More Than a Techie

After going through my conference materials again I came across some information that would help put it in perspective.  Here are some selected statistics as published in isteDailyLeader, the official newspaper of the ISTE Conference.

I was little off about the size of the exhibit hall. I said 3 Canadian football fields. It was actually 5 American football fields!  That’s over 600,000 square feet!  It was big enough to accommodate 1282 exhibitor booths.

1561 presenters gave the 12448 attendees 998 sessions.  The attendees came from 57 different countries wit the farthest coming from New Zealand, 7700 miles away.  All together they had 26,188 hotel room nights.

By the way, the flight home was so smooth that it seemed like we weren’t moving at all!

I had to leave earlier for the CCC to be able to squeeze in three sessions and a trip to the exhibit hall before lunch.  The bus driver was really happy to wait an extra five minutes for 2 pieces of tape to affix the route sign to the windshield 2 inches higher than where it was.  As we pulled out on to the major road to the next pickup the crossing arms came down for a slow, long train.  To her credit, the driver got us to the CCC in time.  I didn’t miss a thing all morning!

this one of the presenter breaks many of the rules presented!

The first presentation was entitled The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.  Its focus was about getting us to take more effective pictures and to edit them to make the most of the picture.  Some of the topics were pretty basic for me.  However, it was amazing to see the great proportion of hands being raised to admit that totally new information had been presented.  It wasn’t a waste of time as it is always nice to have it confirmed that you are doing the right thing already.  There were a few things that made it clearer for me, especially the editing information.  The main things to remember from this session are that photographers need to think about what they are doing and think creatively about the appearance of the end product.  So I guess those who think they can just point and shoot are in for a surprise, especially if they don’t read the camera’s manual!

At Growing Digital Citizens for Our Digital World the information centred on the experiences of a school in Auckland, New Zealand.  Through the school’s procedures they actually “grow” a digital citizen.  Each age group is given different guidance as to how the use the available technology.  Of course it is largely controlled with the younger students, but as they get older they are given more responsibility to decide their digital direction.  They have been constantly exposed to the school’s ethical agreement.  These replace hard and fast rules, because the students are not able to find a way around the morality of the ethics like they would find exceptions to rules.

Most of the presentation that followed showed us how the ethics were developed. The examples of what has been used in the school to educate the students and set up the moral expectations might cause a stir among some proponents of digital freedom.  The issues surrounding Facebook were examined at length, but basically came down to common sense.  Many items were plain common sense based on appropriateness and respect.  Of interest is the clear statement that if there is no permission to use digital material, it is piracy, even borrowing a CD from a friend and burning a copy – piracy.  A quote from Mitdh Kapor was used in the PowerPoint: “Getting information form the Internet is like drinking from a fire hydrant.”

The last session I attended was Mash Media: New Web, Old Media, and Your Own Stuff.  I attended a session by the same presenter earlier, and he ran into the same technical problems with access and compatibility.  However, his enthusiasm and attempts to overcome them made up for the glitches.  The session was designed to lead us, with the use of mainly free tools, through the steps to create a mashup.  The workarounds demonstrated and the new tools, like Tagul and Blabberize, made the session more than worthwhile.  For my fellow committee members, I have never seen anyone so genuinely excited to use Movie Maker.  It, along with Camstudio, was rated better than the Mac combination being used.  I think it was because of the screen / video capture needed for the mashup.  The end product was something any of our students would be happy to call their own.

The final keynote of the conference was preceded by three prestigious awards being announced.  Congratulations to the ITSE Outstanding Leader Award winner Dean Shareski from Prairie South School Division!

The keynote speaker was Jeff Piotek from Hawaii.  He spoke about his school’s experiences and related them to the direction in which we are headed.  He encouraged us to consider the direction of education and how it needs to change in this digital world.  He talked about the American focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but suggested that it needs to be STEAM.  The A is for Arts, as the others require the creativity of arts in order to do the necessary problem-solving in the decades ahead.  He believes it is important that children be allowed to experiment and try new ways of coming up with answers instead f he decades-ld practice of regurgitation.  Creativity and innovation should be the hallmarks of education as we move forward.  It was a thought provoking presentation.

garden of the gods

Following the conference we hopped in the car to head south to Colorado Springs.  This time the GPS directed us to traffic congestion on the Interstate.  It only took an extra 15 minutes or so before we arrived at Garden of the Gods.  This is something not to be missed if ever in the Denver area.  The erosion shaped outcroppings of red rock run for several miles.  Of course everyone wanted to have their picture taken at the Balanced Rock.  Other rocks were shaped into large protruding “slivers” or rounded off into smooth shapes.  They came in all sizes too.  It was a great opportunity to practice some of the things from the first session of the day – except having time to think as it was nearing sunset.  It was well worth the trip, including the rush-hour slowdown.

balanced rock

okay, so it's not a school bus!

Another long bus ride to the CCC – 45 minutes today.  Lots of walking through the displays again.  I wonder if a new pair of shoes will fit somewhere on my expense form!!!  I had many interesting discussions with exhibiters.  Edmodo appreciates all Eldon does to promote their product, whether in our meetings or as PD.  Some presenters were disappointed to hear that we had gone in certain directions with our infrastructure as they acknowledged they were not at the same high level (kudos to Michael).  I saw that many of the laptop carts are now set up to store the laptops on edge to charge and one even has an open, but secure, concept to passively remove the heat build-up.

I just had to go to one session that would relieve any stress (bus rides, walking, knowing that there are many malls in Denver,. . .).  LOL@ITSE Bring Popcorn and an Open Mind was a panel presentation of a variety of humourous pieces that had many in stitches for most of an hour.  One of my favourite lines was “Indecision is the key to flexibility.”  Another that is oh so true: “You can lead a person to the Internet but you can’t make them think.”

The last presentation I was able to attend, Oh the Things You Can Do with Google Forms, began with a quick tutorial about Google Docs and some of the recent changes to this cloud computing platform.  Some of the information about spreadsheets was pretty basic at the start.  Some actually left the session.  Too bad for them, the uses of the spreadsheets and forms became a little more complicated and more related to the classroom.  We became participants as the presenter used forms to gather and analyze our responses.   This was actually the first time a presenter took the time t o show use how to take a relatively complicated URL to www.tinyurl.com and create a simplified tinyurl.  Not only were we left with access to the templates used for the presentation, but more than once we heard that there are thousands more templates available so the wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented.  Even if someone can’t explain how a formula works, the fact that it works and can be copied allows for creativity to take the lead.

I’m still amazed at how hard it is to get stuck in traffic here.  Even at the peak of the rush hour, when it looked like it was backed up for blocks, the bus kept moving steadily and we were back to full speed in no time at all (do they have driving lessons or rules that we don’t have?).  I haven’t seen any major roadwork except at night.  Maybe these are part of the reason why it’s easier to drive here than any major city in Western Canada.

the brick shed

One other interesting fact is that I have only seen one house that is not made of bricks.  There have been brick houses, brick row houses, brick fences, brick apartment buildings, brick garages and even brick backyard sheds!  The bus ride takes us down regular city streets, so it’s not lack of opportunity.  Perhaps I’ll be able to find out before returning home.

view from my window

Since I’m in one of the outlying hotels I took the shuttle this morning.  I didn’t count on the down time at each stop, so I arrived just as the first sessions were beginning.  After about five minutes we were told to find a seat as no standing was allowed.  I opted to find a seat elsewhere and wait for the displays to open upstairs since making my way to any other option would take much too long.

Did I actually use the word teeming to describe the number of people yesterday?  That was wrong!  It was a few people gathered in the halls; today is teeming!

Convention displays will never be stimulating again.  How could anything compete with a display area at least the size of THREE football fields, Canadian football fields?  Thankfully the “streets” are labeled and booths are numbered.  I managed to cover about 10% before going to my morning session about 1 to 1 computing experiences / success stories.

I only managed to take three pages of notes in Word during the panel discussion – I missed some! It seems we are on the right track in our division with a planned and structured implementation.  Some of the highlights included the need to prepare or educate teachers so that the program will be a success.  It will require a change in how teachers teach.  they will not be using the laptops every minute of every day, rather they will be used to engage students in a different way.  The need to change from what was done does not have to be radical, as long as it is different.  Of course, as the panelists pointed out, teachers need to be open to change and, more interestingly, to failure.  In addition, everyone needs to be on the same page, from senior admin to IT to teachers to students and even to parents.  All have adaptations to make to ensure success, although the easiest change is likely going to be the students.  There are many more ideas they presented (including the ever present pressure for more bandwidth), but it all comes down to openness and learning from others.

one small corner of the exhibit hall

After a quick lunch it was back to the displays before the afternoon sessions.

In Digital Deep Dive many of us were introduced to another Web 2.0 tool, Wallwisher.com.  Although we were directed to download the PowerPoint presentation, the bandwidth demand slowed loading and we had to watch the distant screen.  Still it was a neat interactive tool where the files could be downloaded and comments left in real time.  Again there was the use of Poll Everywhere, thus time to survey the room’s cell phone users.  It’s certainly another way to engage the audience.  As the last part of the session became quite rushed (lots of content) I’ll have to go back to the slideshow to review some of the other tools that were shown to us.

My last session was focused on staff development.  The presenters led us through the 21 Things About 21 Things.  Some thoughts could be addressed by the ideas from 1 to 1, as teachers seem to need motivation to move to web tools.  Some of the motivators they used were interesting, like “detention” for those falling behind in their professional growth.  However, they noted a disturbing trend that has not been the norm for us older teachers – the desire to do all the learning and associated work on “company time.  For the reluctant ones, the idea of developing a community of learners may remove some of the trepidation.

A final tour of the exhibits took me to interesting discussions with the L4U guys (who remember Donna) and the Edmodo presenters, as well as several interesting displays including document cameras.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Back for another session before the conference begins.  This time it was Whip Up a Wiki.  I don’t’ know about “whipping”, but sometimes I felt like I was in a blender – on high speed. Bill Dalton (yes the same presenter as yesterday – a complete fluke!) took us on a whirlwind tour of how to create not just a wiki, but a functional and interesting wiki. I felt sorry for those who were wiki rookies.  At least I was familiar with wikis and how to manipulate them.  Still the session gave me a few new things to try as I was either not sure about how to do it or I wasn’t familiar.

Prior to arriving we had to do some work including coming up with a plan for the wiki.  Having been assigned to teach grade 9 English next year, it became an immediate target.  Throw in the fact that I haven’t taught English in over 12 years and that the methods, curriculum, and expectations have changed, I had even more motivation.  Of course the wiki is still a work in progress since we had little time to do more than set up the bare bones.  However, I can still get feedback from colleagues in the workshop.

After the session, I emerged into a Colorado Convention Center that was teeming with attendees who had either just emerged from other sessions or arrived to register.  I imagine that it will be even more crowded tomorrow.

I took advantage of the nice weather and headed over to the State Capitol to find the mile high step – no oxygen tank required!  Then I headed down to 16^th Street again to have supper and scout out some places to have lunch tomorrow – if I can tear myself away from sessions and the displays!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

There was only one pre-conference workshop to attend today.  Amazingly the GPS worked as well as the guy at the car rental said it would.  Driving in downtown Denver on a weekend is less hectic than any day in Saskatoon!  Even better, the parking is only a buck an hour!

Registration for ITSE was in a room that would rival the size of most high school gyms back home.  To get to my workshop was a long walk to the back of the convention centre.  Even now the place is well set up – wifi works, power supplied at every table for the Bring Your Own Laptop sessions.

Blue Bear outside CCC

Tech 4 DI was an intensive session.  The presenter, Bill Dalton, modelled the process as we went through the tasks of learning more. The session began some video clips, including one from Sir Ken Robinson.  An interesting perspective he offered went something like this: “The purpose of DI is not to get students to be successful in the same way – on the same test.”  I fell into the “Miner” category and spent the rest of the session exploring different web resources to help develop a greater repertoire of methods to incorporate DI.  Two that I spent a more time on were Project Based Learning and Challenge Based Learning.

Once finished for the day I had a chance to do some exploring of the 16^th Street Pedestrian Mall.

Friday, June 25, 2010

You would think that a direct flight to Denver would be short and sweet.  What do they say about the best laid plans?  My trip to ISTE in Denver was supposed to get me here in time for supper.  Supper ended up starting at 11:00 pm.  Just 10 short minutes of landing the FAA closed the Denver International Airport due to high winds.  We circled at least 3 times – I know because we passed through the same darkened cloud caused by a major forest fire below.  Throw in some turbulence and time passed quite slowly (only one passenger actually got sick).  The captain decided to divert rather than run out of fuel so we headed to Colorado Springs.  We weren’t the only ones – I counted at least 12 other planes on the tarmac.  Everyone fuelled up and awaited their new flight plans.  Long story short – we landed and deplaned 3 hours later than scheduled! Still the flight crew out of Indianapolis deserves kudos for their professional and understanding manner in which they handled the delay. Once on the ground we had to wait and wait for our shuttle to the car rental.  Every other company had bus after bus go by.  We arrived at their building, the line was out the door, but to their credit they had brought in extra personnel and we were out within an hour.  After the late supper it was time to retire, most of the adrenaline was already gone.

Today’s discussions were, as usual, thought-provoking and enlightening.  It was nice to come up with a draft of what we can take back to the staff regarding expectations in the digital world.  Perhaps it can be used a motivator to get more of the staff more involved with getting students using the tools available.

It was also nice to have the discussions regarding legal obligations.  We need to be aware of these restrictions and communicate them to our students before they get themselves into trouble.  Yes, some will not care, but others may become more responsible once they know.

At times I have wondered about how to promote blogging with colleagues.  It would be easy to leave it at “Go blog.”  Or in dealing with the other end of the spectrum where a colleague tells me “I want to blog.”  It would be easy to show them an example, give them an address or two and let them go.  The question is how successful would their experiences be?

Donna’s recent e-maiil regarding “Google Search Tips” led me to the best solution.  I expored the blog to see if there was more to learn.  I came across a post – Don’t try to control it - which describes some of the learning we’ve doing on the In-School Instructional Technology Support committee.  The one phrase that stood out for me, and not just because it was in big, bold red letters, was “start with the idea and apply the tool”  Perhaps that is how we should approach, instead of trying to figure out reasons why or how to use tool in the classroom setting.

Sometimes you wonder if all the “cool toys” are as great as they appear.  Just when it looks like its clear sailing and you feel safe enough to give it a sincere try, the shine is taken off.

Take two recent examples I came across – one in a newspaper and the other in a note from a friend.  Blogging is a great way to communicate and share your ideas with a wider audience.  Unfortunately, we are starting to be reminded that if someone takes offence we may end up in litigation.  It may not be common now, but niether was blogging just a few years ago.  I found an online copy of the article here (if the link doesn’t work just search liability insurance blogger).

The other is a Yahoo tech article about Skype.  Apparently Skype text shats have the abilty to be monitored in the Chinese version of the software.  The article goes on to suggest that the same could be happening elsewhere in the world.

Is there a lesson to be learned?  Maybe.  Maybe we just have to keep finding new tools to work with while they are still the coolest!