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!