Once a year, educators submit 20-minute videos along a specific educational topic and then they release these videos throughout a 3-week virtual conference.
The website describes it as a "FREE online conference open to ANYONE organized by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. The goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape."
This year's conference topic is Purposeful Play. It has 4 strands including: Sandbox Play, Level Up, Story Time and Team Captains.
Each of the presentations is "released" on a blog at a specified time based upon the 2011 Presentation Schedule. They do this so that the presentations aren't released in one huge on-slaught but rather in sequence over the 3-week period (Nov 21 - Dec 13). You participate by downloading or streaming the presentations and then viewing the presentations. After (or while) you watch the presentation, you can post feedback and comments on the blog.
At the end is a culminating live event to celebrate the Afterglow on 2:00 AM GMT on Tuesday, Dec 13.
I have submitted a presentation entitled Gaming to Learn by Learning to Game. It will be released at 1:00 PM GMT (7:00 AM Central Standard Time) on Friday, December 9.
The resources that I used in the presentation will be available in my next posting on this blog, Dr. Z Reflects.
I have a bumpersticker on my car that says "Education is Innovation, Not Imitation"
It is exciting when we see minds who "think different." Here are a few products that I just found that exhibit innovation. These may seem stupid, but fun. Each of the photos are linked to the source.
Digital Storytelling is an instructional process where we are linking to the part of the brain that makes sense of the world from stories instead of facts. Both teachers and students will assure you that they will remember details better if they are embedded into a storyline instead of a list of Fun Facts. Digital storytelling is a process that provides students and teachers a venue for connecting stories and facts.
Back in June, 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity to take a 3-day Digital Storytelling workshop from Bernajean Porter in Denver, Colorado. We were there anyway for the ISTE 2010 conference so Bernajean opened her doors to hold one of her wonderful camps.
No, there was no horseback riding or high board diving. We didn't bang around a volleyball on a sand court or make leather pouches. We learned the essence of digital storytelling along with the skills to use a number of multimedia tools. Most importantly, however, we actually created our own digital stories. This was the true essence of project-based learning because everything I learned enabled me to create this final product.
Bernajean's emphasis in making digital stories is that they need to contain something that the creator personally learned in the process. A video that spouts merely facts about an event is a documentary. Digital stories must contain an emotional content that personalizes the story.
Three days is not nearly enough time to learn the concepts, tools and create an in-depth story. Therefore, Bernajean provided us with some support by suggesting that we base our stories on the Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken. We could talk about something else if we had a burning desire to do so, but this poem was to provide the general framework.
I didn't know what I was going to create when I began the workshop, but I brought along a number of photos from the year I was a visiting professor in Malaysia back in 1999. I felt that these were some interesting visuals and it was definitely a road "less traveled."
I decided to use a few lines from Frost's poem at the beginning and the end but to author some of my own verses that would individualize the story and share what I personally learned through the experience. While I considered the photos I had with me, I wrote my poem first and then found the visuals that would support my words.
Unfortunately, there weren't any scanners that I could use to digitize my photos, so I took shots with my camera and used those. That is why it has taken me so long to post this creation. I have been hoping to find time to scan the photos and recreate the story. It hasn't made it to prime time in 17 months so I will share it with you now.
Another reason that I am posting this now is that our Educational Technology and Design students here at the University of Northern Iowa are beginning to create digital stories to support their thematic units. Thought it was time to bare my soul with my past creation. I want to emphasize the process of writing the script first and then finding the supporting imagery.
Have you created a digital story? What is your process?
Share some links to your favorite digital stories or ones that you have created.
Today I have the opportunity to provide a session at The Way Up XXV conference in Des Moines. This is an opportunity for about 100 women from Iowa higher education to experience learning opportunities in seeking leadership. It is a wonderful opportunity for networking both professionally and personally.
I am sharing my ideas about how we can best address our Millennial students' needs.
Here are the resources that I used. If you have additional ideas, please add them to the comments below.
We will be using technology throughout the session so let's begin with some of the opening resources:
Twitter: If anyone is twittering, we will use the hashtag #WayUpXXV. When you tweet, include this hashtag in your message so that others can follow along with your ideas. If you want to see what was posted, click on the hashtag above and it will show you what has been said.
Collaborative Notes: We will also use collaborative note taking. This is a Google Docthat I created and then laid open to the world for anyone to edit. This means that you just need to click on the link and it will take you to the Google Doc. You don't have to sign-in but you will be known as Anonymous???? when you are entering your ideas. Go ahead and add the info that you find interesting. Go out on the web during the session to find relevant information and add the link to the document.
I hope that this session has been useful for you. I am interested in knowing if and how this material has been useful to you. I hope that this is just the beginning of our connection.
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Simon Pierro brings his genius to another iPad-dish demonstration of Digital Prestidigitation. I am continually amazed by Simon's ability to find the mystical powers of his ipad and share them with eerie Halloween wonder.
When asked, Simon said that it took 10 weeks including over 100 hours of programming to complete this scary scenario.
Pay careful attention to the last part of his show. He achieves some spectacular illusions.
What does it take to project and interact with information on a large screen in a classroom? The typical answer to the projection AND interaction question has been the Interactive White Board (IWB). Special software is run on the computer and then the image is projected onto an special board. The interactivity of the board my be controlled through a variety of technologies including InfraRed light, electromagnetic arrays, or even resistive touch-based materials.
In a previous posting, Poof, Your iPad Becomes an Interactive Whiteboard, I discussed how you could create your own interactive board by hooking your iPad to a projector and then using Air Display and Ink2Go software to interact with your ipad screen.
NOW it's time to consider using a wireless option. A few months ago, a friend of mine - Bridgette Wagoner suggested that she was looking into interfacing a $100 Apple TV device (connected with the projectors already in the classroom) with an iPad to create a portable interactive slate for her classroom in Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District. Turned out that she needed to wait for the iOS 5 for this to work, but she has it running in her schools now.
Recently, Scott Meech wrote an article for EdReach entitled The iPad 2 and Apple TV . . . Ed Tech Industry Killer? He proposes this solution and then lists 11 reasons why it might be a useful application. I found it quite interesting and it looks like a view into the future.
What do you think? Are you using this solution already?
Gaming is much more than trying to shoot down Space Invaders or battling between alliances and hordes in Azeroth or teleport through Portals. Jane McGonigal believes that increased gaming can help solve the problems in the world. Stuart Brown explains the benefits and necessity of having fun to create a fully-developed person. What do you think? How does this apply to your concept of learning?
Gaming Can Make a Better World Jane McGonigal TED 1998
Dr. McGonigal has a vision for the future based upon the propagation of playing games. She has bases her future ideas on stories of the past. Conversely, her plans involve a future that provides opportunities that are now available due to today's technological opportunities.
Play is More than Fun Stuart Brown Serious Gaming Conference, 2008
The importance of play is apparent throughout society. Dr. Brown demonstrates how it is a necessary aspect of personal development for both human and non-human species.
How does this relate to gaming? What needs to be changed in your learning environment to begin to provide this sort of fun learning experience?
A Manifesto for Play, for Bulgaria and Beyond Steve Keil TEDxBG Talks in Sofia, Bulgaria
Steve Keil shares his ideas on how the whole culture of Bulgaria can be improved through allowing and pursuing play. Consider the culture he is describing where fun and play were squashed through years of communistic oppression.
Do you agree with his ideas for making change? What is he doing that is making a different world in the world? How does this relate to the messages that Stuart Brown is proposing?
Check out his http://playmanifesto.org to review his ideas.
Look for additional resources and add them to the comments below. What can you find that will benefit your colleagues use in their understanding of our futures' possibilities?
