The mp3 is taken from the YouTube version of the presentation, which the audience could not actually hear. The audience could hear only Nellie, but Nellie’s sound does not appear on the YouTube recording, so there was a separation of sound tracks where the live audience did not hear Vance, and you hear only Vance on the mp3. There was a lot of discussion of this problem during my presentation, which caused distractions in the audio you can hear on the YouTube video, but I have edited these out in this recording, so that what is left is 45 minutes of the substance of Vance’s presentation.
Vance Stevens has been presenting lately on gamification in teacher professional development in the context of EVO Minecraft MOOC. Today’s talk expands the context to the 16th iteration of Electronic Village Online, currently in preparation, and its varying approaches to TPD. EVOMC16 takes an approach which appeals to its moderators, which is to learn about gamification through experiential play. Vance will talk about how this works in EVO Minecraft MOOC, and how anyone is welcome to join us in January, 2016.
Minecraft is popular with young learners and enjoyable for teachers. Strong arguments have been made for its adaptability to a range of learning contexts including languages, particularly English. All players can be story-tellers who act out and record narratives set within the game in ways that engage them to develop their language skills.
This presentation will examine what teachers (who are learning about the game through the experience of playing it as learners) are learning about designing worlds within the game that will meet their curriculum objectives and create an engaging and enjoyable experience for learners and how they can be made aware of the affordances of Minecraft by creating such spaces for one another and interacting in those spaces with young learners who in effect become their teachers.
From “I Can’t” to “I Can” Multisensory Activities for Inclusion in ELT Classrooms
As English language classrooms become more and more diverse, often with students who have a variety of learning difficulties, so the teacher must develop new relationships, new resources and new strategies. Much work is being done around the world recently, to offer every student, no matter their disability, the possibility of enjoying their rights and being included in the general curriculum offered to their peers.
However, many teachers are voicing their anxiety and their feelings of helplessness or lack of support in dealing with the added burden of inclusion in classrooms which already have too many students and few resources. They may believe they are not trained to deal with students who have special needs and feel at a loss as to how to approach the situation.
In this live on-line session we will define SEN, explore teachers’ beliefs and teachers’ feelings related to the inclusion of students with different learning difficulties in the English language classroom. The range of anticipated SLDs
(Specific Learning Difficulties) will be discussed and a few myths exploded. Finally we will try out some multisensory strategies so that teachers can change the refrain of all from “I can’t” to “I can!!!!”
Susan Hillyard has work experience in seventeen countries as a teacher, Head of Department, Director, speaker, workshop facilitator, consultant, researcher, Professor and on-line tutor. She was Prof. Language IV in Lenguas Vivas and UTN Teacher Training Colleges, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has co-authored a Resource Book for Teachers Global Issues for OUP and also TDI-TKT On-line Course for Pearson, New York. She has been involved with two Theatre in Education troupes, based in Buenos Aires, as diction teacher, backstage hand and as an adviser. Former Coordinator, English in Action, teaching English through Drama in Special Education, Ministry of Education, City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, training 20 teachers through blended learning courses to teach English through Drama in Special Education.
Halina Ostankowicz-Bazan: Culture of Learning
Typically, when we think of culture, we think of an existing, stable entity that changes and evolves over long periods of time. In a New Culture, we should explore a second sense of culture, one that responds to its surroundings organically. It not only adapts, but it also integrates change into its process as one of its environmental variables. By exploring play, innovation, and the cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning, the authors create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable, scalable and one that grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people who engage with it.
The result is a new form of culture in which knowledge is seen as a fluid and evolving, the personal is both enhanced and refined about the collective, and the ability to manage, negotiate and participate in the world is governed by the play of the imagination.
A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change ,
by Douglas Thomas (Author), John Seely Brown (Author)
Halina Ostankowicz-Bazan is a teacher from Poland. She teaches Polish as a second language and English. She also conducts lectures in English on Polish History and Culture for students from all over the world.
Mon Nov 30 1700 UTC Moodle MOOC #7 closing ceremony
Moodle MOOC 7 (MM7) is scheduled to take place from November 1 – 30, 2015 on Moodle for Teachers. The purpose of the MOOC is to connect for instruction and learning, reflective practice, social and collaborative learning, cultural exchange and peace, personal and professional development, community building, best practices and challenges involved in teaching with technology, student engagement with the content, peers, and the facilitator, and learning to teach online with Moodle course and learning management system.
MM7 includes webinars and Moodle training. The presenters of the webinars will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching with technology, education technology, professional development, and topics that pertain to teaching and learning online and/or on mobile devices/smartphones.
The Moodle training will take place on Moodle for Teachers (M4T) Moodle website and will focus on active learning, reflection, sharing, and collaboration. The aim of the course is for the participants to learn through meaningful connections and social interactions. Participants, who wish to receive a certificate of participation, will be required to document their learning experiences by keeping a blog, wiki, website, or any other artifact that will include a description and reflection of the live sessions and/or recordings.
The Moodle training will include Moodle, Google Drive Docs, blogs, Google Apps, Mobile Devices, Virtual Classes, and other online learning environments for face-to-face, blended, and fully online learning. In addition, participants will learn to use Movenote, Screencast-o-matic, PresentMe, SlideSpeech, Plotagon, Smore, Quizlet, eMaze, Slideshare, Evernote, Movenote, and other technologies for effective and engaging student-based activities. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Instead of having a Moodle MOOC group or face for each Moodle MOOC, I thought it may be more practical to have one group for all the Moodle MOOCs around the world. So spread the word and join educators, technology developers, and Moodlers for the next Moodle MOOC in the month of November on Moodle for Teachers for free teacher development and training on how to teach and learn online using Moodle and other technologies.
On Sunday November 22 Ali Bostancioglu returned as promised to report to us on the full details of his study of Webheads in Action, for which he is soon to be awarded his PdD. As many of you know, Ali interviewed a number of Webheads in the data-collection phase of his study, but was unable at the time to divulge his hypothesis nor the true purpose of the questions in the interviews. In this session, Ali revealed how the study was designed to support his hypotheses.
This event took place in Hangout on Air. As usual with L2g Hangouts, participants could join us in the HoA at the link provided just prior to the event, or follow the stream at its YouTube link and interact with people in the HoA in our Chatwing text chat space.
Here is Ali’s abstract for his case study: English as a foreign language teachers’ technology professional development through online communities of practice
An online community of practice (OCoP) is a group of people, who are brought together by a shared interest and with the aim of deepening their understanding of an area of knowledge through regular interactions facilitated by computer mediated communication (CMC) tools.
In response to critiques of current professional development (PD) approaches such as workshops and cascade training which are conducted in short periods of time allowing for only limited follow up and feedback opportunities, OCoPs can be beneficial and a viable alternative for teacher PD. This is because an OCoP potentially provides teachers with those elements of effective PD, cited in the literature, such as collaboration, opportunities for mentoring, and sustainability over time.
However, research on adopting an OCoP approach for teacher PD has been limited. Therefore, conducted within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching, the present study aimed to 1) investigate EFL teachers’ PD in learning how to integrate technology in their teaching and 2) identify what factors contribute towards creating successful OCoPs.
The Webheads in Action (WiA) community has been chosen as a case for this study since WiA has previously been established to be an OCoP in which EFL teachers from different countries participate. A mixed methods research strategy was adopted which combined questionnaires and interviews. Initially, the questionnaire was administered to 69 members of the community. 24 of those members (4 core, 9 active, and 11 peripheral) participated in follow up interviews. Additionally, members’ interactions in the public group page were collated over a period of nine months in order to triangulate findings.
The results suggested that member participation in the community led to perceived technology professional development (TPD) of EFL teachers and that the more a member participated and collaborated with other members, the higher their reported TPD was; a finding which underlined the importance of co-construction of knowledge in this process.
Two major themes emerged in relation to factors affecting member participation in this long standing OCoP. The first one was identified as dynamism inherent in the community which manifested itself as new topics that kept members interested and participating, a flow of continuous member recruitment to the community and leaders who responded to community needs when necessary. The second was the creation of a sense of belonging to the community which was achieved through various means such as having an initiation process, providing an inclusive community environment, fostering trust through community norms, and meeting other members face-to-face.
In conclusion, this study showed that OCoPs can be a viable alternative form of teacher PD and highlighted the importance of not only the professional but also the socio-affective dimension for designing and sustaining OCoPs.
Ali has met with us twice before to discuss his research
Episode 248: Sunday, Nov 23 – Learning2gether with Ali Bostancioglu about his preliminary findings from research on Webheads CoP
Sat Nov 21 Classroom 2.0 with Katie Ann Wilson on Augmented Reality in the Classroom
Date: Sat., November 21, 2015
Time: 9:00am PT/10:00am MT/11:00am CT/12:00pm ET
Location: Blackboard Collaborate (http://tinyurl.com/cr20live)Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 Ning community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing and closed captioning. A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html.If you’ve been curious about augmented reality, what it is and how it can be used to engage learners in your classroom, this is the webinar for you! We are so excited to have Katie Ann Wilson on Classroom 2.0 LIVE as our Featured Teacher for the month of November sharing her experience and passion about augmented reality in the classroom! This will be an excellent opportunity to learn about some of the amazing ways Katie Ann is effectively integrating augmented reality in her teaching! We’ll get a chance to play and learn how she creates “triggers” and some of the best tools for creating AR experience along with some of the AR ideas and projects she has created for her students.Katie Ann is presenter and trainer with a passion for educational technology. Her 1st day in her career in education was her son’s 1st day of kindergarten which was over 13 years ago. Throughout her career she has presented at several regional, national, and international conferences. She founded the Augmented Reality for Educators Google+ group as well as the Twitter chat #AR4Learning. She has reached over 100,000+ educators and students with her blog The Diary of the Techie Chick. Feel free to join her growing social media outreach either through her Facebook page or through Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Blackboard Collaborate, and navigate the site. Each show begins at 12pmEastern (GMT-5) and may be accessed in Blackboard Collaborate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE! link at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live. All webinars are closed captioned.On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you’ll find the recordings and Livebinder from our recent “Open Mic: Productivity Tools for Teachers” session with our facilitator Paula Naugle. Click on the Archives and Resources tab.When tweeting about Classroom 2.0 LIVE, be sure to use #liveclass20. Special thanks to our sponsors: The Learning Revolution and Blackboard Collaborate!Classroom 2.0 LIVE Team: Peggy George, Lorie Moffat, Tammy Moore, Steve Hargadon
Trello is a powerful management tool with a lot of useful features! You may decide to use it as a platform to manage your session when you discover it! If you want to learn more about Trello, please join Mbarek Akaddar in a Moodle MOOC Session Sunday at 14:00 GMT at WizIQ
On Tue Nov 17 1400 UTC Vance Stevens scheduled a presentation at the annual online Global Education Conference to explain why EVO moderators in-training should know about cMOOCs and xMOOCs. Thus the presentation was both a GEC and EVO Moderator Training Week 3 event, as well as episode 301 of Learning2gether. The presentation was entitled:
Why online teacher trainers should know about cMOOCs
Vance Stevens will explain how the cMOOC model is relevant to EVO sessions, following on the article by Bates (2014). The talk is directed at EVO moderators but has been scheduled as part of the Global Education Conference being held Nov 16-19. This event takes place in Bb Collaborate (Elluminate) but not in the Webheads one being used by EVO. The GEC BbC room must be vacated before 1500 UTC. Therefore Vance proposes a follow-on discussion in BbC Webheads Virtual Office
Full Session Description:
Electronic Village Online (EVO, http://evosessions.pbworks.com) is a series of “class roots” professional development sessions that have been put on by teachers for other teachers over 5 weeks in January and February each year since 2001. They are organized and implemented by volunteer coordinators and session moderators from countries all over the world, and are offered for free to participants from around the globe as a service to the profession. Thus EVO significantly increases opportunities for building education-related connections worldwide.
Although anyone can propose to give a session, there is a quality control procedure. Proposals are vetted and those with potential are provisionally accepted pending session moderators’ completion of training each November. The training is designed to ensure that each session included in the general call for participation in December meets standards expected of trainers in the profession. This system invites innovation and creativity in how sessions are mounted, as each should not simply train teachers in a skill or expertise, but should model how such training can be applied to learners.
One such model is MOOC, in particular cMOOC. A MOOC is by definition a massive open online course. The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier and / or Brian Alexander, who were involved in the seminal MOOC that year called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, the first of many of what became known as cMOOC (http://nova.campusguides.com/c.php?g=112312&p=725994). Many people however associate the term MOOC with the xMOOC model initiated by Peter Norvik and Sebastian Thrun in 2011, the latter of whom went on to start Udacity. Coursera appeared soon after, followed by EdX, whose name Siemens co-opted in making the distinction between cMOOCs (or connectivist MOOCs) and xMOOCs (Siemens, 2012).
Some who have engaged in online training for the past decade or more are considering whether what they have been doing might have fallen under the definition of MOOC all along. EVO, now in its 15th year, could conceivably claim to be a precursor MOOC by virtue of its comprising a set of courses conducted entirely online, leaving behind permanent artifacts on open access, and reaching thousands of participants each year.
As instances of online courses, both xMOOCs and cMOOCs utilize what has become known as flipped learning, an idea that many consider to have been first implemented on a wide scale in Khan Academy courses in 2004 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom). However, this common feature of MOOCs belies other significant differences.
In guiding development of future EVO sessions, it’s worth looking at what characterizes and distinguishes cMOOCs from xMOOCs. This presentation lists affordances of the former which resonate with what normally happens in EVO sessions; e.g. use of social media, participant driven content, distributed communication, and no formal assessment, as specified in an article by Bates (2014) which is being used in EVO training this year.
Furthermore, EVO is all about networking and communities of practice. The sessions strongly build content not only from a set syllabus in each course but in most cases from the discussion and creativity brought to each subject by participants from diverse perspectives from all over the globe. Thus EVO can benefit from considering its activities to be informed by elements of the cMOOC framework.
This presentation will suggest that teacher training has much to gain from the cMOOC model of learning through exploring a topic and negotiating social consensus as opposed to the xMOOC model of learning through prescribed and guided training. Online courses (e.g. EVO sessions) should have elements of guidance as well as social networking, but this presentation suggests, as does Cormier (2008), that the community can be instrumental in setting the curriculum, and that learning in a setting where learning outcomes are not clear from the beginning (as in learning languages for example) can draw for success from the cMOOC model. When this model is transposed onto courses that take place in an international arena, further benefits from fertile cross-cultural perspectives accrue from adopting the cMOOC approach.
Post-show: EVO moderators met to discuss cMOOCs and xMOOCs
Tue Nov 17 1500 UTC Vance Stevens had suggested a discussion of MOOCs and badges in Webheads Bb Collaborate. It was envisioned as a discussion among moderators and anyone else interested of how the points made in Vance’s GEC talk might apply to EVO sessions
Where? Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate) http://webheads.learningtimesevents.org/
Those in attendance besides Vance were Nina Liakos, Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, Elizabeth Anne, and Nellie Deutsch
Mon Nov 16-19 free annual GEC Global Education Conference
The recordings for all the sessions include links to the original Bb Collaborate session recording, the mp3 rendered from the recording, and the mp4 as well. The media files may either be played in the browser or downloaded to your computer: http://www.globaleducationconference.com/page/2015-recordings
Vance’s take: The annual Global Education Conference, http://www.globaleducationconference.com/ is a unique and refreshing annual event that brings together teachers from all over the world as presenters and participants, The conference takes place online Nov 16-19, four days around the clock, so SOME presentations will be convenient to attend, AND even if you do miss it, the presentations are recorded, so like the K-12 Online conference, they’re just sitting on a server somewhere waiting for us to get around to checking them out going back through years of archived recordings.
If you want to attend, just tune in. The schedule is set to multiple time zones. If you want to present, that too is simple. Follow the instructions, which are essentially to join the presenters’ Ning, create a discussion (this will be your proposal), copy the template, paste it to the discussion, fill in the details, make sure it will be in the pending discussions group (it’s in the instructions) and submit. Someone will approve it or at least look at it quickly and get back to you with advise on how you can make it comply with the mission statement (I was told to include wording on how my proposal promoted international connections with teachers) and you can resubmit and get approval a day or two later. Your proposal will be moved to the accepted group and you’ll be forwarded to a tool that will let you schedule it. It’s brilliant how it works, and how inclusive it is yet high quality, as often happens with crowd-sourced professional endeavors.
There follows Steve Hargadon’s email promotion, well worth a glance.
To say that Lucy and I love this conference would be an understatement (and see the quotes below from a previous year). It’s a very unique and incredible opportunity for educators and students around the world to connect with each other, and whether you’re presenting for the first time or the 100th, we’ve structured this event to allow the maximum personal connecting possible: from submitting proposals into our social networking platform and being able to connect immediately and directly with others; to sticking with the Blackboard Collaborate session platform because it makes conversation among the audience not just easy, but inevitable!
Conference Hash tag #globaled15
OK, now on to volunteering!
Reason number 2 (out of a gazillion) to love this conference is the incredible outpouring of volunteer help during conference sessions. If you haven’t been a “volunteer moderator” for GlobalEdCon before, we’re telling you, seriously, it’s a great experience. Not only might you be the lifeline to someone presenting for the first time and who’s super-nervous, but you get to experience the camaraderie of being in the volunteer lounge with other terrific folk from all over the world–and friendships are most definitely built in the process! There’s already something magical just from helping others, plus add to that the excitement of making sure every room is covered each hour and helping answer questions or troubleshoot together, and you will find this experience builds a special bond with a very special group like-minded and globally-generous souls.
Steve Hargadon
Co-Founder and Co-Chair
Global Education Conference
What others have said about this conference
This is the event of the year where educators worldwide can come together to inspire and be inspired.
-Torsten Otto
Hamburg, Germany
The conference allows educators around the world to become part of the story and fabric of who we are as human beings.
-Lori Zataveski
Delran, New Jersey, USA
It’s a fascinating learning journey; it enables to connect and share experiences that will inspire educators all over the world!
-Ikram Eseghir
Kenitra, Morocco
The conference is one the best things ever to happen to individuals who want to develop their capacity in research, teaching and learning. It saves one the time, money and other resources that would have been spent to travel abroad for a conference of international status.
-David O.
Nigeria
Great piece of work…if we had more teachers taking up such ideas, the world would be a transformed place to live in full of geniuses. Love it all.
-Ibrahim Bahati
Kampala, Uganda
It offers the world’s educators huge opportunities to learn from each other and to improve their daily practices.If two heads are better than one, then how about thousands of heads?
-Abdeljallal Elhariri
Agadir, Morocco
The conference was indeed enriching. The use of this technology to connect with others ourside of our school to inspire them to rise to the challenge of understanding and taking a stand to support indivduals that are homeless is commendable. I am proud of these students and the dedication, preparation and research they have displayed throughout the cycle of the project and beyond.
-Lenora Scott
Riverdale, Maryland, USA
A great opportunity to share outstanding ideas with other online participants and new connections and friends made for future online communication and collaborative problem solving with teachers and students! Invaluable experience! Thanks!
-Mark Wickens
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Just when I thought I heard everything — new doors opened — hundreds of new ideas flooded through, and once again, I probably will not sleep tonight as my mind recalls all that I have learned and replays it over and over as I attempt to drift off to sleep so I will be refreshed for early morning sessions!
-Cookie Schultz
Orlando, Florida, USA
It is an honor to be among these globally connected teachers. I am humbled and incredibly motivated all at the same time!
-Heidi Hutchison
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
The conference has broadened my vision as a teacher educator.
-Sebastian Panakal
Cochin, India
Love the Global Education concept and the fact that teachers are sharing with each other around the world.
-Rich Cantrell
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Most impressive, proactive and reflective on the trends and paths of learning that each global teacher must know.
-Ibrahim Bahati
Kampala, Uganda
A very unique way to share experiences and perspectives on education with people from all over the world without barriers.
-Paulina Borja
New York City, USA
The power of networks and community is exemplified here. What a way to spread learning and models among passionate educators around the world.
-Anonymous
Seattle, Washington, USA
Amazing experience. Amazed at how much work and how many things can be achieved when we connect.
-Maria Colussa
Argentina
I am always blown-away by the fact that there are so many of us at this conference from around the globe that share several common goals. This gives me hope for the future! It’s uplifting. Thank you to all that make this conference a reality.
-Lorena Martinez
Brownsville, Texas, USA
This is one of the most valuable virtual conferences I’ve been too, especially learning about emerging technologies and applying ideas to other projects I’m doing.
-Marie-Ella Williams
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Great sharing of innovative learning ideas – and wonderful to connect with educators from around the globe!!
-Dr. Eva Malisius
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Fantastic. I thought I would be going through withdrawal since the Rabini Trust did not sponsor the International Bahai SED Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA this year, but this conference has not only filled my “void” for education and networking, but kindled the flame of learning and teaching in my heart! Can’t wait to tell my friends about this wonderful conference.
-Cookie Schultz
Orlando, Florida, USA
GEC is the most real, vibrant and alive virtual experience.
-Claudia Popescu
Brasov, Romania
Inspiring, motivating, and a great opportunity to learn from teachers all over the world.
-Ana Espinar
Ribarroja, Spain
Love the ability to learn on my time.
-Anonymous
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA
I have found this one of the best conferences I have attended this year.
-Alison
Bantry, Ireland
GEC suggested solutions to problems with Bb Collaborate?
The conference organizers have a document that’s easy to navigate with a “before starting” section you might look at, https://tackk.com/gecguide. The guide suggests you follow these steps to troubleshoot BbC
Presenter: Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD, English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) educator and researcher
School or Organization Name: Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes Language in Which You Will Present: English (and Spanish if necessary) Target Audience(s): Anyone interested in teaching English to speakers of other languages and those interested in connecting with others with the same interest, and those learning English as an additional language. Short Session Description: Making the TESOL educative experience transparent through writing Full Session Description: During this session I will share two different writing classes, which were designed for English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) trainers, and will explain how transparency and technology together afford a more educative experience when setting out to improve both skill and pedagogical development. I will explain situational and instructional considerations when teaching openly online, and will provide opportunities for attendees (both educators and learners alike) to connect with others who have similar interests. Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: Composition | Academic Writing
Mon Nov 16 2300 UTC Rita Zeinstejer on Fuel Engagement with Humour at GEC conference
Rita Zeinstejer will be presenting on Monday 16th, at 23 hs GMT, on “Fuel Engagement with Humour “, when she’ll talk about the importance of integrating humour into Language Learning, as much as we have already integrated drama and video ;-), with examples of appropriate tools and activities.
On Sunday Nov 15, Learning2gether celebrated its 300th episode on the 2nd day of the SLanguages conference. Under the skillful wizardry of Heike Philp, four co-moderators of the proposed EVO Minecraft MOOC session met in Adobe Connect, where Bron Stuckey and Vance Stevens introduced Minecraft, explained its pedagogical significance and appeal to young learners, and extended that appeal to teachers using Minecraft as a vehicle for understanding gamification in the course of their professional development. Filip and Marijana Smolcec, also with us in Adobe Connect, shared a screen where young Filip proceeded to demolish forests for resources and build a shelter as night set in, which he survived despite giant spiders overhead, and emerged at dawn to watch them burn.
This and in fact all recording links from the SLanguages conference are available in this post, and below you can find a YouTube embedded recording of Shelly Terrell’s presentation on badges given as an EVO Moderators training session just prior to the Slanguages event.
Title of talk: Minecraft as a way to Gamify Learning
Session description (presenting EVOMC16 in the context of EVO)
Electronic Village Online is an annual 5-week event sponsored by TESOL where teachers share expertise with one another through carefully crafted professional development training sessions. In 2015 one of the new sessions was Minecraft MOOC, which proved so stimulating to its participants that another is planned for 2016 with an expanded panel, including two of the presenters of this SLanguages event.
Dr. Bronwyn Stuckey spoke about teacher use of Minecraft and its popularity with young learners. She explained what Minecraft is and what it looks like in learning, mentioned case studies of teachers using it in learning, and showed how teachers can use Minecraft to gamify their curriculum.
Vance Stevens examined what teachers (who, in EVO, are learning about the game through the experience of playing it as learners) are learning about designing worlds within the game that will meet their curriculum objectives and create an engaging and enjoyable experience for learners. The presentation explored how teachers can be made aware of the affordances of Minecraft by creating such spaces for one another and interacting in those spaces with young learners who in effect become their teachers.
Marijana and Filip Smolčec shared a view from in-world Minecraft, Filip at the controls, showing us how to accumulate resources, survive a night, and emerge in the morning to watch the spiders and creepers burn.
Our presentations showed how Minecraft can be adapted to a range of learning contexts including languages, particularly English. The game lends itself to task-based language learning, as all players are by definition builders, and also in that all players can be story-tellers who act out and record narratives set within the game in ways that engage them to develop their language skills.
Location: EduNation in Second Life Organized By: Heike Philp
Event Description:
8th SLanguages Annual Symposium
14-15 November 2015
CALL for Papers
All experts in the field of innovating teaching and learning of languages in virtual worlds are invited to contribute their own professional or academic efforts and to present them in a scientific paper and presentation. Submission deadline 15 October 2015. http://slanguages.org/call-for-papers/
SLanguages Annual Symposium takes place for the 8th time on EduNation in Second Life and is dedicated to language teaching and learning in virtual worlds. It is free to attend and all of the sessions will be streamed and recorded in Adobe Connect.
One of the highlights of this year’s conference will be a film festival on machinima created by language educators during the CAMELOT project.
We look forward to your submissions.
// Twitter hashtag: #slang15 // http://www.slanguages.org
This is to announce that the recordings of the 8th SLanguages Annual Symposium are now available on the SLanguages.org website under http://slanguages.org/program-overview-2/.
We enjoyed a breathtaking 28h program jam packed with the latest in virtual reality (VR) and virtual worlds (VWs). Amongst others we explored 7 different worlds: Unity3D, ActiveWorlds, Escape sim in Digiworldz (OpenSim), Edmondo (Opensim), Minecraft, AvayaLive™ Engage (formerly web.alive) and of course our great locations in Second Life.
We managed to livestream all of these different worlds, so that the conference participants were able to see everything through Adobe Connect which in itself premiered the first triplecast ever: a share pod in Adobe Connect screensharing Unity3D on Gord Holden’s desktop, me screensharing Second Life on my desktop and Adobe attendees were able to see both worlds on their screen. The Second Life window showed Gord’s head with his lips move when he was speaking, like a 3D webcam. Very funny. I am especially proud of this technical masterpiece because at VWBPE conference, they also explored different 3D environments but everyone had to create accounts, wait for approval, download virtual world software, download and install audio streaming software, cope with new complex interfaces and I wanted to save our participants the disappointment which happened to me, managing only to hear the last 5min of my beloved keynote speaker.
We had a great list of true experts in virtual worlds present their latest developments and their presentation were greatly enriched by a whole long list of machinima showcasing teaching in action, artist work and documentaries. Don’t miss out on watching these machinima (all listed on program) as well as the recordings – a truly stunning multi-media experience.
Next, there will be
our annual EVO session in Jan/Feb 2016, this time all about games in virtual environments (EVO ViLLAGE = EVO Virtual Language Learning and Games Environments),
5th DaFWEBKON for teachers of German beginning March
and Virtual Round Table will be back again end of April, for the 8th time after a one year break.
Sun Nov 15 Letizia Cinganotto at SLanguages the Italian experience in Edmondo
This was a presentation about the Italian educational Open Sim
Sun Nov 15 Shelly Terrell on Badges and Certificates for EVO moderator training and others interested
Rita is just back from Dublin where she attended Digital Ireland 2015. There she met Russell Stannard and gave a reduced version of the presentation she intends to expand on here. Her slides from Dublin appear below.
Meanwhile …
Nellie Deutsch wrapped up her Action Research Webinar series Feb 10 and ongoing for 41 weeks through Nov 14
The arrival of both virtual reality headsets and of remotely controlled personal robots presents an interesting step forward for teaching and learning. This talk will touch on some of the possibilities and hurdles along this path.
On Sunday, Nov 8, 1500 UTC, Learning2gether met David Winet to catch him previewing the presentation he is giving officially on Nov 14 at the CATESOL Conference in Anaheim, California http://www.catesol.org/2015_annual_conference.aspx. In this presentation, Dave speculated on some strikingly interesting affordances to education of Virtual Reality Headsets and Robots for Teaching and Learning.
We were joined by Vanessa Vaille in the HoA and by Peggy George, Rita Zeinstejer, and Maha Abdelmoneim in the Chatwing text chat, http://chatwing.com/vancestev.
There is mention in our chat logs of Google Cardboard, which David showed us, with a cell phone inside running an app that split the screen in such a way that each split could be seen through Cardboard by one eye, creating a 3D effect, as with the old Viewmaster some of us used to have as kids. This has been exploited by the NY Times, as reported in this article, NYT VR: How to Experience a New Form of Storytelling From The Times:
(thanks to John Hibbs for calling our attention to this link) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/magazine/nyt-vr-how-to-experience-a-new-form-of-storytelling-from-the-times.html
Next day, Vanessa pointed us to an interesting take on VR by Brian Alexander, who checked out the NY Times VR project, http://bryanalexander.org/2015/11/09/impressions-of-new-york-times-vr/. Vanessa mentioned our hangout in a comment there. In reply to her comment, i said, “We liked the idea, shown in one of the videos, of a robot whose face is that of a learner as in a Skype call, interacting in the space through which the robot is moving, or instead of building worlds in Second Life for immersive education, sending a robot or drone or tiny camera (as in optical surgery) into the real location where the learner can view the panorama by turning his/her head. The potential would suggest a quantum development for POV (point-of-view) technology in learning, as reality checks noted in this post are worked through.”
Interesting new developments with educational/ESL implications: immersive, dynamic (not stills) headsets, head turning, walking, immersive audio, AR overlay, robots.
not to mention often more expensive, especially if you don’t institutional affiliation. I don’t have that or a cell phone but traded off long distance for wi-fi access. That adds up
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This session was originally planned as an introduction to Bb Collaborate. However, It was switched at the last minute to Hangout on Air because the grant from LearningTimes for use of the Webheads Room expired Oct 31. This was discovered Sat night Nov 7 in USA and there seemed little hope of having the grant renewed in time for the Nov 8 event, so we set up the HoA instead. However, 2 hours after Learning Times were contacted, Hope Kandel got back to us that she had renewed the grant for our continued free use of this facility for another year. That was midnight her time, great response from our sponsor company http://www.learningtimes.com.
So we had acted too quickly to get the HoA in place, but having done that, we went with it. For this reason, there were two events scheduled for this session:
In this presentation, I will illustrate how i have been doing my online work from basically anywhere – at home, from a coffee shop, at the airport and even in a moving bus! Abundant Wifi connections and mobile broadband have made this possible and all busy moms should learn the art of managing this approach to work. I will be sharing some of the tools and applications that i have used – and provide some reviews on them.
Invite to talk: If you are interested in task-based experiential learning, authentic tasks, design-based research, online learning, MOOCs, open education, the World Health Organization (WHO), or taking a bus ride in Turkey, you might want to attend the following session: Developing Online Experiential Learning through Educational Design Research Thomas C. Reeves, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Learning, Design, and Technology The University of Georgia
Date: Monday November 2, 2015 Time: 2:00-3:00 pm in Indiana, presumably
Optional Web Conferencing Participation: Web browser: https://bridge.iu.edu (Conference ID to dial: 233222878)
Talk Abstract: This presentation will describe how the World Health Organization took an award-winning experiential learning course that takes place on a bus traveling down the “cold chain” for time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products in Turkey, and moved it online as an award-winning authentic tasks-based experiential learning environment. This conversion was driven by the application of educational design research (also known as design-based research). Similarities and differences in the objectives of the two courses as well as of the learning activities, tools, and technologies deployed in two courses will be illustrated. The presentation concludes with examples of design principles that can be applied to the design of other online experiential learning environments.
Sat Nov 7 Digital Assessment Tools on Classroom 2.0
Date: Sat., November 7, 2015
Time: 9:00am PT/10:00am MT/11:00am CT/12:00pm ET
Location: Blackboard Collaborate (http://tinyurl.com/cr20live)Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 Ning community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing and closed captioning. A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html.We are so excited to have a group of amazing teachers from the Madison Elementary School District in Phoenix, AZ joining us as our special guest presenters on November 7th. They will be sharing their stories and experiences using digital assessment tools focusing on Kahoot, Socrative, Plickers, Google Forms, & Answergarden. The presenters are: Kim Thomas, Rae Dewberry, Julie Leckman, and Jessie McKinley. Kim is the Tech Integration Facilitator for Madison District, Rae teaches language arts and social studies to 5th – 8th grade highly gifted students, Jessie teaches Kindergarten – 4th Grade General Music, and Julie teaches 8th grade Math. It will be a great opportunity for you to learn many ways you can be using formative assessment in your classrooms!More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Blackboard Collaborate, and navigate the site. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern (GMT-5) and may be accessed in Blackboard Collaborate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE! link at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live. All webinars are closed captioned.On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you’ll find the recordings and Livebinder from our recent“Marcie Hebert: Featured Teacher” session with our special guest Marcie Hebert. Click on the Archives and Resourcestab.When tweeting about Classroom 2.0 LIVE, be sure to use #liveclass20. Special thanks to our sponsors Weebly, The Learning Revolution and Blackboard Collaborate!Classroom 2.0 LIVE Team: Peggy George, Lorie Moffat, Tammy Moore, Steve Hargadon
Learning2gether Episode 298 – Sun Nov 1 1400 UTC Week 1 EVO moderator training meet and greet
Electronic Village moderators for the EVO 2016 sessions met online in a revolving-door Hangout on Air (HoA) for a meet-and-greet to kick off the new round of EVO moderator training. Mbarek Akaddar provided an overview of the training session, and Nina Liakos talked about why moderator training is important for experienced moderators and new moderators alike. The general public were welcome to attend and share ideas and questions by listening in the stream and interacting with moderators in the hangout and other participants in real-time in our Chatwing chat space http://chatwing.com/vancestev.
This was billed as a good opportunity to meet next year’s moderators and learn firsthand about what will be on offer when EVO opens for registration on Jan 3, 2016.
The event was organized as follows:
If the Hangout is full you can watch the stream and interact with participants in the real-time text chat (We will encourage participants in the HoA to say a few words and then make space for others)
EVO moderators were able to use that link to join us in the Hangout, ten at a time. (only ten participants are allowed to join a HoA at a given moment, but we intended to play musical chairs with the seating and show how we can cater to many participants in the HoA itself, and in the stream and real-time text chat)
(To better understand the process – read, or at least look at the pictures, here
I just wanted to show my enthusiasm for EVO. I’ve been a participant for years and it has always contributed to my development. I look forward to the learning how to contribute to it next year by helping in the moderation of Minecraft EVO with Vance, Marijana, Barbie, Jeff, Tamas and others. I gotta go now. I’ll be watching the recording and catching up.
Vance’s note – This was my mistake. I had clicked on the icon of one participant in the chat to mute that person and had inadvertently SELECTED that person’s icon to display until I noticed it much later, and clicked again to release it so that the current speaker would display. I wish I had seen this note at the time, but the chatwing chat was scrolling by much too fast. In any event, well noted, Hazel! Apologies …
Moodle for Teacher is my mentoring session. I am so much looking forward to it as I really want to learn more about Moodle even though I have a Certificate from CRO Moodle Platform
Sorry @NIna and @Vance, I have to go now, as mentioned before I could only stay for approx 30 mins as other commitments shortly. It’s been great and will catch up with recording later…
The problem we had with Trello is that we did not seem to be able to keep the planning there without also interacting there, which made it difficult to go back to conversations. For me, at least
I haven’t, but my internet keeps dropping out, so I don’t want to risk it! I can just about follow the chat, so will watch the recording later on to see what I’ve missed!
want to tell Karina that she should use her mobile phone for the hangouts. It takes less bandwidth and she can still use the VPN
Yes, next time.Nina Liakos 10:05 AM
Pls remember to use the chatwing chat guysme 10:05 AM
share the link to your blog, please
I want to encourage colleagues to participate in EVO and am prepping information posts for my blogs. Until I know more about 2016 offerings, I’ll refer to past sessions. btw a friend and colleague in Texas has been working with DREAMers and refugees. I’m trying to interest her too, especially since her group is involved in education.
Curt bonk astounded his audience with a litany facts and data as he went on for almost two hours on the fascinating and ellusive subject of MOOCs. In the process he reviewed his new book and special journal issue on “MOOCs and Open Education,” discussed what is happening around the world in terms of MOOCs and open education, as well as the co-editing process, how to coordinate projects, the steps in editing a book and special issues, and whatnot, for a mind boggling hour and 50 minutes.
Curt Bonk (Ph.D) is Professor at Indiana University teaching psychology and technology courses and President of CourseShare. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. He received the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana, and, in 2014, the Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Practitioner in Distance Education. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, TravelinEdMan. He has authored several widely used technology books, including The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education (2009),Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing (2008), The Handbook of Blended Learning (2006), and Electronic Collaborators(1998). His recent book, Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online (2014), is freely available to download as an eBook at http://tec-variety.com/ in Chinese as well as English. And his latest book with Routledge, MOOCs and Open Education Around the World, as well as a special issue of the International Journal on E-Learning on the same topic both came out in July 2015 (see http://www.moocsbook.com/). See Bonk’s homepage for his archived talks and Web resources at: http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/. Curt can be contacted at: cjbonk@indiana.edu orcurt@worldisopen.com.
Moodle MOOC 7 (MM7) is scheduled to take place from November 1 – 30, 2015 on Moodle for Teachers. The purpose of the MOOC is to connect for instruction and learning, reflective practice, social and collaborative learning, cultural exchange and peace, personal and professional development, community building, best practices and challenges involved in teaching with technology, student engagement with the content, peers, and the facilitator, and learning to teach online with Moodle course and learning management system.
MM7 includes webinars and Moodle training. The presenters of the webinars will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching with technology, education technology, professional development, and topics that pertain to teaching and learning online and/or on mobile devices/smartphones.
The Moodle training will take place on Moodle for Teachers (M4T) Moodle website and will focus on active learning, reflection, sharing, and collaboration. The aim of the course is for the participants to learn through meaningful connections and social interactions. Participants, who wish to receive a certificate of participation, will be required to document their learning experiences by keeping a blog, wiki, website, or any other artifact that will include a description and reflection of the live sessions and/or recordings.
The Moodle training will include Moodle, Google Drive Docs, blogs, Google Apps, Mobile Devices, Virtual Classes, and other online learning environments for face-to-face, blended, and fully online learning. In addition, participants will learn to use Movenote, Screencast-o-matic, PresentMe, SlideSpeech, Plotagon, Smore, Quizlet, eMaze, Slideshare, Evernote, Movenote, and other technologies for effective and engaging student-based activities. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Instead of having a Moodle MOOC group or face for each Moodle MOOC, I thought it may be more practical to have one group for all the Moodle MOOCs around the world. So spread the word and join educators, technology developers, and Moodlers for the next Moodle MOOC in the month of November on Moodle for Teachers for free teacher development and training on how to teach and learn online using Moodle and other technologies. Here’s the link http://moodle4teachers.org/course/view.php?id=87
Earlier this past two weeks
Episode 304: Sun Oct 18 LEARNING2GETHER with Jeff Magoto about the new ANVILL-LTI
This comprehensive mail is copy / pasted from Steve Hargadon
Library 2.015 is all day on Tuesday, October 20th. Anyone from anywhere in the world can participate for free (as long as they have an Internet connection)! Links for the conference are below. There are 50 sessions and 3 keynotes, and the schedule with connecting information is listed for time zones throughout the world.
We’re celebrating the fifth anniversary of our conference! Huge thanks and a shout-out to founding partner The School of Information at San José State University and its director (and conference co-chair), Dr. Sandra Hirsh, for the vision and support that has made this unique event a reality. With their help the conference community has grown to over 21,000 members, and we encourage you to learn more, make connections, and get future announcements by joining Library 2.0.
We sincerely hope you will join us. Below are event links, plus some sample posts and tweets you can use if you’re able to help us promote either or both of these events. You can also forward this post/email. Please do let your networks know–it’s all free!
Sample Posts + Tweets:
The conference hashtag is “#lib2015” | The Teacher Librarian Day hashtag is “#tlday15”
Sample post (conference): “The fifth annual Library 2.015 Worldwide Virtual Conference will be held on October 20th, 2015 from 7am – 8pm US Pacific / 10am – 11pm US Eastern (International Times available on the site). Everyone is invited to participate in the conference, designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Register for free as a member of the Library 2.0 network to attend and to be kept informed of future events! http://www.library20.com“
Sample post (pre-conference): “Teacher Librarian Day is Monday, October 19th, five great hours of free online sessions on ‘Teacher Librarians and School Culture.’ This pre-conference bonus to the annual Library 2.0 conference features Joyce Valenza, Michelle Luhtala, Shannon Miller, Ross Todd, Naomi Bates, Karen Bonano, and Craig Seasholes leading a panel on ‘Social Justice @Library.’ All welcome, more information athttp://www.teacherlibrarian.org.”
Sample tweet (conference): “Join us Oct 20 for the 5th annual Library 2.0 conference 50 presentations + keynotes all free and online #lib2015http://www.library20.com“
Sample tweet (pre-conference): “Join us Oct 19 for Teacher Librarian Day all free and online – awesome lineup #tlday15 http://www.teacherlibrarian.org“
Mon Oct 19-25 International Facilitation Week Unconference
International Facilitation Week takes place next week, October 19-25. And for the third year in a row, we’re putting together a little online unconference to share and learn about facilitation in virtual environments:
However, we know that a good number of original innovators, super early adopters and veterans of this work can still be found on this very Yahoo group, and we would really love to have you join us. Please use discount code “Oldschool” for $15 off the regular price. 😉
Normally L2g does not post announcements of commercial events here, but because of the nature of this “unconference” I posted a request for more information on the Yahoo Group that sent the announcement
Fri and Sat Oct 23-24 IATEFL Web Conference ‘Making connections across borders in ELT
Note, to attend this conference you have to register separately for Day 1 and Day 2
Also, it’s free for anyone to participate. Archived recordings may be available only to IATEFL members.
IATEFL Web Conference ‘Making connections across borders in ELT’ – Day 1
After a successful inaugural Web Conference held in October 2014, IATEFL have decided to hold a second Web Conference in October 2015. ‘Making connections across borders in ELT’ will be held over two days:
Friday 23 October 2015 at 14.00-20.45 BST (13.00-19.45 GMT)
Saturday 24 October 2015 8.30-15.30 BST (7.30-14.30 GMT).
We would love you to come along and join in. This will be a fantastic opportunity both for members and non-members of IATEFL to network, learn and share information with colleagues all over the world.
This registration is just for Friday 23 October. You need to register for Saturday 24 October separately. Registration ensures that you receive all the latest updates and information and logging into the event using the unique URL that you will be sent enables you to purchase an attendance certificate after the event should you require it.
Talks will include the development of creativity and team skills in the classroom, English for social justice, teacher research, psychology, teaching in challenging and low resource contexts, inclusive education, and the impact of technology. Confirmed speakers for the two days include Christina Broadus-Rebuffet, Nathan Arthur, Judy Boyle, Juup Stelma, Stephen Ryan, Laxman Gnawali, Thais Borges, Mercedes Viola, Susan Hillyard and Paul Driver.
Event: ‘Making connections across borders in ELT’ – Day 1 When: Friday 23 October 2015, 02:00 PM – 08:45 PM Time Zone: (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London (Please note that Daylight Saving Time (+01:00 hr) is in effect during this time) Audio Conference Details: VOIP
Web Conference “‘Making connections across borders in ELT’ – Day 2”
The following information appeared in an “update” for Day 2, but contains some information about Day 1. The update was distributed in email by the IATEFL Web Conference committee
This message is to give you a sneak preview into the talks that you can enjoy over Friday 23 and Saturday 24 October.
Christina Broadus-Rebuffet ‘Improvisation, confidence, and making the passive active’
Judy Boyle ‘Education for Social Justice: human trafficking and the next generation’
Juup Stelma ‘Language Teachers doing Research: What, How and Why’
Nathan Arthur ‘Bring out the team-player in your trainees: Using project management principles in the classroom’
Paul Driver ‘EdTech and Creative Media Practice in ELT’
Stephen Ryan ‘Psychology in language learning: What’s in it for teachers?’
Thais Borges ‘I speak Brazilian English: A non-native perspective of EFL teaching and learning in Brazil’
In addition to this we will also be holding three interactive panel discussions over the two days, offering you, the participant, the chance to get involved and share your experiences.
IATEFL President, Marjorie Rosenberg will be focusing on ‘Creativity in the classroom’
Mercedes Viola Deambrosis and Susan Hillyard will be leading discussions on ‘Diverse students and how different teachers are supporting them’ and
Kenan Dikilitaş, Richard Smith and Dr. Judith Hanks will be investigating‘Teacher research in action’.
Don’t forget to tell your colleagues to register so that they can ensure they receive all the latest updates and reminders from us over the next few days.
You can attend ‘Making connections across borders in ELT‘ by clicking on the unique URL sent to you in the confirmation email when you registered for the Web Conference. You can also find this URL below. You will then need to enter the email address you used to register.
When: Saturday 24 October 2015, 08:30 AM – 03:30 PM
Time Zone: (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London (Please note that Daylight Saving Time (+01:00 hr) is in effect during this time)
Mon Oct 19 thru Oct 30 – Virtually Unstoppable – K12 Online Conference presentations released
The K12 Online conference is an asynchronous event where the presentations are set-piece artifacts created by some of the world’s greatest teachers on topics they are passionate about. Quality is quite high and they generally model best practices not only in pedagogy but in presentation and innovative use of ed-tech tools. The presentations are released according to the schedule here,
The conference goes full swing the following week, same time on Oct 19 with the release of three to five presentations a day for the next two weeks, winding up with the release of the last batch at 8:00 AM EDT, Fri., Oct. 30
I recently attended the ISTE conference in Philadelphia, which is a huge showcase of best practices and most appropriate technologies for enabling those practices displayed in a massive physical space. K12 Online is the free annual conference that many of those in and around ISTE participate in each year, also to showcase best practices leveraged by technology, but in a virtual space. And it is happening now.
The first K12 Online Conference took place in 2006 so this would be the tenth, which is one reason it’s theme this year is “Virtually Unstoppable.” There are several very unique aspects to K12 Online, and one of these is that it is totally asynchronous. This means that you don’t have to show up at a particular time for it, but that its presentations are simply made available at a certain time. This is another unique aspect of the conference, the presentations are released bit by bit, day by day. For example, this is the third day of the conference, and three presentations were released today (for a total of 9 so far, plus a keynote, which was posted online a week ago.
Another unique aspect of this conference has to do with the fact that its presenters have to produce attractive and inspiring artifacts designed to play out online, much as we might ideally ask our students to do. The presentations are not long, 10-20 minutes, but tend to model the most creative techniques the presenters can muster. As such each presentation is a digital story with a message designed as an incubator of ideas that will appeal to teachers, and in turn, their students.
The presentations introduce how cutting edge technologies might relate to our classrooms. And you can have a look now or later, as you wish, even years later. All such artifacts produced over the past ten years are archived at the conference website. There are many gems in that archive, and because they bring technology to bear on perennial issues in teaching, how to engage and motivate and make students and teachers want to learn, they tend to be eternally relevant today.
At iTunesU you can watch on-the-fly or download any or all the recordings and play them offline on your iPad or mobile device
Search for K12 Online Conference at iTunesU (see screenshot) http://screencast.com/t/UPcejzxeKJhR
This is one of my favorite recurring online conferences, and a good opportunity for teachers with iPads and mobile devices to network and boost their mastery of those devices as pertains to practice and pedagogy.
Sat. Oct 31 on Classroom 2.0 – Marcie Hebert shares how she has implemented Makerspaces in her school
Time: 9:00am PT/10:00am MT/11:00am CT/12:00pm ET
Location: Blackboard Collaborate (http://tinyurl.com/cr20live)
Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 Ning community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing and closed captioning. A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html.
Join us on Saturday, October 31st, when our special guest will be Marcie Hebert. We are so excited to have Marcie on Classroom 2.0 LIVE as our Featured Teacher for the month of October! This will be an excellent opportunity to learn about some of the amazing ways Marcie is effectively integrating technology in her teaching! We are looking forward to having Marcie share how she has implemented Makerspaces in her school and some of the projects her students are creating in the computer lab including 3D printing, coding, robotics and Google Apps for Education.
Marcie is the Technology Director and Computer Lab Teacher for grades 4-8 in a Catholic School, St. Joan of Arc School, in Louisiana. She is a tech lover, Maker, Google for Education Certified Trainer, an organizer/leader for the Google Educator Group Louisiana and EdCamp NOLA, and is the co-founder of #LAedchat. Follow her on @mrsmhebert
More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Blackboard Collaborate, and navigate the site. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern (GMT-5) and may be accessed in Blackboard Collaborate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE! link at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live. All webinars are closed captioned.
On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you’ll find the recordings and Livebinder from our recent “Green Screens + iPads = iMagic!”session with our special guest Jennifer Garcia. Click on the Archives and Resources tab.
When tweeting about Classroom 2.0 LIVE, be sure to use #liveclass20. Special thanks to our sponsors Weebly, The Learning Revolution and Blackboard Collaborate!
Learning2gether 