Maine Principals Conference

Ted Hall, our high school principal, and I joined three students to present: “So you have laptops, now what do you do?” at The Maine Principals Conference on November 19th. This is the first year of the Maine Learning Technology Iniative at the high school level. Many high schools were lucky enough to be able to join the 1:1 plan. Our school is in year 7 of having laptops, so we thought we would offer some of the tips that have worked fo us. The main focus of the presentation is on communication and collaboration with teachers and how 24/7 access promotes student achievement. The students did a great job, we are so lucky to work with such thoughtful and intelligent young people.

ACTEM sessions are now live

The Way Learning Should Be

The Friday sessions from the ACTEM conference are now available to view. This spreadsheet is being updated, so check back. More are being added every day! Also don’t forget to fill out the evaluation form.

K12Online Conference LAN Party

The K12Online Conference is hosting a LAN party from 6:00PM to 8:00PM EDT (10pm GMT). The SEEDlings will join Sylvia Tolisano in the EdTechTalk chatroom with colleagues in order to view two past conference presentations and then engage in lively discussions in the EdTechTalk chatroom at http:www.edtechtalk.com/live.

Geek of The Week LIVE at ACTEM

Live from the ACTEM conference, we will be hosting Geek of the Week! We would love to have you participate by contributing a favorite website. Please contribute by filling out this form. We’ll have everyone do this so we should end up with an amazing list of resources which we will share! And be sure to tune in live at http://edtechtalk.com/live on Friday October 16th at 12:00 EST.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the list for the ACTEM GEEK of the Week Session. Thanks to everyone who participated! You can still enter your Geek of the Week. If you would like to watch the session, here’s the UStream

What was your biggest take away from NECC 2009?

I learned so much at NECC. Going back to the conference planner is  a place to catch up on presentations and links for the sessions, but I find that the conversations are where I learn the most. I sometimes change my mind about who to go listen to based on what people say. I am also fascinated by what other people have found out from sessions and speakers and would love to hear what you learned. So to keep this concept going,  I started a form and would love to have you fill in what you learned. Virtual attendees are welcome to participate. The data is posted so it will be fun to see what sorts of things come in and continue our conversations.  Check back to see the new information as it comes in.  I am already seeing some interesting new connections and places to check out. Thanks for continuing the learning!

MLTI Student Tech Team Conference

We had a terrific day at the Student Tech team conference on Friday. Ben and Ben taught Quizlet to a small group and did a great job explaining the ins and outs of the collaborative flashcard program.

Our Google Super session was amazing. We interacted online with Susan Gendron, the Commisioner of Education in Maine, and George Nelson from NASA. Ernie Easter helped us in the audience, and Google Docs pulled it all together for us. Perhaps the most amazing part was that we over 550 people from around the globe to answer our survey. Here are the data points and survey charts. It was so much fun to work with Jim, Sarah, Kern, and Cheryl. Everyone just rolled with the whole session. We has 800 + people in the audience all on apple iBooks and MacBooks. Cisco had a great chart which showed how many people were on line at once.  Cheryl has done a great job blogging about our experience.

MLTI Student Technology Conference

On May 29th, Kern Kelley, Sarah Sutter, Cheryl Oakes, Jim Moulton, and myself will be offering a Google Super Session at the MLTI Student Technology Conference around the ability to ask questions and collect data. To prepare for this session, we have a “tell us about school where you learn” survey. We are asking you and your students to help us show the power of the network by providing data anonymously. Thank you in advance for helping us. We’re planning on sharing the data when we’re done. The survey is here.

Present at the 2010 ASCD Annual Conference

ASCD is now accepting proposals for the 2010 Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas, March 6–8. You may submit proposals for concurrent or research sessions. Proposals are due May 1, 2009. ASCD has invited the Learning Beyond Boundaries network to work with the conference planners to shape the technology infused education sessions. Even though you have to apply through the ASCD proposal site, entering your proposal on this matrix will ensure that your proposal is given due consideration.

We have already “seeded” the matrix with some topics, some of which we know should be covered in session proposal submissions, and we encourage you to feel free to enter session proposal information for any of the topics that you feel comfortable addressing. Or if you have suggestions for topics / presenters, let us know those as well.

Dennis Richards for the Learning Beyond Boundaries Team

Pictures Words Sounds Numbers

Teaching and Learning with Technology online conference, May 4 – 7, 2009. This looks like a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of professional development without having to travel, and it’s FREE! Former Governor Angus King gives the opening keynote on the 4th, followed by an opportunity to experience Second Life with Tim Hart. The sessions on the 5th – 7th cover all subject areas and topics. I hope you can join in!

Google Teacher Academy

Google Teachers Academy NYC 2008

November 18, 2008 at Google Teacher’s Academy – the Maine Connection.

What a day! It was incredible and I am still processing! It was great to meet Twitter fiends and make some new ones. Lisa Thumann took pictures (we weren’t allowed to take any for security reasons and we didn’t have time anyway!) and one participant found a tour of the NYC Googleplex. The video is spot on! Thanks to Kern Kelley (also in this picture) for his great training session. Cheryl, Sarah, and I debriefed on the ride home and there will be much more, as we will be working on projects until May.