REMC 17 Director’s Blog

If you were like me and you couldn’t attend the Mobile Learning Conference held on Friday, May 10, 2013 in Kalamazoo, you can still learn from the presenters and the attendees! Check out the Conference Handouts and pull up the Conference Twitter Hashtag – #maculmlc. I have already bookmarked several items and will be viewing more resources over the next few days as time permits. Via the Twitter hashtag, I found Tammy Maginity’s presentation links from her session about apps for digital storytelling. Using the Conference Handouts page, I found Anthony Buza’s Prezi, “Producing Content from the iPad.” Check out the links and see what you can find!

The 4TVirtualCon is an excellent online conference! It provides an opportunity for educators from around the world to learn about best practices in technology education from each other. The current Elementary and Secondary Master of Arts with Certification (MAC) interns at the University of Michigan School of Education have assisted with the development of the conference. This year one of the proud sponsors of the conference is Oakland Schools!

The conference is FREE and OPEN to all educators. Most sessions are targeted to K-12 educators. The conference will be held virtually—no plane tickets annd no hotel fees!

The preconference workshops will be held on Saturday, May 18th. The opening keynote will begin on Sunday, May 19th at 8:00 p.m. and the conference will continue through 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21st. There are three themes for the conference this year; Teaching in the Cloud (web2.0 focus), Bring Your Own Technology, and The One Computer Classroom—Do More with Less. See the conference schedule for details about the numerous sessions being offered each day.

All sessions will be live and archived. This means that even if your schedule doesn’t permit you to attend a session of interest to you, you will be able to view a recording of the session and still learn about the topic.

The conference is run by instructors from the MAC programs at the University of Michigan School of Education. While the conference is free and open, registration is required. In addition, interested educators can earn SCECHs by attending the virtual conference. Register now! You won’t want to miss this opportunity to participate in some powerful virtual learning!

Every Tuesday the people at Symbaloo EDU post a new tutorial on their blog to help you learn to create Symbaloos in new and powerful ways. The first tutorial I viewed showed me how to embed a YouTube video in a Symbaloo in just over one minute! After viewing this tutorial, I decided to try embedding the CUE/MACUL Roadtrip Documentary on my Symbaloo of MACUL Conference 2013 resources. Check it out by clicking here and then clicking on the YouTube Roadtrip Documentary icon when my Symbaloo opens.

The next tutorials I viewed were about using the Symbaloo iPad app. I’m finding these tutorials to be a quick and easy way to learn. Maybe they will work for you too! Access the tutorials on the Symbaloo EDU blog by clicking here. Enjoy!

The First Annual REMC Connected Educator Un/Conference will be held on Saturday, April 20, 2013 from 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM at the Jackson Area Career Center. The cost is a very affordable $40!

Teachers who have been part of REMC Connected Educator showcases will be the presenters at this un/conference. They will be running hands-on sessions to help other teachers get started in their topic area.
Some of the presenters and their topics are Nick Provenzano – Blogging, John Sowash – Google Apps, Ben Rimes – Video Story Problems, Karen Bosch – Digital Storytelling, Steve Kelly – Flipped Learning, Gary Abud – BYOD, Kit Hard – UDL, Erin Klein – Digital Literacy Stations, Greg Vieau & Mary Phillips – Student News Groups, Anthony DiLaura – Digital Textbooks, and Andy Losik – Challenge Based Learning.

Lunch will be provided. Additional information, including a link to registration, can be found on the conference website.

It’s not too late to make your plans to attend the 2013 MACUL Conference.
Click here to find out the details of registration.
Click here to read the MACUL Conference Blog.
Hope to see you there!

The second offering of the REMC sponsored “Blended Learning in the Classroom” course is fast approaching. The course guides classroom teachers in learning about and building their own blended learning environment. Participants meet once face-to-face and complete the rest of the course online. The course is based on research and teaches strategies to implement highly effective blended learning. This rigorous learning experience will require between 6-10 hours of online work per week. 50 SCECHs are pending.

Participants will receive a copy of “Continuing to Engage the Online Learner” by R. Conrad & J Donaldson and a free Snagit license.
 
Reactions from Pilot participants…”focus on the practice and not the tool made all of the content relevant and useful”, “support of the instructors was great”, “I’m able to market myself as able to teach both avenues [face-to-face & blended].”

Twenty offerings of this course are available around the state and three of them are being held right here in Oakland County! The first Oakland County session will be launched on February 5 at Lake Orion High School and it will be taught by Lake Orion teacher, Richard Messick. The second Oakland County session will be launched on February 6 here at Oakland Schools and it will be instructed by Kevin Emmons, a Clarkston teacher. The third Oakland County session will be launched on February 11 at the Walled Lake Schools Educational Services Center and it will be taught by Pam Shoemaker, Walled Lake’s Technology Instructional Coach.

Interested participants can register at:  http://www.solutionwhere.com/remcam/cw/showcourse.asp?19

Have you ever tried to make a Google Doc look the way you want and experienced frustration or disappointment? Do you miss the clip art and Word Art that were available in Microsoft Office? I will be facilitating a new Google workshop titled “Branding & Beautifying Your Google Docs” on Thursday, February 7, 2013 from 4:30 PM-7:45 PM to help you leave all of that frustration behind.

In this workshop you will learn how to brand your Google creations to make you stand out to your students, parents, co-workers and administration. You will learn about copyright-right friendly, free, clip art sites and how to start a collection of your finds using an app for Google Chrome and Picasa Web (Google’s photo/image sharing site). You will spend the majority of your time in the workshop setting up and trying out the tips and tricks. You will leave ready to keep creating impressive Google Docs long after the workshop ends. Bring your own laptop or use one of ours. If you bring your own, please have the Chrome browser installed. Everyone should come with their Google accounts set up and ready to use.

To register, please visit our online registration site by clicking here. Once the site opens click on the link for February and then locate the link for “Branding & Beautifying Your Google Docs.

I hope to see you there!

The 2012 Annual MAME Conference is underway. If you are not one of the lucky ones who can attend in person, you can still access presenter handouts. Shortly after the conference ends, the handouts will be posted on the MAME Conference website. Scroll down about mid page to find the “Presentation Handouts” section.

I will be presenting a session on “Screencasting: One Piece of the Flipped Classroom.” You can access the website that goes with the presentation by clicking here.

The “2012 Michigan Digital Learning Conference” will be held at Macomb Intermediate School District on November 15th and 16th. Attendees can expect to leave the conference fired up about the use of digital technology as a valuable teaching and learning tool.

At the conference you can expect to:

To find out more go to: http://michigandlc.weebly.com/

Download the conference flyer to easily share this information with others!
MI Digital Learning Conference Flyer

Conference partners: MACUL and REMC of Michigan

The DEN Fall Virtual Conference is a free professional development event for educators to learn about the most effective ways to integrate digital media into their instructional practices. The sessions will be broadcast online, but you can also attend one of the many in-person, Face 2 Face (F2F) events around North America or sign up to host your own Face 2 Face session.

The Virtual Conference will take place on October 20th, from 9am-4pm. Every session will be broadcast LIVE, so attendees will be able to see the presenter’s who are sharing, along with their presentations. Discovery has also added more sessions, more Face 2 Face (F2F) events, and more opportunities for you to get involved!

Click here to register for the event, to get more information about F2F events, hosting an event, presenting, and the schedule.