Vermont Fest 2013

As always, the Vermont Fest educational technology conference had a lot to offer this year and I've come away with some great ideas to share.

Some take-aways:

• Q: How can we share students' digital work like we do physical artifacts (posters, 3-D objects, etc.)?  A:  Make a poster with a QR code on it.  Scanning the QR code with a smart phone brings up the digital work.  Great idea for parent-teacher conference time-- let parents see what their kids are doing in the digital realm!
• Lots of schools going 1-to-1 in some form or another.  Wifi is key.  Some schools are also looking at BYOD ("bring your own device") models.
• Video is powerful.  Give kids a decent-quality camera and ask them to tell a story or learn about and report on their community.  Students who may not love writing can surprise you when given the chance to show learning in a different way. 
• It's not the tool-- it's the learning.  We know that, of course.  But it always helps to be reminded.

Interested in what you missed? Most presenters (including yours truly) shared their resources here.

 I did a presentation entitled "How not to ruin a presentation with technology" (with help from the art deparment!) that I'd love to come into your classes and present.

OK, my notes (I'd be happy to share more if these are too cryptic.  Use the link above to see the actual resources):

REEL History

Matt Henchen

Civics teacher, Harwood Union

Kids need to be media savvy

Two Stories

Tanner’s story—his 10-year old son.  Hates to write. Tech honors multiple intelligences.

Use of voxpop = ask a diverse set of people the same question.

Kids speak through media.

Powerful video of students interviewing a homeless man.

Power of the media to bring people together who wouldn’t otherwise.

Place-based learning.   What are local places you could use?

iPhone 5s has slow-motion camera; use earbuds as unidirectrional mics

Augmented Reality

Tarrant Institute
Similar to putting up QR codes, but the "code" is the object itself.

Aurasma-- iOS app for creating augmented reality experiences. Recognizes the image and displays resources overlayed.

Science Fair idea-- physical object with additional digital components.

Tech tips top 40

Common Sense media has added Graphite for searching.

A Fair(y) Use Tail-  uses Disney clips.

Get Creative.

BYOD
Gregory Connors- Rutland City Schools
Students bring their own devices and register them.
Complements 1-to-1. Not an expectation.
Info here.

Chrome Ninja

Jean Campbell, MMU HS

Showed extensions and apps

Nice extensions-

Send by Gmail

ScreenCapture

Diigo, etc.

Nice apps-

Loupe photo collage

WeVideo

LucidChart are all added to their Google Drive.

picMonkey

App development
Lucie Delabriere

Creativisy is not enough—need grit!

Make it social.

Programmer vs programmed-- kids should be "makers."

Buzztouch demo (tool for creating mobile apps-- iOS and Android)

Xcode for mac

Eclipse for android

When 1-2-1 and BYOD Merge

Luis Bango—Woodstock MS and HS

385 students in HS

Many devices on the network

350 school-issued netbooks on campus

iPad labs (20 in world languages)

6 technology interns

Spent a year “doing HW” to prepare for 1-2-1.

MS teachers helped the HS teachers get ready when 1-2-1 came to 9th grade.

Machines don’t go home.  Charge them during lunch.  Gets through the day.

Why don’t they go home? Couldn’t pay warranty.  Wanted to be sure they were there every day.  Didn’t want them in kids’ backpacks (sports teams).

Used Digital Wish chart for planning 1-2-1.