EdTech Teacher's iPad Summit 2015

The last couple weeks have been extremely exciting in the world of education! I attended EdTech Teachers' iPad Summit in San Diego. Did you go? If you didn't, you SHOULD! Look at the view from the San Diego Convention Center.

Southern Californian ports have been experiencing a labor dispute which would explain the cargo ship in the background.
UPDATE- The dispute has been resolved. May the goods continue to arrive

There were so many great conversations happening. Have you started thinking about the disconnect of higher education and K-12 in terms of content delivery, technology usage, and expectations of content knowledge? Yea, no one has been communicating, seemingly. Why would I bring this up, you ask? Because if we keep pushing and guiding our K-12 students to demonstrate their content knowledge through alternative assessments with a creative angle, like creating screencasts to discuss blood circulation of the body or movies or podcasts, etc. rather than writing a plain, old essay and they get the experience of an engaging way of learning, and then BOOM HERE COMES COLLEGE. Heavy duty word processing and boring old Powerpoints (no shade, Powerpoint!). Most colleges are still heavy in content delivery and word processing, so it's kind of like taking steps backwards. The light went on when I met a wonderful educator at the Keck School of Medicine at USC in Los Angeles, CA; she was in awe of the great things happening in the K-12 world in the area of Ed Tech and I am so happy to be a part of it!

What other conversations were going on at the iPad Summit? The Invisible iPad was a wonderful session led by Michael Cohen from Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy. Cohen is a very informed, experienced educator, and dynamic speaker. I hope to build the courage to one day have a conversation with him! I made a point to visit Cohen's workshop, not just because the topic interested me, but a previous session leader name dropped and told us we should definitely go check him out if we could. The message I took away from this session was that whatever technology one is using (preferably an iPad just because of the sheer flexibility of the device) should be used as seamlessly as a pencil is/was used. There is no such thing as "an iPad project"; figure out what your goal is and move forward with that. Whatever method your students use to demonstrate their learning, should enhance the experience. I love the idea of using a video essay, movie, or screencast instead of a regular essay because in order to produce a quality product, students need to spend time with the material regardless. Sure, I guess they can "try" to fake it, but have you ever tried to fake the content of a screen cast or movie? Not so easy. One needs to prepare all aspects, including speaking parts. All in all, adding the creative element allows students to connect with material and content on a different level. If as teachers, we allow them CHOICE of assessment, students become more invested in their learning. It sounds great in theory; is this working for you?

Another larger idea out of this session was the push to have conversations. Ask your students questions; allow your students to ask you and each other questions and facilitate learning through conversations.

One last thing about the conference, iBooks Author! Apparently I've been missing out! I cannot wait to play with it. If I missed something or you want to chat about it, let's do it!

Maybe a little more than just Discover Academy

Although I'm very excited to share the journey of the Discover Academy pilot program, I realized I want to use this platform to really share my own personal learning and journey with you. My journey includes for the first time in 10 years of working in classrooms, actually planning and teaching my own classes (once or twice a week, but still!). Question, when you started your blog, did you go through a growth period when you were trying to figure it out? Can we just chop it up to growing pains? It'll get better.. and one day... we'll laugh about this.

Word of Mouth

The pilot program, Discover Academy, is taking off and it is the most delightful thing!

 Service hours are apparently a requirement for graduation here, which I think is absolutely amazing! I wish I had done more volunteering and community outreach when I was in high school, or even now. A couple weeks ago our school held a fair to advertise various service learning opportunities. I felt really shy at the table with these super outgoing high school kids recruiting for the Improv class they're offering.
        (Now I know it's silly to feel like that, especially around students. However, I am naturally the quiet one and is only "on" in performance settings).
 As the fair began, I sat with the other students who were recruiting for their options and struck up conversations. Not too many kids came up and were interested in this computer class. I actually ended up getting a list of names from another teacher. Needless to say, I felt slightly defeated: I failed at recruiting students for my pilot program.

Well, now that we are about to start the training, I've actually had some kids seek me out looking for more information on how to become involved! It's so exciting that something that has so much potential to have such a great impact on the community is becoming well received with students and they want to be a part of it!