DEN Spring Virtual Conference Tomorrow

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is once again offering their Spring virtual conference tomorrow from 9 am - 4 pm.  All sessions are free and jam packed full of great ideas!  You can register here.

Here's the schedule:

9 AM
Connections, Conversations, and Collaborations: Creating a Personal Learning Network That Works For You
Lee Kolbert, DEN Guru, Palm Beach County, FL

10 AM
Homework Gone Digital
Matt Monjan, Discovery Education, Silver Spring, MD

11 AM
When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room
Dean Shareski, Digital Learning Consultant, Prairie South School Division, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada

12 PM
Cell Phones, Internet and Oprah: How the US Presence in Iraq Has Affected Women’s Lives
Christina Asquith, Author of “Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family and Survival in the New Iraq”

1 PM
Connecting Language Learners to the Curriculum through Digital Media
Lindsay Hopkins, Discovery Education, Los Angeles, CA

2 PM
Rock OUR World!
Carol Anne McGuire, STAR Discovery Educator, Anaheim, CA

3 PM
DEN in Ten
Lance Rougeux, Discovery Education, Mechanicsburg, PA

See more details on each session here.

Playing with Animoto

I have an upcoming math project using Animoto and I haven't really played around with this site yet, so I decided to give it a try this morning. If you don't know what Animoto is, it's a site that makes videos out of your pictures.  When I logged in, they also told me I could now use short video clips; not sure how long they've had that feature. I used pictures from our Technology Night on Tuesday, so you'll get a peek at what it was like (it went very well, I'll post more in a bit!). 

Here's the video I created:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

I am really, really impressed with how easy this is!  You're finished in about 4 steps: upload, edit (if necessary), select music, and hit create.  Animoto does the rest for you!  The hardest part is being patient while the photos upload.  I had 3 photos that seemed to be taking forever and I hit refresh on my browser thinking I would probably have to start all over again, but all the pictures popped in, including the ones I was waiting on.  I may have just gotten lucky on that one though!

The music is also very hip for today's students.  I  hear lots of complaints from students when doing a project involving music; that it's not music they like.  There is the option to upload your own mp3's, but the stock music they have is good enough that I want to go look up some of the artists on itunes. 

I'm not sure why I waited so long to try Animoto, I really like it!  Now, I'm intrigued in how else to use this! Has anyone else used this yet?  What did you like/dislike? Please comment below!

FETC Virtual Conference Tomorrow!

It's the week of virtual conferences, it seems!  Tomorrow is the Florida Educational Technology Conference's turn from 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (The DEN's virtual conference is Saturday!)  I love virtual conferences, because it gives you a chance to listen in when you want and if you aren't able to, then you can hear the archived sessions.  That's smart thinking!

This should also be a great opportunity to hear about educational technology issues on the national level.  I'm most looking forward to the sessions in the afternoon/evening on computer safety and web 2.0.

You can register here.

Here's the full rundown of the schedule:

10:30 - 11:00 am	Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time
11:00 - 11:45 am	Keynote Presentation - Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology Karen Cator Director of the Office of Educational Technology U.S. Department of Education Washington, D.C.
12:00 - 1:00 pm	A Panel Discussion: How We Will Use the National Ed Tech Plan Ann McMullan, Executive Director Educational Technology, Klein ISD, Texas, Jill Hobson, Director of Instructional Technology and Media Services, Forsyth County Schools, Georgia Brenda Williams, Executive Director, West Virginia Department of Education Moderator: Geoff Fletcher, Editorial Director, Education Group, 1105 Media, Inc..
1:15 - 2:25 pm	The New 21st Century Classroom: Using the Cloud to Create Affordable Learning Systems John Kuglin Retired Associate Dean University of Montana
2:30-3:00 pm	Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time
3:00 - 4:10 pm	Computer Safety and Security Threats Teachers and Students Face: Deal with Them NOW! Brent Williams Educational Technology Center Kennesaw State University
4:15 - 5:00 pm	Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time
5:00 - 6:00 pm	Web 2.0 and Education Julie Evans Chief Executive Officer Project Tomorrow

Oops!

So even technology resource teachers still get a few lessons on using technology!  Laugh along with me, please!

Earlier today, I was adding some tips on using SMART boards to my wiki. For whatever reason, I clicked on my contact page, a google form I created about a year ago, so anyone who wanted to contact me could easily send me a message.  I decided to update that form, went in and changed a few options, presto, done!

Hmm...I thought, let's check on the form I created for my blog.  AND I had contacts in the spreadsheet.  FROM a year ago.  THAT I didn't know about. 

Not quite sure what I was thinking when I set this up, but obviously some thought went through my head that I would get an email or some notification that someone had filled out that form.  Oops! Luckily, the 3 or 4 people who have contacted me via that page weren't teachers in dire need of technology help and thought I had brushed them off.  But I apologize to any of you still reading and didn't get a response back from me.  I guess it just goes to show that there a LOTS of options in these amazing websites and widgets and web 2.0 tools that we have grown to love; learn from me and check all of them out thoroughly!

After looking around the spreadsheet a bit more, I found those all important notification settings. All is right again! Please contact me whenever you like or feel free to leave a comment! 

Technology Night!

My school is hosting its first Technology Night tonight!  This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and it's finally happening.  It's such a great chance to build a community for the students to share their work, thoughts, and receive feedback.  Each teacher participating has picked student projects to show and the teacher and students will discuss how they went about creating the project and show examples and possibly teach a part of the project to viewers. 

I think it's also important to celebrate the achievements students make and some of the projects I've seen this year have blown me away! I remember a teacher saying in one class that they've struggled to get a student to turn in assignments and was amazed to see the work they were doing on this particular project.  There was another instance, where a student wasn't all that into the project and when we told them they could add pictures of themself using the camera on the computer and they were all for it!  It turned into a great project about the student teaching how to balance chemical equations. 

Tonight we are featuring projects on:
1. Persuasion movies created in imovie by an 8th grade Language Arts class
2. Six Kingdom Comics created in Comic Life by a 7th grade Life Science class
3. Victorian Era podcasts created in Garageband by a 7th grade Language Arts class
4. Making Music created in Garageband by an 8th grade Band class
5. Balancing Chemical Equation comics created in Comic Life an 8th grade Physical Science class
6. Invention podcasts created in Garageband by a 6th grade Social Studies class
7. 1920's Digital Scrapbook created in PowerPoint by a 6th grade Social Studies class
8. Digital Poetry Posters created in Glogster by a 7th grade Language class

Blog Posts to Check out!

Here are some links for your enjoyment!

1. Take Students Around the World with Virtual Field Trips
    ISTE'S NECC '09 Blog
2. Virtual Field Trip Planning Kit
    Free Technology for Teachers
3. April - National Autism Awareness Month
   Talking Smartboards and Much More!
   This post has some great tips on raising awareness for autism!

It's my spring break this coming week!  I hope to catch up on writing some posts about the projects I've been working on and get those posted.  So be on the lookout for those!

World Autism Awareness Day

April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day, as well, as April being Autism Awareness Month. The families who deal with this disease have a special place in my heart and I want to share some of my experiences with you:

I was in middle school when I first realized what autism was.  It was in the early 1990's and I don't think much had been talked about it before then.  We had a group of students in our school that would only join us for our elective classes such as PE and art classes.  As sixth graders, we knew these students as "disabled", but didn't really know why they were the way they were.  Several of the students acted much as we did, except that they didn't communicate with us.  It wasn't until my art teacher, Mrs. Cumberland (wonderful woman!) actually talked to us in class one day, that I think many of us realized that our classmates were autistic. Having them in class with us was so normal; it was just another experience of the world for us.

It turned out to be a good experience for me.  A few years later, our former neighbors moved in with their young son who was autistic.  Having experienced this before I felt right at home with him, compared to my parents who were a little nervous about this child who made "strange noises".  One of the things that fascinated him was water, which wasn't good considering a creek runs behind all our houses!  On nice days, we would go on "lookout" as sometimes he would be able to open the door and run like mad past our house to the creek.  If we didn't see another adult close behind, we were up and out the door chasing after him!

When my mom began working as a substitute teacher, she was asked to work in what they called at the time, the "severe and profound" room.  Because of her experience with our neighbors, she said yes.  She ended up loving it, something that surprised all of us!  She would work in this area for six years.

Unfortunately, as many of us in the education world know, autism is on the rise.  In December 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued their ADDM autism prevalence report, which concluded that the prevalence of autism had risen to 1 in every 110 births in the United States and almost 1 in 70 boys.  Families who have children with autism have to provide for special child care and schooling.  The Autism Society estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million. You'll notice that I've added an autism puzzle badge to my sidebar and if you would like more information or would like to make a donation, it will link you to The Autism Society. 

Also, if you're interested, Autism Speaks is also sponsoring the Light It Up Blue Event on April 1st.  According totheir site, “On the night of April 1, prominent buildings across North America and the world including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada will be lit up blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Friday, April 2.” Please help spread the word!