EdcampNC April 21st!

One of the things that I have always loved about going to ISTE is the Edubloggercon "unconference" that happens the Saturday before the formal conference. It is a great time to meet people, exchange ideas, and in general have engaging discussions about what is happening in education. The Edcamp model embodies this and in essence takes the unconference model and makes it a stand alone event. Based on the Barcamp model, which has roots in IT it is only fitting that the Edcamp model would be born. What I love about the Edcamp model, and their evangelists, Kristen Swanson and Dan Callahan (among others) is that they really want to see this replicated across the county and even the world.  That by taking ownership of their Professional Development teachers will get more out of it - isn't that what we try to get our students to do!?!

So last year I made a half-hearted attempt to run an Edcamp - which essentially meant it didn't happen.  But this year I was determined, and I had time and people to invest.  I wanted EdcampNC to be more than just a PD opportunity for teachers, I wanted to include the University community as well. I want our Pre-service teachers to see what life long learning really means, to share what they know and be respected as experts. I want the faculty in both the College of Education and others to see the innovative practices happening in the K-12 classrooms as well as share their own practices.  We ALL have an opportunity to learn from one another and I'm excited to be a part of it.

So on Saturday April 21st, I hope to see you at Poe Hall on the campus of NC State University for the 1st Annual EdcampNC - trust me, you won't want to miss it!

Register for EdcampNC Now!

Back to Blogging

Flickr Betchaboy

I'm not sure how many "Back to Blogging" type posts I have written, but I am sure it is a lot. I find myself going through periods of blogging where I am quit prolific and other times when there is nothing I want to say. The past 6 months of my life have been some of the toughest I have gone through both personally and professionally. I knew that if I blogged it would just end up being something negative. But now I have some perspective, and as a teacher I am reflective, so now is the time to start writing again. I got back into twitter, started posting comments on other blogs and am finding my voice again. So with renewed energy - I start again. Wish me luck....

QR Code Scavenger Hunt

Student scanning a QR Code

This time of year one of my favorite activities occurs, New Student Orientation (NSO).  Our incoming Freshman are so excited to be here; they are excited and eager - all in all the best audience you could ask for. Every summer I do a little introduction to technology at the college along with others on a panel, but this year I wanted to do something different. You see, we pride ourselves on being "Not your Momma's college of education," but how can we say that if we lecture to them for an hour or me? So went back and thought about what the goals from the session were, and really it came down to three things:

1. Introduce them to people in the college
2. Introduce them to the facilities available to them in the college
3. Introduce them to the ideals and mission of the college

We started to brainstorm about the ways students could get that information, and we had an epiphany. What about a QR Code Scavenger Hunt!  I've used QR codes for about a year, and based on my last post you can probably tell that I am a fan, but how can we put these QR codes to work in a scavenger hunt context?  We came up with a list of stops in the building and what type of information we wanted/needed at each stop. We decided on having QR Codes link to videos (have to use youtube to play on iOS). Each stop had a video (30 sec or less - well we tried for 30 sec or less) by a diffirent staff/faculty member related to the topic. This way students got to see and "meet" various staff people, with the addded benefit of actually seeing the facilties, or departments they were talking about.

So where does the "scavenger hunt" part come in? Well we gave a clue at the end of each video about what their task would be.  Since they all would be using iPod Touch devices from the Media Center, we knew they would have the ability to take reqular pictures as well. So each task included them taking a picture of a particular obvject. The first group to get back to the main auditorium, with all the correct pictures would win our scavenger hunt.



I was amazed at how well it went over. Students were running around the building, getting to know their group members and seeing parts of our building (like the media center) that they may never have discovered. Now I know that some students cheated and fast forwarded to the end of the video, and were only in it to win. But I feel that we would have lost them in a long lecture anyways.

In the end it was a resounding success, and really only possible with technology. I am so thankful that the NSO group was open to try something like this and I think we might keep the QR Codes up so that our students can find out more information about the college!

Square Pegs - an outsiders conference journey

I've always been a Square Peg (see the TV show Square Pegs if you have no idea what I'm talking about, it was along time ago - so long that Sarah Jessica Parker had brown hair), and am OK with that. I don't exactly fit in a category, which I actually enjoy about myself, but can be a difficult thing when trying to go to conferences.  See I remember when I first came to college and I felt like I was surrounded by people that actually understood me. They had passions and quirks and I loved them all. I felt like this the first time I ever attended an ISTE conference (then NECC). I've been very lucky this year and have attended and presented at four conferences. But I haven't felt that "first-conference" moment in awhile. Sure it could be because the "newness" has rubbed off, or that the conferences haven't changed with the times, or it could be I'm going to wrong conferences.

You see, I don't teach in a K-12 school, and I'm not a professor in higher education, I'm an Instructional Technologist for a College of Education, there is no conference for me. I tried going to Educause in October and that was much more technical than I ever want to be. There were very few sessions on teaching with technology, but I did enjoy the ones I went to. It was relaxing to be in an environment that discussed my issues in higher education, but it didn't really fit my needs in teaching pre-service teachers. It felt more like a vendor showcase than a conference. Plus it was the most expensive conference I have ever been to.

Then I went to SITE, this I had high hopes for, and almost lived up to my expectations. SITE is for teacher educators that teach with technology - should be the perfect conference for me. But SITE focuses more on the research side of the house than the practical side of the house. Plus, since I'm not a faculty member, nor a researcher, but a staff member - I didn't meet anyone that did what I did. And maybe that is the crux at my issue - I haven't met someone that does what I do at at college of education. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like I'm unique or special, I just haven't found a way to really connect with others in my field.

The next two conferences I attended were NCTIES and ISTE, both of them have a K-12 technology education focus and are great conferences. I am continually impressed by how NCTIES continues to grow and showcase such incredible sessions. And while NCTIES is my 10k, ISTE is my marathon of learning, where I just try to keep up with it all. I've been reading some critiques of the ISTE conference lately, from issues with the Keynote (not techie enough) and Spotlight Speakers (not fresh enough) to those that had issues with the cliques at the Blogger's Cafe to those that want to dispel the in-crowd myth of the Blogger's Cafe. To be honest I understand both sides of the coin. I don't really fit in at ISTE, and in the past I've been OK with that. I've (in the famous words of Tim Gunn) "made it work," and done my best to fit ISTE into what I do. I've made some great friends at ISTE, but I'm still an outsider to most in that world. I count on my PLN a good deal, I feel that I contribute, but I can only contribute so much from my perspective.

So next year I will have the big decision of what conferences do I go to, and what do I get out of that experience? In the end I need to balance my budget with my needs, and maybe I'll find another square-peg just like me.

Scratch Poster at ISTE 2011

It has been a long time since I have given a poster presentation, and I have never given one at ISTE before. I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially first thing  - 8 AM - on the first full day of the conference. What I really didn't expect was to be ambushed at 7:45 and not get a chance to even eat breakfast until it was over! I really enjoyed this format. I was able to give a quick 10 minute spiel, and then answer questions or discuss how they could use Scratch in their classrooms.
I had two goals when I created my poster:

1. Use text sparingly
2. Use QR Codes instead of handouts

I'm really proud of how my poster looks. As a former Graphic Art teacher, I love having the opportunity to play with Adobe InDesign. I tried to play off the colors in the program itself and use the same font as Scratch.

I thought QR Codes would be a great idea, and I had several on my poster. I linked to the following web pages:
http://scratch.mit.edu/
http://scratched.media.mit.edu/

This worked for about 60% of the people that stopped by. Either they didn't have a device to read QR codes, didn't know what they were or both. I had about 100 business cards that were gone in like 10 minutes. My goal at ISTE is to come home with the least amount of paper as possible - but that didn't seem to be the standard operating procedure.


All in all I had a great experience presenting a poster at ISTE, and I highly recommend presenting one!

The Girl with the QR Code Tattoo

QR Code for my Twitter Feed

I've been on a bit of a QR Code binge lately. I've added them to business cards, put them on my ISTE poster and created a scavenger hunt for orientation (all of which I hope to blog about soon). But to top it all off I decided to make a QR Code Tattoo. Now I love to create funky things (You can see my so not edtech Flickr feed) and I like them even more if they are a tad but geeky (heck my other blog is called craftygeeks!) So I knew I wanted to make something with QR codes, but what? One day on Twitter I noticed Allanah King's Twitter avatar and asked her about it. She had earrings custom made with her QR code  how cool is that?!??! I thought of making my own earrings or necklace, but I wasn't sure I would have time to make something before ISTE

So I started looking at Etsy for QR code items - and I hit the jackpot - I found someone making QR Code Tattoos. They looked good and were reasonably priced, but then my friend Jonathan (@jelkimantis )stopped by in my office and said,

"You know you can buy your own Tattoo paper and make your own."

Well I just HAD to make my own now! On Tattoofun.com I found 5 sheets of tattoo paper for laser printers. It is some pretty cool stuff. So here are my steps for making a QR code tattoo:

1. Get a QR code for your website! I used http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ but plan on using http://goo.gl/ in the future. It will shorten your URL (which makes a cleaner looking QR) as well as giving you a hit count. Plus I had some issues with getting my QR code read by non-iOS devices - not sure if it was a code or device issue.
2. Save the image to your computer and place it in a document program. Personally I use Adobe InDesign, but I believe word would work just as well. 
3. Duplicate this image as many times as will fit onto an 8x11 sheet of paper. I added my twitter name under my QR code as well.
4. FLIP your image horizontally so that it is backwards. The way the Tattoo paper transfers the image - it is important it is reversed.
5. Print a test page and test your qr code. If you hold the paper up to the light you can test the qr code through the back. (Or print before you flip your image and test)
6. Follow the directions in your package - basically print on the special paper and then apply adhesive. 
7. I then cut out all of my tattoos to apply when in Philly. They lasted a good 3 days!

I got some weird looks for my QR Tattoos, but more often than not I got the geek high-five and it worked as a great ice-breaker to meet people.

I read...for fun

I have a confession to make, I read a lot. For as long as I can remember I've been an avid reader. I still have fond memories of my local librarian in Winston-Salem (Ms. Orange) whom we would visit on a weekly basis. I met my husband because he was reading a book I didn't like (and subsequently told him so). I have read through the night, just to finish a good book. But my confession is this, I don't read academic books, or non-fiction books, I read fiction! The horror! Ever since I graduated with My Masters in 2009 I just haven't been able to get back into academic reading. I want to read The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch and Disrupting Class by Clay Christensen or even Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell . These are books I should be reading. But instead I get sucked into the Hunger Games Trilogy or the Sookie Stackhouse Books, or Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I enjoy these books and would rather do nothing more than spend an afternoon reading some new found story. But the books I should be reading, I just can't bring myself to. I don't know if I got burned out in grad school, need a break from the constant depression of what is wrong with education in America, or a little of both. So while most people are reading so-called "Beach Reads" - I pledge to read one "academic, non-fiction" book, but which one? Any ideas?