Archives: On the road

LEARN NC’s Ross White and Nick Yingling will present “Moodle at LEARN NC: Who, What, How, When, Why?” at the Career and Technical Education 2009 Summer Conference held July 21-24 in Greensboro:

Do you want to supplement your classroom with Web 2.0 tools like discussion forums and wikis? Do you teach e-Commerce I or II? Do you want to teach your course online? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to check out Moodle! LEARN NC offers a variety of opportunities for teachers to use Moodle — for professional development, for receiving curriculum from DPI, and for creating and delivering new learning opportunities to students. Come explore the new educational and collaborative possibilities Moodle has to offer.

LEARN NC’s Bobby Hobgood will present “Teaching in North Carolina: Free Web-based tools and resources to help you work smarter” at the Visiting International Faculty conference in Greensboro March 14. This presentation is appropriate for teachers of all subjects in grades K-12.

Presentation description:

Teaching is hard.  There is no script and the only thing predictable about students is their unpredictability.  LEARN NC, a program of the School of Education at UNC Chapel Hill, is your virtual assistant for working smarter and addressing the challenges of unpredictable students.  This session will not only introduce free, reviewed resources from LEARN NC, but will also give you strategies for engaging your students.  Participants will leave with a customized guide and strategies for using web-based resources to improve their teaching.   Come discover the virtual assistant that serves 30,000 educators each day!

Bobby Hobgood of LEARN NC will speak at the Western Region Education Service Alliance Virtual Summer Leadership Conference on July 14. His presentation is titled “Professional Development Online: How e-Learning Addresses the Pitfalls of the Traditional Workshop,” and will be available worldwide to attendees of this free virtual conference.

For more information or to register for the Virtual Summer Leadership Conference, please visit the conference website.

Presentation description

While school calendars and budgets create barriers to professional development opportunities for educators, online professional development courses offer solutions that meet and exceed these challenges. This session for administrators explores the advantages of virtual learning for developing professional skills and knowledge, and provides insight into how educators can take charge of their learning. Participants will have an inside look into how learning occurs in online courses and how e-Learning for Educators partners (LEARN NC, NC DPI, UNC-TV, the Friday Institute, and NCVPS) are collaborating to address the needs of educators in our state.

LEARN NC will have an exhibit at the 10th annual MEGA Showcase on Wednesday, May 6. The showcase lasts from 3:30 - 5:45 p.m. at the Friday Institute in Raleigh. Middle-school students and teachers from around North Carolina have volunteered to exhibit their multimedia and web projects. Technology renewal credits are available for teachers who participate.

LEARN NC’s Ross White will present at this year’s North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs Summit in Greensboro April 29-May 1:

Want your afterschool staff and volunteers to find everything they need to know to meet state standards? Introduce them to LEARN NC! LEARN NC has a wealth of materials for educators and students that can be integrated into your after-school program. Come discover how you can engage students in real-world activities that integrate critical information, computer and financial literacy, or lessons infused with authentic opportunities for global understanding and collaborative skills. Oh, and did we mention that it’s all free?

Bobby Hobgood and Emily Jack of LEARN NC will be presenting at the Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Conference March 31-April 1. The event will be held at the Koury Center in Greensboro. A description of their presentation is below:

Engage students using high-tech and low-tech tools for teaching visual literacy

The omnipresence of the worldwide web means that all learners must be able to understand
and process visual information. This session will offer simple pedagogical strategies for engaging students and teaching visual literacy using images from around the world — including using photograph analysis activities to teach higher-level thinking skills. With a focus on cultural literacy, we’ll share lesson plans for all grade levels and core subject areas, easy-to-use Web 2.0 tools, and even easier-to-use no-tech tools to help you guide your students in navigating this visual world.

David Walbert and Emily Jack of LEARN NC will present at the NC Association for the Gifted and Talented Conference at Marriott & Embassy Suites Hotels in Winston-Salem on March 25-27. The presentation will pertain to the use of “digital history” in the classroom, specifically LEARN NC’s digital textbook of North Carolina history. The revolutionary textbook makes primary sources and multimedia central to the learning experience, offering built-in differentiation and using interactive tools to help students learn to ask good questions.

David Walbert and Maren Wood of LEARN NC will present at the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies Conference at the Koury Center in Greensboro, which takes place February 11-13. The presentation will focus on the use of “digital history” in the classroom, specifically LEARN NC’s digital textbook of North Carolina history. The revolutionary textbook makes primary sources and multimedia central to the learning experience, offering built-in differentiation and using interactive tools to help students learn to ask good questions.

Bill Ferris and Emily Jack of LEARN NC will address middle and high school teachers in Wake County on Tuesday, December 9. During three 45-minute sessions, they will discuss what’s new, different, and useful on the LEARN NC website, including the digital textbook of North Carolina history, the multimedia library, online professional development, and Instructify.

LEARN NC will conduct several presentations at the North Carolina Middle School Association Conference in Greensboro on March 16 and 17. Presentations are as follows:

The North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project

David Walbert and Ross White

LEARN NC’s “digital textbook” for 8th-grade North Carolina history offers a new model for teaching and learning, making primary sources and multimedia central to the learning experience. Learn how to use this free online resource to inspire your students, promote inquiry, and bring the past into the twenty-first century.

Seeing the world in a new way

David Walbert and Eric Eaton, Polk Co. Middle School

Participants will explore LEARN NC’s multimedia, lesson plans, and professional resources and learn how to use them to enhance visual literacy skills while studying world cultures. We are living in an increasingly global society, and learning to look more analytically at images will help students better understand their world.

Turbocharge Your Teaching with Free Technology

Bill Ferris and Ross White

To Instructify means to find new ways to present the same old content. Or MacGyvering anything from software to Post-it notes into cutting-edge teaching tools. Learn to take advantage of countless free resources that lead to authentic, engaging learning experiences for students and more spare time for you.