• Students as collaborators, creators, and directors
• Podcasting
• Making your PowerPoint presentations more interesting
• Using Discovery Education’s teacher tools (assignment builder, quiz builder, etc)
• Gloggle
• Sharing your multimedia projects with the world

Access all of these presentations on the DEN Blog Virtual Conference  page.  Enjoy!

When?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
9 AM to 3 PM EDT

Where?
Online

How much?
Free.

The day will feature a special presentation from Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in the School District of Philadelphia as well as a great lineup of sessions from STAR Discovery Educators and the DEN team.

Registration is open now so check the blog for all the updates.  The schedule of presentations is available and they sound fantastic!

Register to attend here.  You can attend for one hour or all day! 

I attended my first MACUL Conference in 2002 and have attended each year since.  I went the first year as a participant only; I got the feel for MACUL and benefited greatly from what I experienced and learned.  The following year, and each year thereafter, I have come to the conference as a presenter.  I like sharing and helping others learn and grow, and having a “presenter mindset” keeps me always on the hunt for new ways of using technology for teaching and learning. 

Some of the most important MACUL experiences that have shaped me professionally include:

• Purchasing a Snagit/Camtasia bundle from the vendor area in 2002.  I began screencasting long before it became a fad.  People still come up to me and tell me they recognize my voice from the CD I published back in 2003!  I’m still using Camtasia (and Jing) on a regular basis. 
• Receiving a MACUL grant in 2004 for a digital storytelling project.  I presented at the MACUL conference with a teacher from my district to share what we did and how digital storytelling positively impacts student writing.  I developed a website to go with it, and people from all over the world still visit and use the teaching materials, especially to show the student examples. 
• Hearing about the power of blogging from Will Richardson and David Warlick at Macul 2005.  I created my own blog, Yes Tech! in Nov 2006 and have found that it helps me to be a reflective practitioner.
• Attending a Steve Dembo “Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools” session in 2007 opened my eyes to many new tools: Twitter, Wikispaces, and Flickr, to name a few.
• Getting to know & networking with other like-minded educators at social events on Thursday nights!  The face-to-face meetings have continued, thanks to MACUL Space. 

What are your favorite MACUL memories?

The Educon Conference took place the last couple of days in Philadelphia.  You may wonder what Educon is… the quote below is from their wiki.

EduCon 2.1 is both a conversation and a conference.
And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.

The opportunities for learning seem to be easiest/best for those who could attend in person, but people who could not make it can still participate and learn.  Many session descriptions, presentations, and handouts are posted for people to use at any time. 

Florida’s big tech conference also just finished, FETC.  Resources are being posted at the FETC wiki.

Lots to learn!   

I am facilitating a webinar with Michael Gielniak and Kate Kennedy for the One-to-One Institute tomorrow (Dec 11, 2008) at 2pm EST on Wimba.  The topic is “Implementing a one-to-one program.”  We’ll be sharing info about 1:1 sustainability, best practices in the 1:1 classroom, and the latest regarding 1:1 evaluation/research. 

If you are available at 2pm and want to listen in, go to http://www.wimba.com/.  You’ll see “Implementing a one-to-one program” in the left column under the heading Distinguished Lecture Series.

Today was an enjoyable day of collaboration and learning.  We began by brainstorming qualities that we think are important for all high school graduates (being a team player, problem solver, communicator, tech savvy, etc).  Mr. Ross says that educators expect our students to have all these qualities, yet we do not necessarily provide them the opportunities and learning experiences to help them attain these qualities.  He believes (as do I) that project based learning instructional methods, when done right, can help us better prepare our students.

Tomorrow we will work on the process of designing effective projects.  I am particularly interested in learning new strategies to make students individually accountable for group projects. The Walled Lake team will be identifying a project to go along with new 7th grade social studies curriculum.