{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":163,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1349368821,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"A look at how Google Earth can foster empathy and broaden students' world view","Handle":"How_Google_Earth_fosters_empathy_and_broadens_students-world_view","ShortDescription":"You've seen Google Earth, and maybe even used it yourself; but have your students used it to develop empathy with world events they study? Together, we will learn how to make Google Earth place marks that students (and teachers) can use to make multi-disciplinary connections about the world.","Description":"This presentation will make the case that everyone should be using Google Earth as a sort of digital journal. You can easily make place marks that record (and reflect upon) the people and places we learn about in the world.\r\n\r\nI started making Google Earth place marks four years ago. When I read a news article or have an interesting conversation with a person from a place I'm not familiar with, I make a place mark.\r\n\r\nI now have more than 1,200 place marks. This practice has made me more empathetic and more globally aware. \r\n\r\nFor example, I had an \"aha\" moment when I looked up where Paul Ryan was from in Wisconsin (Janesville) and learned that his home town is located less than 60 miles from the Sikh temple shooting just outside Milwaukee in August 2012.\r\n\r\nImagine having middle school students make place marks for 10 stories a week.  Multiple that by 30+ weeks per year for three years, and students would enter high school with a journal of more than 1,000 place marks.  More importantly, the practice of reading the news on a daily basis would provide them with a global context that will serve them extremely well in high school and beyond. For more details, see http:\/\/wiltoday.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/10\/typical-morning-at-tlc\/","Link":["http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LAx7vcOF9jM","https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1U7JdOI8XZ7GNqHiH108D7t9dwPd_Z8NU0vNK2QV-8PY\/edit"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"After a brief demonstration of how to make Google Earth place marks, each participant will create at least two Google Earth place marks, each of which could be used to tell your students a story when you get back from EduCon.\r\n\r\n\r\n(see the website below for a 6-minute video showing Google Earth in action)\r\n\r\n\r\nGoogle Earth is a great storytelling tool, and after we each learn to make a few place marks, we will each share one of our place marks -- and the story that goes with the place mark -- in small groups.\r\n\r\n\r\nWe will spend the remainder of our time together thinking about applications for Google Earth at *your* school. The expectation is that the conversation will continue as we find and share new applications in our various schools throughout 2013. We will record the start of the conversation in a shared Google Doc, and we can share further insights about how to learn with Google Earth using the #GElearn hashtag.\r\n\r\n\r\n(the second website link below will take you to the shared Google Doc)","Presenter":["Steve Goldberg"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Triangle Learning Community middle school in Durham","NC"],"PresenterEmail":["Steve@Trianglearning.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":270,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352670680,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Care For vs. Care About: Creating the Ethic of Care","Handle":"Care_For_vs-Care_About:Creating_the_Ethic_of_Care","ShortDescription":"At SLA, the Ethic of Care is central to the way we treat our students and each other. But what does that look like in practice?","Description":"At SLA, the Ethic of Care is central to the way we treat our students and each other. But what does that look like in practice? As educators, how do we make sure that the students we teach come first, and not the subject? How do we create and sustain an environment where students are supported and cared for while honoring the structure necessary for a school to function?","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This conversation, led by the principal and two teachers, will address the successes and challenges of implementing the Ethic of Care at every level of a school's operations, from daily classroom interactions to the strategic design of school policies and operations. Participants will be invited to share stories from their own learning environments in order to examine how they too can \"care for\" instead of \"care about.\"","Presenter":["Chris Lehmann","Pia Martin","Larissa Pahomov"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["pmartin@scienceleadership.org","lpahomov@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xpv-wpGW2Wo","ConferenceID":2},{"ID":235,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351814191,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Entrepreneurship in Education","Handle":"Entrepreneurship_in_Education","ShortDescription":"","Description":"This conversation will engage participants in a discussion about how to facilitate perseverance, professionalism, confidence, courage and creativity among their students. We will discuss out use of entrepreneurial learning opportunities, inquiry-based methods and personal learning plans to help students discover their passions. The result is a reflective, collaborative, innovative student who makes influential contributions to the learning environment and local communities.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Interactive group discussions as well as sharing teaching practices and student work.","Presenter":["Iris Hammel","Analiese Smith"],"PresenterAffiliation":["LIFE Charter School"],"PresenterEmail":["ihammel@hartlake.org","asmith@hartlake.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":8,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":220,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351734931,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Gain by Giving Up: Beyond Zero Sum Schedules","Handle":"Gain_by_Giving_Up:Beyond_Zero_Sum_Schedules","ShortDescription":"Behind every scheduling conflict lies the assumption that academic scheduling is a zero-sum game. We reject that notion, and the tug of war mentality that pits science against humanities against arts. Join a group of educators committed to improving personal and academic learning through flexible structures and student choice.","Description":"We are classroom teachers, librarians, learning specialists, and teaching coaches, and we\u2019re constantly frustrated by the pre-portioned TV-Dinner approach to scheduling and curriculum. Asserting that the 45 minute period doesn\u2019t help students is nothing new, but it persists as the primary tool schools use to achieve equity for diverse subjects.  Our claim is that longer, less structured periods of cross disciplinary learning and exploration are not only better for student learning and engagement, but they have tangible and observable benefits for all subjects and classes.  This is not just that students learn more from these open-ended projects, but that when given the opportunity for this sort of learning they learn and perform better in traditional classes as well.\r\nThis conversation will present evidence and anecdotes from our broad experience and from other Educon participants. Materials and stories will be collected and shared on our blogs and via #NoZeroSum. Our session building a repertoire of repeatable experiments and best practices. If this assertion is correct, that students with access to open learning environments also perform better on traditional modes of assessment, then a compiled source of examples and information will help teachers everywhere make changes in their own environments.","Link":["http:\/\/breakthebell.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Contribute ideas and reflections to breakthebell.com directly or via your own posts tagged with #BreakTheBell.  The goal is to bring in our library of experience, and then open a conversation space to add to those stories and support educators in their own #breakthebell experiments.","Presenter":["Andrew Carle","Jodi Kittle","Melissa Scott","Carey Pohanka","Melanie Barker"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Flint Hill (Oakton","VA)","St. Christopher's School (Richmond","VA)","Collegiate School (Richmond","VA)"],"PresenterEmail":["mbarker@collegiate-va.org","pohankac@stchristophers.org","acarle@flinthill.org","jkittle@flinthill.org","mscott@flinthill.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":4,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Find all of our resources and continue the conversation at breakthebell.com.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":272,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1354890411,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Leadership & School Cultures that Effectively Support 21st Century Learning","Handle":"Leadership-School_Cultures_that_Effectively_Support_21st_Century_Learning","ShortDescription":"While policies are an essential tool for managing technologies, effective leaders nurture school cultures that promote and exercise a vision for conscientious innovation with new learning technologies.  Come discuss how to develop school cultures where stakeholders share a vision of meaningful technology integration to support 21st Century learning and examine U.S and Singaporean systems where school administrators provide structured support to develop institutional capacity for systemic reform.","Description":"","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Tom Daccord","Patrick Larkin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["."],"PresenterEmail":["tom@edtechteacher.org","larkin@bpsk12.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":170,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1350586021,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Qualitative formative assessment: Letting the ideal learning environment dictate the tools","Handle":"Qualitative_Formative_Assessment:letting_the_ideal_learning_environment_dictate_the_tools","ShortDescription":"Emerging technologies open new doors for teaching and learning. Too often, these tools are used to repackage traditional ways of doing things instead of transforming instructional approaches. This conversation focuses on emerging tools that leverage teachers' ability to meaningfully assess student understanding and help achieve learning goals.","Description":"The primary focus of this conversation is qualitative formative assessment of student understanding. In an ideal world, teachers would have the ability to facilitate 1-on-1 (or 1-on-few) conversations with each student on an ongoing basis in order to see where they are in the learning and to adapt and adjust instruction to best suit their needs. How can we leverage emerging technologies to facilitate this kind of relationship?\r\n\r\nBefore integrating any educational technology tools, it is important to anchor an exploration for the given learning environment. Learning goals, instruction and assessment, tools and resources: these are three major components of any classroom activity, lesson, project, or unit. But which is driving which in your teaching environment? In the current day and age it is easy to let the tools drive curriculum, instruction, and assessment while losing sight of the things that matter most \u2013 the learning goals.\r\n\r\nWe'll start with a quick 'checking for understanding' activity. Be prepared to think and to do. \r\n\r\nWe'll shift our focus towards solution-finding by connecting learning and assessment goals of interest to instructional practices supported by technology using a simple framework that can support qualitative formative assessment: create, curate, & publish.\r\n\r\nBy the end of the day (not necessarily by the end of the session), we will have constructed a curated resource of goals, approaches, and tools that can be referenced beyond the conference.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1aORlWtWLJaQ2HCOjEvJZtLmO4hPtf8W9xDZOji9dgtY\/edit","http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Reshanrichards\/educon2013","http:\/\/www.constructivisttoolkit.com","http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/reshanrichards","http:\/\/www.explaineverything.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Link to collaborative workspace is below. Organized chaos. Rapid Fire Conversations. Prepare to think and to share! Outline: Opening Activity; Brief Introduction & Overview; Breakout conversations (Goals, Approaches, Tech).","Presenter":["Reshan Richards"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montclair Kimberley Academy | Teachers College","Columbia University | ExplainEverything"],"PresenterEmail":["rbr17@columbia.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":5,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Reshan is the Director of Educational Technology at Montclair Kimberley Academy in NJ, a doctoral student in Instructional Technology & Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the creator of Explain Everything for iPad.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":152,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1348242348,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Reflecting on Reflection","Handle":"Reflecting_on_Reflection","ShortDescription":"On the whole, strong teachers tend to be reflective practitioners. There is research showing that reflecting is an important skill towards improving as a teacher. Accepting that, how do we become better at reflecting and how do we help new and pre-service teachers do the same?","Description":"For more than a decade I have been working with pre-service teachers in a partnership with our local university. In recent years a professor and I have begun researching ways to support these interns as they reflect on their professional experiences. I will briefly share our research and findings before guiding conversations around how and why teachers currently reflect, types of reflection, and ways to increase and improve reflection. This conversation will be one piece of ongoing research we are doing about the importance of reflection for teachers.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1RsnthLHnCSZTTt3uY7NHkIKnFl6k09rGc3WKNYKooPA\/edit"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After a brief introduction to give background on current research, we will focus small group conversations on specific questions\/topics which will be shared during the session and recorded in a google doc.","Presenter":["Jennifer Orr"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Annandale Terrace Elementary School"],"PresenterEmail":["jaorr@fcps.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":262,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352217523,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Students as Teachers: SLA's Student Assistant Teacher Program","Handle":"Students_as_Teachers:SLA-s_Student_Assistant_Teacher_Program","ShortDescription":"Science Leadership Academy's Student Assistant Teaching program has grown exponentially over the last four years. Come to a student and teacher-led workshop on creating and implementing a similar program in your schools!","Description":"Science Leadership Academy's Student Assistant Teaching program has grown exponentially over the last four years. Come to an interactive student and teacher-led workshop on creating and implementing a similar program in your schools! The Student Assistant Teaching (SAT) Program is a chance for Senior SLA students to work with 9th and 10th (sometimes 11th) grade students in SLA classrooms. SLA teachers serve as co-operating teachers.  Seniors have elected into this program and have an interest in teaching and learning.  This program has been a great way for Seniors to take leadership, serve as role models to, and connect with underclassmen in myriad ways thereby, enriching and supporting their classroom experiences.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"This session is a workshop format, with student and teacher panelists to help the conversation along.","Presenter":["Alexa Klein Dunn & Joshua Block"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["adunn@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":203,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351653055,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Stuffed Hamburgers and Trash Aquariums: Developing Creative Habits of Mind In and Out of the Classroom","Handle":"Stuffed_Hamburgers_and_Trash_Aquariums:Developing_Creative_Habits_of_Mind_In_and_Out_of_the_Classroom","ShortDescription":"Are you passionate about joyful learning? We believe creativity can be learned, practiced and applied to solve problems. Join us to participate in collaborative (and introvert-friendly) activities to amplify the joy in your classrooms using design thinking-inspired methods ... and Play-Doh!","Description":"How might young people make more healthful eating choices? How might a school community reduce the amount of trash it generates? How might a student body strengthen its sense of community? How might a school reinvent its \u201clost and found\u201d experience? Design thinking is a methodology for creative problem-solving that can be applied to many questions, large and small. Conventional solutions to the questions above might involve rewards or punishments, but designers learn to reserve judgement and generate solutions based on empathy, observation and insight. What if a child had a plush hamburger to remind her about healthful eating habits? What if a school confronted its garbage in a public \u201caquarium,\u201d instead of discarding it privately? Design thinking is unique because it challenges us to propose solutions that respond to how people actually feel and behave.\r\n\r\nWe teach and facilitate design activities in three very different school environments. Together, we propose a session full of creative provocations and challenges that will both introduce participants to the design thinking process as well as develop new ideas for what creative problem-solving can look like in schools.  Mary Cantwell is the Coordinator for Design Thinking at Mount Vernon, where she inspires DEEP thinking experiences with both students and faculty alike. Shelley Paul is the Coordinator of Teaching and Learning at Woodward Academy, where she incites and supports learning innovation. Christina Jenkins teaches design methods and many other things at the NYC iSchool, a public high school in New York City.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"This session presents a series of short challenges designed to engage participants in aspects of the design process. Everyone will leave with newfound creative confidence and a physical deck of cards featuring design provocations, and we will work together on generating new ideas with an emphasis on practice.\r\n\r\n(10 min) We will begin with a brief overview of our own perspectives, and stories about what design looks like in our practice. We will move to a series of activities meant to introduce participants to the major modes of the DEEP design thinking process (Discover, Empathize, Experiment, Produce). In each mode, we will engage in exercises that are meant to stimulate thinking in specific ways, and will reflect at each step about how these activities can be used independently or together in various situations.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Discover: In the discover mode, participants will begin with a speed dating exercise meant to facilitate introductions and allow for rapid conversation. Conversations concerning school and community problems will give participants starting points for where a design thinking challenge can be found in their own backyard.\r\n\r\n(15 min) Empathize: In the empathize mode, participants will cultivate empathy and understanding through needfinding and interviewing, and we will practice by creating gifts that respond to a partner\u2019s weakness! We\u2019ll pair off and discuss what we\u2019d each like to improve on, and participants will invent imaginary solutions for each other. Understanding user need is vital in the design thinking process.\r\n\r\n(25 min) Experiment: In the experiment mode, participants will work collaboratively to brainstorm unusual solutions to problems presented in selected photographs, and will develop physical prototypes of those solutions using play-doh, pipe cleaners, and other fun objects. In this phase, designers practice creative brainstorming, consider questions that sound like \u201cHow might we reimagine the _____ experience?,\u201d and experience low-res, rapid prototyping.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Produce: In the produce mode, participants will share their prototype, collect feedback from their colleagues, and incorporate that feedback into a second iteration of their work. Designers rely on this phase to make sure that their solutions are truly responsive to user needs.\r\n\r\n(10 min) Reflection: We\u2019ll conclude the workshop with a time to reflect on the session. We\u2019ll provide postcards and invite participants to write themselves a \u201cDear Me\u201d note that includes their own thoughts \/ inspiration from the session, and we will stamp and mail those postcards back to their classrooms a week later as a reminder of our process together.","Presenter":["Christina Jenkins","Mary Cantwell","Shelley Paul"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NYC iSchool","Mount Vernon","Woodward Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["jenkins.christina@gmail.com","mcantwell75@gmail.com","shelley.paul@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":265,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352219862,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Place of I-Thou Dialogue in the 21st Century Classroom","Handle":"The_Place_of_I-Thou_Dialogue_in_the_21st_Century_Classroom","ShortDescription":"This conversation looks at the intersection of technology and the development of human-centered classrooms.","Description":"At EduCon we are bombarded with great ideas of how to integrate technology in our classrooms. This conversation invites participants to sit back for a moment to consider how the intersection of technology and learning interacts with the fundamental pedagogical relationship between teacher and student. The context for this conversation is Marin Buber\u2019s \u201cI and Thou\u201d from which we will explore how technology might interfere and possibly potentiate the creation of the type of dynamic learning environment that creates real connection between people. Knowledge of Buber\u2019s theory of \u201cI and Thou\u201d would be helpful to participate in this conversation but is not necessary.","Link":["https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1Hxh7kgsjQlTVe09zmeArO6Jfhvx26yd-1O5f7lHyUh4\/edit"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"There is little to present here apart from some basics of the Buber's theory. This workshop literally is a conversation with an attempt to have the interactions model the type of environment that produces the type of authenticity that Buber exposes.","Presenter":["Matthew C. Baird"],"PresenterAffiliation":["SLA"],"PresenterEmail":["mbaird@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":254,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351828543,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Utopian School: If you build it, will they come?","Handle":"The_Utopian_School:If_you_build_it-will_they_come","ShortDescription":"I've oft wondered what \"school\" would look like if I were able to gather my PLN all in one spot and build from scratch. What would change and how would it affect all involved parties? There are no sacred cows here. Join me in this opportunity to design out loud.","Description":"We decry the misrepresentation of our education system by the politicians every year. Our hard work is generally turned into a few failing statistics on the national stage with no opportunity to refute them with how we feel reform should really look. Instead, we keep our heads low and pray for the election to come and go so that much of the negative press passes us by and gives us a little breathing room to move on with the important work: educating students. \r\n\r\nLet's pretend for a minute that government is going to keep its nose out of our school. What will we do then? \r\n\r\nThis session will offer attendees the opportunity to put all of their grandiose ideas for the learning system of their dreams into the middle of a much larger conversation. The discussion will center around a blank canvas creating the \"utopian\" school that participants long for.","Link":["http:\/\/utopiaschool.wikispaces.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Centered on a modified Best Ever Constructivist Protocol. \r\n\r\nA Driving Question will be shared to generate the direction and categories for needed changes. These major categories will be decided by the group. Then, the larger group will be asked to break into smaller, more concentrated groups to build out the categories with details needed to create direction for that area. Participants select the area of their interest and strength. Each of the smaller groups will be asked to decide a Driving Question for its topic. They will spend their work time negotiating possible ways to answer that driving question while documenting their work in a wiki. Virtual participants will also be invited to collaborate. \r\n\r\nWhile 90 minutes will not even come close to reforming the entire system, the hope is that it will create a starting point for discussions and a resource that educators everywhere can utilize in making decisions locally to improve their own education systems. \r\n\r\nGroups will be creating within a blank wiki so that it is truly a unique and collaborative piece created by educators that can continue to be built upon and referred back to.","Presenter":["Scott S. Floyd"],"PresenterAffiliation":["White Oak Independent School District"],"PresenterEmail":["floyds@woisd.net"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":237,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351815438,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Using Digital Texts as Mentors to Improve Student Writing (And Our Own!)","Handle":"Using_Digital_Texts_as_Mentors_to_Improve_Student_Writing-And_Our_Own","ShortDescription":"In this workshop, we will explore the use of digital texts as teaching tools when students write.  We\u2019ll study texts that swirl across the digital landscape\u2014TV, film, music, commercials, web content\u2014and use them as teaching tools, finding ways to improve our students\u2019 and our own writing.","Description":"In this workshop, we will explore the use of digital mentor texts as teaching tools when students write.  We\u2019ll study texts that swirl across the digital landscape\u2014TV, film, music, commercials, web content\u2014and use them as teaching tools, finding ways to improve our students\u2019 and our own writing.  \r\n\r\nThis writing workshop-style conversation is designed to cover all styles of writing\u2014narrative, informational and argument.  We will view different types of media and then develop a list of writing strategies that accompany each digital text.  For instance, how, exactly, does the soundtrack to Jaws build tension for an audience? Then, as writers, we\u2019ll find ways to accomplish some of the same techniques in our writing.  For example, what tools can fiction writers use to develop tension? \r\n\r\nWe will study examples of student work that attempt some of this digital mentor text work.  Above all, we, as a spontaneous writing group, will try some of these writing strategies in our own writing, too.  So bring along your writing notebook or a digital space to write in and try working with digital texts with a supportive community!  We will create opportunities to share our writing with each other, as well as brainstorm additional ways to incorporate digital mentor texts into our classrooms.","Link":["http:\/\/kateandmaggie.wordpress.com\/"],"Audience":["Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"This workshop is designed to mirror a writing workshop.  This conversation will take the shape of a writing workshop, where participants have opportunities to write together and share their writing and process.","Presenter":["Maggie Beattie Roberts"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Reading & Writing Project","Teachers College"],"PresenterEmail":["maggiebeattieroberts@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thank you for your consideration!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":241,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351821362,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Video Production and Social Media: A Powerful Combination","Handle":"Video_Production_and_Social_Media:A_Powerful_Combination","ShortDescription":"This conversation will focus on the benefits of integrating social media into school film production programs.  Examples of new media projects as well as simple tips for creating and sharing student films online will be included. We\u2019ll also discuss how publishing student work online helps build essential media literacy skills.","Description":"Digital film and media production can be highly engaging classes for students across all grade levels. However, simply creating digital multi-media projects is only half of the equation. Students need the opportunity to share their projects with an authentic audience using the web. Sharing student created media and film projects online should be an essential element of any film program. If we expect students to be critical consumers of digital mass media, they must have the opportunity to create and share their own media online. Sharing is just as important as creating. Publishing media for an authentic audience provides students with vital motivation and purpose. The use of social media also helps students become more efficient in the collaborative work they do crafting their multi-media messages and projects.\r\n\r\nAs we all know, many kids today are creating and sharing all sorts of media online outside of school. However, we are not teaching students how to go about responsibly sharing media online. Students need to understand the basic rules that apply to the media they are creating and sharing both in and out of the classroom. In this conversation we will share our own experiences both creating and sharing digital media in our middle school and high school classrooms. Part of our session will also be a film production workshop that will allow participants to film and upload short clips of video about ideas and issues relevant to our discussion. Bring your own device or use one of ours.","Link":["http:\/\/capfilm.blogspot.com\/","http:\/\/gunstontv.blogspot.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Our session will be both a conversation and a mini film production workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to film and upload short video clips during the session about topics relevant to our discussion. This will be a short but compelling video project that showcases how fun and powerful video can be, especially when combined with social media.","Presenter":["George Mayo","Harry Costner"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Montgomery County Public Schools (Silver Spring","MD.)","Arlington Public Schools (Arlington","VA.)"],"PresenterEmail":["George_Mayo@mcpsmd.org","harry.costner@apsva.us"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":"Thanks!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":268,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1352553737,"CreatorID":1,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Why School?:  What's Our Enduring Value?","Handle":"Dear_George:So_You-ve_Got-4_Billion_to_Give_Away-We_Can_Help_With_That","ShortDescription":"I think we all agree that the Web is creating amazing new opportunities to learn for kids of all ages. But the challenges to \"school\" are profound. Now that much of what we used to come to school to learn is in a bajillion places online, what changes? What are the enduring values and experiences of this thing we call \"school\" now that content information and learning are everywhere? It the question for our times.","Description":"Seymour Papert wrote in Mindstorms \"It is an open question whether [schools] will adapt by transforming themselves into something new or wither away and be replaced.\" This session will grapple with that question. Can we create a more modern frame for schools that captures that transformation that Papert suggests? What is that \"something new\"? Let's spend 90 minutes or so crafting a larger vision of schooling, one that blends the realities of the modern world with the best of progressive thinking around education. One that we can take to the world as a guidepost for local discussions around change.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Argument, group counseling, things that stick, manifesto-like thinking, free drink coupons on United Airlines for the first five attendees, serious conversation, angst, a sense of accomplishment, group hugs. (Not necessarily in that order.)","Presenter":["Will Richardson"],"PresenterAffiliation":[],"PresenterEmail":["will@willrichardson.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":1,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2},{"ID":192,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1351539375,"CreatorID":62,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Yearners versus Schoolers*: Will we ever get to a tipping point in math education?","Handle":"Yearners_versus_Schoolers-:Will_we_ever_get_to_a_tipping_point_in_math_education","ShortDescription":"Seymour Papert, Clay Christensen, Salman Khan and others believe we can reach what Malcolm Gladwell calls a tipping point in education when emerging technologies make dramatic increases in teaching and learning achievement possible. This discussion session will focus on this possibility for math education.","Description":"My consciousness of the debate about school reform in math education began in the late 1960s and that debate continues unabated to this day. On one side are the \u201cSchoolers\u201d who believe that schools the way they are currently organized are fine, but just need some tweaking to function better. On the other side are the \u201cYearners\u201d who believe only in dramatic change that needs to become more student driven and project based, especially with regard to math curriculum.  Ronald Wolk in \u201cWasting Minds\u201d suggests that the solution is to leave the public schools to the reform-minded \u201cSchoolers\u201d and in addition to maintaining public schools in their current form for those who prefer it, a second, parallel strategy be developed where charter-like schools can experiment with alternative organizational strategies. This is particularly needed in math education because the \u201cRoyal Roads\u201d to Calculus and Algebra continue to be gatekeepers. Speaking as a card-carrying Yearner\/schooler composite, I believe this \u201cone path fits all\u201d should not be forced upon all students. Assuming that schooling should provide for the unique talents of all students, how could we make our math goals better fit the needs of all our students? Is there a middle ground for Yearner and Schoolers? What might that look like in your school?\r\n\r\nTo help set the stage for this session read Seymour Papert's opening chapter of his book Children's Machine (link below.)\r\n\r\n*Terms coined by Seymour Papert in his book \u201cThe Children's Machine.\u201d","Link":["http:\/\/dmcpress.org\/confs\/educon25\/","http:\/\/climeconnections.blogspot.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School"],"Practice":"What? So What? Now What?","Presenter":["ihor Charischak"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Council for Technology in Math Education - CLIME"],"PresenterEmail":["ihor@clime.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":9,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":62,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":2}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":2,"ScheduleSlotID":9},"total":15,"limit":false,"offset":false}