Life-Long-Learners

P.D. PROBLEMS
Professional development for educators today can be a very expensive and demanding. Costs of conference registrations, hotels, meals, and travel have all dramatically increased. True, one can stay in his/her home town or city and still attend local conferences but these, too, have their own set of challenges including the following:

• popular sessions fill up quickly;
• sessions that one may want to attend often run concurrently, so one is forced to attend a particular presentation while missing other learning opportunities scheduled for the same time slot;
• one attends an hour session, only to find that within the first 5 minutes of the presentation, the topic or focus is not the best fit
• sessions are often focused on “nice to know” but may not have the ultimate fit of “just-in-time” delivery

If these seem to be some of the concerns that you encounter, then I have a professional development solution, which is called the K12 Online Conference found at: http://k12onlineconference.org/ Two weeks of presentations start today, and because it is online, the above problems and restrictions are totally eliminated.

P.D. SOLUTIONS
Most educators, that I know, love to hear the four-letter word … “FREE”.  In other words, there is no registration fee for the professional development provided during the K12 Online Conference. Neither must you travel anywhere, in fact you can partake of these inspiring educational sessions while sitting in the comfort of your own home, lounging in your pyjamas. This year’s theme is “Purposeful Play” and although the pre-conference keynote by Angela Maiers entitled “The Sandbox Manifesto” has already been presented on Monday, November 21st, you are not out-of-luck as you would be in traditional conferences. In fact, one of the most important aspects of K12 Online Conference presentations is that they, together with any pertinent resources, are displayed and archived on the web. In fact, interested educators can review not only the current year’s videos but also presentations shared during the previous five years from 2006-2010.

To begin taking advantage of this powerful learning opportunity, all you need is a computer with speakers and Internet connectivity. Begin by pointing your browser to the K12 Online Conference main page and continue investigating any of the following links:

• K12 Online Conference (Home Page)
• K12 Online Conference – 2011 Schedule
• K12 Online Conference – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Those educators using Twitter, may wish to follow the comments made regarding the K12 Online Conference by searching or filtering tweets using the “#k12online” (without quotes) hashtag. Furthermore, I find this online learning opportunity a great way to learn about educators with whom I might share a kindred spirit. I am always looking out for new ideas shared through educational blogs and if you feel the same way, I encourage you to examine Sean McGaughey’s “K12 Online Blog and Twitter List“.

Like our students, we are all on individual learning journeys. Some of us are further along and others are just beginning. Furthermore, for learning and assimilation to be meaningful, concepts and ideas need to arrive when the person is ready and they have to make sense based on the individual’s past experience and where s/he is at. For example, a presentation which shares various mobile educational apps, which run on an iPhone, may not apply to you today, particularly if you don’t own a cellular phone. On the other hand, if you are a primary teacher, you may find Sharon Bett’s 2008 presentation “Never Too Young – Three Tools for the Youngest” to be just what you need to hear based on your needs today. I did my best to address the wealth of information that is contained within the K12 Online Conference archives in last year’s post entitled: “K-12 Online – Acknowledging the Archives“. In fact some administrators or leaders of Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) may recommend to their colleagues that certain educators review past presentations and report back as to their favourites so that the larger audience can benefit from their research.

In closing, I can’t think of a better, more apt description of the K12 Online Conference than I used in my previous post called “K-12 Online – The never-ending conference” when I stated:

In summary, this K-12 Online Conference is not only “the conference that never ends”. It should also be considered as “the conference that keeps on giving”.

Take care & keep smiling

In this blog post, I will review two K-12 Online Conference presentations from the past year’s archives. My reason for focusing on the past sessions, rather than the present, is based on the following professional development assumptions.

Some educators, that are new to the K-12 Online Conference, may peruse this year’s presentation descriptions and perhaps feel somewhat intimidated by the sophistication and knowledge of the presenters. However, I have always maintained that all educators, like their respective students, are travelling along their own personal learning continuum. As such, it is important to find professional development sessions that meet each individual’s current needs. Perhaps, equally important, is that the learning opportunity arrives “just in time” or when the learner is most receptive. When one finds timely, professional development sessions with a “good fit”, there is a much better chance that such opportunities will help educators move forward in their learning and encourage a willingness to try new strategies, applications, and resources.

As I indicated in my last post, the K-12 Online Conference provides professional development opportunities through a powerful instructional video mechanism which facilitates investigation when the individual learner is “ready”. Furthermore, unlike a traditional keynote speaker who delivers his/her message and then exits the stage, these video learning opportunities are conveniently archived for review as far back as 2006. Such wide ranging video learning opportunities can be perused, played, and even paused (to note a particular interesting web resource address) as one extracts the relevant and meaningful message. In addition to the archived videos there are also very important supporting resources and applications that should be investigated as well. True, you might think that when you review a video presentation created for the 2007 K-12 Online Conference, that you are three years “behind the times”. Not so …, I contend. Regardless of one’s position along their personal timeline, one doesn’t stagnate when one tries to implement new ideas. Furthermore, when one reviews a K-12 Online Conference video and related resources created in 2007, one can be assured that the message still has applicability and the related computer applications have improved dramatically over the past three years and now have so many more educational features.

Now that these assumptions have been identified, I will continue by briefly outlining two rather interesting, archived, K-12 Online Conference presentations from the past.

K-12 Online Conference theme for 2008
“Amplifying Possibilities”

I chose to look at an introductory or “Getting Started” keynote entitled “How Can I Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?” I was immediately set at ease as I watched three educators, Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes and Bob Sprankle, sitting outdoors, sharing their educational insights with their video audience in a rather down-to-earth manner. As they talked about introducing technology to students, each educator held up a “flip video” and captured the dialogue and expressions of their colleagues in a very conversational manner.

They agreed that VoiceThread was an excellent mechanism for helping educators begin to learn about technology and utilize web 2.0 applications with their students. I liked Bob’s comment, which I am paraphrasing, when he stated that …

bringing in these technologies (e.g. flip video units) has a transformational effect that can help educators move out of their comfort zone and patterns of what they have been doing for years. When you hand out a flip video to your students, you no longer control learning and no longer are you the gatekeeper of knowledge.

These three educators have formed a professional learning network called the “seedlings” and I encourage other educators to connect with them.

K-12 Online Conference theme for 2009
“Bridging the Divide”

Each of the video presentations in the K-12 Online Conference is filled with a wealth of pedagogical information. Indeed, some use amazing techniques to get the message across to the audience in a meaningful manner. My favourite instructional video presentation has to be last year’s “Getting Started” keynote by Joyce Valenza entitled “The Wizard of Apps” which is embedded below:

Joyce uses a very unique video presentation to share her message in an entertaining and informative manner. I encourage readers to view Joyce’s additional “Backstory to the Wizard of Apps” where one can appreciate the collaborative endeavour that went into producing this remarkable instructional video. Undoubtedly, the creation of this video engaged students who were passionate about performing and producing this polished presentation.

However, learning is not limited to the actual K-12 Online Conference video presentations. Rather, dedicated presenters like Joyce Valenza often provide a wealth of extensive additional resources. Not only does Joyce supply links to her presentation slides, she also supplies a link to her “new tools workshop” wiki which provides a plethora of possibilities for educators who want to explore the potential of using web 2.0 applications in their classrooms.  This “new tools workshop” wiki resource, is a “one stop shop” for educators wishing to explore applications that will engage students and enhance classroom teaching. With this presentation and her accompanying resources, Joyce and her students, have set the bar high for future presenters.

I trust that I have demonstrated that the K-12 Online Conference archives of 2009, 2008, 2007 & 2006, contain relevant educational ideas and resources, that interested teachers can learn from, long after the video presentations were first shared online.

In closing, let me challenge readers to take action in the manner suggested in Dean Shareski’s 2010 keynote “Sharing: The Moral Imperative”. When we find educational resources that help us to better “teach and reach” students, we make time to share these ideas with others. I just did … and I trust you will too.

Take care & keep smiling

Today marks the start of this year’s free, K-12 Online Conference. I encourage all educators to visit this site and investigate the list of presenters and topics that will be shared over the next two weeks.

Early last week, I was lucky enough to view the powerful pre-conference video presentation by Dean Shareski, of Moose Jaw, entitled: “Sharing: The Moral Imperative” in which, he suggested that “the ability to teach and share beyond our classrooms is moving from ‘nice to do’ to ‘necessary to do’”. Furthermore, Thursday evening, I joined more than 75 educators in a “Fireside Chat” where Dean Shareski, not only reviewed his pre-conference presentation and answered questions from the audience, but also shared a second, remarkable, instructional “behind the scenes” video to help educators better understand why and how his original “Sharing” video was created.

Today I just spent 20 minutes viewing Rodd Lucier’s informative and practical video presentation entitled: “Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know”. I found the video to be very informative and I would suggest that it would be an excellent resource to share with students. Of particular interest to me was Rodd’s description of the process and immediacy that occurred when he requested help in having a Creative Commons classroom handbook translated from Swedish to English. I encourage readers to visit Rodd’s blog site entitled: “The Clever Sheep” and download this free, “Creative Commons In the Classroom” e-book.

What do these two Canadian educators have in common? True, they are both concerned with sharing ideas, resources, and strategies to help educators move forward to better meet the needs of their 21st century learners. However, they both chose to use the K-12 Online Conference as their delivery vehicle. For example, if Dean and Rodd had presented these keynotes at a traditional conference and you were unable to attend their sessions, you would be out of luck. It would be necessary for you to search out a friend or colleague that was actually in attendance and rely on his/her interpretation and willingness to share thoughts on the topic’s relevance and resources. Furthermore, you, or your school division, would have to spend money to pay for the related conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs. With the K-12 Online Conference, you pay no fee, you may review the presentations at your leisure, and you can even sit at home in your “jammies” gaining practical, classroom-based professional development from educators around the world. Furthermore, and most important, once this annual two-week online conference closes, the presentations are archived so that interested educators can still review and glean useful information many years later.

In summary, this K-12 Online Conference is not only “the conference that never ends”. It should also be considered as “the conference that keeps on giving”.

Take care & keep smiling