iPad Summit Recaps & Reflections

After the first iPad Summit, EdTechTeacher Co-Founder, Justin Reich, made A Plea to Teachers with iPads: Make Your Practice Visible.

“If you are teaching and creating learning experiences with iPads, we really need you to share your practice online.”

In response to that post, we saw an influx of thoughtful articles. Without even issuing a call-to-action, we have started to curate some excellent reflection pieces from last week’s event. If you are writing and reflecting, we hope that you will share your work.

PBL PD: Integrating Formative Assessment, Twitter, & Brain-based Research #ettipad #ettlearns from Jill Gough

Jill wrote the following before her session at the Summit.

With the mountains of “stuff” our teachers need to learn, practice, and do, how do we get it all accomplished? How can we, the adult-learners, practice and learn while continuing our work? In other words, how do we create PBL experiences for adult-learners that teach through experience and out of isolation? ….

What if we integrate reflection and quick-writes as the down time or cognitive break as the bridge between the 2 prime-time learning episodes? What if we leverage social media – Twitter – to share learning and questions across our school to paint a picture of learning? ….

What if we check for understanding 20 minutes into class and let this check inform our practices for the rest of the learning time – the 2nd prime-time interval?…

Many teachers can’t find purpose for Twitter.  It is too much information, or they feel they have to be connected all of the time.  What if we change that? What if we use Twitter as a communication, learning, and celebration tool?

I’m going to try something different in this session.  I’m going to ask the participants to practice, to go on a learning walk and tweet and then come back and analyze the results.  Experiential learning rather than sit-n-get. (We are going to use #ettLearns in addition to #ettiPad.)

>>>Read the full post

Conference Reflections: iPad Summit Atlanta 2013 from Derrick Willard

Derrick has presented at both iPad Summits and wrote the following as a reflection on the last event.

…. Of course there were workshops where teachers could learn tips on good apps or workflows, but the most of the keynote speakers (in my opinion) dealt with creating the conditions for innovation that are necessary to have quality instruction using the device: Angela Maiers spoke about passion,Greg Kulowiec spoke about defining the problem (before using the tool), Justin Reichspoke about creating a culture for change, and Tom Daccord challenged attendees to define what learning looks like.

One keynote stands out, and that is the “Chicago Crew” (my nickname), the group of talented young educators from the National Teachers Elementary Academy in Chicago (names linked to blogs/class pages): Jennie Magiera (Digital Learning Coordinator), Autumn Laidler (Science teacher), and Anita Orozca(Director of Curriculum/Special Ed). They  once again delivered a fast-paced prezi presentation chocked full of powerful examples of transformational teaching using technology (not just iPads).

While Angela Maiers led an inspiring pep-rally on passion, these ladies modeled passionate teaching-bringing their kids into the room to explain projects with video clip interviews.  As in Boston, they shared the work of Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, who developed the SAMR modelfor selecting, using, and evaluating technology in education.  While they showed many examples of projects using the iPad and Apple apps, they always brought us back to the reason for choosing a tool and the metacognitive task the student would engage in when completing the project….

>>>Read the full post

R&R After iPad Summit from Michelle Cordy

Michelle wrote two great Recap & Reflection posts about her experiences at the iPad Summit.

The big ideas and take aways from this experience can be boiled down to:

  • The Camera is King:  Mostly people are excited about the iPads ability to take pictures and document learning.
  • Wheels are the new killer app: Classroom spaces are rigid and mobile devices are free and open. At this point, the solution seems to be wheels. I think we have much further to go.
  • Tweet Ups: staying up late is worth it, even if you have to present the next day.
  • What Happens on the iPad Stays on the iPad: Everyone’s biggest problem is safely and easily sharing content.
  • 1:1 iPads but not 1:1 Programming: Many are going 1:1, but we are a long way from personalized learning. When will we get to 1:1 interest based programming that’s the perfect fit for each kid? How might we approach this model?
  • Apps, Apps, Apps: We all love to say it’s not about the Apps, but the minute you throw up an app in a presentation, everybody’s head goes down and people start searching/downloading.
  • Thought Leadership: Greg Garner @classroom_tech gave me this phrase and it felt good to have a name for the type of workshop I was going for. He’s a clever lad! I loved my experience, but I would have enjoyed more sessions that were pushing big ideas and less on button pushing.

>>>Read both posts on her blog

10 Reasons Why My APPetite Was Satiated at the iPad Summit Atlanta from Courtney Pepe

1- Day One Keynote – Angela Maiers set the tone for the conference by talking about the “killer APP of the 21st century being love.” … This theme was evident throughout the conference. Not only could you feel the synergy within the individual rooms but the collective running stream of consciousness of #ettipad posts on Twitter throughout the conference showed us just how brilliant the room can be.

2- Fluid Math Presentation- … After hearing my colleagues who teach AP Calculus groan and moan that all of the math APPS on the iPad are geared towards the elementary level I final have something to silence them. This APP will drastically change the way that math is taught in high school classrooms all over the world.

3- SAMR Cheer- As part of the session that I led on iPads being a game changer in the lives of my at-risk students, I talked about the SAMR model. I led the crowd in the SAMR cheer – there is something very passion stirring when you are leading a room full of educators in a shout out to Ruben P. Imagine my delight when I found out he will be joining us in Boston in November.

4- Day One Lunch Time Keynote with Greg Kulowiec- … golden nuggets from his lunch chat “The iPad in school is like putting a jet engine on a stagecoach. We’re adding the best of the new to an old paradigm.” “Don’t go into APP overload…” “Focus on the VERBS and not the nouns!” and “Is collaboration something that we only give lip service to?” Greg’s presentations always connect to the big ideas and overarching implications of all that we do in education.

5- Bring on the Bling- Smita Kolhatkar and Carolyn Tuomy showed as all the fabulous ways that their elementary students are using APPS. It increased all of our APPetities.

6- Day 2 Keynote – A keynote with the South Side Chicago girls who killed it. My personal highlight was when one them talked about redefinition being the “milk and cookies” of the SAMR model. This Chicago team inspired as a whole and they went on to lead individual session about their specific content areas throughout the rest of the day.

7- I had the pleasure of attending a workshop taught by Reshan Richards… He spoke about qualitative formative assessment. This session helped shift my philosophy about formative assessment. I realized that most of the formative assessment that I do is quantitative and starting Monday I am going to challenge myself to gather more qualitative pre-assessment data in order to fully triangulate my practice as an educator.

8- … Reshan had me participate as a volunteer Brady girl to show the magic of Explain Everything then we broke up into groups and were given a differentiated task to complete in the EE app. Kudos to Reshan for getting his audience up out our chairs and actively engaged in the learning process.

9- In his lunchtime Keynote Tom Daccord made my head spin. He introduced the concept of Augmented Reality with apps like Layer and Aurasma… As I tweeted in the session this technology makes QR codes look like a VCR. I already found a way to use the technology to make my Hanging w/Mrs. Pepe at the iPad Summit QR Code Bumper Stickers turn into a video of people boxing!!! Talk about something that will throw my students into a state of cognitive dissonance. Shout out to Tom Daccord thank so much for your “creative agency.”

10- It a pleasure to end the conference listening to my fellow ADE Class of 2013 Michelle Cordy speak passionately about the concept of the iPads: Meaning, Participation, and Democracy. She eloquently speaks about a paradigm shift in education: “I don’t teach content anymore I teach context.” On a more humorous note she asked us to use our “crap detection” powers when we work with technology….

>>>Read the full post on her blog

In the beginning from Michelle Odell

Michelle has now written two fantastic posts, the paragraphs below came at the end of her first reflection piece.

I just returned from EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in Atlanta. What an amazing event! I didn’t know what to expect from it. As a matter of fact, I had begun to doubt whether I should attend at all.

I arrived tired, stressed, rushed, and more than a little overworked. I was uninspired and struggling to deal with the fact that my job had evolved so that I wasn’t doing what I had envisioned and been hired to do as a school leader in curriculum and instruction. I frequently described my work-self has having “one nostril above water”.  I never got to what I believe is the important work I should be doing.

I’m so glad I attended! I came away with a new fire for innovation in education. I was inspired by the educators in my midst who shared the same vision and passion that I have. My cup was empty. Now it is full! What a delightful blessing! I’m on fire to go to work tomorrow and do the work I am meant to do!

The conference inspired me to embrace and cultivate several new ideas. It reminded me that I’d been skipping some very important aspects to staying motivated and innovative in my work. It has lead to dozens of new ideas, tons of new knowledge, and several new goals.

One of those new goals is to make a conscious effort to reflect. This means scheduling time for reflection. Matt Cutts has a fabulous TedTalk about trying something new for 30 days. Blogging isn’t new to me, but I haven’t done it in years. I miss the reflection. My goal is to blog every day for the next 30 days about something from the iPad Summit. Perhaps it will be about a new App or an inspiring session. Perhaps it will simply be about a new idea the the Summit inspired. Perhaps it will be about something new I try or a frustration I have. The point is, I’m going to make a conscious effort to reflect for the next 30 days. You will likely also hear about some new ideas I’ve put in motion as a result of the Summit.

>>>Read more of Michelle’s reflections

iPad Summit Nuggets – from Lisa Johnson

Lisa gives a great set of “take-aways”:

  1. Always be Prepared for the Unexpected
  2. Collaboration is Key
  3. Go Paperless with a Dropbox of Images
  4. Thread Content and Online Collaboration
  5. Showcase Student Work
  6. There’s An App for That!
  7. Why Students Create Learning Portfolios
  8. Connecting and Building your PLN

>>>Read more at TechChef4U

As more reflections are posted, we will share them in our Weekly Resources post on Friday. Thanks again to all who have contributed!


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