NYSCATE Pre Conference Michelle Okal Frink

Michelle Okal-Frink has been on the administrative cutting edge of educational technology for years and has ushered in each new trend with great insight.   She has been a true pioneer for the schools in Western New York who rely on her role in the WNYRIC organization.  Michelle has also been a part of NYSCATE in a variety of capacities, most recently as NYSCATE President.

Michelle has truly displayed amazing leadership and insight towards the ever changing educational landscape.  This year you can find Michelle working the presiders booth!

Coffee with a Geek- Interview with Erik Maeder

Just finished talking to colleague and friend Erik Maeder, Pioneer Central School District Technology Integrator.  I met Erik through our Technology Integrator Forum Meetings.  Erik is always a wealth of information and always willing to share, which is why I am connected to him in a variety of social circles from, Google Plus, to Facebook, to Goodreads.  (Erik is a voracious reader)

I think you will find his insights about future tech trends to be right on the money.

Thanks Erik!

Mission US-2 Thumbs Up

As many of you know I have been an advocate for making Social Studies, and in particular history, a more active and engaging learning process for students.  I have been following the Mission US Series for some time and am incredibly impressed by the content and learning quality of this program.  I would probably recommend this mostly for 4-5 Grades, yet there is definitely possibility to make this a more advance 7 grade US History piece as well.  The resources and teachers guides are high quality and well sourced.

Right now there are 3 developed missions.  The first involves the Revolutionary War, the 2nd Mission is about the Underground Railroad, and the 3rd is brand new and involves the Native groups of the Plains.

Please give this program a try.  Better yet, if you are WNY teacher contact me and I will help you get it set up and work with it.  I would love to offer help to get this program in as many schools as possible.

Here is the Link:  http://www.mission-us.org/

Check it out!

Connected Educator Month

I had the great honor of being asked to be a Google Hangout Panelist this weekend that was Coordinated by good friend and colleague Jane Wilde.  I'll let the Hangout do the talking!  Great group of people.

A Day at The Anne Frank Project: Buffalo State College

Last Wednesday and Thursday I had the unbelievable pleasure to take part in The Anne Frank Project at Buffalo State College.   Pioneered by Drew Kahn and ably assisted by Co-Director, Eve Everette, this conference is now an annual fixture on the Buffalo State campus.  The conference is free and open to the public and has tons of thought provoking sessions built around Anne Frank's wish to change the world in meaningful ways.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."-Anne Frank.

Drew has been on board with our "Understanding the Holocaust" project since its inception.  This year he offered us a unique opportunity to have our "virtual Annex" on display at the Burchfield Penney Art Center as a companion exhibit to The Anne Frank Center (USA)'s Timeline display.  I was so honored to have the project so prominently displayed in such a magnificent museum.  I would highly recommend going to this museum at any time.  It is breathtaking in its architecture, peaceful in its atmosphere, as well as, powerfully engaging in its artistic display.

Teachers Jill Pallante (with daughter Margeux) and Becky Moe helped participants understand how the program worked with their students.

This technology provides a bridge between the content that teachers want to convey and the technology skills that students possess. 

Working with a participant as they navigate the virtual environment.

Ready to present!

The entrance to the exhibit.  

NYSCATE Pre Conference Interview Katie Regan

My second pre-conference interview is with the dynamic and engaging Katie Regan.

I met Katie at last year's NYSCATE Conference along with #Ladygeek buddy Shari Sloan.  I was really impressed with their positive attitude and willingness to share.  I found there was a kinship right away.

Here's Katie!

NYSCATE Pre-Conference Interview 1

The NYSCATE Conference is an amazing 3 Day event that highlights the vast amount of edtech projects and programs that go on throughout New York State.  This ISTE affiliated organization is at the forefront of bringing together innovative educators.

I thought it would build some excitement to interview some of the hard working people that work behind the scenes to bring the magic of NYSCATE together.

My first two guests are Brian Blaszak and David Mileham, two friends and colleagues that are part of the 1-Hour session Conference planners.  Take a listen to what goes into this task and get a sneak peak at the trends that you should see at this year's conference.

VWBPE Conference Keynote Speaker

Yes... if you haven't already guessed, I am an uber geek, and because of that I have an AVATAR!  Believe it or not I have found that Second Life, the virtual environment trendsetter is my favorite social network.   I have met so many amazing educators that have really been fantastic friends and colleagues.  They have pushed my thinking and captured my imagination.

I was asked to be a keynote speaker at the recent VWBPE conference and here is my recording.

Remembering the Alamo

My picture of the Alamo on my arrival in San Antonio

I want to begin my reflections on ISTE 2013 by talking about the Alamo.  Alamo, you say?  This is a tech conference!

Yes, the Alamo.  (Stay with me... hopefully it will make sense)

After arriving at my hotel, I quickly unpacked my things, went down to the concierge and asked about the Alamo.  He told me that the Alamo was a 10 minute walk from the hotel.  Perfect!

And so without wasting a moment, I started my journey to San Antonio's most famous landmark.  I had a vague understanding of the history and appreciated its significance, but seeing it in person gave me some profound and deeper understandings. 

When I first visit historical locations my general preference is to avoid crowds and scripted tours and focus on the scenery, text markers, and artifacts.  In this solitude, I want to listen to ghosts of the past whispering their sacred truths.  Gathering in the scents, and walking along the Alamo buildings and grounds, the spirits and story are strong here indeed.

The Alamo ... or the building that is known as the Alamo began as a Mission Chapel, a place of peace, a place of conversion.   Of course years later, the Alamo finds itself at the heart of a bloody conflict between rugged independent minded Texans against the strong willed Mexican General, Santa Anna, and his massive army.  This "epic" failure in American History lead to a massacre for all the Texans daring to fight on.  The story of course doesn't end there.  The Alamo stirs other Texans to action and brings it yet independence and then statehood to the United States.  Today, the Alamo returns to a place of peace with a touch of awe and respect.

As I walked along the streets of San Antonio and its famed Riverwalk, I noticed that there is strong Texas Pride.  While I think New Yorker's may love their state, I'm willing to guess that many may not ever recognize their state flag or its symbols.  Texas however, shares their flag boldly.

So not to blather on into the realm of faux historian, let me tell you what the ghosts of the Alamo shared with me.  Determination is needed in times of strife, hardship and yes, even failure.  If one falls for a noble cause, another must take the flag and run with it, displaying it proudly.  A new day of peace only comes when people are willing to work for it, and strive for it.

So how do these lessons take me back to ISTE 2013?  Well the comparison of warfare and education is not  a particularly apt one, so please let's taper it with caution.  I do feel however that after talking with so many educators at ISTE, there has been trying times in education of the past few years.  Tight budgets, teacher layoffs, heavy handed reforms, have left us all weary and overwhelmed.  And yet, I found a renewed energy and purpose here in San Antonio.  I felt a powerful sense of determination and stubborn pride to be educators.  To not give in but continue the blending of old practices with new innovative ones.

We may not all be Texans, but we are teachers, and yes... we are proud and we don't give in easily.  We will keep on innovating and working, because our cause is indeed noble.  We love our profession, we love education, and we will do everything in our power to persist in educating a new generation of students.

Not sure who this guy is, but he showed up at the Epic Leadership event.... then vanished.

The SIGVE Tribe

UStream at ISTE

Please check out my USTREAM broadcasts from ISTE 2013
Video streaming by Ustream
Video streaming by Ustream

Inspired!

#iste13 thanks @avantgame for the inspiring speech! pic.twitter.com/zx7Lc69Z6P
— Spiff Whitfield (@Spiffwhitfield) June 24, 2013

Ok I know what everyone is going to think about why I am so excited at meeting Jane McGonigal. She is wonderfully attractive ok. But seriously, let's just put that aside and let me tell you why I really was overjoyed at meeting her. She is inspiring and quite brilliant. Want proof? Ready her book "Reality is Broken" and I think you will agree that she is forward thinking, creative, innovative, and tremendously inspiring.

Geeking out at the Digital Wave Conference

Yesterday we took the Coffee with a Geek show to the NYSCATE  Digital Wave Conference.  We had the opportunity to talk to lots of educators from around western New York and find out what they have been up to.  Also we had a chance to talk to Keynote Speaker, Kevin Honeycutt.  Kevin always gives an inspirational presentation that always leaves educators energized.  Stay tuned for our outtakes highlighting our guests and the amazing projects they are working on.

A Panel Discussion Across the Miles

Yesterday I had some amazing friends visit our Technology Integrators Forum in Western New York.  Scott Merrick and Anne Collier came to us via Adobe Connect and offered their insights and wisdom from in their roles as educators, and student technology advocates.
See the full session by going to the link below:

http://e1b.adobeconnect.com/p1fshxuya27/

Anne Coller:

As many of you know I am a huge fan of Anne's work and always go to Connect Safely and Net Family News websites for up to date information on how to keep yourself and your family informed of technology trends and safety issues.   Anne and her colleage Larry Magid, have done such a great job of providing thoughtful, common sense ideas to empower our youth.   She is such a great resource and I am so thankful she was able to take time out of her busy schedule.  Read more about Anne and her work here:

• Connect Safely
• Net Family News

Scott Merrick

Good buddy and Brother from a different Mother, Scott Merrick, chit chatted about just a few of his en devours with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.   This school is providing an online path for students to get their high school diploma.  Scott has been doing so much more in his role as Chairperson of ISTE's SIG OL and former Chair of SIGVE.  Both of these groups work on new and innovative solutions to engage the 21st Century Learner.

Find out more about Scott and all the amazing things he does here:

• MNPS
• Scott's amazing blog!
• ISTE's SIGVE
• ISTE's SIGOL

Coffee with a Geek Comes to NYSCATE's Digital Wave Conference

Ah... May.. the birds singing, warmer weather, and..... watch out for the DIGITAL WAVE Conference!  Splash!

Yes its that time of year when NYSCATE's awesome spring conference comes to Western New York to find see presentation from some amazing edtech leaders.  This year's Keynote Speaker is the ever inspirational Kevin Honeycutt.   I have seen Kevin speak several times already and he has always delivered an amazing presentation that is inspiring, thought provoking, and full of new ideas for learning tools using technology.  His inspiring message is so needed in these challenging times in education.

I am also looking forward to interviewing some amazing educators so look out folks, if you see a geeky guy with a cameraman following him, I may just ask you some questions about what you have been doing this school year. 

Alice in wonder

At our last Technology Integrator's Forum we had a really nice overview of some powerful uses of technology in local school districts.  Our first presentation was from Kelsey and Rachel Braun (No relation) from Pine Valley Central Schools.  Kelsey showed our participants how they re-imaged some older computers to run the Open Source UBUNTU Linux platform.  This platform allows for some free and innovative programs that run fluently with the operating system.  Here are some resources that were shared about Linux.

http://ubuntusite.com/ubuntu-flavors/  What is Linux?
http://www.stellarium.org/  A nice planetarium program for Linux
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6349  From Kindergarten to HS with Linux

Rachel Braun, the Elementary Art teacher, then showed how she uses the Linux program to create fantastic digital art projects.

http://mypaint.intilinux.com/  My paint Program
http://tuxpaint.org/  Tux Paint Program
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/609530-REG/Wacom_PTK640_Intuos4_Digital_Tablet_Medium.html  A tablet that can be effectively used with the programs.

This is just a sampling of the ideas and projects they shared.  So if you are school district that is looking stretch some of your older computers for a little while, you can consider installing the Ubuntu operating system.  Pine Valley has had great success.

Our afternoon presentation offered a hands on look at two programs designed to teach students how to make code for animating objects.

Our first presentation from Andy Pingatore from Fredonia Central Schools, showed us the Alice Program.  Andy showed us how he has used this program with his students.  This program teaches coding in a fun and unique way.  Most importantly it is FREE!  Get a free download with teacher resources below:

http://www.alice.org/index.php

Lastly, we had Shaun Laska, Frewsburg math teacher, tell us about another introduction to coding program called Scratch from MIT.  This program would make a great start towards showing younger students the magic of writing computer program code.

http://scratch.mit.edu/

This was really a wonderful day of learning new approaches to Ed Tech!

Pleasantly Inspired

As an educator, I have often thought that it is the teachers job to inspire students in a variety of ways to help them learn and achieve success.   Surely that is the role of teacher and coach, however, this week, I was the one who was inspired by students.   And I am grateful.

I had the opportunity to work with some 8th Grade Students at Forestville Middle/ High School.  A friend and colleague of mine, Todd Langworthy, (History teacher) as well as, ELA teacher, Mike Borrello wanted to try our Understanding the Holocaust Virtual Environment program.  This program lets students use avatars in a virtual world to explore the digitally recreated streets of Amsterdam 1944, when Anne Frank and her family were in hiding.  Students work through 10 Common Core based activities designed to help them understand the concepts, history, and themes of the Holocaust and let them think like a historian to create an exhibit in a Holocaust Museum.  See previous post.

With this program, I get the opportunity to go into the school and work with the teachers and students to help them get used to the virtual environment.   Since this is such a vast departure from anything students have done in a school setting the enthusiasm is pretty amazing.  When the students actually broke out and worked in the environment they were incredibly excited and put that excitement in all kinds of directions within the environment.  And I told the teachers that the first day would really be a day where the students would need to play.  Play they did.  Their most important thing to do was to update their avatar!  However, as the afternoon settled in... I noticed something quite interesting.  Several students started building.... and building.... and building.  Skills that took me a long time to figure out, these students were doing in a mater of minutes.  They were fearless in their explorations and THAT is what inspired me.  I knew that the students would be engaged in this form of learning.  But I was inspired by how they quickly pushed the limits and were using technology to problem solve and create.  They were already talking about geometric shapes, textures, measurements.... using appropriate terminology and logic.  

When I returned the next day, the students started developing more focus towards the setting and the educational objectives, but I would like to say that play was still a part of the learning.  Play has become such a dirty word in education, but I think it is such an essential part of learning, and this project is confirming what I knew would be true.  The builders stayed after school and kept on building all the while learning from each other.  I am inspired.  Take a look at their first project or read more about this project specifically through my avatar Blog- professorilluminati.blogspot.com

Student Built Kitchen

Student built couch

Student built block house

Virtual Advanced Placement Grant

Carmalita gives instructions on how the VAP Grant will work.

The second project that I am fortunate to be a part of involves my fellow colleague and great friend, Carmalita Seitz.  This is the New York State Virtual Advanced Placement Grant (VAP_which involves teachers creating Advanced Placement courses for their students.  In essence, digitizing their course for blended or complete online courses.  Carmalita is a powerhouse of amazing talent and wisdom beyond her years.  She has developed and amazing structure for these dedicated and innovative teachers to create engaging courses that will, when completed, allow other teachers in different schools to use them for their students.  These teachers will be working over the summer and many will be attending ISTE 2013 in San Antonio to learn from some of the most innovative online educators.   Stay tuned for more information about this amazing opportunity for Western New York Teachers.

Virtual Education- New Horizons in Learning

Teachers learning to use their avatars

It's been awhile since we have had some video to post for my space, but I started thinking, that well... why do I need a video to start talking about the people and ideas that make educational technology thrive in our schools.

Teachers updating their avatars to match their personalities!

So with that, I want to talk about two projects that I am involved with here at my work at the Western New York Information Center's (WNYRIC) Technology services division... whew, yes that is a mouthful!  The projects have been driven by two New York State Department of Education Grants.  The first grant is the NYSED Technology and Learning Grant 2012-2015 that was awarded in January. This grant involves some work that I have been plugging away at for quite some time.  My major objective for it is based around creating new ways to teach and learn history, as well as, develop creative skills in writing and reading.  The goals of this program are to give teachers a new way to engage their students in school using a virtual environment.  This 3 year grant will involve training teachers to use our Open Sim environment to learn about history through role-play, building, play, and communication.  Notice how I slipped in that word "play".  To read about the pilot project that began this work, see ISTE's Leading and Learning Magazine, May 2012.  Or check out my companion blog using my Virtual World avatar:  Professor Illuminati.  That blog will give you the latest news from the students and teachers that are involved in the grant.   I have been truly inspired by our starter group of teachers:  Jill Pallente, Sts. Peter and Paul, Derek Kise and Megan Herbeck from Gateway- Longview, Jessica Graham and Amanda Thompson from St. Christophers. Rebecca Moe from 14 Holy Helpers School, and Erica Aikin and Diane Zahradnik from Southtowns Catholic.

 Stay tuned for more updates and information on how this project develops.  If you are a New York school that may be interested in this project for your school or class.  Please contact me or check out our website.  http://bit.ly/theislands

NYSCATE Part 2

So with the help of my Producer Marc Hunt and his editing skills we have more footage to share from the NYSCATE Conference 2012.

The trends that people seemed to be buzzing about this year were:

1. The Flipped Classroom-  This concept essentially requires students to watch the teachers lesson at home using a computer or portable device and then coming into the classroom the next day to work on the assignment.  So in other words, the lesson is done at home and the homework done at school.  Flip!  
2. iPad, iPad, iPad- There is of course lots of buzz about iPad use in schools and how many schools are trying to manage these devices and effectively use them in the classroom.  This movement is just in its infancy so there seems to be some growing pains from how to best use apps, to using devices as student creation tools rather than information tools, and managing portable devices that want to be tied to an individual rather than an institution.  Textbooks and assessment components are also on the horizon.  Stay tuned... should be a fun ride as other tablets arrive on the scene and the competition begins.  
3. Social networking tools for teachers and students.  Sites like Edmodo, My Big Campus, and Schoology have been making big splashes in creating a school based social network that combines Facebook like features with educational relevancy.

But those are just a few of the trends.  So many amazing things to see and so many great teachers to learn from.  Here are but a few.

Latest iTunes U link HERE