISTE Conference.
Then you will enjoy five hours of creativity on your own laptop using open-ended creativity software provided by consortium members FableVision, Inspiration, LCSI, and Tech4Learning. Participants will also receive a TechYES Student Technology Certification Mini-kit from Generation YES and SchookIT folks will assist with project development.
Creative computer-using educators deserve to eat like an Italian prince. That’s why this year’s Constructivist Celebration includes continental breakfast, mid-morning refreshment, a three-course Italian lunch and afternoon snacks. This is in addition to the free creativity software and Imagine it2 DVD each participant will receive.
At $60 for the whole package, the Constructivist Celebration is an incredibly affordable event!
I’m excited about this event, it’s always a fun, fabulous day with a creative community. Every year it’s different, and every year I learn something new. I can’t wait to see some of you there!
Want to improve teaching effectiveness? Listen to teachers — and make it possible for teachers to spend substantive time listening to each other. Kudos to Metlife for providing important new evidence to support this much-needed reform strategy.
Here is just a short list of things he mentions as he’s describing how to structure learning environments where children learn through tinkering.
no set curriculum
no tests
lots of stuff
lots of tools
real tools
immersive
time
how to make things
deep realization that they can figure things out
nothing turns out as planned
every step is valuable
just start building
fully committed to project at hand
success is in the doing
failures are celebrated and analyzed
child-appropriate response to frustration
all materials useful
These kinds of attributes are great goal-posts for any authentic project, not just technology projects.
February and March are hotbeds of activity for state and national education and technology conferences. Next week I’ll be at both ends of the U.S. at two conferences of interest to educators interested in technology.
NAIS is the National Association of Independent Schools annual conference. Private schools have been on the forefront of the laptop movement both in the US and around the world. The 2010 conference is in San Francisco Feb 24-26, and I’ll be there with the Constructivist Consortium. This is a group of small companies who promote constructivist use of software in schools for creativity and student-centered learning. Generation YES is one of the founding members and we’ll be at booth 239 – come by and say hello!
PETE&C is the Pennsylvania state technology conference held annually in Hershey, PA. Yes, that Hershey, and yes, it does smell like chocolate! Running Feb 24-27, this conference is all about technology and education. Pennsylvania’s education reform program, Classrooms for the Future (CFF) has created a strong network of educator-coaches who support innovative programs statewide. Building internal leadership like this is a terrific idea, and Pennsylvania is certainly reaping the benefits of investing in their own people.
At PETE&C, I’ll be doing a session on Feb 23 on student leadership and digital citizenship – if you are going to PETE&C I hope you’ll stop by.
Student leadership is a topic that might not on the surface seem to be technology related, but schools hoping to increase their authentic use of technology need to be thinking about. The guiding principle of putting power into student hands can be both concrete (actually handing them equipment) and abstract (giving them responsibility and agency over their learning). Both support each other, and schools that give students responsibility and guide them as they learn to use it gain so much. Students who believe that they have a stake in their own education will contribute to the effort to make education better for all. Schools that take this empowerment to heart help create the citizens, learners, and leaders we need in the world.
So say hello in person or on Twitter! I love to meet friends new and old!
Thou shalt talk to actual students and teachers and make time to watch how technology works during actual class time, not just when it’s quiet.
Thou shalt not make fun of the tech skills of teachers or students, nor allow anyone else in the tech department to make disparaging remarks about them.
Closing trouble tickets shalt not be thine highest calling; thou shalt strive to continually make the learning environment better.
Thou shalt not elevate the system above the users.
The network will be never be perfect. Learning is messy. Get thyself over it.
When teaching someone a new skill, keep thy hands off the mouse.
Thou shalt listen to requests with an open mind and respond in plain English.
Blocking shall be controlled by educators, not filtering companies. Thy job is to enable learning, not enforce behavior.
Thou shalt include students and teachers in decision-making about technology purchases and policy. Their interest is not an affront to your professionalism.
ISTE (formerly known as NECC) is the largest national educational technology conference in the U.S. This year it will be in Denver, Colorado June 27-30.
