Maps to Preconference Workshops
Tuesday, February 5, Sessions listed in strand order. Registration opens 7:00 a.m. Conference starts 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Apple Strand
Apple Creative Professional Applications and Certification
Bret Siegel, Morrie Reese
Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor 3, DVD Studio Pro 4, and a number of other applications and utilities is the tool set used by creative professionals. Come see how these tools are being used in education. And find out how you can offer Apple creative pro training and certification to your students, giving them a jump start on their future and distinguishing them as professional-level users of Apple’s Pro Applications
iLife '08 - Music, Photos, Movies, Blogs, Podcasts and More
Bret Siegel, Morrie Reese
Are your students so excited about learning that they just don't want to stop? iLife, the easy to use, yet powerful integrated suite of media authoring tools, engages students in project-based learning, building problem-solving, critical thinking and other 21st century skills in the process. Come see what's new in the world of iLife.
The Apple Digital Learning Series
Bret Siegel, Morrie Reese
Learn about the Apple Digital Learning Series, a collection of value-priced curriculum solutions designed to enhance student information access and productivity, and increase achievement in language arts, math, and science. Each comprehensive solution in the series is designed to help educators meet No Child Left Behind requirements, address content standards, and prepare students with 21st century skills.
Hands On!: Create Your Own Website with iLife '08 and iWeb
Bret Siegel, Morrie Reese
It's never been easier for you and your students to create professional-looking websites. iWeb's drag and drop approach makes publishing photos, movies, music, blogs and podcasts as simple as word processing. In this session you'll learn the basics of iWeb and create your own website.
Curriculum & Instruction based on Assessment & Data Strand
Changing Instruction to Improve Student Performance on the MAP Tests
Scott Spurgeon
Eliminating ineffective instructional practices should be a goal for all Missouri school districts. See an effective process to follow when analyzing student performance data from the MAP tests and how to ensure that necessary instructional changes occur in the classroom. We will explore reasons why students select the wrong answers on the MAP test and some ways to correct student processing errors. Lastly, we will share the MAP test structure for the past two years to assist school districts to identify areas of instructional focus.
Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom: Teach the 21st Century Student
Eric Langhorst
Discover how a junior high classroom teacher has infused a variety of 21st century tools into the curriculum – blogs, podcasting, digital video production, etc. An important part of the technology integration is online assessment which provides the teacher and students immediate feedback to adjust and improve instruction. Specific examples of how online assessment is used in the classroom will be included. The implementation of this technology has dramatically improved test scores and the instructor has been named the 2007/2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year.
Delivering High Stakes Data to the Classroom Teacher
Susan Homes
Does your high stakes assessment data actually get beyond an administrator¹s desk? Does each teacher have to spend hours studying last year¹s data to try to figure out how to help this year¹s students? This session will explore how a CSD member school district tackled that problem and positioned itself to identify achievement gaps and build a road to real student improvement.
Using Technology to Harness the Power of Data
Gregory Koenig
We appreciate that educators might be wary of the potential for a sales pitch from a vendor giving a presentation. We acknowledge, too, that technology developers are likely to be able to share insights that come from a slightly different perspective on the same ideal: support and encouragement for the people we have entrusted with the leadership and equipping of our children.We see that prodigious amounts of data are generated in schools today—especially from formative and summative assessments. The data are expected to provide the foundation for informed decisions by education leaders about what to teach, how to teach and how to plan and implement interventions. The analysis of data has the potential to be overwhelming. Appropriate technology serves as a critical link in the data-to-decision-to-achievement chain: a carefully constructed data management and reporting application can go far toward helping sharpen the vision for curriculum and instruction.
Our Students • Our Worlds
David Warlick
For decades, education has been an easy institution to define. It consisted of a set of accepted literacy skills, a definable body of knowledge, and the pedagogies for teaching those skills to willing students who were arranged in straight rows. Today, for the first time in decades (generations of teachers), we are facing the challenge of changing our notions about teaching and learning to adapt to a rapidly changing world. We are struggling to rethink what it is to be educated, to reinvent the classroom, redefine what it is to be a teacher and a student.
There is much that has changed, and for much of it, we have responded by attempting to hold it back -- to block it. This presentation, by 30+ year educator, author, and technologist, David Warlick, will explore some of these changes and challenges and arrange them as a set of converging conditions that might help us to redefine and retool the 21st century classroom.
Creating a Culture of Assessment
Bertha Doar, Roxanna Mechem
How do you construct an assessment system based on national and state standardized tests, district benchmark tests, classroom summative and formative assessments? This session chronicles the issues and processes that Rockwood School District used to become more assessment literate.
Data Analysis on a Shoe String – Updated
Bertha Doar
See how MS Excel can be used for data analysis. This discussion emphasizes the importance of clean data collection, what data to collect and how to present the data for interpretation and use by non-statisticians. Familiarity with MS Excel is helpful, but not necessary.
Instructional Technology Coaching for 21st Century Teaching and Learning
Jan Streich
Join a team of highly motivated instructional technology resource teachers (ITRTs) and learn about their role as job-embedded coaches. Enrich your understanding of today's learner and interact with 21st century technology tools that the ITRTs use as part of daily practice to support teacher learning in data-driven decision making, differentiated instruction, and technology integration in the K-12 classroom.
Using Assessment to Inform Instruction - Immediately!
Tim Blaine
Participants will learn how to use assessment data to build a learning continuum that identifies individual student need and guides instruction toward goals and standards. This session is designed to show how teachers and administrators can now have better access to the achievement differences of their students, through assessment data and a learning continuum. Such a tool will enhance an educator's ability to provide targeted instruction for individual students or groups of students. The focus will be on Measures of Academic Progress, a computer adaptive assessment system offered by the Northwest Evaluation Association.
Differentiated Instruction Strand
Utilizing Technology for Differentiated Instruction
Odin Jurkowski
Gifted students often get left behind because most schools focus on the large majority of typical students or those needing additional help. With today's technology, differentiated instruction can support gifted students, needs better than ever. This presentation will argue for change and describe what we can do now because of technological advances.
Different Avenues for Diverse Learners
DeAnna Sheets, Kim Good
Do you struggle with meeting the needs of all your students? What teacher wouldn't struggle when no two students are alike? By harnessing the power of technology, you can facilitate a classroom using different avenues to meet students' needs. In this hands-on session, participants investigate differentiated instruction, assess teaching styles and available tools, and use that information to create a differentiated instruction lesson using technology.
Click Your Way to Differentation!
Brandie Hatch, Robert Deneau
Learn how to use student response systems to differentiate instruction in the classroom. Utilize the student response system for data-driven differentiation strategies: formative, summative, interest, and learning profile assessments. Leave this session with practical ideas that will be easy to implement in your classroom.
Technology-Based Assessments for Data-Driven Differentiation
Brandie Hatch
Participants will be comparing technology-based assessment ideas and tools that can be used for data-driven differentiation strategies. Leave the session with practical ideas that you can take back to your classroom to assist with formative assessment, summative assessment, interest surveys, and learning profile evaluations.
Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction
Karen Fasimpaur
Come see how mobile technology tools like handhelds, iPods, laptops, and even cell phones can be used to differentiate and enrich instruction. We’ll share a variety of free resources, such as ebooks, podcasts, audio ebooks, and more, that can be put to immediate use in the classroom. You’ll learn how to use existing resources to differentiate instruction and how to create your own resources and share them with others.
Digital Media Strand
GarageBand Mechanics - Recording Arts and Composition in the Classroom
Dan Schmit
There are dozens of applications for recording and organizing sound within a technology-rich learning environment. From composing original music for multimedia projects or movies to creating podcasts, thousands of educators and students have begun exploring sound in a whole new way thanks to Apple's GrarageBand software. This session will introduce you to the basic features of GarageBand, offer tips, and curriculum centered projects for learning and implementing GarageBand in your curriculum. Whether you are a beginner or virtuoso, you will be able to create beautiful music in no time with GarageBand.
Changing Minds & Transforming Thinking: The Power of Producing Videos for Teaching & Learning
Roy Tamashiro, Elaine McKenna
Many teachers who learn how to produce digital movies with iMovie or Windows Movie Maker discover new ways of thinking, find better ways to organize their knowledge, develop more effective communication, and feel more empowered. It literally changes their thinking and helps them become better teachers! See how we accomplished this in a graduate class on "Digital Movie Making."
Web Sites Within Minutes
Doug Lyon
WebBlender is an exciting new Web authoring tool which includes podcasting. Modern communication via the internet is how we get and provide information. Learn how to create rich web sites with text, graphics, and sound to share school reports, field trips, photo galleries, hobbies, and much more. You will discover that WebBlender truly is the fastest way from your mind to the web!
Podcasting with Garageband: From Start to Finish
Julie Barchenski
Everybody seems to be podcasting, but what is it, how do you do it and how is it used in the classroom? Podcasting is a way to automatically download and synchronize digital audio files from the internet to iPods, handhelds, or other devices that play digital audio files. There are podcasts recorded by educators for educators, recorded specifically for students, and made by students! In this session, participants will find and subscribe to podcasts, see how schools are using them, and learn to create their own. Come and see what podcasting has to offer.
More Effective Video Through Video Podcasting
Robert Deneau
Creating digital video provides students with real world experiences in the classroom. Why not expand their audience to the web? Learn the nuts and bolts of making quality video, and then experience the power of podcasting that video to the world.
Learn360 Provides a Choice in On-line Streaming
Tom Bukowski
Learn360 activates students' thinking with content-rich media that builds background knowledge, enlivens curriculum, reinforces concepts, and enhances learning. Built by educators, this K-12 technology solution reaches all students - in the way they are inspired to learn.
Distance Learning Strand
Mathematics: Batter Up
Baseball Hall of Fame presenter
It's the final day of the 1941 season and Ted Williams' batting average is .39955. What will he do? Sit this one out and guarantee an historic .400 season or take a chance and aim for mathematic immortality? Find the answer to this and other exciting stories in a dugout full of whole numbers, fractions and decimals, percentages, proportions and problem solving. Fun for fifth-graders and above, this thematic unit teaches fundamental concepts that connect the calculator and the clubhouse while learning, using and interpreting the statistics of famous ballplayers.
Civil Rights: Before You Can Say "Jackie Robinson"
Baseball Hall of Fame presenter
Before You Could Say 'Jackie Robinson' - Want to motivate your students to learn about segregation and the importance of cultural diversity? Here is a colorful unit, designed for grades four through twelve, that illustrates how baseball reflected and led critical social shifts in American history from the Civil War to the modern-day Civil Rights movement. Beginning with the origin of the Negro leagues to Jackie Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball in 1947, untold stories of honor, courage, and perseverance are brought to life through interactive multicultural lessons spanning several subject areas.
Quality Assurance in Online Education
Mary Abkemeier
Fontbonne University uses a peer-based approach to quality assurance for its online courses. The university uses a rubric called QM@FBU (Quality Matters @ Fontbonne University) to peer review each online course before it is taught. The rubric was adapted from the Quality Matters (QM) rubric, first developed in fall of 2003 by a group of 19 community colleges and five senior institutions in the state of Maryland . Mary will share Fontbonne's rubric and experiences she and her colleagues have had using the rubric. The response of Fontbonne University online instructors has been very positive.
Magnet Mania A,T
Sabrina Boyle
Experience a videoconference as a student and see the benefits of broadening your classroom walls. 'Students' observe magnetism, explain properties of magnetic forceces, and relate these properties to the Earth's magnetic field by demonstration. 'Students' will investigate the Maglev Train technology, create an electromagnet, and develop a compass in their investigations.
Chopstick China A,T
Sunny Cleeson
Experience a videoconference as a student and see the benefits of broadening your classroom walls. Geographically China is smaller than the United States but has nearly 5 times our population. Understanding China's global influence on our world through history, art, Language, and politics is becoming vital to our culture in the United States.
Handheld Computer Strand
Creating Student Activities with Free Apps for Handhelds
Christine Tomasino
In this hands-on session (bring your own Palm OS handheld), participants will use free Palm OS applications to create student learning activities for understanding vocabulary, building text comprehension and making connections in content. Put those free apps to good use in your classroom to blend handhelds and research-based activities for learning.
Vocabulary Activities for Any Content Area Using Handhelds
Christine Tomasino
Everyone's content is loaded with vocabulary, and vocabulary knowledge is one of the most important predictors of a student's reading ability. Build vocabulary skills that will not only increase your students' understanding of content, but also improve their reading skills! Whether you are a content area teacher, a language arts or reading teacher, this session will provide effective strategies for building vocabulary understanding using Palm OS handhelds.
Using and Creating Mobile Video for the Classroom
Karen Fasimpaur
Mobile videos or mini-movies are an effective tool for differentiating instruction and improving student achievement. They engage students and provide both remediation and enrichment opportunities. Come see how you can tap into video resources you already have and use them on mobile devices to support a variety of curriculum areas and grade levels. We'll also look at how to create your own mini-movies using free software.
Mobile Phones for Learning
Karen Montgomery
Ever wonder about all the functions of your mobile phone or PD device? Do you know how your Bluetooth works? Have you ever asked: "How do I get the photos off my phone, but still keep them?" "How do I set-up my phone to send and receive e-mail?" "What's the difference between GPS and GPRS?" "What's WAP, MMS or SMS?" Learn about some of the most common functions of most mobile camera phones and a variety of projects for the classroom.
Instructional Technology Strand
Create SPARKs : Student Participating and Really Knowing
Tracie Gones
How do you get students excited about learning while making it personal and real? Learn how to use the internet, blogs, a SMART Board, and other multimedia tools to create SPARKs in your class by enhancing the lessons you already teach! Be prepared to share your own ideas and you will leave with a wealth of new ideas to try as soon as you get back to school.
Understanding By Design; Where Does Technology Fit?
Tom Swoboda
What is the Understanding By Design model (UBD)? Where does technology fit in this model? This presentation will get you up to speed on UBD and give examples of how and where technology integration occur in the planning and instruction.
Using GIS and Digital Cameras to Teach Science
Jeanette Hencken, Cici Faucher
Join us to learn about using GIS and digital photography in courses to motivate student learning. In our classes, we teach five different science courses where we use digital images to help our students learn. We also use digital images and GIS for mapping images.
Podcasting with Purpose - 25 Models to Energize Research & Learning
Dan Schmit
See 25 podcasting activities designed to engage your students in deep thinking, better writing, and authentic learning. The session will provide important background material and concrete examples of quality podcasting activities. We will move the discussion about podcasting forward into the curricular realm to consider the strengths and opportunties that it can bring to teaching and learning.
Hidden Treasures and Tools - Using Microsoft Office in the Classroom
Gail Lovely
Use the tools built into Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to create learning materials or to provide learning opportunities to students…remember the things you forgot Word can do, and learn new ways to use PowerPoint and Excel to your advantage.
Integrate Free, Web-based Writing Tools
Amber Rowland
PersuadeStar, ThinkTank and NoteStar are FREE online writing tools that assist teachers and students in grades 5-12 with the writing process. Outlining, note taking, and authoring expository and persuasive essays with teacher and peer support is now paperless! Participants will leave this session with examples and strategies for implementation.
You Mean I Am Supposed to Teach Science, Too?
Diana Dell & Vince Szewczyk
With the push to meet AYP in communication arts and math, many teachers have been forced to skimp on science instruction. Attend this session to discover online science tools and resources, aligned with the GLEs, to help prepare students for the expanded 2008 Science MAP testing. A laptop would be beneficial in this session, but not necessary.
TINspire: HS Math Teacher Inspires & Engages Students Using TI Calculators
Wendy Freebersyser
Experience hands on data collection, interactive graph manipulation with dynamic equations and a transformation of thinking about teaching mathematics using Texas Instrument's newest and exciting from TI. A full integration of Word, Excel, Geometer's Sketchpad, Fathom and MathType with the added "wi" like interactivity for a few dollars more than using a TI-84 Plus or a TI-89. Come be Nspired! This technology engages your students, expands your curriculum and turns your classroom into a discovery lab environment. No experience necessary to participate in this hands on experience.
Teleporting to the Past with Present-Day Technology
Susan Petroff, Amy Johnson
How can technology resources link the present to the past by using primary source documents? Learn how to integrate primary source documents into multimedia projects that can be implemented right away. Keep history, science, math, and literacy alive for students through touching the past.
What's New From SMART Technologies
Christopher Klein
A look at the new offerings in both hardware and software from the industry-leading interactive whiteboard company, SMART Technologies. Come see what's new and stay ahead of the curve with new technologies instead of being left behind.
Science and Technology: A Natural Partnership
Ladd Skelly
Discover ways for integrating technology into the science classroom including topic research, online tools, working with experts, and collaborative projects. Participants will gain the confidence and skills to integrate such learning technologies in the science curriculum. The session will include an overview of an Internet-based activity or project that promotes collaboration and technology integration.
SMART Board in the English Classroom
Barbara Wachal, Dr. Nancy Linzy
Learn the SMART Board basic skills and see how it can be integrated into the English classroom to enhance instruction and student learning.
SMART Board Instructional Activities Using SMART Notebook
Stephanie Wyatt
Did you know that SMARTboard software is FREE? You don’t need to have a SMARTboard in your classroom in order to plan ahead and develop great lessons to use with the SMART interactive whiteboard and digital projector. Using SMART Notebook and online resources and templates, a teacher who has used this resource by planning ahead and scheduling in lab time for access to a shared SMARTboard will highlight some lesson planning strategies to make your instruction really SMART!
Applying Higher Order Thinking Skills to Student Assessment Devices
Scott Caulfield
Within the context of a digital lesson using an interactive whiteboard and voting system, come see how formative assessment can be used effectively in the classroom environment. Using Promethean’s Activstudio software along with the Activboard and Activotes, teachers can bring voting beyond the standard summative assessment questioning strategies and improve student achievement and while promoting higher order thinking.
Curing Your Student Email Headaches
Mark Elder
Explore facets of utilizing safe student email and learn about implementing and managing this powerful communication tool into your school. Hear about liability issues schools face and leave with new insights to safety and compliancy issues. Learn how this evolving technology CAN be easily, and safely, integrated into your curriculum.
Writer's Workbench - Track Writing Improvement While Guiding Your Students to Become Better Writers
Greg Oij & Diane Tinucci
Attendees will discover how Writer's Workbench will help make their students better writers. They will walk away with a mechanism for tracking writing improvement through a new, instructional writing assessment module. Attendees will hear, first hand, how Writer's Workbench has helped in teaching writing skills at Lafayette High School .
Chemistry Created When Science and Technology Collide
Mary Beth Rothermich
This presentation will share the adventures of a high school chemistry teacher with her director of instructional technology as they develop technology resources and tools, including the Tablet PC and an electronic textbook, that may or may not "work." This is the journey of simple things along with things learned that have impacted student learning and a teacher's teaching.
Literal Links - Great Online Activities, Tools and Resources for Improving Literacy
Gail Lovely
Explore a variety of websites that will help teachers motivate and educate students in writing, reading, spelling and more of the Language Arts areas. We will also explore places where teachers can find numerous resources on children’s books and literature. Participants will learn about technology-rich projects that will integrate reading and writing skills.
Teachers, Keep Your Computers Clean
Luke Allen
“My computer’s not running like it used to.” How often have you said this? This session is for teachers and will demonstrate simple maintenance procedures for keeping your hard drive and registry clutter (whatever that is!) to a minimum, removing junk files, eliminating that horrid spyware and adware and streamlining the start-up sequence. After implementing these tips, you’ll say “wow, my computer boots up faster!”
A Recipe for Mixing Economic Data, Technology and Geography in Middle and High School Classrooms
Mary Suiter, Katrina Stierholz, Dawn Connor
Participants will learn about a data website, GeoFRED™ and lessons for using the website to teach a variety of economic and geographic concepts. Participants will be given an overview of the website. Presenters will engage participants in activities and in discussions about using the lessons and website. Participants will receive copies of the lessons.
Put Together Three Favorite Lessons Using TI Technology
Wendy Freebersyser, Matt Alonzo, Julie Parks
Three high school math teachers will present a favorite lesson using Texas Instruments' newest technologies. The presenters will demonstrate how to get all students actively engaged in daily classroom activities, collect and use class generated data, assess students learning instantly and create a free tutor at home including live video and sound on the World Wide Web!
Library Tech Integration Strand
Explore the Midwest Using Primary Sources from the Library of Congress
Gail Petri
Make the Midwest history come to life with free resources from www.loc.gov. Use maps, pictures, oral histories, music, sound recordings, and motion pictures. Explore and discuss strategies, including hypertext analysis, linking text to sounds and images; literature study using primary sources; and found poetry activities to reinforce reading instruction.
PowerBooks: Harnessing Library Materials on the Web
Keri Cascio
Google Book Search and WorldCat.org allow users to search the full text of books on the Web to find ones that interest them and discover where to find them in libraries. By using these tools, students can access out-of-copyright texts, create bibliographies and book reviews, and build lists of items to share with the lager web community.
Using MOREnet's Online Resources
John Riley
Learn about the features and interfaces of MOREnet's host of online resources: EBSCO, Newsbank and The Gale Discovering Collection. These powerful databases are a great resource for students and educators alike.
"Show-Me" the Ropes
Mary Kate Mortland
The presentation will show people how to create a SMARTboard lesson. During the session we will work with book award nominees to develop a lesson that incorporates different components of SMART Notebook software and correlates to library media standards. *Participants with SMART Notebook software on their laptops will be helpful.
Discover VoiceThread for Multimedia Projects
Karen Montgomery
VoiceThread (www.voicethread.com) is a free, Web-based service for adding sound recordings, and text messages to digital images. VoiceThread allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. VoiceThread allows an entire group's story to be told and collected in one place without software or downloads. VoiceThread can be public or private and comments can be open to all or moderated. Stories are hosted on the VoiceThread site and can be embedded on other web pages or blogs. This session will explore a variety of multimedia projects including Great Book Stories using VoiceThread. Great Book Stories offers students and teachers the opportunity to share their favorite books and stories through pictures, text and audio. Great Book Stories is a terrific idea for librarians but also for teachers at any grade level that want to help get kids excited about reading books.
Tech Leadership Strand
Would You Like to Play a Game?
Liz Morrison
Video games in the classroom are a hot topic in education. Harnessing the power of video games is just beginning as teachers, students and researchers determine if video games increase student achievement.
Tech Savvy Superintendent of the Year - 7 Secrets to Success
Dr. Larry Buchanan
Looking for the “Holy Grail” of education (individualized technology-based instruction)? Dr. Larry Buchanan will share his vision and innovative program that propelled his district to success.
Dr. Buchanan, a former eSchool News Tech Savvy Superintendent of the Year award winner, is pioneering an outstanding district-wide technology program that increases student achievement, reduces teacher workload, integrates new technologies, and ensures equitable access to educational resources.
As superintendent, Dr. Buchanan believes interactivity is the key to education in the 21st century. The right combination of technology tools improves learning and behavior because it thoroughly engages students. In addition, he has focused on building a strong network and ensuring that the bandwidth exists to fully integrate all of the districts’ curriculum-based systems. The interactive technology-based classrooms have allowed the Grant District teachers to teach to the standards while altering their delivery models to meet individual students’ needs.
(This special 2 1/2-hour session begins at 8:00 a.m. and requires an additional registration.)
School-wide 1 to 1 Computing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Dr. Larry Buchanan, Sarah DiRuscio, Jim Chapman
If you are considering implementing a school-wide 1 to 1 program, then don’t miss this informative session. We will highlight important issues necessary for developing a successful program: creating a vision; finance; professional development; classroom management; standards-based curriculum; hardware; network infrastructure; implementation; and ongoing support.
Cyberbully: A Message of Prevention and Response
Lt. Joe Laramie
Computer technology can allow kids and teens to be faceless or anonymous. This workshop will give a perspective of how this technology can facilitate cyber bullying and what messages can be taught to prevent victimization. The response by law enforcement to this issue will also be covered.
Technology Integration & Professional Development-Keeping Your Teachers Motivated
Sarah DiRuscio
Looking for great online resources that support your standards-based curriculum? Need ideas for developing professional development that teachers love? This session will highlight many effective strategies including: using Moodle, streaming videos, Blogs, Google Tools, creating collaborative teacher groups, calibrating technology to standards, and more.
Technology Solutions from the St. Louis Area Districts
Will Blaylock, Tom Swoboda & Rob Highfill
See what local St. Louis area school districts are doing to solve problems and provide better resources to parents, students and teachers. This will be a panel discussion to hear what programs and policies representatives from Ladue, Parkway and Rockwood are doing to provide the better education opportunities.
$ave Million$ on Your 1:1 Initiative
Alex Inman
Want to start a 1:1 initiative but concerned about how to afford it? Come see the research on a school that combined Windows and open source technology to reduce the costs of a traditional 1:1 initiative by about 30% while maintaining high teacher and student satisfaction. To a school district of 5,000 or more, that's millions of dollars!
Technical & Networking Strand
Protecting Your Network from the Great Unknown
Andy McBride
Built specifically for securing K-12 networks and protecting millions of students nationwide, Total Traffic Control gives you a single admin console to see everything running on your network and control any detected issues. Monitor and report network and user activity, let end users manage spam, manage Internet access for various groups, limit or block P2P and instant messaging, secure the gateway and desktops from known/unknown threats, archive e-mail and instant messaging, and manage your bandwidth-all from a single interface.
Technology Support for Personalized Instruction-What I.T. Must Really Do
Jim Chapman
The technology infrastructure required to facilitate Personalized Instruction is not simple. A robust network design is one of the many requirements. This session will highlight key Issues including network bandwidth, video prioritization routing, redundancy of Internet access, routing, servers, and data storage. Creative funding and a close working relationship between the technical and educational staff will also be discussed.
Server and Workstation Virtualization
James Gardner
Does your district have a virtualization strategy? Learn how to successfully leverage the benefits of virtualization for your institution. An industry overview will be provided, but focus will be primarily on VMware and Parallels. Ever wanted to declutter your server room? See how to streamline your operations by using virtualization to enhance your test and production environments.
Moodle - The Deployment
James Gardner
Learn how to scale Moodle appropriately for your School or District. Installation and configuration of version 1.8.x will be covered for MacOSX, Windows, and Linux. We will highlight some basic tuning of the underlying AMP stack to get the best possible security and performance for your installation.
The Importance of Continuous Data Protection and Unified Threat Managment in Today's Schools
Jason Acosta
The presentation will cover how SonicWALL's lineup of security and backup solutions can assist in a school's networking infrastructure.
Web 2.0 Strand
The Art & Technique of Wikis
David Warlick
One of the pivot points of the new read/write Web is wikis. Originally invented in 1995, wikis have recently emerged as the poster-child of the Web 2.0 movement. This session will provide a general overview of the wiki style, ranging from small group collaborations to global collaborations to global encyclopedias. Participants will learn about the characteristics of wikis, how to operate and manage them, and a variety of classroom applications. Come learn how to create a wiki site - for free.
Reading , Writing, and VLEs
Diana Dell
The tools of "the read-write web" will dramatically impact education as we know it. Attend this session to learn how virtual learning environments, such as Moodle, can be used to not only support reading and writing, but to empower students and create exciting new learning opportunities. A laptop would be beneficial in this session, but not necessary.
Web 2.0 Meets Grade 2.0
Gail Lovely
Explore the possibilities and potentials of the newer technologies in the primary classroom. Includes free tools such as Skype, YackPack, BubbleShare and more.
It's Elementary: Taking the Mystery Out of Web 2.0 Tools
Cynthia Matzat, Amy Vejraska
Do terms like "blogs", "wikis", and "aggregators" sound like a foreign language? Let us take the mystery out of these and other Web 2.0 applications. We will clue you in on how easily you can implement interactive online tools in the elementary classroom to enhance learning and collaboration with your students and supplement your own professional development.
21st Century Cartographers: Using Google Earth and Google Maps to Empower Student Learning
David Jakes
Almost any subject can be studied within a geographical context. In this session, explore the application of Google Maps and Google Earth to student learning, and how these amazing tools can lead to engagement and achievement. You'll learn how to create Earth and Map files, explore best practice examples, and learn about the technical and logistical requirements for successful school use.
Flickr Projects for the Classroom
Karen Montgomery
Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows people to upload, organize and share their photographs. See how other teachers use Flickr in the classroom to create digital bulletin boards, virtual field trips, digital storytelling and concept mapping. Learn about the various Flickr third-party applications that can be used to extend and create projects with Flickr.
Return to Conference Program information.
Designed for K-12 educators, METC 2008 has designated three presentation levels to make our educational technology sessions count for your teaching and learning experience which are: Awareness (exploring and gathering), Training (developing new skill sets), Systemic (systemic change agent)
