You and (i)Teach Pt. III (The Sessions)

      For the first time, I didn't follow my natural instinct/unconference rules and let my feet do the talking  while at iTeach. For those not in the know, in unconferences such as the EdCamp network, if you feel a session isn't what you were expecting or doesn't touch on your needs, you just get up and go to the next one. I guess I wanted to give everyone the benefit of doubt and I did take something away from every session.

       The sessions were how they always are... some are okay and some are just fantastic. I attended a few in addition to the group work we embarked on. In "The Great Debate: Digital Reading and Digital Notetaking" with Jennifer Gaspar-Santos, not only did we debunk the mythical "digital native" belief that our students have grown up surrounded by technology, so they must be proficient at it. But Oh! on the contrary!!! Students need to be taught skills and given opportunity to develop them over time; they need to be introduced, taught, and have skills scaffolded when learning a new app or "on boarding". You can't just throw Explain Everything at a 7th grader and expect them to figure it out 100%. I mean, they'll figure some things out, but there is a learning curve. Remember, we're trying to set our kids up for a transformative learning experience after all.
         
      Now, I must admit, I was one of those who up until about a year ago, figured kids could literally pick anything up and figure it out. That was probably because I'm able to do so with ease, but I am not everyone and this was probably my biggest misconception (but at least I can admit when I'm wrong).

      The second session I attended entitled "Outcomes at of a 2:1, three year iPad/Laptop program" was also led by Jennifer Gaspar-Santos from Casteleja School. Again, Gaspar-Santos stressed the importance of onboarding. The idea that you can bring in anything without training or practice or strategies is ridiculous. For example, one of her teachers made an  incredible iBook using iBooks Author. When the students didn't use it, she couldn't understand, until she realized the students needed to learn to read the book- flip through pages, click on audio/video clips, use interactive segments. We tend to just assume... but you know what they say about Assume..... 

    

      Did you realize that our Middle Schooler know what Tinder is? Do you know what Tinder is? In the session entitled "How to Host a Successful Digital Citizenship Week" by Merve Lapus, told us they do and now that I think about it, I know for a fact I've heard my high schoolers mention it, but not my dear sweet Middle Schoolers. Either way, kids are being exposed to so much media 
     
       Some of the suggestions Merve gave, like holding a panel, I've tried and failed (Woo-Hoo*), but at least I tried! I thought about it and would like to do it again, but maybe next year. I didn't know the culture of my school, nor the students, which made it really hard for them to commit. But there are things I can do and I really want to have a successful Digital Citizenship Week this October. To do so, Merve suggested to identify goals for the year and integrate those into lessons (which I'm desperately trying and advertising my expertise a little more now), post readings and blog articles in a space that students will have access (our LMS, Haiku Learning, is the perfect place along with our CTL boards), and finally, partnering with someone who can help and for me, that's our Dean of Experiential Learning. I realized that she is the organizer to end all organizers of student events at my school and her partnership is what I need. 

While I did attend Roni Habib's amazing session Tuesday morning after our keynote with him, I'll touch on it in my Mindfulness post that is in the works. I will share a wonderful tool he introduced us to though- Edpuzzle.com. Create or find a video on Youtube (but don't make it more than 3 minutes, kids won't watch it) and insert open ended questions within the video. Every time it's question time, the video stops and the viewer must answer the question. And best of all? it's FREE!