Don’t follow, meander your own way in a conference.
I finally made it to an ISTE conference! For anyone that does not know, the ISTE conference is arguably the biggest Educational Technology conference in the U.S. The timing for the ISTE conference was always inconvenient for me, scheduled during vacations or other work commitments. The funny thing is the big ticket speakers and Keynotes didn’t draw me in at all. After a couple of ok sessions I found myself meandering the rest of time between the EdTechTeam and Google for Education booths in the vendor area. Both of these locations featured teachers and former teachers and how they are using Google Apps and other instructional technology tools in education. I really need to hear how teachers are currently using GAFE in classes, it's like water in a desert. I learned more in some of these 20 minute sessions than in the 50 minute sessions I attended. I don’t why, but I must say the shorten sessions, being closer, all of it helped me. It could be my attention span issues or simply that I am GAFE centric, but these sessions rocked. Two of my favorite sessions are “Redefining Math” with Sandra Chow (@watnunu) and “Explore your World with Google Geo Tools” presented by Brad Lands (@MrLands). Both of these presenters (currently teaching) are powerhouses and really gave me a ton of ideas I can’t wait to test out. Sandra Chow is the math teacher I always wish I had, she is innovative (and a Google Innovator) and used google slides in a way I never thought of for collaborative math work. Bradley Lands broke more down about Google Geo Tools in a quick 20 minute session than I ever thought possible. I would suggest following both on Twitter, or just following them wherever they are. There is much to learn from both of them. I will post more on what I learned at ISTE and of course on my adventures in professional development as the summer rolls on. And probably one of the biggest highlights of the ISTE conference is my discovery of the sushi-ritto (a sushi buritto) at Hai’s Kitchen in Philly. Actually not my discovery, Jesse Lubinsky was the official food tour director of our small group. (As per usual, Jesse, Sabrina and I traveling in our own little Ed Tech wolf-pack.) And quite a tour it was!
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Jordan is a young lady with great ideas, and a formidable palate for a nine year old. Jordan Lubinsky is the daughter of a good friend of mine and a blogger that I have been following since the beginning of her journey. I have stated many times that in this flat-ish, Google-able world, parents and their children need to harness the power of the internet and start personal branding. This is especially relevant for High School students who are looking into colleges. Building a brand, persona, having a well developed footprint on the internet buys you instant credibility with anyone who has access to a Google search. On the other hand, leaving this mark up to chance can result in losing opportunities. Just look at three of my favorite blogging success stories: Tavi, Jane and Quinn are all now adults who have made their success from blogging as teenagers. I have no doubt that Jordan is well on her way! Please take a moment to drop by Jordan's Lunch Box :) Well, my family is now been using the Filip phone for almost a month. I have to say the experience it has been on the whole very positive. My son can reach me at any time as long as he's wearing his phone, and I am able to track his location usually. The mobile app for parent phones is really awesome, that's probably my favorite part. One caveat is that there is one primary parent phone designated, if a spouse or caregiver also wanted the ability to track the child, the primary account needs to allow it. Right now the only downside is that the phone does not automatically update the GPS map on the parent phone fast enough. By default, the GPS location of the Filip-phone will be updated every 15 minutes on the mobile app for the parent. I change the settings to automatically be updated every minute. Now that my son is growing in independence, and going out biking with his friends I wish I could have an update every 30 seconds! It seems every couple minutes my Son and his friends are rotating between their houses. But the point is, I know When he moves! I can set up each one of his friends houses as safe zones, and can be notified every time he leaves one. So far the service hasn't been bad, actually my house is the only place where service has been spotty. I highly recommend the Filip phone! If you are a crazy paranoid controlling mom like me, this phone might be an answer to all of your prayers. Okay maybe I'm not that crazy, but I am a paranoid mom and I do want to know where my child is at all times if possible. I figure I'll be ready to stop smothering him when he's about 30 (Maybe). The Philip phone was created by a man who actually lost his son in the mall for 30 minutes. He said it was the longest 30 minutes of his life, and he wanted to find a way where he can keep track of his son if anything like this were to happen again. Hence, he created the Filip phone, this phone uses cell towers and Wi-Fi to triangulate the location of the wearer. If you really think about it, this is also very useful if you have an aging parent that might have dementia that you need to take care of. I will make a separate post on how I use the map app to keep track of my son to send text to him and to call him or initiate panic mode. The video is just a brief overview of what the phone looks like. Stay tuned for another post on Panic Mode and the mobile app!
There was not much discussed that I found impressive. However, when I ventured into one of the alcoves, there was a video playing of a teacher visiting a scientific site simultaneously on a Hangout* with a class. Now that, was transformational. This is much different than the simple virtual tour, where students are still purely consuming information but not interacting, questioning or influencing. This is different than a Skyped interview because the students were going somewhere with the guide. This was not scripted, with rehearsed questions to interview someone (which has great educational value). This was live, real, and spontaneous. Students can actually influence the journey with questions and suggestions.
Sometimes teaching moves you, and fundamentally changes you on the deepest levels. Every single teacher I know started in education out love for kids and the deep desire to contribute something positive to the world. I have been out of the classroom for nearly two years, but my experiences with Lanie, have definitely changed me. Further, my experiences with the teachers in her school humble and move me to tears. A few months ago I was asked to meet with a student who uses a Tobii Device. The Tobii allows the user to manipulate a computer or communicate purely through eye gazing. I have seen things like this on TV but never in person. The young lady I was asked to meet has cerebral palsy and the Tobii is her primary way to interact with the world around her.
The Tobii she is using is a loaner, this one does not have Wifi and that can be incredibly frustrating for a teen who needs access to resources to learn, research or just have basic communication. In order to teach her today we had to move to 3 different classes just to find a drop that would give her internet access. The thing I learned is she is just a teen, who loves Facebook and Youtube (Go figure!). She likes Keith Urban, so I have found a kindred spirit. I also learned today that even though the Tobii is an amazing piece of technology, she would often lose her written work and would have to email it back and forth with her teachers which is cumbersome. This is where I finally feel like I can help, Google Drive and the Chrome browser is going to be a game changer for her. By the time I left she had already shared a document with her teacher. At one point in the morning her mom asked to see me out side, and earnestly asked me not to drop the ball on her daughter. They have had a lot of disappointments. In that moment, I remembered all the CSE meetings, the tutor who took me on for free because I couldn't read nor learn phonetically. I remembered my mother fighting battle after battle to get me services that didn't really exist yet. I remembered always feeling different, dumb and on the outside of life. I remembered the special ed teachers that never stopped telling me I am worth something, that I am smart, I can do it. Drop the ball on her? Not a chance. Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Cubetta never dropped the ball on me. Image Source-cerebralpalsy.org
Sexting is one topic a parent can not learn enough about. The digital avenues that teens use to compromise themselves continue to pop up with new apps. Parents need to understand how to monitor and stop their children from possibly ruining their online reputations or worse-themselves. Words to know: Sexting- the transmission of sexually provocative, nude or partially nude photos. This often happens via cell phone or other mobile device. SnapChat- an app that allows the sender to transmit an image that will disappear on the recipients phone after a prescribed amount of time. Thanks to SnapChat, some teens think it's safe to take risque pictures and transmit them because they believe the pictures will be destroyed before being circulated. The fatal error is that anyone can take a screenshot within the time it takes for SnapChat to destroy an image (For example, on an iPhone just holding down the home button and sleep buttons at the same time will take a screenshot). The image can expire via SnapChat but the copy will remain on the receiver's phone. Major legal issues arise with sexting that need to be taken seriously. In short, any time a teen (under 18 years old) takes a nude or semi nude picture of him/herself that teen is now in possession of "child pornography". Once that image is sent to another's phone that same teen has now engaged in trafficking child pornography as dictated by the law. It is important to reiterate that a teen can be arrested for even transmitting a picture of him or herself. There are many instances now where teens who have engaged in this behavior have been labeled as a "Sex Offenders" and must be registered as such for the remainder of their lives. What steps can parents take? 1. Know the unlock code for your child's phone and check pictures and texts regularly. If this does not seem feasible then I strongly recommend investing in monitoring service like BSecure. 2. Password protect the App Store Downloads, so your child must go through your approval to install an app on their device. You do this by tethering the device to your email and not the child's. (This and a monitoring service is best investment of time and parents will not have to manually check their teen's phone repetitively) 3. Google "Controversial, Apps, teens" or a keywords similar to this and check child's phone to see if they are currently using a problematic app. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in my 'Comments' Further Resources: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/04/18/snapchat-sexting-spam-honey-crush/ http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/blog/snapchat-potential-increased-sexting-cyberbullying/ (Disclaimer- this is a cross-post from my work blog) Image Source: Technorati.com Okay, so this is neither Digital Parenting or Educational Technology topic, but still one close to my heart. Email organization, I love it, I know it is strange, but perhaps it is because this is probably the only area of my life that I can get to fit in neat little boxes. I have given many professional development email sessions where I never intended going this route, but some poor kindred soul always requests it, then another one bytes the dust. (bytes, lame I know) So how do you do Multiple Inboxes? More importantly, what purpose does it serve? Well here you go, I just happened to attend a Flipped Classroom session yesterday and decided on making this. It is not pretty, nor refined which freaks out the perfectionist in me, but it gets the job done. One thing I learned about Flipping fromLeslie Accardo and Jasper Fox is that it does not need to be perfect to be educationally sound. In fact, students will respond to the humanness in your movies and presentations. So this presentation was initially created at Jesse Lubinsky's request but I hope others find it useful. The fall is a great time of year to try out new tools and routines to improve our effectivenss. This is no different for our children/students. My next series of posts will be dedicated making your ( and your child's) life easier using some of my favorite tools.
The Google Docs suite is with out a doubt is probably one of the most used tools in my digital toolbox. There have been several great commercials lately demonstrating the sharing capability of Google docs. Two important highlights of Google Docs are that is cloud based, and that you can share any document with anyone or make it public Basically you have all your documents if you have an internet connection, and because the documents can be shared, group work and teacher feedback is a breeze. As a teacher I have used Google docs in my Computer and English classes with great success. I had my students have a Gmail account as part of their supplies for the beginning of the school year. Once a Gmail account is established the user has access to email, Docs, Spreadsheets (think Excel), Presentations (think PowerPoint) and Calendar among a suite of other applications. No longer is there the issue of printer problems or Word not working correctly with Google Docs kids can simply share a document with their teachers. Some of my students became so adept at Google Docs that they were using their phones to do their homework and write essays. Commenting and editing is easy for the teacher, plus Google also automatically saves each document so there is no losing work. Best of all, it is free. There are many Google Docs tutorials on youtube and it is very easy to learn. As always feel free to contact me with any questions. |
Jennifer CronkI am a technology leader, professional developer, teacher, parent and proud owner of an IEP. Let's talk about some fabulous learning experiences. Archives
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