Destiny

I had the great opportunity to present the closing keynote for the 2012 Fall TECSIG meeting this year.  I chose to speak about Destiny, and tell a little bit about the life experiences of my and my son Robert.  My goal was to tie those experiences back to some current issues I see in Education.  I didn't feel like I did as great a job as I could have in that manner.  But you can be the judge of that.  :)  Tim Holt (@timholt2007) captured it all on film:
http://youtu.be/qjunYlea1aQ

Check it out.  At the very least you will learn a little bit more about me.  And you might just find out if Russia is really visible from a front porch in Alaska. :)

iOS Management Webinar #edtech

Carl Hooker (@mrhooker) and I did a presentation on iOS management at our Fall TECSIG meeting a couple of weeks ago. Tim Holt (@timholt2007) talked us into doing this same presentation as a webinar using Adobe Connect.

Tim was kind of enough to archive this webinar for us and you can find it here:

http://connect.episd.org/p58955314/

You need flash in order to view the archive, but as long as you use a flash enabled browser (like Photon) you can still view the archive on an iPad. :)

Carl does the first half of the webinar and talks about how his district managed their processes and decision making while embarking on their 1:1 initiative with iPads. In the second half of the webinar I talk about how we have managed our shared cart model with iPads. I also cover the details of the VPP program and how App licensing works.

You can also find some detailed notes that Sandy Kendell (@edtechsandyk) took during our TECSIG presentation here.

Apple Purist or....

Recently we had quite a discussion (argument is probably a better term) about Windows vs. Mac (and the hardware underneath) on our tecsig listserv. It started out a simple question of what to load on an Apple in terms of an office productivity suite (among a few other things). As I read the initial question I saw a few similarities in some of our district's recent experiences. Our district had gone through some similar discussions last year when we decided to move from a nearly complete Windows 'shop' to recommending MacBooks and iPads as the student devices in our new high school. I decided to reply to the question and to lay out some of the rationale behind the decisions that we made, and how we ended up feeling comfortable with this move. Initially, I only had the writer of the question listed in my response, but ultimately I decided to include the listserv thinking that others might be interested as well. I ended up opening quite a can of worms, which I wasn't really expecting.

My intention was to just lay out our experiences, and conversations, which helped lead us to our decisions. I was not recommending that anyone follow in our foot steps, or that our way is the only way. I was simply just hoping to share what we went through. Some how the fact that I recommended Apple devices turned into me being an Apple Purist. Huh? Seriously?

Ultimately, this 'conversation' reinforced my belief that we must continue to build more open systems. We must continue to become more platform agnostic. We must do this for our students. If we don't, we risk allowing them to venture out into the world with a closed mind towards new and different systems. Aren't we failing them by not allowing them to find the system that makes them the most efficient? Aren't we failing them if we only provide them with one option? Isn't it our purpose to teach them? To empower them to become life long learners? Aren't we supposed to be creating individualized instruction? How does only offering access to one type of system help facilitate that? By offering access to multiple systems we allow the learning to determine the technology. The learning is the focus! The technology should be transparent.

The focus should always be what is best for all of our students, and what will best prepare them to be successful in our global economy. That is what I hope to stay focused on. I have no intention of becoming an 'Apple Purist' or creating a 'shop' of any one specific brand. I hope to further embrace a more open system that facilitates creativity, exploration, and spontaneous learning.

Kevin Honeycutt at TCEA TECSIG 2010 Spring Meeting

I had the pleasure of hearing Kevin Honeycutt (http://kevinhoneycutt.org/ and @kevinhoneycutt) share his ideas at the TCEA TECSIG Spring meeting this year. I have to say, he was a wonderful presenter. He was the keynote speaker and he also did a break out session.

It was reassuring to hear him talk about working with students, and the lengths he would do to try to help them be successful. He talked a lot about technology and how it has changed the way our students learn. He also played a few wicked guitar solos! :) You can see a uStream of his keynote below.

Keynote - http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6358905

Here is a great you tube video he made:

Here is a uStream of his breakout session. It is audio only and I think it was recorded from an iPhone in the back of the room so the audio isn't that great.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6362715

I thought the breakout session was really good. One of the key points he made was that administrators must protect innovation. He also talked about the importance of project based learning. He cautioned that these projects can't be driven by one personality. In order to achieve long term success they must be driven by the system.

He also gave a demonstration of a very cool tool called AR media. This is an amazing plugin for Google Sketchup that allows users to visualize their 3-D models using augmented reality. You can get more information at their website:

http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/products/arplugin_su/info.php

I can see this being used for so many things in the classroom. I can't wait to spend some time testing it. You can see a demo below: