Instructify

BY DAN FROELICH

As many of our readers know, the 2011 NCTIES conference will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina March 2-4 at the Raleigh Convention Center. For those of you who don’t know, NCTIES (North Carolina Technology in Education Society) is the North Carolina affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education, and is the state’s leading educational technology organization.

The annual conference is more than just a series of workshops and concurrent sessions. It’s a phenomenal opportunity to network with educational technology leaders across the state, a showcase of success stories, and an opportunity to celebrate our peers through awards, grants, and scholarships.

This year’s conference will feature seven featured speakers, including Ruston Hurley, Patrick Crispen, Leslie Fisher, Kevin Honeycutt, Kathy Schrock, David Warlick, and Tammy Worcester. In addition to these keynotes, NCTIES will have eight concurrent session time slots, seven technology fairs, an exciting exhibit hall, workshops, and a celebration to top off the 40th anniversary of NCTIES.

For those not able to attend this year’s conference, make sure you follow NCTIES on Twitter, as well as conference updates via the #NCTIES11 hashtag. The conversation has already begun. Want to see what sessions are being presented? Check out the conference wiki. It’s a complete guide to all of the sessions (too many to count). Dig deep enough and you’ll find sessions presented by many LEARN NC staff members. I myself will be there presenting the hot topic of mobile course processes using current technologies with Mike Shumake of NCVPS.

Barbara Moose, NCTIES President, is eagerly anticipating this year’s conference. When asked more about it, she said, “My conference thoughts revolve around three Rs this year — relationships, reconnecting, and remembering. For me, this conference has always been about relationships.Reconnecting with colleagues (educators and exhibitors) from across North Carolina is one of my favorite things about the NCTIES Conference. I only see some of them face to face during this time and it is exciting to be able to catch up with them and learn from them. This year we have invited leaders who have served NCTIES (formerly NCAECT) over the past 40 years to be our honored guests as we remember their contributions to NC educators and this organization.”

2011 NCTIES conference

BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Ahh, another day, another useful application with a nonsensical name. If you’re a visual learner like me, if you want to learn how to do something, you want to see how it’s done. In the realm of computers, this often means screen sharing. Enter Mikogo, a free-to-use, downloadable application for sharing your screen between up to ten people.

Mikogo’s interface is intuitive, works for both Mac and Windows machines, and best of all, it allows you to record the session for later viewing. The only real drawback I see is that there is no microphone support, so if you want to talk during the screen sharing, you’ll either need to have conduct a conference call, or rely on a separate piece of communication software such as Skype. That said, if you’re looking for a simple-to-use screen sharing application, Mikogo could be exactly the answer.

Mikogo

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BY BILL FERRIS

LEARN NC’s Fall Interactive Conference will take place Thursday, October 14. I’ll be presenting a workshop with Jason in the morning, as well as a session on technology integration in the afternoon. The face-to-face-only morning session is full (boo!) but there are lots of seats left for the online afternoon sessions (woo!). Go ahead and register (it’s free), or read the full conference agenda here.

Registration is open to everybody, so don’t feel left out if you don’t live in North Carolina. FYI, registration closes October 7.

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LEARN NC Fall Interactive Conference is October 14

LEARN NC, Instructify’s parent organization, will hold its Fall Interactive Conference on Thursday, October 14. All the face-to-face seats have been spoken for, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be left out. You can still participate virtually. There will be a live, moderated Q & A, so you can ask questions and interact with presenters and LEARN NC staff.

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BY DAN FROELICH

With the budget issues that have plagued schools over the past two years, educators have found themselves without opportunities to attend education conferences. Sadly, they miss out on the perspective of subject-area experts that can reinvigorate one’s teaching. Thankfully, a group of dedicated individuals decided to create the K-12 Online Conference. The 2010 conference, as with past conferences, is FREE, run by volunteers, and open to everyone. Co-convener Wesley Fryer is an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma and blogger for “Moving at the Speed of Creativity.”

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Through the magic of the interweb, you can watch Bill Ferris’ and Jason Don Forsythe’s  presentation at the LEARN NC 2009 Fall Interactive Conference. “Technology integration with Instructify,” along with the other eight terrific sessions, is available right now on the conference’s session archives page.

Really, you ought to catch the other sessions, too — there’s stuff on project-based learning, putting together a professional development plan, blended learning, and lots more. All videos include a replay of the conference’s ongoing live chat, with all the supplemental links, ideas, and witty banter therin.

Technology integration with Instructify (19:49)

LEARN NC Fall Interactive Conference 2009 — Session archives

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Attend LEARN NC’s 2009 interactive conference virtually

BY BILL FERRIS

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas parent-teacher conference season. For a few parents, this is just a formality, the latest conversation in a year-long dialogue. Of course, a lot of parents will be meeting you for the first time, leading to all the hazards of first-time interactions — awkwardness, shyness, and occasionally, tension.

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BY BILL FERRIS

This is a friendly reminder that you can still sign up for the free LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference, to be held on Thursday, October 1. The morning face-to-face session is full, but we’ve got plenty of room in the afternoon from 1-5 p.m. And tune in at 3 p.m. to see yours truly and contributor Jason Don Forsythe presenting on various productivity tools for teachers.

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LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference
Discover. Teach. Share.

Thursday, October 1st
1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

LEARN NC, the organization that makes Instructify possible, will hold its 2009 conference on October 1. North Carolina All educators can attend the conference for free online.

Though the face-to-face morning session is full, you can log in virtually and get lots of great information during the afternoon.

What to expect

In addition to a presentation from Instructify writers Bill Ferris and Jason Don Forsythe, you’ll see sessions on sharing free resources, technology integration, professional development strategies, and more. Interact with fellow educators via web conference software, Twitter, and the online back channel. Virtual participants may join for the entire afternoon or for whatever portion of the conference is convenient. For a full rundown, please see the conference agenda.

Who should attend?

Teachers, media specialists, technology coordinators, professional development coordinators, administrators, and other leaders in curriculum and instruction will all benefit from this conference. Whether you are teaching students in the classroom, or working at the school or system level developing curriculum and delivering professional development, the LEARN NC conference will provide new ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration to help you make the best use of your scarcest resource… time!

Cost

Free.

Technical Requirements

Minimal.  If you’ve never participated in a virtual conference before, there’s nothing to fear.  The only hardware you’ll need is a computer with speakers, and the only software you’ll need is a current version of Flash Media Player.  We’ll provide you with all you need to test your set-up in advance of the conference so that connecting is a cinch.

Register

Register for the LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference and discover, teach and share with LEARN NC.

Six Ways to Transform your Presentation
I’m still learning the whole presentation thing. I’ve probably made every classic presentation mistake, from mumbling to mistaking my PowerPoint slide show for an outline. Stepcase Lifehack has a great list of presentation tips for n00bs like me. Number one: ditch PowerPoint. I tried this for my last presentation and found it very liberating. This info will help you prepare a conference presentation, make your daily teaching more engaging, or come in handy for the forensics team.

26 Must-Have Free Fonts
Have you deleted Comic Sans from your computer yet? If not, I’ll wait here while you do that. Good. Now that that overused typeface is out of your life forever, what will you use for your bulletin boards and newsletters? Presidia Creative brings you 26 free fonts that will make your art projects and handouts look more slick. You’ll never need Comic Sans again.

Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools
Nothing places hard drives in more peril than finals week. At this time of year, the vengeful god Murphy inflicts horrible maladies upon the data of students and teachers worldwide for not heeding his law. Fortunately, atonement is within reach. Lifehacker has a rundown of five data-recovery tools that can bring Little Johnny’s term paper back to life just in time for him to print it out so his dog can eat it. -BILL FERRIS

Photo credit: Photocapy on Flickr.

In these very difficult economic times, education is feeling the pinch. In my district alone, we’ve had to trim nearly $15 million from the budget over the past two years. The unfortunate thing is when funds get tight, opportunities for professional development go by the wayside. 1105Media is trying to change that.

1105 MEDIA provides integrated business-to-business information and media. They are also the company responsible for putting on many technology conferences throughout the country, including the Florida Educational Technology Conference held in Orlando each January. FETC is one of the largest and longest-running conventions of its kind. FETC brings together educators from all over the world to talk about everything technology. Up until now, you had to spend quite a bit of cash to get to enjoy the offerings at FETC. This is about to change.

On April 23 from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. EST, the award-winning producers of FETC and T.H.E. Journal invite you to participate in a FREE virtual conference for K-12 educators and technology staff exploring the most pressing issues related to 21st Century Skills. The FETC Virtual Conference and Expo 2009 promises to be almost as good as attending a conference in person. There will be a keynote speaker, from Dr. Steven Paine, State Superintendent of West Virginia Department of Education, and many other break-out sessions to attend…all virtually. “No travel expenses. No line. No out-of-office downtime. It’s 100 percent online and interactive.” There will also be a virtual exhibit hall where you can check out the vendors’ products, enter drawings, and be able to pick up their information.

Registration is required ahead of time. You can access the registration site by clicking here.

I would also strongly suggest checking out the demo, which gives you an inside look at the conference and how this whole thing is going to work.

Be sure to clear your calendar on April 23, 2009 from 11 a.m. until  7 p.m. EST for what should be an excellent professional development opportunity.

I’m at the NCTIES conference in Raleigh. The intro session featured Vicki Davis of the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Renowned for using nifty tools in her teaching, she shared a great philosophy for integrating technology into your classroom: focus on what you want to DO, and THEN pick your tools. Deciding you want a blog because that’s what everybody else is doing isn’t going to lead to a good learning experience for students.

In my first morning session, Wilson Diaz from Chapel Hill High School talked about how using the Google suite of apps (Docs, Groups, Calendar, etc.) helped him with both parents and students. He hit all the high points, such as using Google Docs for collaboration and such. However, he also noted that by using Google as a class information tool, it stopped parents from calling him with the same old questions. You know the ones — “If I only knew Little Johnny was having problems, I  could have done something sooner!” or “Little Suzy told me she didn’t have any homework.” And so on.

In addition, Diaz said he uses Google to post assignments and due dates. That means, for example, if a kid loses a worksheet, he or she can download it immediately, rather than wait until after school to stop by the teacher’s room. It was a nice presentation on how to use a series of tools to eliminate headaches from the teaching process.

Overall, I enjoy NCTIES because it’s more hopeful than other conferences. It focuses on possibilities rather than problems. Don’t get me wrong, people discuss problems here all the time, but the solutions — usually creative and incorporating technology in ways that will engage students — sound like opportunities rather than obstacles. -BILL FERRIS

Sometimes I think about how the internet has become such a dominant presence in our lives and how it’s changed everything about how we communicate with each other around the world, and I get scared. I mean, I once used Skype in order to have a quick meeting with a professor who was in China, and it was like we weren’t even half the world away from each other. We were just looking at each other and talking about normal stuff like we would in person. With all of these new web-based technologies, sometimes I worry that we will never ever have to leave our houses again in order to do the things we do everyday. That’s the scary part. What if the internet turns us all into reclusive hermits who never have to leave the house because we can teach our classes, attend our meetings, and meet our friends for lunch over the internet?!?!

Contributing to my paranoia and hysteria is Dimdim, a web-based conferencing tool that makes it easy to not only have a web conversation, but also allows you to show pictures, PowerPoints, PDFs, live screens, and even video as part of your conversation. With Dimdim, you don’t even need a desktop client like Skype or Outlook, and it’s totally free. Basically, it is so advanced and so effective, you may never have to leave your house again.

Dimdim is a great site to use to set up a “virtual classroom” and share class materials on the web, or even to gather colleagues from around the world for a quick meeting. Just remember that even though the internet has made it so that we don’t have to go outside anymore, you should step out and see the sun every once in a while. -LAUREN FROHNE

Dimdim

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For those of you who use PowerPoint (or are willing to, when it’s useful), you might consider creating a series of short slide shows that can run in automated mode as your students are entering your classroom. I’ve been doing this for several years now at conference presentations, and it works really well to get the audience engaged and warmed up as they come in and find seats. They actually start talking to each other about the session topic!

I use a combination of these kinds of things for my conference pre-presentation shows:

1. Questions and answers (a la movie trivia quizzes while you’re waiting for a movie to start)
2. Quotes related to the presentation
3. Questions without answers that make people think about issues that will be raised
4. Facts, figures, charts, or other simple data I want to reinforce

Teachers can use this to remind students of content from the previous class, or as a way to introduce content in the current class. Or perhaps as an additional reminder to students about upcoming tests or papers.

You can set up any slide show in Power Point to run automatically, and you can determine the amount of time each slide will display before the next one appears. -ELIZABETH A. EVANS

Elizabeth A. Evans works for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Information Technology Services.

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If you read Instructify every day, it’s safe to say you like finding nifty tools for your classroom. Believe it or not, there are more places than this one to find out about these resources (wait, don’t leave! Come back!).

Vicki Davis, owner of the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, is one such teacher who enjoys spreading the word about useful ed-technology. This Thursday, August 28 at 8 p.m., you can talk to her live and sort-of-in-person via Second Life in her presentation, “New School Year: Cool Tools Here.” Davis will share some of the tools and tips she (and hopefully you too) will use this coming year.

Davis’ session is part of “The Future Is Already Here,” a series of interactive professional development sessions from USDLC (you might remember their session, “BANNED in the Bookhenge” from earlier this year). The series is designed to give teachers a chance to hear from and talk with outstanding teachers who integrate technology such as Web 2.0, 1:1 computing, robotics, or serious gaming / 3D Web into their everyday teaching.

If you’re not sure about this whole social networking through Second Life thing, you can still take part through Internet radio and chat at  www.Literacy2Learn.org. USDLC plans more of these events throughout the year, so keep checking back. Isn’t it nice to know there are so many places to find out about great tech resources for teachers? All I ask is that you don’t forget about Instructify. -BILL FERRIS

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

The Future Is Already Here

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