tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37518367331336829032024-02-06T22:26:48.461-05:00Tech 4 Edkcalderwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312900033350827201noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-34040776976359997192019-06-05T11:14:00.008-04:002021-06-25T20:42:54.809-04:00The Quest For Alternative Learning ExperiencesOur school (<a href="https://twitter.com/TES_NJ" target="_blank">Tuckerton Elementary School</a>) has been dabbling in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences for the last few years. From smaller experiences like <a href="https://vr.google.com/cardboard/" target="_blank">Google Cardboard</a> and <a href="https://mergevr.com/cube" target="_blank">Merge Cube</a> to apps like <a href="http://www.zookazam.com/" target="_blank">ZooKazam</a>, <a href="https://vr.google.com/cardboard/apps/" target="_blank">Street View</a>, and <a href="http://www.quivervision.com/" target="_blank">Quiver</a>. I wanted to get more information before I jumped into this so I sat down with our STEAM teacher <a href="https://twitter.com/NJBarbieri" target="_blank">Nick Barbieri</a> last year to discuss the planned usage and how he saw it fitting in with his lessons. We then had a discussion with our Superintendent about possibly adding a dedicated VR headset to our repertoire. Thankfully, I work in an environment where our administration sees the benefit in taking risks with new technology to allow our students these amazing learning opportunities. After our initial discussions I wanted to include Nick on a Skype with <a href="https://twitter.com/JaimeDonally" target="_blank">Jamie Donally</a> who is a leader in AR/VR use in the classroom. We had a great discussion and it was very beneficial to hear from someone already using the technology in the classroom. She gave us some tips and ideas on how best to move forward. We discussed the cost vs effectiveness which was a very important factor. My initial plan was to transform part of our computer lab to have one VR station at each lab table but I was concerned about the space needed. In a traditional VR setup, you need a pretty powerful graphics card in a computer which can drive costs up quite a bit over your standard lab computer. There was also the cameras that needed to be mounted in order to track the movements of the user. In the end, I decided the technology wasn't quite there yet for our needs and space available. The Oculus Go had just come out which was a stand alone unit not needing a PC and was truly wireless. However, after researching that device it was too under powered for what I wanted out of a VR device. A new Oculus unit had been announced but wasn't coming out until Spring 2019. We pre-ordered the new Oculus Quest and the waiting game continued.<br />
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Oculus Quest</span></b></u><br />
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The Oculus Quest is a standalone VR headset meaning it does not need to be physically connected to a computer. The headset comes with two touch controllers, batteries, a spacer for those with glasses and a USB-C based charger.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Oculus</td></tr>
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The Quest features four cameras on the outer edge on both the top and bottom of the front side. Underneath the Quest there are a volume adjustment and a lens adjustment to help with visual acuity. The left side includes the USB-C charging port and finally on the right side is the power button. The Quest has three velcro adjustments to help give a snug fit for anyone. There are two on the side and one on the top. The tighter the fit, the better the immersion and helps eliminate and outside light leaking in.<br />
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Setup</span></b></u><br />
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The Quest arrived at our school on May 22nd. It was like Christmas morning! I was super excited to unbox it and give it a test spin. However, as always there were some hiccups. After setting up the Quest via the Oculus app on my phone (a requirement), I ran into issues with the initial software download. Somewhere somehow the software update was being blocked. I had to monitor our network traffic from the device to see where it was requesting but I saw nothing being blocked. I was unfortunately not able to resolve the issue and the only way I was able to push past this first download was to tether the Quest to my phone. The download took about 45 minutes via my phone but will obviously be a lot less on wifi. Once it was finished I setup a school based Oculus account. When you put on the Quest for the first time, you are greeted with the Guardian screen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Oculus Insight System allows tracking of both the player and environment.</td></tr>
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There are four cameras mounted on the exterior of the Quest which track both player movements and the environment in which you play. When you first start up the Quest, it will ask you to setup your play space. There are two controllers included with the Oculus that help you choose options and interact with your VR space.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the two included Oculus Touch Controllers.</td></tr>
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You will confirm where the floor is and also "trace" and outline on your floor that shows where you have free space. That's right you can "see" your room during setup with the use of the exterior cameras. This helps you draw around the floor and see objects to avoid like couches, desks, chairs, etc. When you get too close to the edge of your mapped out play area, a Tron-like grid will appear in your view to let you know you are close to the edge. If you breach this "wall" the external cameras will activate and all activity within the Quest will stop allowing you to see the room again. Step back into the grid and your app will immediately return. It's an ingenious design and really takes the worry about safety away. Now this will not stop you from swinging your arms and crashing your controller into a wall (as I have done)! When drawing your play area be sure to take into effect the length of your arms extending past the grid. The recommended play area is 6.5' x 6.5' but you can play with less.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A portion of the Quest setup safety video.</td></tr>
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Once your Oculus is setup you're ready! The Oculus Quest includes a few game demos to try out but must be installed first. This brings me to another descision, which size is right for you? The Quest comes in 2 sizes, 64GB ($399) or 128GB ($499). That is the only difference between the two Quest options. Not knowing what to expect, we went with the larger 128GB version as there is no option for any memory expansion through SD cards. I loaded up demos for Creed Boxing and Beat Saber. I wanted to purchase some apps but we weren't ready just yet (more on that in a bit). I did not try out Creed Boxing but Nick did and said it was a pretty incredible experience. I opted to try out Beat Saber and it has become somewhat of a phenomenon here. </div>
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Beat Saber reminds me a little bit of Guitar Hero meets Star Wars in that you must time your block breaks as they come at you. Each hand is holding a saber. The left hand has a red saber and the right hand has a blue saber. When you begin you start in a grid-like environment. Once the music begins two blocks (one red and one blue) come at you with small white arrows in each block. These arrows represent the direction in which you must slash your sabers to break the blocks. You must also slash the blocks with the correct color (hand). The closer you are to slashing the center of the block and also with an initial angle of 90 degrees the higher your score. You also get extra points if you continue your slash arc 60 degrees after the initial slash. For more on the scoring take a look at Beat Saber's official video <a href="https://twitter.com/BeatSaber/status/992782948515622913" target="_blank">here</a>. I have included a video of one of my first few attempts at Beat Saber to give a better idea on what it looks like for the player. I've learned a lot more about how to get a higher score since this video. I can see this as a great indoor recess or PE activity. This app is a fantastic way to capture attention of those who are hesitant or feel they might get sick in VR. I've hooked a few people who were hesitant or consider themselves non-gamers.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Classroom Usage</span></u></b></div>
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Last week I took vacation days and so I decided to bring the Quest home with me. I was able to really spend some time with it and better understand some of the nuances and think about how students would react to using it. I was able to test out long term play and how that would affect a typical class period. One of the apps that I was most eager to try out was Apollo 11 VR Quest. This is a fully immersive experience and will be perfect for our students to learn about the 50th anniversary of the landing. Each section of the app is broken up like chapters in a movie where you can jump to different points. I immediately loaded up the launch. After waiting a short time for it to load, I was immediately sitting to the left of Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. It was truly a awe inducing moment. I could look around the capsule as communications from the Cape came in over my headset. All the communications between the crew and mission control were timed such that the animated astronauts next to me would move their mouths in time to their actual communications. I was able to look out the window and see the curvature of the Earth once we broke through the atmosphere and the astronauts rumbled in their seats from the rough ride of the Saturn V rocket. All the gauges in front of me were running in real time and I was able to view speed, distance, and roll in realtime. It's one thing to read or watch a video of these types of events but to be <b>truly</b> immersed in it as it is happening was absolutely amazing. </div>
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The next chapter I jumped into was the actual landing on the moon. Once that chapter loaded, I was inside the lunar module with Neil Armstrong. Again, looking around the module was breathtaking as I was truly able to understand just how cramped it was and what these astronauts had to endure. Once again, all the gauges and alarms (yes they did encounter master alarms during landing) all react in real time. You are also able to listen to all the transmissions as they happened between Armstrong and Houston control. Looking out the window you can see the lunar surface get ever closer as you're able to start your descent. Once you get close enough, lunar dust actually starts to kick up until finally you're down. You truly feel pride over what they accomplished once you hear, "The Eagle has landed!" Mr. Barbieri has already started the unit lesson on the Apollo program with 5th and 6th grades in order to prep them for their VR experience next week. I cannot wait to see and hear the student reactions when they first experience this. You can see the lunar landing experience yourself in this video I captured.</div>
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<center style="text-align: left;"> </center><center style="text-align: left;">I want to be able to include as many subjects as possible since this device costs what it does. Another app we just purchased yesterday is <a href="http://www.tiltbrush.com/" target="_blank">Tilt Brush</a>. While we haven't had too much time with this app, our art teacher is teaming with ideas and was blown away during her demo time yesterday. </center><center style="text-align: left;"> </center>
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<img alt="Image result for tilt brush" height="225" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TckqNdrdbgk/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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The Oculus Quest app store is still very much in its infancy having only opened 2 weeks ago. I really look forward to seeing what's available for our new school year in the fall once developers have had time to port some of their apps from the dedicated Rift headset to the Quest given some time.</div>
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One of the other reasons I took the Quest home was to test it out on my 2nd grade son. I wanted to see how he'd react, how did the headset physically fit on him, would his glasses hinder his experience, etc. I did put in the eyeglass spacer but found that he actually didn't need it. By adjusting the velcro straps it was fine enough for him. He wasn't as blown away by Apollo 11 as I was, and he also got a little scared on one chapter where it does a full scale fly around of the Saturn V rocket. He did very well in Beat Saber and really enjoyed that one. All in all it was a good experience but keep these things in mind depending on the age of your students. </div>
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One accessory that I would suggest purchasing is the <a href="https://vrcover.com/oculus-quest-accessories/" target="_blank">Oculus Cover</a>. This item will allow for easier cleaning and prevent any hygiene issues. A simple wipe down with a antibacterial wipe between uses will help prevent any issues.</div>
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<img alt="Oculus Quest Foam and Interface Basic Set" height="300" src="https://vrcover.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/DSC02333-Edit-Edit-Edit-2.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Purchasing Apps</u></span></b></div>
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One of the aspects about the Oculus environment I want to point out especially for education is how to purchase apps. In New Jersey, we're only really allowed to purchase anything via a Purchase Order. Oculus does NOT support any purchase orders so it was a real challenge to find a proper solution to purchase apps for the Quest. What we found (for now) is that we have to purchase a Visa gift card from any of our normal vendors (via purchase order) then use that card in the app store. I hope to be able to open a dialog with Oculus to see if there is a more educational friendly way to streamline purchases and possibly add a way for us to setup a private app store where managers can pre-approve apps for use. I see so many usage opportunities in education and I hope Oculus is open to helping us make that a reality.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Battery</u></span></b></div>
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Battery life was decent but not exceptional. Oculus touts battery life at 2-3 hours but that all depend on how you use the device. If you have multiple gaming sessions back to back you might see the battery life on the shorter side. Also, if you plan on casting anything that will also take up more battery. Some have come up with accessories and hacks to improve battery life but they can be <a href="http://360rumors.com/oculus-quest-battery-pack-extends-battery-life-improves-comfort/" target="_blank">cumbersome</a>. My suggestion would be to schedule a 45 minute period of usage but charge it in during the next period for use afterwards. The included USB-C cable charges fairly quickly so you won't be stuck waiting 2-3hrs for a full charge.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Sharing</span></u></b></div>
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Since we only have one device currently, what are we to do with the other students while it's in use? One way we're able to share the experience is through casting. The Oculus includes built-in Chromecast support however it is very much in beta still. Through the Oculus app you can cast what the person is seeing to your phone. It works pretty well with only minimal lag. I purchased a Chromecast Ultra to use with our flat panels here but after a day of testing realized it was not going to work. For some reason, the Chromecast will not accept a signal from the Quest. After over an hour on the phone with our networking vendor, it is not the result of any sort of network block or restriction. I am able to cast from my phone to the Chromecast without issue and also can cast from the Quest to my phone. I just cannot cast from the Quest to the Chromecast. My solution for now is to hook up my phone to an HDMI connection on the panel in order to get the signal on there.</div>
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If you're interested in taking screenshots or videos of your experiences, I'm happy to report that it is a very easy process. You can record video or take snapshots at any time by selecting the sharing tab inside the Oculus menu from the headset. There you can select either a screenshot or video. You have a few seconds to jump back into your app before a screenshot is taken. Since the Oculus is a Facebook owned company, Facebook sharing is natively available from within the headset. Facebook is blocked here, so I just hooked up the USB-C cable to my PC and Windows instantly picked up the headset. You have to put the headset back on for a second to allow permission for the PC to access the internal storage. Once you do, a media device appears in Windows in which you can browse the internal storage of the Quest. I was able to export all the screenshots and videos you've seen here via this method. If you do not have a USB-C capable device in your school, you can order <a href="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Degree-Charging-Charger-Samsung/dp/B07G6VSP9S/" target="_blank">this</a> cable to connect it to a standard USB port.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLsnbYjIM1rq5Q4XTTtyaSIZ8v-R5jJ-twwtWaI6bmxwq5ySqbp3amK850nICSmKuj4fGq2SXIzv632yeBEz2tncAwR-XXobzCq7eDrvItd1tRejg7Ly2l4La7yo8HFEm2dDiKnl3b8Q/s1440/9431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLsnbYjIM1rq5Q4XTTtyaSIZ8v-R5jJ-twwtWaI6bmxwq5ySqbp3amK850nICSmKuj4fGq2SXIzv632yeBEz2tncAwR-XXobzCq7eDrvItd1tRejg7Ly2l4La7yo8HFEm2dDiKnl3b8Q/w640-h640/9431.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HduBG9-Pu1w/XPfaPNqlzQI/AAAAAAAADBo/y5qduDOykjk9CPj41o8kX7UHE7YvVIbLACLcBGAs/s1600/VR%2Bmenu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Conclusion</u></b></span></div>
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Overall even with our limited testing, the Quest has been a huge hit here. Teachers have been getting competitive with Beat Saber scores and we've had a few meetings about potential lessons to introduce the Quest. Some sharing and purchasing issues aside, I think this device has huge upsides in the classroom and costs considerably less than devices such as the ZSpace. If you're administration is open to the idea I would not hesitate to recommend the Quest for your classroom!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-33452387507275230362019-03-27T14:13:00.005-04:002021-07-31T16:18:23.768-04:00A Minecraft Revolution and Community DevelopmentIn the Spring of 2018, I met with our fifth grade teachers to discuss various lessons they were working on. When they mentioned the American Revolution, I thought that would be perfect for use in <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/" target="_blank">Minecraft Education Edition</a>. They liked the idea and we spent some time spinning ideas on how to best craft a project around their lesson. One of the ideas that I threw out was to create a virtual museum dedicated to the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/american-revolution-history" target="_blank">American Revolution</a>. Students would be grouped in pairs of two and given a 10x10 area to depict a visual representation of a specific event in the revolution. Due to many end of the year activities and testing (yay) we did not get to the project before school let out for the summer. However, since these teachers had a looping class they would then have the same students in sixth grade. We were able to pick back up with the project in October once things calmed down from the start of the year.<br />
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The first step in creating this project was to teach the students about the revolution. Once the teachers felt students were ready, then we would start the Minecraft portion. Students had to begin their research before even stepping foot in the computer lab and working within Minecraft. This took some time, and students did not start the Minecraft portion until late October. The two teachers then came to the lab with their students on different days. The Minecraft world was started by me where I carved out areas for the students to work in. I enlisted the help of my 7 year-old son at home to help me begin the template. We created 10x10 squares that were connected via a walkway which wove its way through the 18 different plots. Mrs. Evans and Mr. Cerullo broke up their student groups into pre-revolutionary and revolutionary events. The museum tour began in an atrium which led to the pre-revolutionary wing.<br />
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Students worked off and on for a month to create a fully immersive and interactive museum that anyone can walk through. Students were also able to easily some of their errors when walking through the museum and reading the many signs/information boards throughout the museum. Some students even got extra creative during the process. One of our students designed a horizontal redstone firework launcher to mimic the British troops firing on the colonists during the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-massacre" target="_blank">Boston Massacre</a>. Below are some of the finished scenes in our museum.</div>
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At the same time this project was going on, I was also working with second grade teachers on a community project. These students were learning about what makes up a community and jobs within the community. I again started them off with a template with building plots for the groups of students.<br />
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These students researched the various jobs within a town and which services are essential for a community. Groups designed schools, firehouses, police stations, etc within their own community. For this project, each class was responsible for their own Minecraft community world. All structures in the world were completely student designed and placed. The teachers working on this project were amazed with the results and how well their students excelled with this project.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-26441124036314763682017-06-08T11:08:00.004-04:002021-07-31T16:03:45.173-04:00The Design Process: From Blueprints to Finished Product<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal;">I was fortunate enough to attend a <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/" target="_blank">Minecraft: Education Edition</a> training seminar this past October. I spent three days learning the ins and outs of teaching educators the best ways to implement Minecraft in their classroom. It was during this training that I had an idea. Our school had just passed a referendum that renovate our school. This would be the first major renovation to our school in almost 25 years. This renovation includes a new parking lot, new playground, new main entrance, Main Office, Media Center, Computer Lab, and the addition of a STEAM Lab. I thought it would be amazing to put our students to work re-creating our school in Minecraft.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I have seen <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QmOARCj8_Q" target="_blank">many</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvQEOlslvJQ" target="_blank">videos</a> on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzwjarjYx3E" target="_blank">Youtube</a> about students creating their current school in Minecraft. I wanted to take it a step further and have our students create what our school will look like once the renovation of our school is complete. I</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> partnered up with a Trish Evans, a teacher 6th grade teacher in our school, and we got to work. </span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">At first, I wasn't sure just what I was allowed to share. Students worked off drawings I had of the building that were projected onto a board at the front of the room. It was difficult to keep it from being seen at the door by other teachers so that didn't last very long. One of the difficulties we faced early on was that I only had measurements from the architect for sections of the building that were being renovated. This meant that for two of the three floors of our interior and 90% of the exterior had to be measured manually. We sent students out in small groups for months to measure every inch of the school. Whenever someone asked the students would just respond that they were working on a geometry project. Luckily after about a month, I met with the architects and explained what we were doing. We were able to then use the plans and share them in class with students. This made (the renovated spaces) MUCH easier to work on.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">If you aren't familiar with Minecraft, each block in game is 1 meter cubed. This meant that every single measurement we had of the school would need to be converted from imperial to metric. This led to a number of challenges that I'll get into later. Before students were able to even get in-game, they had to work on their section converting the measurements. All measurements were checked and re-checked by Mrs. Evans, their teacher.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the first challenges that students faced was converting all the measurements from Imperial to Metric. As mentioned before all blocks in the game are 1 m</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">3</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Once students learned that 1 meter equals approximately 3.28 feet, they got to work. This conversion then introduced a new challenge. </span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversions didn’t always line up correctly within the real world to Minecraft. There were many instances where an office or other part of the building would look MUCH smaller in Minecraft than in the real world due to the differences in measurements. There were a few instances where we took artistic license in order to make a space look more like its real world counterpart. These instances were very few though. This balance between the “look” of the real world in conjunction with the measurements within the game led to our next big challenge.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We decided to start with the exterior of the building, however we quickly learned that in order to keep the measurements as close in Minecraft as they were in the real world we decided the interior wouldn’t fit. If the measurements wound up being a few inches or even a foot smaller/larger in game than they were in the real world it was ok. When looking at a small section of the building, a few feet or inches wouldn’t visually throw things off too much. However, when you expand that small section to the entirety of the building then those individual instances of measurement inconsistencies started to add up. What I have seen others do for something like this is to scale up. Things in the game would be much larger but taken as a whole everything looked normal. “You” the character are 2m in height or just over 6.5’ tall. When you scale things up, it’d look like walking around the giant's house in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ but overall the scale was proportionate. For our project we wanted everything to be as 1:1 as possible. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We decided to do TWO buildings. One of the exterior, and one of the interior. These two buildings are contained within the same world, but in different places. This led to another challenge.
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">How would a person taking a tour of the school walk from the outside to the inside? Fortunately for us the answer finally came on 5/22. Just two days before we were set to unveil this massive project to our school. The latest update to Minecraft: EE allowed the use of command blocks. Through command blocks, I was able to script a way that once you set foot on a certain block you would instantly be teleported to the other section of the building. It was as seamless a transition as we could have hoped.</span>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The other major challenge we faced was keeping the secret of the project. We really wanted this project to blow people away so we kept the secret of what we were working on for 6 months! Only three staff members in our building knew what we were doing. Myself, Mrs. Evans (the teacher of the class doing the project), and our building supervisor. Having him on board early was extremely helpful. He was able to get us measurements that weren’t on the blueprints such as heights of ceilings that would have been too dangerous for students to measure. Our own administrators including our Principal and Superintendent had no idea until we showed the entire school. I commend the students for being able to keep a secret like this from their own peers for so long. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Minecraft: EE works only on Windows 10 or MacOS 10.11+ devices. Our school is a Google Suite for Education school, so students have Chromebooks. This led to us having to work entirely on this project in our Mac computer lab. Since we were using the computer lab, Mrs. Evans had to book a LOT of time in the lab which could have raised many suspicions. Lucky for her she decided to not only work on this project but another history project that she decided to utilize Minecraft for. When anyone walked into the lab, students had to flip Minecraft over to a different world and hide architectural blueprints. Unfortunately interruptions like this led to a few delays.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Each session we worked, I would export the Minecraft world in order to have a running list of backups. So if there were ever issues we could roll back to the prior day and start again without too much loss of work. However, two days before the project was to be finished students worked for two hours finishing a large portion of the exterior and I thought I had saved it, but unfortunately did not. When I exported the world and started to work on the teleportation system, I loaded the wrong world and overwrote what had been done earlier that day. I felt horrible, but the students gave me a good ribbing for it.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I couldn't be prouder for what our students accomplished. Some of them had never used Minecraft before! What they were able to build, and more importantly accurately depict was nothing short of amazing. I had students wanting to stay before school, during lunch, and during recess to keep working. I would also like to thank Mrs. Evans for allowing her class to even attempt this project. Once I asked for volunteers, she was the first to raise her hand. The amount of planning she put in was astounding. Below is our finished product, and also some side by side comparison shots.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-64996032118404311622016-12-14T11:39:00.004-05:002018-11-06T13:33:54.440-05:00Christmas Traditions through SkypeLast year, I had the idea of having our school do a Christmas card exchange via Skype with other classes around the world. Unfortunately, I started the program too close to Christmas and it was not successful. This year, I started the registrations in late October. I was blown away by the response to my lesson that was posted on the <a href="https://education.microsoft.com/Story/SkypeLesson?token=6b6b9" target="_blank">Microsoft Educator Community</a>. I had almost 100 classes register to participate from all over the world!<br />
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Since I had more time to develop the lesson, I included a more rounded experience for all. What started as a project for our students grew too large from such an overwhelming response, that I opened it up to other schools in the US. I created a form that allowed me to pair up classes in similar grades (one from the US and the partner from a non-US school). Classes were tasked with creating physical Christmas cards and then sent to their partner school. Once the classes received the cards, they would have a Skype call to discuss what Christmas traditions they have in their respective countries. I had no idea what to expect from this project but thought it worthwhile for our students (and subsequently) and other students to learn about how the rest of the world celebrates Christmas or even another end of the year holiday. Below are some of the wonderful social media reactions from some of our participants.<br />
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I am delighted that not only did students learn about holiday traditions but some have formed long term partnerships due to this lesson. Please follow the hashtag #skypetraditions to see more exchanges with students.<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Skypetraditions?src=hash">#Skypetraditions</a> Today our first Skype in the classroom lesson from Barcikowo, Poland with Nigeria has been completed-it was awesome <a href="https://t.co/Gxpx2mnPV2">pic.twitter.com/Gxpx2mnPV2</a></div>
— Ewa Lewandowska (@anglica1975) <a href="https://twitter.com/anglica1975/status/806931327345823744">December 8, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Christmas cards packed and ready to be sent tomorrow <a href="https://twitter.com/jstam4">@jstam4</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/skypetraditions?src=hash">#skypetraditions</a> <a href="https://t.co/xHCrrr8kfR">pic.twitter.com/xHCrrr8kfR</a></div>
— Ana Živković (@teacherka) <a href="https://twitter.com/teacherka/status/806971998865920000">December 8, 2016</a></blockquote>
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We were DELIGHTED to receive our Christmas Cards from new friends in <a href="https://twitter.com/ClassC_Learners">@ClassC_Learners</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TES_NJ">@TES_NJ</a>. They are STUNNING! Thank you all! <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw">@kcalderw</a> <a href="https://t.co/wecrtIBqr4">pic.twitter.com/wecrtIBqr4</a></div>
— Mr. Russell's Class (@MrRussellsClass) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrRussellsClass/status/809081955635658757">December 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BN9kI2AA_pZ/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">How do we celebrate Christmas? #skypetraditions</a></div>
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A video posted by Tuckerton Elementary School (@tes_nj) on <time datetime="2016-12-13T15:13:49+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Dec 13, 2016 at 7:13am PST</time></div>
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A video posted by Tuckerton Elementary School (@tes_nj) on <time datetime="2016-12-07T15:42:41+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Dec 7, 2016 at 7:42am PST</time></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-91297091438967751202016-06-13T15:22:00.000-04:002016-06-14T20:15:08.398-04:00RIP iPad 2 and 3The <a href="https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/" target="_blank">WWDC</a> just wrapped and the one topic I was interested in most to see was the unveiling of iOS 10. I was not so much interested in what features would be added (and <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11923918/apple-voicemail-transcription-wwdc-2016" target="_blank">there</a> are a few <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11922626/apple-photos-update-announced-new-features-wwdc-2016" target="_blank">good</a> ones), but more so for what devices would be supported. I'm sure a lot of schools are in the same situation we are with regards to the iPad craze a few years ago. We jumped on board with these amazing learning devices but now those of us who were able to get in somewhat early will now be forced to refresh sooner than expected. Announced today, the iPad 2 and 3 are no longer supported. Obviously this doesn't mean our devices simply stop working but we will start to see app updates diminish as developers require iOS 10.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jake_k" target="_blank">@jake_k</a></td></tr>
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I had anticipated the iPad 2 being phased out for support but was shocked the 3rd generation iPad is also on the chopping block. This now eliminates all the iPads we have in our building. Understandable decision by Apple but costly for us.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-26166645420033507412016-06-08T12:19:00.001-04:002016-06-08T20:45:08.831-04:00The Littlest PC That CouldWhile I was over in London at the <a href="http://www.bettshow.com/" target="_blank">Bett conference</a>, I started looking at the devices in the Microsoft booth. I noticed a very small device that was about half the thickness of a paperback book. It was running Windows 10. It's called the <a href="http://www.kangaroo.cc/" target="_blank">Kangaroo</a> and is manufactured by InFocus. At first I thought it was running a stripped down version of Windows 10 but after using the device found it was running the full Windows 10 Home version. The same you'd find on any home desktop. I also noticed the insane price of just $99 USD for the device! So what are these devices, what can they do, and what do they come with? <b>Full disclosure</b>: The Kangaroo and Kangaroo Pro were purchased by my school. The Kangaraoo+ was supplied by Kangaroo for review. Now let's take a look.<br />
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<b>Kangaroo (basic hardware)</b><br />
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The Kangaroo comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB EMMC internal storage. It also comes pre-loaded with Windows 10 Home edition. After booting up the device you'll find that with a little bloat you're left with 8-9 GB of free storage. If you plan on using this system as a kiosk or web only device you needn't worry about the internal storage. If you find you need more internal storage you can use one of the USB ports along with flash memory and set Windows to use that as the default save location. The hardware comes with a microSD card reader, microUSB port, 2 USB ports (1 2.0 and 1 3.0 port), HDMI port, as well as a fingerprint reader. We had no use for the fingerprint reader or the microSD port so I have not tested their functionality. Lastly, the unit includes 802.11AC wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.<br />
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Kangaroo also includes an interesting feature that allows you to control the PC from your iPad. You must download the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oslinx-windows-monitor/id1038351231?mt=8" target="_blank">OSLinx</a> app from the app store then connect the iPad to the Kangaroo via the iPad's USB cable. You can either use tap to select or show the mouse cursor. I tested via USB on my iPad 3 and found the performance to be slow. I was able to open programs and display just as I would on a PC albeit slower. The app is free but if you want wifi capabilities or bluetooth keyboard support you'll need to do an in-app purchase of $3.99 for each feature. I find that the free app <a href="http://www.teamviewer.com/" target="_blank">Teamviewer</a> does a much better job and also performs much smoother than OSLinx.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windows 10 on my iPad!</td></tr>
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At our school I decided to use the base unit as part of our staff check-in system. The Kangaroo was set up along with a USB barcode reader to scan staff badges as they enter or exit the building. Since our system is web based, I only needed a browser and nothing else. This system was perfect for this task and the cost was very affordable to allow us to do it. We did not need to spend a few hundred dollars on a tablet to do the same web-only work.<br />
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Pros<br />
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<ul>
<li>Low starting price</li>
<li>Windows 10 Home included</li>
<li>Fantastic for web-only work</li>
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Cons<br />
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<ul>
<li>2 USB ports</li>
<li>Ports are too close together</li>
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<b>Kangaroo+ (mid-range use)</b><br />
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The Kangaroo+ is a step up from the Kangaroo base model in terms of RAM and internal storage. Both have been doubled in this case you get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. This bump in hardware specs was just enough to allow me to deploy this unit as a computer connected to our Promethean Board in the media center. Before placing this unit in the media center, we had to make a laptop available to hook to the mobile board. This meant utilizing someone else's machine and not allowing them to work. We usually have presentations, Skype sessions, or instruction in this space and the Kangaroo+ is plenty capable to do all of this with ease. I again ran into the issue of not enough USB ports however. We have a wireless kb/mouse combo and the USB cable for the Promethean board. This left us with no open ports if a presenter comes in with a presentation on a USB thumb drive. I used a non-powered USB hub to address this issue. Still, a side USB port would be a great option. One of the great features of the Kangaroo+ is how light weight it is. I was able to velcro the unit to the back of our Promethean board. This allowed me to keep the wires neat and also secure to the board without falling.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Our Kangaroo+ mounted on our mobile Promethean board.</span></td></tr>
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Pros<br />
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<ul>
<li>Increased RAM (4GB)</li>
<li>Increased internal storage (64GB)</li>
<li>No pre-installed O/S allows for customization</li>
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Cons<br />
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<ul>
<li>If you want Windows you'll need to purchase a license adding another $120 to the price</li>
</ul>
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<b>Kangaroo Pro (power users)</b><br />
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The Kangaroo Pro addresses the lack of ports issue by adding a secondary dock that the hardware slips right into. This beefs up the usage considerably since it adds a network port, VGA connection, annother USB port, as well as a headphone jack. The main functionality of the dock is to allow the installation of a 2.5" HDD/SSD to really maximize your internal storage needs. The ability to add massive amounts of internal storage by way of an SSD or HDD allows this Kangaroo variant to be used nicely as a media center or a networked computer where a network user's documents are copied locally.<br />
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The main problem with the Kangaroo Pro, is that it includes the basic Kangaroo unit with the dock. This means you're back to having just 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The included dock allows you to easily address the internal storage issue, but the low amount of RAM is an issue that cannot be remedied. I would have liked to have seen the Kangaroo+ hardware included with the Pro dock.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Kangaroo inside the Pro dock. A 128GB SSD is installed inside the dock.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A better look at the added ports on the Kangaroo Pro dock.</td></tr>
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Pros<br />
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<ul>
<li>Addition of a VGA, network, and USB port</li>
<li>Dock offers the ability to add a Solid State Drive</li>
<li>Windows 10 Home Included</li>
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Cons<br />
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<ul>
<li>The Kangaroo PC included is the base hardware not the upgraded + model.</li>
<li>Limited RAM</li>
</ul>
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Even with some of the limitations, I would recommend these units for classroom or school usage. As I stated, I would like to see at least one more USB port on the base unit and the more robust Kangaroo+ hardware included with the Pro dock. I also encountered HDMI issues on each variant where the screen would not display but a reboot took care of that. These units are plenty powerful enough for light usage and work well within a classroom setting. The most amazing part of these units is their portability. There is a rechargeable battery included within the unit which makes this PC able to go anywhere. Kangaroo states a 4 hour battery life with casual usage. Things are just getting started for Kangaroo and I'm excited to see what they have planned for the future.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-83900214657858760292015-11-16T12:44:00.001-05:002016-02-22T08:41:52.674-05:00Social Skills with MariaThis past summer, I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-<a href="http://www.isteconference.org/" target="_blank">ISTE</a> workshop with fellow Skype Master Teachers. Towards the end of this workshop, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/msoskil" target="_blank">Mike Soskil</a> (a SMT from Pennsylvania) and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mrs_smoke" target="_blank">Dyane Smokorowski</a> (a SMT from Kansas) introduced us to their friend Maria. When the Skype call was connected and I heard this little girl's voice, I was confused as to what was going on. Up on the screen a small animated girl waved hello to us. I just thought "oh wow" this is kind of neat. However, then she started to talk to us and call us by our names. I was VERY intrigued at this point. We started to talk about different topics as if we were talking to a real 1st grader. It was truly amazing. Then at the end of the call she had us all participating in a game of "Maria Says." Every person in the room (all adults) were laughing and enjoying themselves a lot!<br />
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Maria is from <a href="http://www.wondergrovelearn.com/" target="_blank">Wondergrove</a>, and is a learning platform for preschoolers through second grade. The site includes hundreds of videos and lessons on social and life skills. Some of the topics covered include: Safety, health and science, nutrition, and school readiness. There are a lot more topics that are covered and each topic has videos with the characters from Wondergrove in them. These characters are around the same age as your students and really help put the content lessons on their level. These videos show the student characters interacting amongst each other in a fictional classroom setting.<br />
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Once I saw Maria in action, I had to get this tool for my own teachers. I immediately e-mailed my K-2 teachers to show them the link. I had a discussion with our principal about getting each teacher in those grades a subscription for the classroom. Once he saw the content of the videos, lesson plans available, offered in Spanish and English, plus each lesson is <a href="http://www.wondergrovelearn.com/directory/?language=english" target="_blank">common core aligned</a> it was a no-brainer.<br />
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My first demo of the product was at our back to school faculty meeting before the students came back. I gave little bits of information to Wondergrove about my staff. Once we started talking, she was picking out certain teachers and asking them about their summer with all the details I had supplied. They were surprised and also loved it. Our teachers have been using Wondergrove now for the last two months and it has been an overwhelming success. Students are engaged with the lessons and Maria will even Skype into the classroom to talk to the students! Recently I visited our preschool classroom to watch a Skype call with actual students for the first time. This call was right before Halloween and included safety tips.<br />
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The staff at Wondergrove have been a joy to work with and they truly care about their product and our feedback. It has been a great relationship so far and we look forward to using it for the rest of the school year. Our preschool teacher Mrs. Cirulli had this to say about it after the first few months, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My students love Maria and her friends!! The lessons are short and to the point but hold my students attention. This learning platform is one of the best!! I have been able to utilize the videos and Skype calls to effectively teach different content to my students in a manner that they enjoy and look forward to. My students enjoy listening to Maria and her friends explain different concepts about health, social rules, holidays etc.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"</span></span><br />
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If you'd like to test out the service sign up for their <a href="https://education.microsoft.com/ConnectWithOthers/thanksgiving" target="_blank">Thanksgiving lesson</a> which includes a chat with Maria, plus a two week trial of the service.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-66468375812759735402015-07-03T19:05:00.002-04:002015-07-21T11:07:24.760-04:00ISTE 2015 Reflections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was now my 5th time at ISTE and it still does not disappoint. It's also fitting that this year's ISTE was back in Philadelphia, not only is it just an hour from my home but this is where it all started for me in 2011.<br />
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<u><b>Chance Encounter</b></u><br />
In 2011, I was working at a local University and did not have much direction in my career. At the time, I was working as a telephone operator. A job I had taken just to get my "foot in the door" and also to start getting health benefits. An e-mail went out to all staff letting us know about a conference called ISTE. I had never heard of it, but it intrigued me. I knew I wanted to go into a computer support field, so the thought of checking out what was going on in the realm of educational technology sounded interesting. I signed up not knowing what I was getting into. After sitting in the Newbie Lounge (we need to bring that back) after a long first day, I happened to see <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wkingbg" target="_blank">William King</a> who I was following on Twitter. We started the conversation as many do at ISTE, "Hey I follow you on Twitter." Not long after we started to talk, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/plnaugle" target="_blank">Paula Naugle</a> joined us. I had never met Paula but it was her tutelage about Twitter during that meeting that changed my career. From that time on, no longer was I just stalking celebrities on Twitter and not engaging my community. I was able to see what educators were sharing and all the wonderful buzz that was created during that conference. It was infectious, and after that I started tweeting "professionally". From those first connections, other connections started to emerge and four years later I was back in Philly at ISTE although this time I was finishing my second year as an Elementary Technology Coordinator and my 5th semester as an adjunct professor. What a difference a few years can make!<br />
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<b><u>Twitter Chats:</u></b><br />
I left my house at 6 am to arrive in Philly just after 7. I wanted to participate in #satchat with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wkrakower" target="_blank">Billy Krakower</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/scottrrocco" target="_blank">Scott Rocco</a>, and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/bradmcurrie" target="_blank">Brad Currie</a>. That day, they had a special guest in <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cybraryman1" target="_blank">Jerry Blumengarten</a>. Immediate following #satchat, I setup to co-moderate #nt2t chat which is a wonderful Twitter chat that helps teachers who are new to twitter get started and make new connections. Normally there is no video feed but this being ISTE, I setup a live video stream in addition to our normal Twitter-based chat. It gets a little hectic but was a lot of fun. Billy stayed on after satchat and we were also joined by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/s_bearden" target="_blank">Susan Bearden</a>. You can find our video stream <a href="https://youtu.be/csVyP1UCgZc?t=8m35s" target="_blank">here</a>. The rest of my day was spent with my wonderful <a href="https://education.skype.com/" target="_blank">Skype Classroom</a> colleagues in training. I learned of a <a href="https://vimeo.com/131717569" target="_blank">wonderful tool</a> called Wondergrove, that I think all Pre-K - 2nd grade teachers should take a look at. We were able to see a live demo and it had every teacher in that room smiling from ear to ear. Susan Bearden and I did a session the final day of ISTE on how to leverage Twitter chats for professional development.<br />
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<b><u>Highlights:</u></b><br />
Sunday was my big day. For the past several years, I have been running <a href="http://www.teachmeetnj.com/" target="_blank">TeachMeetNJ</a>. After learning about <a href="http://tmiste.wikispaces.com/TMISTE+Home+Page" target="_blank">TeachMeets</a> from Will King back in 2011, I decided to bring the format to South Jersey. After collaborating with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mesterman" target="_blank">Matt Esterman</a> (TeachMeet Sydney) Allen Martin (TeachMeet Kentucky), and Will King (TeachMeet Kentucky) we decided to do TeachMeet ISTE. This was a large undertaking as most in the US have never heard of a TeachMeet (they are huge over in the UK and Australia). This was a free event prior to the start of ISTE, and we filled registration in just a few weeks! Sessions were a mix of the US version (20 minutes) and the traditional UK/AU format (2 and 7 minutes). During the day we had over 100 people attend and almost 1k tweets on our #tmiste15 hashtag. It was a huge success and we really look forward to doing it again next year.<br />
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Right after finishing up with TeachMeet ISTE, I was approached by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wfryer" target="_blank">Wesley Fryer</a> for an <a href="https://t.co/mZCospYHKw" target="_blank">interview</a>. It was very impromptu but great to get the word out. Immediately after that was the opening keynote with featured speaker <a href="https://twitter.com/soledadobrien" target="_blank">Soledad O'Brien</a>. I was not going to attend the keynote at first since I was exhausted but decided at the very last minute to join some colleagues. Boy am I glad I did! With just a few minutes left in her speech, she called a few volunteers on stage to don <a href="https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/" target="_blank">Google Cardboard</a> and demonstrate to the audience what it was like. I bolted to the stage for a prime spot!</div>
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I wasn't able to make it to too many sessions but the one I enjoyed the most was <a href="http://www.twitter.com/hikarikishi" target="_blank">Shane Asselstine's</a> <span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14.6666666666667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Building a Learning Community with Minecraft." You can find his complete presentation <a href="https://goo.gl/7kvoT0" target="_blank">here</a>. I setup a Minecraft server in our school and have used it for a few lessons this year but his presentation on using Minecraft to form a community for your students was truly inspiring. I'm glad I was finally able to meet Shane in person. We have communicated off and on throughout the school year via Twitter. I always enjoy meeting my PLN face to face for the first time.</span></span>
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A few times at ISTE, I represented <a href="http://education.skype.com/" target="_blank">Skype in the Classroom</a> and volunteered in the Microsoft booth. It's something I love doing and also sharing the power of Skype with other teachers. I'm also very fortunate to be surrounded by a collection of amazing educators who are also in the Skype Master Teacher program with me. During our Saturday training, one of <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ikegode" target="_blank">our teachers</a> could not attend due to an unfortunate visa issue. We were still able to have him join us via Skype to share in our celebration of what he has accomplished with his students. </div>
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The last morning of ISTE, I was honored to be chosen to give a short talk about education in an interview from the Microsoft booth. I loved sharing all that I've learned these past four years.</div>
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<b><u>Vendors:</u></b></div>
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I always try and make it to the vendor hall. You'd think we've seen it all at this point but each year I'm amazed by something. This year it was the <a href="http://the3doodler.com/" target="_blank">3Doodler</a>. This is complete 3D printing in a pen for under $100USD! </div>
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<b><u>Connections:</u></b></div>
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Each year after I come back from ISTE, I have not only a wealth of new tools but also great new connections. I feel that new connections can be one of the most important takeaways from ISTE. Your PLN can be there to help guide, nurture, and challenge you for years to come. I feel as though ISTE is a family reunion. Coming together each year to share the joys and pains you've all had over the last year and how to break through any walls you may have. I value my PLN and their collected wisdom. Had a great time catching up with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/gericoats" target="_blank">Geri Coats</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cathleen_petty" target="_blank">Cathleen Petty</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/techyturner" target="_blank">Rodney Turner</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/michellek107" target="_blank">Michelle Baldwin</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/robynhrivnatz" target="_blank">Robyn Hrivnatz</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darcygrimesnc" target="_blank">Darcy Grimes</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jennregruth" target="_blank">Jennifer Regruth</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kwinsper" target="_blank">Karen Winsper</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/srtalisa" target="_blank">Lisa Butler</a>, and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/techteresa" target="_blank">Teresa Finegan</a>. </div>
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I was able to wrap up ISTE with both a wonderful dinner with some Aussie friends and my annual Straggler's Breakfast for those who are still around the morning after ISTE. Good times, great company, and more learning!</div>
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<b><u>Personal:</u></b></div>
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One of the things that bummed me the most about this week was not being able to share it with my wife. She is also an amazing educator but stayed home with our newborn twin daughters. </div>
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Finally, I was able to share this week with a special ISTE "newbie." <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AppleLouChi" target="_blank">Lou Appalucci</a> is a former student of mine, and was in my undergraduate course. One of the major components of my course is teaching students how to form a PLN before they graduate. He told me a few times during the week about how when he first heard we were going to be using Twitter in class, he thought it was a waste of time. He is now finishing his first year teaching Algebra. Of course he now tells the opposite story, and is now "drinking the Kool-Aid" with the rest of us. He mentioned numerous times this week about how he now sees the power and importance of a PLN and has even offered to speak to my upcoming class about it. This was his first ISTE, and I don't think he'll soon forget it.</div>
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See you all next year in Denver!!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-84960172918440248832015-04-25T08:58:00.001-04:002015-06-09T14:40:59.974-04:00Using video games to enhance learningLast week our 6th grade students were learning about Gettysburg in anticipation of their trip this week. Each year since 2002, our 6th grade takes an all-day trip to this historic battlefield to learn about that bloody day.<br />
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I'll admit that I have always had an interest in both the Civil War and WWII. I'm also an avid gamer. A few weeks ago, I came across a game called <a href="http://www.ultimategeneral.com/" target="_blank">Ultimate General</a>. This game started as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_%28video_gaming%29" target="_blank">mod</a> for the Total War game series and was so popular it evolved into a full fledged game of its own. I knew this would be a perfect learning tool for our students.<br />
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I purchased the game on <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/" target="_blank">Steam</a> then loaded it up on my <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/products/surface-pro-3" target="_blank">Surface Pro 3</a>. The Surface Pro works well with this lesson using the pen. Armed with the game and clips from the movie Gettysburg, I entered both sixth grade classes that week. As soon as students saw I had a Steam shortcut on my desktop they were immediately interested. "Woah! You have Steam?" Immediately, I had their attention. I then loaded up the game. I had chosen two specific skirmishes at Gettysburg to show them, Little Round Top which involved the 20th Maine and Pickett's Charge. It is one thing to see the battlefield in person, but when students are shown clips of professional or Hollywood reenactments it puts it into better perspective. For instance, when most students stand on top of LIttle Round Top, they'll just see a "hill." However, when I show them the clips of the Confederates trying to run UP that steep hill with full gear and bullets flying by them, it puts things into perspective. I wanted to add to that perspective by showing them this game.</center>
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I loaded up the mission for the skirmish at Little Round Top first. The one aspect I really love about this game is its visual style. The entire "battlefield" is actually a paper map. The edges of the map in the game show actual edges of a map and the table it sits on. The other MAJOR visual significance to this game is the wonderfully detailed maps with labels of locations overlaid. So now when I zoom around the map to show students different areas of engagement, they can clearly see which section of the battle this is taking place.</center>
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As soon as the mission started and troops began firing at each other, the students were "oohing and ahhing." Being from NJ, I chose the Union side. Now, I didn't just load this up to show them little digital soldiers firing each other. I started up the mission and let it play out for a few minutes, and students watched as brigades started to move into formation and the Confederates started to advance. While the troops on screen moved around, myself and the primary teacher were explaining what was happening and why. We started to ask students questions about the terrain and troop movements. "Why would the Round Tops be important?" "Why would advancing your entire brigade here be a good or bad idea?" Another great feature of this game is by hitting the M key on the keyboard, I can turn on the elevation display. This allows students to see that the battlefield was not all flat and how difficult it was to move from one area of town to the other quickly.</div>
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We also discussed tactics of troops and why they would want to move to certain areas, and what would happen. Another unique feature of this game which actually lends itself nicely to the touch feature of the Surface is movement. In most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_strategy" target="_blank">RTS</a> games, you need to move units in a straight line however we all know that is not how war is fought nor how troops move in real life. Ultimate General is the first game (to my knowledge) that lets you draw how you'd like your troops to move. So now for the first time you can truly flank an enemy. When clicking on individual brigades, you can also see their "line of sight", shown below by the dark and light patches on the map. As you click on different brigades sections of the map will darken based on what those troops can actually physically see.</div>
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This game truly immersed our students and I was told by the teachers who took the students on the trip that they were more engaged while there and could answer more questions than ever before. The game and movie clips only played a small part in that increased immersiveness but I believe that any increase is definitely worth exploring.</div>
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This game is also available for the iPad and is currently 50% off for PC and Mac via <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/306660/?snr=1_5_1100__1100" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-58345864559444570992015-04-05T13:07:00.000-04:002015-04-09T12:26:51.670-04:00Livestreaming your life[UPDATE] Since I first posted this, Twitter has <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/8/8373187/twitter-periscope-follower-mode-troll-protection" target="_blank">swiftly updated</a> the app with some new privacy features. You can now broadcast and only your followers can comment.<br />
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The past few weeks have seen the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/race-between-meerkat-and-periscope-is-close-2015-4" target="_blank">meteoric rise</a> of livestreaming apps <a href="https://www.periscope.tv/" target="_blank">Periscope</a> and <a href="http://meerkatapp.co/" target="_blank">Meerkat</a>. Both apps allow the user to instantly turn their smartphone camera into an instant live broadcast which is then available to view for anyone using the app. Currently on Periscope there is no way to keep videos private or targeted to select individuals. There is also a chat screen which overlays the broadcast in which any of the viewers can comment on. These comments as you can probably guess can get out of hand quickly. Meerkat has a bit more privacy control.<br />
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In only 24 hours of testing out the app, I have seen some really interesting and also some very frightening broadcasts. I was able to watch this morning with my son as fellow educator <a href="https://twitter.com/teachintechgal" target="_blank">Katrina Keene</a> broadcasted live from her vacation at Disney World. My son and I also watched a dairy farmer herd his cows from his farm in Alabama. Even big companies and networks are jumping on board quickly. You can easily find a number of news outlets around the US broadcasting live behind the scenes. The members of Good Morning America were chatting with their viewers this morning before their Easter broadcast.<br />
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With the debut of any new technology access there will always be those who only think of themselves or flat out break the rules. There have already been stories about those who are using Meerkat and Periscope to broadcast video live from <a href="http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/twitter-periscope-meerkat-movie-theater-livestream-furious-7-1201466367/" target="_blank">movie theaters</a> which is a copyright catastrophe. Last night while looking at various broadcasts going on, I stumbled across one that simply said "Vegas." While I thought it was going to be someone walking around the Las Vegas strip recording the sights, it turned out to be of an older babysitter or au pair talking to her many viewers while drinking. The children were in the background watching a movie but the broadcaster panned the camera over to them a few times. What bothered me the most about this (besides the drinking while watching children) was how casual our society has become about opening up not only themselves to the world but also broadcasting others without any consent. Looking at the list of available broadcasts you'll see a number of them occurring in <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-live-streaming-app-meerkat-prompts-big-privacy-concerns/" target="_blank">public spaces</a>. People are broadcasting live all over the world now from anywhere they feel necessary. I am not one to stick my head in the sand and pretend things don't exist, but in this instance perhaps back to the drawing board is more appropriate. Even as a technology coordinator who lives and breathes all manner of tech, this is a new frightening reality.<br />
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As a parent I try very hard not to post photos or videos of my son on open networks. He has no idea why he would be posted let alone what types of issues could arise from doing so. These new types of apps scare me mostly as a parent (and uncle) at the negative possibilities and what we as a society deem appropriate anymore. I have no doubt as with any technology that there will be some amazing uses for Meerkat or Periscope in the education sphere, and I hope to see them. I also wish that on the flip side, we as a society wake up to the fact that not every waking moment needs to be published.<br />
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[UPDATE] Since I first posted this, Twitter has swiftly updated the app with some new privacy features. You can now broadcast and only your followers can comment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-58042134504148564442014-12-23T20:11:00.002-05:002014-12-23T20:39:50.527-05:00The Hour of CodeThe week of December 8th-14th was <a href="http://csedweek.org/" target="_blank">Computer Science Education Week</a>. One of the more popular lessons that has arisen out of that week is the "Hour of Code." The purpose of this lesson is to expose students to computer programming for just an hour. The activities around the Hour of Code are varied with the ultimate goal to expose students to coding in such a way so they're not just staring at lines of code on a screen but interacting with an environment and creating code on the backend. To introduce what coding really is to our students, I have a short but effective demonstration. I first loaded up our school website, and asked them "You've seen this page 100x before right?" and of course I get back all "Yes!" Then I switch the display to page source to show them what the "website REALLY looks like." Once I show them the hundreds of lines of code that just make up our homepage I get a lot of "wow" and "oh my gosh" responses. I tell them that each line of code is a set of instructions that tell the website what picture to load, what font color, or even where a link will take you when you click on it.<br />
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I chose to expose our school to coding for the first time this year during this week and chose two activities to use. For Kindergarten through 3rd grade we used <a href="https://www.kodable.com/" target="_blank">Kodable</a>. Kodable is a fantastic way to start your students off in a fun and stress free way. Students are introduced to the Fuzz Family and the goal is to get your fuzz from one side of the screen to the other while collecting all the coins. Sounds simple right? Well the first few levels are easy and designed that way as an introduction. Later levels introduce some very tricky paths and situations for the fuzzes to overcome. What students don't realize is that they are learning the basics of coding. The instructions for the fuzzes are lines of code that tell him/her how to proceed. Students learn the basics of sequencing, loops, and conditions. All Kodable lessons are Common Core aligned and there are lessons available from their site to help you start your coding journey. There's even offline activities for those without computers or as a starting block for younger coders. Kodable Teacher (free) allows you to create 1 class with 25 individual student profiles, all three learning guides, and all the basic concepts. If you need more classes or would like access to more advanced concepts, there is a subscription available.<br />
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For my grade 4-6 students, I used <a href="http://code.org/">Code.org</a> to introduce them to coding. For the hour of code, Code.org had setup two easily accessible and fun activities. New this year was one based around the wildly successful "Frozen" movie and the other uses the game "Angry Birds." Both activities see the student snapping together blocks of coding terms in order to manipulate the characters on screen. Similar to Kodable, these activities need students to move characters on screen in order to perform an action or get to a specific place on screen. I was even able to code my own <a href="http://studio.code.org/c/55431335" target="_blank">Christmas version</a> of Flappy Bird to show them. After completing 20 short activities, students were able to print out a certificate of completion in the '<a href="http://hourofcode.com/us" target="_blank">Hour of Code</a>.'<br />
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After watching and interacting with students on all grade levels a few things were apparent. First, students from the older grades thought the Frozen/Angry Birds lessons were "too easy" at first and then after just a few levels they were really starting to be challenged. The Frozen activity started to involve angles and really threw them off. Also, I saw something wonderful occur on all grade levels in that students who normally struggle in certain mainstream subjects, really take off with these activities. Not only that but after going through some of these activities they started to become student-teachers by helping (not solving) other students. We also had a large majority ask if they could keep going at home.<br />
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These activities (both Code.org and Kodable) allowed students to not only critically think by plotting out all their moves but also fail. Yes I said FAIL. I believe we don't let students fail in a way that allows them to learn from their mistakes and enhance or solve their problems. Too often we link failure to being unsuccessful. I came across an acronym a few years ago and it really resonates with me.<br />
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These coding activities allow students to fail in a very positive way. Not having their program run correctly causes them to go back and look at which step they got wrong or how many degrees of an angle they were off. Each time they run the program and (possibly) fail, they're correcting mistakes and making it better every time. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-19345102787339889682014-11-07T12:52:00.000-05:002014-11-07T12:52:07.725-05:00The wonderful things Twitter can doTwitter has given my career so much over the past few years that I routinely tout its benefits to students, colleagues, and friends. I also like to show how teachers can benefit while <a href="http://edscapeconference.com/#schedule" target="_blank">speaking</a> at various <a href="http://isteconference.com/" target="_blank">educational technology</a> conferences. I think that most people outside of our educational circles, don't realize how beneficial it can be for them.<br />
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Too many times people and <a href="http://www.nj.com/union/index.ssf/2014/10/anonymous_sexually_explicit_twitter_posts_targeted_elizabeth_high_school_students_official_says.html" target="_blank">news</a> agencies focus on the <a href="http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/2014/11/03/mountain-view-shooting-threat/18408239/" target="_blank">negatives</a> and never on the positives. Some people think that Twitter is nothing but celebrities posting ridiculous bits of information about the minutiae of their lives.<br />
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I have met some amazing educators in the past few years and some have become dear friends. They not only help me professionally but we also collaborate on a number of different projects.<br />
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Twitter helps me professionally but also allows me to open doors for our students as well. Last year alone we were able to <a href="http://kcalderw.blogspot.com/2014/02/an-olympic-experience.html" target="_blank">speak to</a> an American Olympian while she was in Sochi, had a discussion about rights and responsibilities with a class in Chile, and had numerous Mystery Skypes with classrooms around the country. This allows students to see outside of their own small section of the state and opens them to the much larger world.</div>
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Recently, I wanted to do something interesting for a video project. I tweeted out asking for volunteers to record themselves running in front of world famous landmarks. </div>
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Live near a world famous landmark or know someone deployed? Contact me for a short video project I'm doing. Volunteers worldwide. Pls RT<br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/status/526742086650167296">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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I received a wonderful response and had <a href="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zVqhuwyAS1tU.kU9wvs_PuGVo&authuser=0&hl=en" target="_blank">volunteers</a> from around the globe participate. Most of who responded, I had never met before. It shows that if you surround yourself with amazing people, wonderful things can happen. So a huge thank you to all who helped me complete <a href="https://t.co/HfkvTBLeDr" target="_blank">my video</a> and also another thank you to all the amazing folks that I follow. Keep striving for change and excellence in your lives.<br />
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-83244525950725298272014-07-03T23:35:00.002-04:002014-07-06T21:34:53.215-04:00Reflections from ISTE 2014<a href="https://www.isteconference.org/2014/template/images/ISTE2014logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://www.isteconference.org/2014/template/images/ISTE2014logo.png" /></a>This is my 4th ISTE and funny enough each one I've attended has been as a different role. This year I was very much interested in getting as much information as I could to bring back to my school as Tech Coordinator. It was a very <a href="http://kcalderw.blogspot.com/2014/07/our-nightmare-flight-to-iste-2014.html" target="_blank">interesting trip</a> down to ISTE but we finally made it (albeit 10hrs later than we were scheduled).<br />
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The first thing I did after checking in and get my badge was to run over to the Welcome Lounge to watch the end of #satchat. At 9am I was hosting #nt2t (New Teachers to Twitter) chat live from ISTE. I saw that #satchat was using a video feed from the lounge and at the last minute decided to do the same. It's a bit hectic but we did both the Twitter based chat and a <a href="http://youtu.be/muyX_wUeG-I?t=7m27s" target="_blank">video chat</a>. It was nerve wracking but a LOT of fun. I hope the others who joined virtually were able to get something out of it.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Connections:</u></b></span><br />
One of the aspects of ISTE I look forward to most are the new connections that I make as well as catching with up with my existing PLN. It's always great to catch up with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jessievaz12" target="_blank">Jessica Allen</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/2footgiraffe" target="_blank">Adam Taylor</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/plnaugle" target="_blank">Paula Naugle</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/tgwynn" target="_blank">Tim Gwynn</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/techyturner" target="_blank">Rodney Turner</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/cybraryman1" target="_blank">Jerry Blumengarten</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/s_bearden" target="_blank">Susan Bearden</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/alicekeeler" target="_blank">Alice Keeler</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/elanaleoni" target="_blank">Elana Leoni</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jonathanwylie" target="_blank">Jonathan Wylie</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/michellek107" target="_blank">Michelle Baldwin</a>, and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ashly2499" target="_blank">Ashley Cross</a>.<br />
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However, I LOVE to make new connections and speak to teachers from
around the world. This year I was fortunate enough to meet some
fantastic educators new to me.<br />
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One of the first new connections I made was during #satchat the first morning. Sitting in front of me was <a href="https://twitter.com/kkidsinvt" target="_blank">Sharon Davison</a> who is a Kindergarten teacher from Vermont. I heard her mention that she has her students blogging, and I was very intrigued. THIS was a connection I wanted to make and have her interact with my Kindergarten teachers.<br />
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Seated next to me on the couch during #nt2t chat was <a href="https://twitter.com/chegatas" target="_blank">Penelope Miller</a>, a Middle School digital literacy teacher who was learning how to use Twitter for the first time. I helped her with a few of the basics but after only a few minutes she was off and running. We ran into each other randomly throughout the conference and I hope we keep in touch.<br />
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<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw">@kcalderw</a> Thank you so much to Kyle Calderwood and Sue Bearden <a href="https://twitter.com/s_bearden">@s_bearden</a> for helping an ISTE newbie learn to use Twitter! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iste2014?src=hash">#iste2014</a><br />
— Penelope Miller (@chegatas) <a href="https://twitter.com/chegatas/statuses/482894356656164864">June 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/theprofspage" target="_blank">Melinda Sears</a> is someone I've interacted with many times this year on Twitter but never met in person. I was happy to finally meet her on the second day of the conference. I think she was excited too!<br />
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/nathan_stevens" target="_blank">Nathan Stevens</a> is someone many of us have interacted with over Twitter and have enjoyed the #glittersnark humor he has brought in addition to his insight into makerspaces. It was great to finally meet him face to face.<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/mrskmattson" target="_blank">Kristen Mattson</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/techgirljenny" target="_blank">Jenny Grabiec</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kitty_tripp" target="_blank">Kitty Tripp</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/msvictoriaolson" target="_blank">Victoria Olson</a> were another fantastic group of teachers that I collaborated with over the course of the last year. I was able meet them all face to face before the end of the conference. It's always a great feeling meeting your PLN face to face. It's almost like a reunion of sorts.<br />
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<u><b>Vendors:</b></u><br />
We all go to the vendor hall to try and score some free swag or win some great prizes for our classroom. I do that too, but I also love to interact with companies whose products I use or am interested in using.<br />
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This year I was introduced to <a href="https://www.tinkercad.com/" target="_blank">TinkerCAD</a> by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ed_saber" target="_blank">Saber Khan</a>. I was actually on my way out the door but decided to stop in on the makerspace playground and I'm so glad I did! He showed me how his students used TinkerCAD to design a replica of his classroom. They are then able to print a 3D model of that design using a Makerbot 3D printer or export the design to Minecraft! This is something I wanted to do with our student's this year so I am very glad I made this connection.<br />
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I was also able to spend time in the CDW booth to watch a Makerbot printer in action. I spoke to their reps who steered me in the right direction on which printer would be best for our school.<br />
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I also stopped by Gripcase and Griffin to learn about their new line of iPad cases. I met with Brian the CEO of Gripcase who informed me of an important project they're doing called BOGO. Now you might instantly assume (as I did) that it stood for Buy One Get One but no it's even better than that. It actually stands for <a href="http://gripcase.com/bogo" target="_blank">Buy One Give One</a>! The way this promotion works is that for every case you purchase Gripcase will donate a case to a school of your choice. Know a school that can't afford iPad cases? If you purchase an order you can send them a duplicate of your order for free!<br />
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I also learned about a free new tool called <a href="https://classflow.com/" target="_blank">ClassFlow</a>. This was perfect since unfortunately our classroom set of Promethean ActivExpression remotes were recently ruined by leaky batteries. This will save us thousands of dollars! It's these kind of direct interactions with vendors that makes ISTE so special. Normally during the year it might be hard to reach customer service or heck impossible to reach the CEO, but at ISTE you have direct contact.<br />
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<u><b>Presenting:</b></u><br />
I had submitted a few proposals for sessions at ISTE that unfortunately were not accepted. However, the first day of the conference I received a message from Elana Leoni asking for help. Her co-presenter had taken ill and would not be able to present with her the next morning. She asked if I could fill in, and it took me 3 seconds to type "YES!". Elana was presenting on using Twitter for education, a topic I am very familiar with and also that I present on for various conferences. After speaking to her about the presentation though, she was taking a different (and awesome) spin on it. It wasn't going to be a Twitter 101 but instead involved the attendees getting into groups for various tasks they would need to do using only Twitter. It was a fantastic idea and really got the room involved instead of just listening to us talk about it with slides. The session was so well received we were getting messages from outside the conference and our session hashtag was even <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2010/trend-or-not-trend" target="_blank">trending</a>!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our eduawesome 'Saved By Twitter Session'</td></tr>
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<b><u>First timers:</u></b><br />
This being my fourth trip to ISTE, I knew what to expect. However, traveling in our group were two educators that had never been to an ISTE before. It was quite interesting to see their take on sessions and vendor interactions. I mostly walked around with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/principalarc" target="_blank">Bruce Arcurio</a>, a principal from NJ. I tried to offer tips that I had learned (some the hard way) over the past few visits to ISTE. He reflected nicely on his <a href="http://principalarc.blogspot.com/2014/07/iste2014-newbie-with-little-help-from.html" target="_blank">blog</a> about his experiences. The other newbie to ISTE was <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ktbkr4" target="_blank">Kate Baker</a>, a High School English Teacher, who presented a session on BYOD using Edmodo with my wife.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bruce had a good time at his first ISTE</td></tr>
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<u><b>Sessions:</b></u><br />
I went to a few lecture sessions and also some poster sessions. I enjoyed the session on Minecraft led by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/knowclue" target="_blank">Marianne Malmstrom</a>. It was great to see all the wonderful things she does with her students using Minecraft. I came away with some great ideas to use for the upcoming school year.<u><b> </b></u><br />
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I also attended the poster sessions. I HIGHLY recommend taking time whenever you go to ISTE to attend a poster session. Being able to see work created by students and teachers in a more direct setting is very refreshing. Talking with teachers who are passionate about what they have created such as <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ict_integrator" target="_blank">Karen Stadler</a> from South Africa and her Rhino Project or students showing their digital citizenship projects is worth your time.<br />
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<u><b>Favorite experience:</b></u><br />
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By far my favorite and most memorable experience was being able to see my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/liz1544" target="_blank">wife</a>'s first presentation at ISTE (trumping even my own first time presenting). I know how hard her and Kate worked on this presentation and to see them present in front of not only a crowd of 150 in the room but a few hundred online as well was amazing! Not only that but there was a crowd outside the door listening to their presentation on the TV monitor. I was a very proud husband that day and it fills me with pride to see how successful their session was.<br />
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<u><b>Bonus:</b></u><br />
As an added bonus we found out the "Walking Dead" were filming a block from our hotel. I was able to get some (blurry) photos.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-18029247112165038262014-07-03T23:32:00.000-04:002014-07-04T00:27:17.967-04:00Our Nightmare flight to ISTE 2014The morning of June 27th was an exciting morning for us. Myself, my wife, and another teacher from her school district were flying down to Atlanta to participate in ISTE 2014. My wife and Kate were presenting there for the first time and were eager to get down there to start checking in and preparing. We booked on Spirit Airlines out of Atlantic City because it was so convenient and close to us. Sometimes convenience comes at a cost and with Spirit that involves extra fees for carry-on luggage, checked luggage, and even your seat! We checked in at 9:15am for a 10:25am flight. Right before we were ready to board we noticed the left engine compartment was open. I just thought they were checking something real quick or doing routine maintenance before our flight took off.<br />
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We were told at first it would just be a few minutes until we were able to board. Time went on and the delay went from a few minutes to 30, 2hrs, and finally at 12:10 another announcement was made that we wouldn't be taking off until 2:30pm.<br />
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At just about 2:30, while the engine was still being worked on (see below) a final announcement was made that our flight was canceled. We were told there were no additional flights to Atlanta via Spirit for a few days! We all scrambled to figure out what to do with little guidance from our gate employees except to go to the ticket counter. I was in the middle of eating lunch so I sent my wife down to find out what was going on. When I arrived they were starting to issue refunds but there was no mention of putting us on another airline.<br />
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Our only option was to leave out of Philly which was about 90 minutes away. The only flight we could find was on Delta. My wife quickly called to book the flight (at a much higher rate) as others were still trying to find out what to do. I called Spirit right away to ask that they put us on another flight but was repeatedly told that "They don't do that." I asked to speak to the manager and was on hold for almost 20 minutes where I was told the manager was busy. We were only issued 1/2 a refund for the first part of our journey along with a nice $50 voucher that must be used in 60 days. There was a woman standing next to us who had just graduated high school and was visiting friends in NJ. She just wanted to get home and this was her first flying experience. We saw the look of fright and confusion in her eyes and told her to stick with us. She had no credit card or way to book travel back right away, and time was definitely of the essence. We drove her to Philly with us and booked her airfare back home.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Flight was cancelled... Traveling with angels to Philadelphia for a flight to ATL tonight. What a journey 😅 <a href="http://t.co/dc7wbh7B3J">pic.twitter.com/dc7wbh7B3J</a><br />
— Amy Bullock (@amy_bullock) <a href="https://twitter.com/amy_bullock/statuses/482587495914147842">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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I would like to add that the woman working the ticket counter was very professional and was doing everything under her control to assist us. My ire lies with Spirit's policies and customer service center, not the staff at the airport. The airline did offer to shuttle people up to Philly but I could not since I get major car sickness if I do not drive. So in the end we had to drive to Philly and leave our car there for 6 days then return and wasted 5hrs driving in 4th of July traffic to get our car back.<br />
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<b>Still no word from Spirit. I strongly suggest anyone that is flying Spirit to choose another airline. </b><br />
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The entire time this went on our group was Tweeting at Spirit to try and get some sort of information as to what was wrong with the plane or what we should do. It's been over a week now and still haven't heard a word from them. We were using the hashtag for our conference (attended by 16k educators) to let them know what was going on and also see what customer service (or lack thereof) we received.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Is this something I should be concerned about before getting on my plane? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iste2014?src=hash">#iste2014</a> <a href="http://t.co/mI3nzKgWq1">pic.twitter.com/mI3nzKgWq1</a><br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/statuses/482522563583549440">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
So...apparently our plane's engine "needs a part". Oh k... <a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines">@SpiritAirlines</a> Looks like we will be a little late to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iste2014?src=hash">#iste2014</a><br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/statuses/482527618265513985">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
At Atlantic City Intern Airport DELAYED UNTIL 2:30pm for a 10:25 am flight! Come on <a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines">@SpiritAirlines</a> We need a new plane! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AtlantaBound?src=hash">#AtlantaBound</a><br />
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) <a href="https://twitter.com/KtBkr4/statuses/482549582111735808">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Awesome job <a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines">@SpiritAirlines</a>! Flight canceled and no availability for another flight until next week! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iste2014?src=hash">#iste2014</a><br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/statuses/482562777115262976">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines">@SpiritAirlines</a>! Flight canceled & had to book diff flight 2hrs away w/o help. Got 1/2 refund & $50 voucher to use within 30 days.<br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/statuses/482596627157237760">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-59173961958759972062014-04-17T14:10:00.001-04:002019-05-23T15:34:36.930-04:00Tips for ISTE NewbiesI generally don't blog but I felt this was a great opportunity to share what I've learned. 2011 was my first ever <a href="http://rsc10590.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/reflections-of-iste2011-from-a-newbie/" target="_blank" title="Reflections of ISTE2011 from a newbie">experience</a> with an ISTE conference, and actually my first ed tech conference of any kind. I saw an e-mail that was being passed around at work which mentioned a conference in Philly. Since Philly was only 45 minutes away, I figured I would check it out. What I experienced was truly eye opening for my professional career. There are 20,000 teachers/administrators and over 1,500 exhibitors who attend this conference each year. It can truly be daunting and it's easy to lose your way. Here are some tips that I discovered for myself that I would like to share with any ISTE newbie.
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<ul>
<li><strong>Schedule</strong> - One of the things we all do when going to a conference is fill our schedules to the brim with different sessions and workshops. Generally these conferences are one or two day affairs and we all want our money's (or our sponsor's money) worth. My first year, I picked every session I could and I was almost always running to and from a session with little to no breaks. Well I urge you to NOT do that. This conference is spread out over four days and you WILL have time to get in the most important sessions to you. **SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT** Be sure to <a href="https://conference.iste.org/2019/program/search/detail_session.php?id=112153111" target="_blank">sign up</a> for our fourth annual TeachMeet ISTE on 6/23. This is YOUR chance to be a presenter at ISTE and it's FREE! </li>
<li><strong>Lounges</strong> - Along the lines of scheduling you should definitely take time out to visit some of the various lounges throughout the conference. Lounges such as the Welcome, Social Butterfly, International or Blogger's can be just as important as going to a session. These lounges offer a relaxed setting to take some time for yourself and also to meet new people. I met some great people in these lounges such as <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kylepace" target="_blank">@kylepace</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wkingbg" target="_blank">@wkingbg</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/michellek107">@michellek107</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jessievaz12">@jessievaz12</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/2footgiraffe">@2footgiraffe</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/plnaugle" target="_blank">@plnaugle</a>. Meeting people like this has had a dramatic impact on the last few years of my career. I was able to present at a few conferences in Nashville, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, and London all due to these introductions. </li>
<li><strong>Social Events</strong> - There are a number of various social events that take place during and after normal conference hours. These events are both fun and a great way to network. One of the most popular social events is <a href="http://www.edtechkaraoke.com/" target="_blank">EdTech Karaoke</a> and I highly recommend grabbing a ticket for that now. I actually find that the smaller ISTE social events are more meaningful. It is at these events I am able to have great conversations with both vendors and educators in a more relaxed atmosphere. </li>
</ul>
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<li><strong>Poster Sessions</strong> - Poster sessions are great for viewing topics in a more informal manner than a traditional session. These sessions are run by students, teachers, administrators, and some vendors. It's also a great way to not only see demos of projects but also have one on one time with the presenter. Also, our former 6th grade students will be giving their first ever presentation on a Minecraft project they did while at our school. Please <a href="https://conference.iste.org/2019/program/search/detail_session.php?id=112095757" target="_blank">come by</a> to give them some support. </li>
<li><strong>Market yourself</strong> - Bring business cards or any other information you need for someone to remember you. You never know what opportunities will come of a chance meeting. For me it was being able to present at a few conferences this year. <a href="http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j84/Stryker412/badge5ded723ce1519f877a5b4bedcebd67520ccf678b.jpg" target="_blank">Here</a> is the custom name badge I created so others can easily see my Twitter info.</li>
<li><strong>Vendors</strong> - Definitely make some time in your schedule to go visit the exhibition hall. I was completely blown away by the size of the hall and just how many vendors are there. These vendors are not only there to sell their products but also are great sponsors to ISTE and help make this conference happen. They also give away some fantastic prizes, so be sure to sign up for them at each booth. One year I won my wife (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/liz1544" target="_blank">@liz1544</a>) a Starboard for her classroom just by playing Jeopardy.</li>
<li><b>Stickers</b> - Just a tip, you are given a booklet when you check in to ISTE that has giveaways from all different vendors. You need to visit their booths in order to drop off your ticket. There are over 100 tickets in this booklet in which you need to fill out your name, address, email, job title, and school. I would <b>highly</b> recommend printing off a few sheets of sticky address labels with this information that you can just stick to your ticket and be on your way. It will save a LOT of time and hand cramping.</li>
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Finally, I would be doing myself and many others a disservice if I didn't mention the MOST important resource that I discovered years ago: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Hands down this has become THE most important tool that I have used these past 4 years. I have met people from all over the world and some have become good friends. It has also opened a lot of doors for me this year professionally. As you've seen from my mentions earlier in this post, a large percentage of the attendees at this conference are on and use Twitter. If you are reading this and thinking, "Oh c'mon do I REALLY need another social media service" or "I won't use it" then all I can say is that you should sign up for a Twitter account and just have it ready for when you come to ISTE. You will be amazed at how many people are not only using it at this conference but the amount of resources you will gain just by browsing the #iste19 hashtag.
If you're interested in learning more about Twitter and just how you can use it for educational purposes, please visit the <a href="http://en2t.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Twitter Mentor program</a> that I've setup. It is loaded with information for those just getting started or who haven't signed up yet. You can also contact me (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/kcalderw" target="_blank">@kcalderw</a>) or Jerry Blumengarten (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/cybraryman1" target="_blank">@cybraryman1</a>) we love to help out educators new to Twitter!
Can't wait to see you in June!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-40593426824201308842014-04-15T10:19:00.000-04:002014-04-15T10:46:37.620-04:00Educators new to TwitterWe all know the power of Twitter, but what about those colleagues of yours that you've been begging to join you on Twitter? There are some teachers who love to dive into new technology to learn and fail as they go. What about those who would love to try it but are hesitant due to failure?<br />
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This past weekend I was participating in a Twitter chat called #nt2t which stands for New Teachers To Twitter. It's a great weekly chat that helps educators who are new to Twitter find their legs and get support. One of the questions that was posed was "What resources do you need to be succesful on Twitter"? My answer:<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/fishtree_edu">@fishtree_edu</a> A3: Having a Twitter buddy in your building will help immensely. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NT2t&src=hash">#NT2t</a><br />
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw/statuses/454971000292401152">April 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Then my next statement got a few great reactions. I simply suggested why not start a Twitter mentor program?<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/fishtree_edu">@fishtree_edu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/kcalderw">@kcalderw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/plnaugle">@plnaugle</a> I think that’s a great idea. So many have helped me; I’m always up to returning the favor. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NT2t&src=hash">#NT2t</a><br />
— John Kramer (@jakramer2) <a href="https://twitter.com/jakramer2/statuses/454972015670071298">April 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Later that night I got to work on a website. I'm very happy to announce the creation of "<a href="http://en2t.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Educators New to Twitter</a>." This site's main focus is for educators who are interested in joining Twitter (or who just joined) to find a mentor that would help them get started and find their way in the sea of Tweets. They can fill out a form that will help us pair them with an educator in their subject area and grade level. We are accepting applications worldwide. Established educators on Twitter can apply to be a mentor where they will volunteer a little time to help get another educator started.<br />
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This program is not just for teachers either! We already have Superintendents and Tech Coordinators on board as mentors. If you are an administrator who has thought about how to get yourself or your school started with social media, we can find a mentor to help you get started. What about pre-service teachers who are about to enter the field? Why not be paired with an already established teacher in your intended grade level who can help you build your digital profile?<br />
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I am very excited and passionate about giving back to educators via social media. I have been afforded many opportunities and even found my job via Twitter. I have made so many long lasting connections (both personal and professional) online via Twitter. I know that all the educators that I've met on Twitter are also eager to help those who want to join us on Twitter. Here's hoping this new site can help.<br />
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It's always an amazing experience when you finally get to meet your PLN face to face!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-79515844963168695242014-03-04T17:10:00.002-05:002014-03-04T17:30:36.740-05:00Curling as a teachable momentThose that follow me on Twitter know that I love the sport of curling. Ever since I saw it at the Olympics in 2010 from Vancouver, I along with most of the US were hooked by the sport. Since then I have been fortunate to see it live twice, with the US Nationals being hosted locally in Philly. This past weekend I attend the first two days of competition for the 2014 Nationals. On the way home I started thinking about how the aspects of the game can be applied to education and in particular students. Here are five aspects of curling that I think apply greatly to education.<br />
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<li><u>Choices</u> - In curling, where you place the rock can have ramifications later. Do you place a guard or try to get it close to the <a href="http://www.curlingschool.com/manual/curling_lingo.html" target="_blank">button</a> right away? This is especially true with education. Choices students make now can have major ramifications later in life for them. This is especially true of a <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/digital_footprint.html" target="_blank">digital footprint</a>. Students now have the ability to post pictures or videos of themselves online with their mobile devices without giving it any thought. But what happens when your child posts something that can later get them in trouble or even prevent them from getting into college? Students need to learn earlier and earlier each year, what the ramifications are of posting content online of themselves. A great website to track some of your photos is called <a href="http://app.teachingprivacy.com/" target="_blank">Ready or Not</a>. On this site you enter your Twitter or Instagram username, and it will show you on a map exactly where this photo was taken. Why is this important? Your child can post a picture of themselves online via Instagram and someone can then see exactly where their school or home is with detailed information. An easy fix for this is to turn off GPS location for your photos.</li>
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<li><u>Obstacles</u> - In curling your opponent is always trying to knock your rocks out of the <a href="http://www.curlingschool.com/manual/curling_lingo.html" target="_blank">house</a> so they can get closer to the button to score. This is especially true of today's students. We all have obstacles or distractions to overcome. It used to just be TV was a distraction when I was growing up, but now there are almost an unlimited ways today's student is distracted from family life, social media, to gaming, and of course TV. It is <i><b>how</b></i> a student responds to those obstacles that defines them. Do you fall to pieces or do you gracefully pick yourself up and try again. </li>
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<li><u>Perseverance</u> - This past weekend a team had an impossible shot to make with the hammer to win. I was fortunate enough to be standing around a few of the men's teams as they watched the shot. Most agreed that there was little chance the women's team was going to make it. However, just a few minutes later the crowd erupted as they did in fact win with a lucky bounce. It was an incredible shot, and one I wish I had recorded. Isn't it an amazing feeling when you're working with a struggling student who finally "gets it" or increases their score on a test? That joy you see is them realizing that they can do it if they hang in there. It's never truly over until the last shot.</li>
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<li><u>Teamwork</u> - Just like most sports, your team is essential. Once you let go of the rock on your shot it is up to your team to help guide it to where you intended. Communication is vital with your teammates. Those who don't know the sport don't get what all the yelling is about. When they're yelling they're telling their teammates to sweep harder or slow up in order to guide the rock to its intended destination. Students today need teammates in the literal and metaphorical sense. We as teachers can be their teammates helping them along and eventually getting them to where they need to be. We can also be their coach and their champion.</li>
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<li><u>Conceding defeat</u> - Never in any sports that I have ever watched has a loss been so gracefully handled as it is in curling. When a team feels that they are too far behind to compete any longer, they will shake hands with the opposing team to conceded defeat. This is never done with malice or ill will, generally both teams are smiling and congratulate each other on a good match. This type of example should be used by all (teachers, administrators, and students alike). Too often we all get caught up in the winning aspect that perhaps we just need to come at it from a different angle. If we conceded gracefully and move on to a different method, perhaps we can all win in the end.</li>
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On a side note, if you ever have the chance go see it live! </div>
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<i>Disclaimer: All photos are mine.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-5506923480510472622014-02-15T23:19:00.000-05:002014-02-17T07:11:59.028-05:00An Olympic Experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have a profound love of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling" target="_blank">curling</a>. Ever since I discovered the sport at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, I have been hooked. Months after the Olympics ended I found out that the 2012 National Curling Championship would be held just two hours away from me near Philly. I bought my tickets instantly and attended the event four out of the eight days it was there. It was a fantastic experience to speak one on one with some of the athletes who just a year ago were competing in the Olympics. It was there that I met <a href="https://twitter.com/Deb_McCormick" target="_blank">Debbie McCormick</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/NicCurl" target="_blank">Nicole Joraanstad</a>. I had arranged to get a photo with Nicole and Allison Pottinger, but sadly timing didn't work out. I did speak a number of times with Debbie throughout the week about the Olympics and her experiences with curling. It was a truly fascinating encounter with one of the Olympic athletes. I also was fortunate enough to befriend a few of the other competitors, including <a href="https://twitter.com/@stephsambor" target="_blank">Steph Sambor</a> that I have kept in touch with since then. The <a href="http://www.2014usacurlingnationals.com/" target="_blank">2014 Nationals</a> are once again being held in Philly and I even plan to finally learn to curl (embarrassing video to follow).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t1LvYMSzxFk/UwAx4wlVLLI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/s3O5yPnxdy8/s1600/Debbie+and+I.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t1LvYMSzxFk/UwAx4wlVLLI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/s3O5yPnxdy8/s1600/Debbie+and+I.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Debbie McCormick and I - 2012 Curling Nationals</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Actor Wil Weaton at the Summer Bonspiel - <br />Photo courtesy of the Hollywood Curling Club</span></b></td></tr>
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So here we are now midway through the 2014 Winter Olympics, and once again Curling's popularity is soaring. Even celebrities like Wil Weaton and 49ers Tight End <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/honorary-captain-vernon-davis-and-the-greatest-u-s--curling-team-ever-assembled-214628612.html" target="_blank">Vernon Davis</a> are even getting involved. I am the Technology Coordinator at Tuckerton Elementary School in New Jersey. I have always used my Twitter PLN to get interesting ideas or projects off the ground. I have been doing <a href="https://education.skype.com/projects/2832-mystery-skype" target="_blank">Mystery Skypes</a> with several schools around the country and now somehow wanted to connect our <a href="http://www.tuckerton.k12.nj.us/" target="_blank">school</a> with an athlete in Sochi. Naturally my first choice was to choose Curling since I was familiar with the sport, and already had a few contacts. One of the first people that I reached out to on Twitter was <a href="https://twitter.com/terry_usacurl" target="_blank">Terry Kolesar</a> who is the Director of Communications for USA Curling. She was more than receptive to my idea and got to work contacting one of the athletes on my behalf. We agreed that the main team's schedule most likely would not allow them to participate but that Olympic team alternate Allison Pottinger might be able to accommodate our request. Within a day I had a response that she was interested! The only issue then was to work out the timing of our student's daily schedule, the daily requirements of Mrs. Pottinger and her Olympic duties, and finally that of the 9 hour time difference. The stars aligned and we scheduled a Skype chat at 10am EST/7pm Sochi time on 2/12.<br />
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An hour before we were to begin chatting I still had not had a Skype contact request on my end. Now we all know that feeling when you have a big presentation when a major component of your presentation is not working correctly. The panic started to set in and I fired off a quick e-mail to Terry. A few minutes later she responded and gave me the information of the USA Olympic Team's rep in Sochi who was facilitating the call. It was now 20 minutes before we were to begin chatting and I called the rep in Russia, and I got a voicemail. I think I now know what a mild heart attack feels like, but I left a message. Ten minutes until our call and another call to the rep when I finally got through. She said she'd contact Allison to see what was going on. Five minutes now, and kids are starting to file into the library in front of our big Promethean board. A quick e-mail from Terry and my heart lept, she was with Allison and they were setting things up! After waiting another few minutes and a failed Skype call, we were finally connected!<br />
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After our call connected, things went off without a hitch. My concerns with the connection in Sochi proved unfounded as we never so much as had a hiccup in our call. We had students from four different classes (two each from 5th and 6th <i><b>during</b></i> the Olympics. We heard cheers from the other Olympic athletes as they were watching their fellow countryman on TV in the other room. It was truly surreal.<br />
grade) that were asked to prepare questions to ask Allison. They each took turns walking up to the laptop and asked Allison their question. Questions ranged from rules of the sport, equipment, to even personal questions about her family. Mrs. Pottinger was more than gracious with our students and was phenomenal with their questions. I had limited our students to a total of 20 questions so as not to keep her too long. At the end of our questioning, I asked the students to say thank you and was ready to let her go. To my surprise she responded, "Do you all have any more questions? I have time." I just laughed and we let it go another 20 minutes. It was truly a remarkable experience for the kids to speak live to an Olympic athlete <br />
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In the end our students gained some major insight into the Olympic experience, team work, and just how technology can bring them closer than they thought. On the other hand, I believe Curling (and Mrs. Pottinger in particular) gained some new fans.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3751836733133682903.post-7087072172779672852013-09-11T20:17:00.001-04:002013-09-11T20:17:31.701-04:00App of the Week: VoxerI've been wanting to start a blog about different educational technology and apps that I've come across. Many of my friends and co-workers always ask, "Hey do you know of an app that will...".<br />
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So for the first post, I'd like to introduce an app called <a href="http://www.voxer.com/" target="_blank">Voxer</a>. I've been using Voxer for about a year now, and it was introduced to me by a former student worker of ours. One of the great things about this app is that it is available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.<br />
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We originally started to use it so that we could easily reach each other when out in the field doing tech work. It was great to be able to send photos back to our office if there were issues or errors that needed to be looked at further. However, with how easy it is to use and all the great features I started to use it for personal use as well. I had my wife download the app and I was able to send messages to her while I was driving without ever looking at my phone.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oyHv62md24c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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As you can see from the promotional video there are a LOT of great features included. I personally never felt the need to upgrade to the premium version. In addition to sending voice messages, texts, or photos to a person you can also have a group chat. This was especially helpful during the ISTE conference last year. I kept pushing our little group to download the app and once we were all on, it was a breeze to communicate with everyone. Making plans for dinner or a meetup was a lot easier using Voxer than trying to coordinate over Twitter or texts. The conference wifi also had issues so Twitter was hit or miss but voxer kept going no matter if I was on wifi or LTE.<br />
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I don't feel this app ever falls into the "fad" category. This is quite simply a very useful app, and it is free!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1