Goodbye Portland, Oregon!

 After an exhausting three days of technology workshops and sessions, Beth and I headed out to the Portland Airport.  The weather all week has been rainy and today is no different.  In reflecting back, I have learned so much, I now need to find the time when I return to revisit several bits of information and technology tools and try to get some of them integrated into my existing classes.

Closing Key Note Speaker - Jeff Corwin

 

Jeff Corwin

GO WILD: Environmental Education in the Age of Technology

This year NCCE's closing keynote speaker was Discovery Education's Jeff Corwin, an Emmy-ward winning biologist.  He gave an up-close and personal presentation about his work in the environment and ecology and how his experiences can be applied in the classroom to engage students and inspire an interest in learning.

30 in 60: 30 Take-Home Tools for Tech-Savvy Teachers

Mike Agostinelli

Presented by Mike Agostinelli and Jason Neiffer

Beth and I joined tech-savvy teachers, Mike and Jason, as they showed off 30 engaging, interesting and useful bits in just 60 minutes.  This face-paced session focused on Web 2.0 tools, e-learning master tools, productivity powerhouses and other things that we can start using RIGHT NOW.  Their presentation was delivered using http://livebinders.com/:

30 in 60: Great Tools for Tech–Savvy Teachers

Their session was streamed using ustream and a copy is below:

One of the handy things I learned was about Google Talk.  Would you like a way to give students access to you 24/7 on your terms?  I am sure most would say, “NO”, but stick with me.  If you use Google Talk, they have a way to embed into your Moodle, website, blog, etc.  Go to http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New You will have to sign in with your Google or Gmail account.  From there the website will generate code for you to embed in your site of choice.  When you are done it looks like this:

So for me this has done two things:  1. It has driven much more student traffic to my sites  &  2. It has allowed me to be more responsive to my students.  Give it a try and let me know how it is working for you  

http://techsavvyteacher.com/?paged=3

Integration with Stop Motion

Presentation by Joe Dockery

After a burger and fries for lunch, we headed back over to the convention center to Joe Dockery's Integration with Stop Motion session.  Joe tells us that stop motion animation is so much fun and educational it should be banned from schools. We learned how our students can create exciting and engaging digital stories through the use of stop motion animation. The session will explored how to use Adobe Premiere Elements as an easy to use stop motion tool. Online tutorials and resource materials we can use with our students are available online:  http://www.mountsihighschool.com/directory/_dockeryj/conferences/concurrent_sessions/stopmotion/web/index.html.  He also provided a link to video tutorials on Animation with Adobe Premiere Elements:  http://www.mountsihighschool.com/directory/_dockeryj/conferences/stopmotion/web/index.html.  Joe's sessions are always great because he provides all of his information and video tutorials that are linked online.  He welcomes us to use these in our classrooms. 

Lunch @ Burgerville!

After Annette Lamb's session, Beth and I headed over to Red Robin again for lunch only to find out it was packed with a long line outside.  So.....we headed to Burgerville.  We ordered right away and got our food pretty quick.

Graphic Inquiry & Visual Technologies

Presented by Annette Lamb

Beth and I both attended Annette's session on Graphic Inquiry.  We live in a high-tech, multimedia world filled with visual tools and resources, yet many of our classroom activities still emphasize print communication. Even inquiry-based approaches to learning often stress writing lists of questions, reading texts, and writing papers. We know that many of our young people are motivated by graphic communications. There’s a need to explore the potential of graphic inquiry in teaching and learning. Annette Lamb provides powerful resources for pursuing graphic inquiry in the classroom.  The link to her website is as follows:  http://www.eduscapes.com/sessions/graphic/graphicinquiry.htm.

The New Adobe Education Exchange

Presented by Joe Dockery

The Adobe Education Exchange is a free online resource for educators to meet, share, discuss, and collaborate on topics of interest to the Adobe education community.  Teachers share lesson plans, class projects, technical tutorials, background materials, and other resources and get feedback and recognition from the community.  You can network with other educators that share your interests and start a dialogue on the topics you’re thinking about and exploring.  You can discover new methods for teaching and learning, best practices for using Adobe software in the classroom, and guidance on a range of education topics. Explore the community for innovative new ideas and exciting and unique ways to integrate Adobe software into classroom teaching and learning.  I have been using the Adobe Education Exchange for a little over a year now and find it to be a valuable resource.  The link to the Adobe Education Exchange is:  http://edexchange.adobe.com/pages/home.

Lloyd Center

After a little break, Beth and I headed over to Lloyd Center for a little shopping. While the ice skating looked like fun, I don't think I really had the energy to partake.  I don't know about Beth, but I was tired.  We split up for about an hour of shopping.  Met in the food court for a bite and headed back to the hotel.  A little mindless TV sounded good to me.

High-Tech and High-Touch: Keys to Successful Virtual Learning

In this session Matt Renfroe of the Florida Virtual School discussed how to keep today's online students engaged in their courses.  He said that a combination of high-tech, standards-based curriculum and teacher invovlement can grab their attention and lead to success.  Staff in the curriculum and instruction of Florida Virtual School shared best practices and considerations in K-12 virtual education.

Beth and I both attended this session.  We headed back to the hotel after this.  With a full day of sessions, were were ready for a break!

Google Apps ePortfolios

Helen Barrett

Had the opportunity to catch Helen Barrett at a session on Google Apps e-Portfolios.  I have been following Helen Barrett for years.  When I first started researching portfolios, I came across her website.  Here is her presentation:

NCCE mar11

View more presentations from Helen Barrett

She provided a lot of great information.  It will take me some time to sift through her website and work.  This was a very timely presentation as students in my Web Design and Graphic Design 2 classes are creating online portfolios.  These are a work in progress and by the end of the semester they should have a full portfolio.  Helen's website provides a wealth of information for me to further develop this project in class.

Beth attended one of Annette Lamb's sessions called Social Technology & Digital Citizenship.  She said it was great!  This session dealt with the many laws and federal regulations that apply to youth and online social technology.  She covered the rights and responsibilities of teens, the relevant laws, and what teachers and librarians need to know in order to implement them within a school.  She explored approaches to teaching students about their role as responsible digital citizens.  Here is a link to the information:  Social Technology & Digital Citizenship.

After all these sessions, it is time to head to Starbucks to gear up for the last session.

Google Apps and Student Publishing

Beth attended a workshop by Helen Barrett called Create Portfolios using Google Apps.  Oregon was the first state to adopt Google Apps for K-12 schools, which I did not know.  They use these powerful tools for maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students.  Helen covered how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation potrfolio using Google Sites.  Beth said this was a very good workshop.

After our morning workshops we headed over to the old stand by, Red Robin for lunch.  We downloaded and shared Evernote and talked about how we might integrate this with Google Apps/Sites.  

After lunch Beth and I listened to Rachel Wente-Chaney talk about mostly about Google Apps.  Quite frankly, Beth and I didn't learn much that we didn't already know.

Workflow: Making the Tools Work for You

I love the above picture of Jason.  This photo says it all.  Jason gave a great presentation.  Every new tool, gadget and time saver brings increasingly complex work and learning environments.  As it overwhelms tech-savvy teachers and students, new approaches must be adopted to deal with the brave new information world.  This session discussed workflow, the basics of making the tools work for you.

His presentation is located below:

 

Here are some links to Web 2.0 tools that help Jason with his workflow:

Feedmyapp - Web 2.0 tools (sites & apps)
www.feedmyapp.com

Clickshare - social calendaring - makes communication easier
www.clockshare.com

Screen Presso for PC: 
 http://www.screenpresso.com/

Xmark (syncs all of your bookmarks) 
http://www.xmarks.com/

Evernote (helps you remember everything)
http://www.evernote.com/

Recommended Blogs:
Lifehacker www.lifehacker.com
Web Worker Daily www.webworkerdaily.com

Recommended Books:
David Allen’s  
Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-free Productivity - creating a thought process to live your life.  

Timothy Ferriss’s
The 4-Hour Workweek  (get rid of the 20% of your life that you don’t need - do this with students and family - not really) But amazing set of tools related to e-mail, etc.

Mark Hurst;s
Bit Literacy (engaging with digital media in a meaningful way) 

Advanced Moodle: Kicking it up a Notch

Randy Orwin

After lunch at the Red Robin, Beth and I attended the Advanced Moodle:  Kicking it up a Notch with Randy Orwin.  We had an opportunity to learn some of the more advanced features of Moodle.  We learned about advanced question types for the Quiz module; databases in Moodle, Grouping and Lesson modules.  We also learned how to do inline marking of online text assignments and more.  

I have taken many courses from Randy in the past.  He has his own consulting company now, called Orwin Consulting.  I spoke with him after the workshop and he mentioned two video conversion programs.  Moyea, which is an open source program that you can download and Format Factory which is not open source but is freeware.

Randy has done a Moodle Boot Camp every summer for the last couple of years.  This camp is located in Pack Forrest, Washington.  This year he is offering two strands.  Strand A is for beginners and strand B is advanced Moodle for teaching and learning.  The advance strand will include advanced features of Moodle including third party modules, and strategies to effectively manage students online.

Digital Photo Graphic Novels with Adobe Photoshop

Beth Cole and I left the hotel a little before eight in the morning.  Our first workshop started at 8:30 a.m.  I must have been more tired than I thought.  As we left the hotel and started walking, I looked down and had to laugh.  Beth has been giving me a hard time since she saw my suitcase.  It was quite a bit larger than hers.  Okay, so it was three times the size of hers.  I like to give myself options should we say.  Well I carefully picked out a red and black outfit to wear for today.  When I looked down I had put on obviously brown shoes.  Most people would say, "who really cares" or "who is going to really notice?"  I brought three pair of shoes (brown, black and blue).  The black shoes were for this outfit. Okay - so who really cares?

After a quick breakfast at Starbucks, Beth and I headed back to the Conference Center.  Beth attended a workshop called Weaving the Web 2.0 Tools into the Curriculum presented by Patsy Lanclos.   I attended the Digital Photo Graphic Novels with Adobe Photoshop presented by Joe Dockery.  Beth shared her Google docs notes with me while I was in my workshop.  As I was viewing her notes, while listening to Joe, I noticed that there did not appear any new links for information that I had not heard before.  Beth began to communicate with me through Google docs and as suspected, she was very disappointed with the workshop.(note for the future)

I enjoyed Joe's workshop, as usual.  I was able to spend a little over two hours going through his tutorials and creating my own graphic novel pages.  While I can't say I learned a whole lot of  new techniques, I did learn a new way to put the techniques together.  I also learned a few shortcuts (that I may have know before, but forgot about) that I will share with my students in Graphic Design 2.  Comic books and graphic novels are very popular among students.  I think students will find this graphic style to communicate very appealing.  I think it is a great way to visually represent what students know or what to communicate.  I think it is also more likely to catch a student's interest and a visual graphic containing key information can be easier for many students to remember.

I often struggle with coming up with group projects for students to work on in Graphic Design.  I think that this would be a great way to combine team work, research, reading and writing skills woven into what I believe could be a highly motivating project with significant educational value.

Adobe Photoshop for Video Production

 Joe Dockery Workshop

Adobe Education Leader

Headed over to the convention center for our workshop with Joe Dockery.  As always, I learned so much and came away with tons of resources that I can use in my classroom.  We learned how to harness the power of Adobe Photoshop both as a tool to manipulate your video clips and to build art work that you can incorporate into your video projects.  We were able to focus on a range of learning objectives that included:

• Opening video clips in Adobe Photoshop and applying a variety of filters, effects, blend modes and layer masks. 
• Building artwork to incorporate into video production projects such as lower third title overlays, logos and other visual elements. We will also cover layer organization and how to import/manage the layers once you bring them into a video editor like Adobe Premiere. 
• Building DVD menus with buttons that you can import into Adobe Encore.
• Building DVD labels and game/jewel case covers.

As always, Joe provided access to all of his materials for this Adobe Photoshop for Video Production workshop on the web.  

Arrived Portland for 2011 NCCE Conference

Left bright and early on Tuesday morning for Portland, Oregon, with Beth Cole from Hellgate High School.  Uneventful flight and arrived to rain.  Beth was able to check into her room at the Crowne Plaza, where we are staying.  I had to wait until my room was ready.  Hotel is two blocks from Oregon Convention Center.  We took the train downtown and ate lunch at Jake's Grill.  Shopped a little downtown and found a wonderful spice and tea shop called The Spice & Tea Exchange.  Having just ordered several Cannon HF M31 cameras for use in our Video Production class, we also had to stop into The Shutterbug where we asked a lot of questions about video and still cameras.

We wound our way back to pick up our registration packets at the Convention Center.  After registering, we went back to the hotel, where I was able to check in to my "killer room."