Assignment 2.2 Conference Time
Have you ever found the perfect conference to attend, but when you approached your principal there wasn't enough money in the budget? Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in the public-school system. Fortunately, though, there are many free and low-budget options out there, including virtual conferences! The focus of today's post is about just that: the 2015 Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC), which is one such virtual conference. You can find the playlist of YouTube videos here. I've summarized a couple of my favorites below, one of which was presented by Nashla Tiwari and Lisa Clois, and the other presented by Syliva Martinez. You can access each presentation by clicking their heading below.
This first presentation gives a number of practical and easy-to-implement technology tools that focus on preparing students for secondary education, helping them find the right type of secondary education, and succeed in high school and accelerated learning. One tool they provide is an interactive planner that allows students to map out what classes they want to take in college in order to achieve the degree or job they set out to. Another is a checklist for students to use to ensure they are prepared to apply to college in order to be successful. They've also provided a consolidated overview of the most popular colleges for students to review to make an informed decision about where to attend based on finances, location, academics, etc. Finally, if a student wants to hone some of their "soft skills" such as note-taking, time management, and test-taking. I like this resource because it is very student-centered and will help my seniors get better acquainted with the college application process as well as inform me on what skills I should be ensuring my students leave with to be successful after high school graduation. I would probably create a direct link to their website and do my best to encourage students to use them when applying to colleges. For the soft skills, I would probably rely on my PLN to help come up with ideas to teach these skills to my students and provide diverse opportunities to use them. I hope you find this one helpful!
The Maker Movement: A Global Learning Revolution (43.5 minutes)
The second presentation focuses on something a little different and more specific: the maker movement. This movement calls on teachers to provide students with new technologies and craft materials to empower them to engage with their world, examine challenging problems that need challenging solutions, and stay relevant with the 21st century. What is even cooler about this movement is that you are not working in isolation; schools and districts around the globe can all collaborate on the same project! This is where a PLN would be incredibly useful. Teachers could collaborate with teachers in their PLN to break a dynamic and complex project into multiple components to help work collaboratively and ask questions to each other through the process. In order to implement this in your classroom, you first need to find a good project that students can work on together. This means something fun and engaging, but also one that addresses your curriculum standards. Secondly, students need to be familiar with the tech that will be necessary to complete the project. It may be a good idea to do a small activity with it first before opening everyone up to the main project to help work out any issues and ensure students are prepared.
I hope you find these resources useful! I encourage you to also check out the playlist yourself to find additional helpful videos from the virtual conference...Enjoy!
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