Reflections from Iowa 1:1 Conference #i11i

Today I attended the Iowa 1:1 conference, and for the most part, visited sessions lead by school districts telling their 1:1 story.

However, one session I attended was not lead by a school district  –  “How to Include Students as Co-Designers in your 1:1 Program” by John Nash (@jnash).  I really shouldn’t call it a “session” as it’s really structured as an interactive mini-workshop.  A group of 3 or 4 educators sat at a table with one student (graciously borrowed from BCLUW and CAM districts). We went through the process of interviewing the student to collect information on them as a person, their educational background, their feelings and ideas related to building a 1:1 program that meets student needs.  The interviews are very revealing and very powerful.

Oddly enough, I left this session thinking that it was just “good”  – but over the next few hours, my opinion changed.  As I attended more district-lead sessions, I heard districts make comments such as…

* I wish we would have involved students more in the planning

* I wish we could have included students on the site visits during the planning stages.

In the end, the theme that I walk away from the conference with… There’s a need to have more student involvement in 1:1 planning.   In fact, as I look back on the process now, it’s not only valuable for planning 1:1, it would also be valuable for districts that have already implemented.  It could easily be used as another data collection tool or as a way to dig into exactly how students are using their devices.  With empathy as the key building block of this process – you could easily modify the detailed or probing questions and use the process for any initiative that intends to impact student needs.

For more details on John Nash’s “How to Include Students as Co-Designers in Your 1:1 Program”….

Download a copy of  the Student Interview Workbook

Visit his blog: http://ReformByDesign.posterous.com

Website for related PD for schools: http://dLab.uky.edu

Contact him directly….

Email: john.nash@uky.edu

Twitter: @jnash

Choose your own tech adventure! A new style of technology PD.

Notice that all great technology PD courses involve Mountain Dew.

We have an idea to share and want your thoughts…..

Last Oct, we ran a mini-conference at Valley Southwoods related to technology and EEI.  The feedback was positive, especially because… A)sessions were taught by district teachers  and B) everyone had choice.   Some teachers loved the short introductory sessions, others wanted extended sessions to have time to dig into the topic.

 Here’s our idea:
Instead of a traditional PD course, with only one specific topic for the entire 15 hours, we are proposing a different approach.   A staff development course that is entirely made up of multiple topics that you can pick and choose the topics that are of interest to you!    Each topic would be 3 hours of time – so you would need 5 total blocks in order to meet the 15 hour requirement for staff dev credit and/or Drake credit. 

Here’s a specific example of what the schedule might look like:

	Mon June 4th	Tues June 5th	Wed June 6th	Thurs June 7th
AM Sessions 8:30am to 11:30am	Using Kidblog.org	ScreenCasts	Twitter	Google Docs
	Safari Montage	MovieMaker	Safari Montage	MovieMaker
	Animoto	Standards Based Grading in Infinite Campus (grades 7-12)	Animoto	Twitter
PM Sessions 12:30pm to 3:30pm	K-3 iPad apps	K-3 iPad apps	Classrooms Blogs	Gloogster
	Edmodo	Edmodo	MovieMaker	Classroom Blogs
	Google Docs	Standards Based Grading in Infinite Campus (grades 7-12)	Gloogster	ScreenCasts

 Here are some of the specific 3 hour topics that we think could be offered…..

1)      MovieMaker:   editing and producing short videos with Windows MovieMaker (most likely taught by Jackie)

2)      Standards Based Grading with Infinite Campus:  (grades 7-12) How to set up your grade book for standards based style grading in Campus

3)      KidBlog.org:  Using kidblog for student writing

4)      Safari Montage:  How to access, search, and build playlist in Safari Montage (replacement for DE Streaming).  Also how to use student accounts, how to make assignments, on-line quizzes, and use their iPad app. (most likely taught by Jackie)

5)      Google Docs:  an Introduction to Google docs

6)      K-3 iPad apps:  A session for teachers to share their favorite iPad apps, with time to dig into why and how the apps are used.

7)      Twitter:  an introduction to using twitter for your own professional development and/or classroom usage  (most likely taught by Brian)

8)      Edmodo: an introduction to using Edmodo, building courses, getting students setup, turning in assignments, discussions, grade book, and practice tests/quizzes

9)      Gloogster: Making on-line posters

10)   Animoto:  Creating on-line slideshows with pictures, text, and music

11)   Classroom Blogs:  Creating a classroom website/blog

NOTE:  some of these topic, depending on interest, might be expanded to a second level.  Example: we might have a Twitter level 2 for those who already have a twitter account, and a level 1 for those who do not or have one but haven’t used it much.  This could also apply to Edmodo or other topics as well.

Questions for you…………..

1) What do you think?  Will this be appealing to staff?

2)  What topics are we missing that might interest staff?

3)  Please contact Jackie Neuberger if you’re interested in being a trainer.  It’s $30/hour for any session – and we’re certainly open to adding new topics/ideas.