K12 Online Conference - Video

Creativity Strand Panel Discussion, April 29, 2017. LIVE interaction with all the educators sharing their Creative Classrooms: classrooms that have Arts Pedagogy combined with Math, Coding and Science (STEM), Art, Theatre and Technology. This session is a truly collaborative adventure. Creativity. How do you begin, how do you make is the backbone of your classroom? Hear from teachers from around the world sharing how they use creativity within their classroom. Samuel Wright, a composer and educator has put together a variety of musicians and visual arts that demonstrate how they use creativity through collaboration and the arts. https://wrightstuffmusic.com/ http://k12onlineconference.org/live/ Australia Alison Housley International Grammar School, Sydney, Australia Andrew Mifsud @AndyMifsud Music Teacher, Barker College, Sydney, Australia Jane-Marie Talese @MsTalese Music Teacher, Tara Anglican School for Girls, Sydney, Australia Austria Lidia Campanale @LidiaMusic3 Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria Samuel Wright @Wrightstufmusic Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria China Jenelle Krusak @kresak2j Tech Coach, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Betty Lin @lietometwo Music Teacher, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Laos Alison Armstrong @alisonmusicblog Music Teacher, Vientiane International School, Laos Norway Eldar Skjørten @EldarSkjorten Music Pedagogue, Eiksmarka Elementary School, Norway United States Tricia Fuglestad @fuglefun Visual Arts Teacher, Dryden Elementary School, Arlington Heights, IL USA

Creativity Strand presentation by Samuel Wright and a variety of musicians and visual arts educators, April 24, 2017. Creativity. How do you begin, how do you make is the backbone of your classroom? View teachers from around the world how they use creativity within their classroom. Samuel Wright, a composer and educator has put together a variety of musicians and visual arts that demonstrate how they use creativity through collaboration and the arts. Learn from Samuel in Part 1 as he introduces the Creativity Strand through inspiring examples from his own students in Austria. Then watch Part 2: a series of short presentations from some very creative educators who come from all over the world: Australia, Austria, China, Laos, Norway, and the USA. Brought together for this conference their videos cover Music and Minecraft, Visual Arts, Ableton Live with Choral arrangements, Paintings and Sound Installations, Film Trailers or Soundscapes with Korg Little-Bits and much more. Additional Information: Samuel Wright's Blog https://wrightstuffmusic.com/ Australia Alison Housley International Grammar School, Sydney, Australia Andrew Mifsud @AndyMifsud Music Teacher, Barker College, Sydney, Australia Jane-Marie Talese @MsTalese Music Teacher, Tara Anglican School for Girls, Sydney, Australia Austria Lidia Campanale @LidiaMusic3 Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria Samuel Wright @Wrightstufmusic Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria China Jenelle Krusak @kresak2j Tech Coach, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Betty Lin @lietometwo Music Teacher, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Laos Alison Armstrong @alisonmusicblog Music Teacher, Vientiane International School, Laos Norway Eldar Skjørten @EldarSkjorten Music Pedagogue, Eiksmarka Elementary School, Norway United States Tricia Fuglestad @fuglefun Visual Arts Teacher, Dryden Elementary School, Arlington Heights, IL USA

Creativity Strand Keynote presentation by Samuel Wright, April 24, 2017. Creativity. How do you begin, how do you make is the backbone of your classroom? View teachers from around the world how they use creativity within their classroom. Samuel Wright, a composer and educator has put together a variety of musicians and visual arts that demonstrate how they use creativity through collaboration and the arts. Learn from Samuel in Part 1 as he introduces the Creativity Strand through inspiring examples from his own students in Austria. Then watch Part 2: a series of short presentations from some very creative educators who come from all over the world: Australia, Austria, China, Laos, Norway, and the USA. Brought together for this conference their videos cover Music and Minecraft, Visual Arts, Ableton Live with Choral arrangements, Paintings and Sound Installations, Film Trailers or Soundscapes with Korg Little-Bits and much more. Additional Information: Samuel Wright's Blog https://wrightstuffmusic.com/ Australia Alison Housley International Grammar School, Sydney, Australia Andrew Mifsud @AndyMifsud Music Teacher, Barker College, Sydney, Australia Jane-Marie Talese @MsTalese Music Teacher, Tara Anglican School for Girls, Sydney, Australia Austria Lidia Campanale @LidiaMusic3 Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria Samuel Wright @Wrightstufmusic Amadeus International School, Vienna, Austria China Jenelle Krusak @kresak2j Tech Coach, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Betty Lin @lietometwo Music Teacher, American International School of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Laos Alison Armstrong @alisonmusicblog Music Teacher, Vientiane International School, Laos Norway Eldar Skjørten @EldarSkjorten Music Pedagogue, Eiksmarka Elementary School, Norway United States Tricia Fuglestad @fuglefun Visual Arts Teacher, Dryden Elementary School, Arlington Heights, IL USA

International Panel Discussion on Design Thinking, January 20, 2017. A 60 minute panel discussion about design thinking for the K12 Online Conference. The panel discussion was be facilitated by Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) in Oklahoma City and the panel includes two amazing international educators who are well versed and experienced applying design thinking concepts in schools. Panelists: Brad Ovenell-Carter (@Braddo) in Vancouver, BC, Canada and Brian Lockwood (@BrianLockwood) in Copenhagen, Denmark. You are also encouraged to watch John Spencer’s (@spencerideas) keynote for the “Design Thinking” strand of this year’s conference which was published on January 12, 2017 and is available here in iTunesU or on the website. http://k12onlineconference.org/2017/01/12/design-thinking/

How can we get students engaged as critical thinkers, creators and makers? Learn about design thinking and how the LAUNCH cycle can be a framework to focus students through the process. 1) Look, listen learn 2) Ask tons of questions, 3) Understand the process/problem 4) Navigate ideas, 5) Create, 6) Highlight and fix and then finally LAUNCH!

Panel discussion about keynote by David Jakes: Reimagining the Spaces in Which We Learn: Mindset, Landscape, Process, Impact Panel members: David Jakes, Carolyn Foote, Kevin Jarrett, Michael Morrison, Brian Hamm. Panelists discussed what motivated them to start the learning space process, whether they designed spaces around instruction or learning, how to get started, impact of redesigning learning spaces that were intentional and inclusive, “must have’s” in learning spaces, and the importance of movement, flexibility, and student/teacher choice.

It’s not hard to recognize the typical “classroom.” They haven’t changed much. And while we can and should honor all the learning that has taken place in that space, students today have an opportunity to learn within an ever-expanding learning space that supports entirely new connections and possibilities for their learning. Join David Jakes as we explore the critical issues surrounding the relationship of space to learning, and how you can begin to take the steps that are necessary to create inspiring and transformative physical and virtual spaces that afford students choice and ownership of their learning.

It’s not hard to recognize the typical “classroom.” They haven’t changed much. And while we can and should honor all the learning that has taken place in that space, students today have an opportunity to learn within an ever-expanding learning space that supports entirely new connections and possibilities for their learning. Join David Jakes as we explore the critical issues surrounding the relationship of space to learning, and how you can begin to take the steps that are necessary to create inspiring and transformative physical and virtual spaces that afford students choice and ownership of their learning.

It’s not hard to recognize the typical “classroom.” They haven’t changed much. And while we can and should honor all the learning that has taken place in that space, students today have an opportunity to learn within an ever-expanding learning space that supports entirely new connections and possibilities for their learning. Join David Jakes as we explore the critical issues surrounding the relationship of space to learning, and how you can begin to take the steps that are necessary to create inspiring and transformative physical and virtual spaces that afford students choice and ownership of their learning.

It’s not hard to recognize the typical “classroom.” They haven’t changed much. And while we can and should honor all the learning that has taken place in that space, students today have an opportunity to learn within an ever-expanding learning space that supports entirely new connections and possibilities for their learning. Join David Jakes as we explore the critical issues surrounding the relationship of space to learning, and how you can begin to take the steps that are necessary to create inspiring and transformative physical and virtual spaces that afford students choice and ownership of their learning.

A panel conversation on the issues raised in Julie Lindsay’s keynote trilogy. What is online global collaboration? How do we make online global collaboration work? What if we collaborated globally? How is this working for us including challenges and success stories? They share their experiences, examples and stories with facilitators Julie Lindsay and Susan van Gelder. Panel members: Leigh Zeitz, Sonya Van Schaijik, Anne Mirtschin, Sheri Williams, Lucy Gray, Amy Jambor and her former student Lauren Bayer.

Conference Keynote-Part 3: Julie Lindsay Global Narratives - Collaboration on the Edge What is online global collaboration? Is it a pedagogy? A curriculum? Who is doing it and how? Explore collaboration ‘on the edge’ and learn from many online global educators

Conference Keynote-Part 2: Julie Lindsay Global Narratives - Collaboration on the Edge What is online global collaboration? Is it a pedagogy? A curriculum? Who is doing it and how? Explore collaboration ‘on the edge’ and learn from many online global educators

Conference Keynote Part 1: Julie Lindsay Global Narratives - Collaboration on the Edge What is online global collaboration? Is it a pedagogy? A curriculum? Who is doing it and how? Explore collaboration ‘on the edge’ and learn from many online global educators and students across the world as they build collaborative learning communities and co-created outcomes. The narrative of educators working on the edge of collaborative learning is as revealing as it is entertaining - and this trilogy will inform, inspire and provide resources for all learners.

Overcoming Obstacles: “The whole world is watching to see what Ontario does next.” Simon Breakspear, Ontario Leadership Congress, April 2015. So we are asking, Ontario, what’s your next? What will you learn? What will you read? What will you create? Pack your thinking into a 15 to 20 second video clip. We’ll put the clips together into a final product where we show the world what our next will be, on a very practical, “this i what it looks like” scale. This is a peek into the “HOW” of implementation – how people leading on the front line are making change in their day to day work. This is about the next choice you plan to make to improve your practice. Join us in viewing what Ontario plans to do next!

Overcoming Obstacles: Within this presentation, participants will learn to expand their professional learning networks (PLNs) to include online modes of professional development. After sharing research as foundation for the effectiveness of ongoing PD, participants have the opportunity to engage in an interactive activity which garners their thoughts and ideas around the present state of PD in their environments. We then discuss PLNs and what the research says about the power of harnessing these networks. We’ll then expand our PLNs to include a myriad of professional development opportunities online. Participants will be introduced to webizines, social networking, open courseware, professional organization opportunities, webinars, online conferences, portals of PD, etc. Participants are able to access the multimedia presentation with links, research, videos, testimonials, and guiding data. There is also a monitored backchannel, in addition to connected discussion on Twitter.

Beyond the Core: The new Common Core Standards for the Arts contain many standards involving greater levels of creativity and independence for music education. These standards, coupled with preparing today's students for an ever-shifting professional landscape that requires more independent and collaborative technology skills, presents America's traditional secondary performing music ensemble programs with a challenge: how do we still provide high quality performing ensembles and develop the individual students' musical and creative abilities. Thomas J. West explains how incorporating the SAMR Model of Technology Integration along with cloud-based methods of Blended Learning enables middle school and high school instrumental music students to take control of their own learning and become independent, well-rounded musicians capable of 21st Century Artistry.

Beyond the Core: Do you need to: Embrace the 4Cs in your class? Get your students quickly up to speed on presenting or making slides in most any slide-making tool? Just want to do something that's really fun with your class? Well, making The Worst Preso Ever is just what you need. This gateway-level lesson design idea will help you to go "uptempo" in your classroom and really embrace all the 4Cs with your students (communication, collaboration, critical thinking and TONs of creativity. This will be one of your "go-to" lesson plans, watch today!

Beyond the Core: The Connecting Creativity series is a learning quest designed with concept and content convergence in mind, supported by meaningful technology integration. Each Connecting Creativity concept is designed so teachers can repurpose the idea to meet the needs of their students and the needs of their curriculum goals. The four monthly quests we will feature include opportunities for students to combine poetry, photography, design, video, and, of course, creativity. The numerous facets of visual arts and literacy converge in the highlighted quests. Additionally, Connecting Creativity is not only about meeting learning goals, it is about helping students see their world and share with their world.

Overcoming Obstacles: The presenter attests to the benefits of using social tools for continuous professional learning. Participants will learn to: Find educational conversations (discussion groups) to participate in on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Edmodo; Search for issues, content, and sites that are trending in social media platforms; Use common educational hashtags.

Beyond the Core: Grade 5 students embarked on a journey of composition that revolved around writing for characters, objects, places and more. They investigated music of other cultures, used iPads and developed their own iTunesU Course with work-samples showing their amazing creations from Chinese themes to Little Red Riding Hood. In this video I will walk you through our lessons, student feedback and the creative process as well as the method I use to integrate iPads successfully into the music-storytelling-classroom. Visit Grade 5's compositions on YouTube here http://bit.ly/1OtMfoj and leave your own discussions on our iTunesU Course 'Fairytale Compositions' as feedback - we would love to see what inspires your students to compose.

Overcoming Obstacles: The need to communicate and share has always been valuable, but how we do it today should be different. This session covers how to utilize Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Flipboard at a classroom and district level. I will also cover some ways to make those tools work together, allowing you to post to multiple places, reaching multiple audiences, without having to take the time to visit each site.

Overcoming Obstacles: Thinking about using robots in your classroom? Robots can be a very powerful tool to interest and engage students in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (aka STEM). Unfortunately, they've often only being used with a small number of enriched students who are already interested in STEM and will not get the full benefit that other students will get from a fun, interactive program that brings the practical side of STEM to students. Girls, who are normally much less interested in STEM than boys, benefit from robotics programs, gaining experience, knowledge and confidence that will help them consider a STEM career in their future. Mimetics cofounder and Chief Designer, Myke Predko discusses what they've learned after almost 15 years bringing robots and STEM education to 15,000 students.

Beyond the Core: Janine Campbell presents a question - "What happens when the school year is done?" What legacy have students left behind and what will they take along with them when they have gone? Explore these questions and more in this session that will provide examples for thinking beyond the 60 minutes or 180 days you have in a classroom and asks you to start building your legacy with students today.

Beyond the Core: The World Wide Web has become this generation’s defining technology for literacy. This technology facilitates access to an unlimited amount of online information in a participatory learning space. Multiple theories and years of research have investigated the literacy practices in these online and hybrid spaces. Yet, as early adopters, history’s first generation of “always connected” individuals do not have the knowledge and skills to critically explore, build, and connect online. Simply stated, students are often not provided with opportunities in school to practice the web literacies necessary to read, write, and participate on the web. The Mozilla Foundation and community of volunteers have worked to address this paradox by creating a Web Literacy Map. These efforts seek not to simply understand the web but to empower adolescents to help build a better open web.

Overcoming Obstacles: This presentation will provide information on the tool Tackk, and how you can use it as a springboard to get your students to the redefinition level of SAMR. It will also discuss the tools that easily integrate into Tackk such as Thinglink, Google Apps and various other tools. The examples provided can be used across multiple content areas.

Beyond the Core Keynote: Interested in exploring how Digital Sketchnotes can impact learning for both you and your students? This session will introduce what you need to get started with taking visual notes, including an overview of the process, equipment and apps, hints and techniques, and a wealth of resources. Lesson ideas and examples from students will be featured as part of the session.

Overcoming Obstacles: Many pre-service teacher education programs at colleges and universities include at least one course focused on technology integration. In this presentation, a panel of current professors and instructors teaching preservice teacher educational technology courses discuss the challenges they face in reinventing the syllabi, projects, and topics used in these classes. They also discuss how they hope their courses continue to evolve and change in the years ahead. If you are a preservice teacher technology educator, send a Twitter reply to @wfryer so you can be added to this Twitter list: http://twitter.com/wfryer/lists/preservice-edtech/members. Please respond to this presentation by recording your own video, answering one or more of the questions addressed by the panelists. Post your video to YouTube and share it as a comment on the K12Online Conference blog, on the original YouTube video, or via Twitter.

Overcoming Obstacles Keynote: Whenever any sort of change or innovation is discussed, the 'Yes, but...' objections are inevitable. However, instead of allowing those resistance points to dominate and defeat promising ideas, teachers and administrators can reframe opposition into possibility by asking the questions 'Why not?' and 'How can we?' Effective educators focus on adaptation, forward progress, and collective effort and efficacy. The 'yes, buts' don’t do anything except keep us stuck. Too often we get mired in negativity and defeatism instead of recognizing that - both individually and collectively - we usually have the ability to do and be so much more than our current reality reflects. This keynote focuses on transformative leadership mindsets and features exemplary schools from around the world that are ignoring the 'yes, buts' to make amazing things happen for children and youth.

Stories of Connection: In the past teachers were limited to seeking out advice from their colleague across the hall or a department chair during lunch or after school. Now teachers can use a variety of social media tools and apps to find and tap into the collective knowledge of educators near and far for new ideas, resources, and ways to hook and engage students in academic learning. Learn about a variety of ways to expand your professional learning network and revitalize your teaching with a little help from a global line-up of educators.

Stories of Connection: In this 17 minute video, I tell the story behind the creation of the Adam Jones Education Podcast. This presentation falls under the "Stories of Connection" theme because I am eager to share how the Podcast has catalyzed my own learning and encouraged others in my PLN to share their stories. At the heart of the story are the three critical ingredients for learning: time for obsession, connection with experts and time to build a prototype to learn from failure. Additionally, producing a regularly occurring Podcast raises questions about how to best promote it with an audience because it really is all about sharing other people's work beyond our PLN. I continue to learn a ton about leveraging social media for sharing.

Stories of Connection: What can social media aggregation contribute to advocating for education? Getting all A's in School! We in education just don't often do a very good job of telling others what a great job we're doing, do we? We can harness social media to get that job done so learn WHY we should do it and HOW we can do it!

MakerEd: School libraries are leading the way as innovators in the area of Maker Ed. Join two elementary library media specialists as they share their experiences in creating makerspaces in their buildings. Whether you are a classroom teacher looking to incorporate different types of making in your classroom, a media specialist looking to get making going in your library space or an administrator looking for ways to begin this process in your school, this session will introduce you to the ideas behind Maker Ed, resources, including materials and guides, and how to incorporate them into your students’ learning. Hear from students about their experiences with making and learning. Specific examples of student work will be included to give a complete picture of what Maker Ed can be!

MakerEd: As the Head of the Imagination Chapter in Cape Town, I get to help young students and their parents get in touch with their creative juices every week. I then connect with other chapter leaders around the world and we share our ideas and experiences. I will include footage and photos in my presentation, share ideas and give you a small taste of some of our projects. I hope that you are encouraged to create a maker space at school and promote making activities to your students.

For a few years, teachers in the New York City Writing Project and teachers whose students post and comment on Youth Voices have been using online annotation to move students toward critical careful reading, and we have learned how public, online annotation can add collaborative reading to the mix. Recently, we've been taking a a closer look at three text-commenting tools: 1) Hypothes.is https://hypothes.is, 2) NowComment https://nowcomment.com, and 3) Lit Genius http://lit.genius.com and beta.genius. We invite you to join us in this inquiry. We are proposing that we ask about the affordances of each of these tools and work them with other teachers, with our students, and with different types of texts.

Stories of Connection: For a long time we have been calling for learner autonomy. We have been asking teachers to help their learners take responsibility of their learning and enjoy doing that. From my point of view, we shouldn’t be asking teachers to do that, we should be helping them and guiding them how to do it. Helping them in such a way would urge them to seek Professional Development which means developing their teaching skills and updating their teaching knowledge lifelong. Not only that, but we should cooperate with them to help them apply what they study successfully. Such a cause has become a community cause not a personal one. Enhancing education can change generations, not to mention the community. It’s a great call that requires cooperation from all sides involved. From here came our idea of gathering scholars, teachers and specialists to help change the mindset of teachers to accept PD. We also aim at exchanging experiences and helping each other with teaching difficulties on/off site. Through my presentation, I would like to speak about how we started, how we used Discussions among teachers to help exchange ideas and open more doors for teachers to seek PD and how we were also happy to provide back advice for teachers who faced difficulties in class. I’d like also to give an idea about the different free activities that we hold online and on site to spread the idea and our efforts to communicate and cooperate with different organizations and NGOs to get to as many teachers as possible in our community and help raise the educational stake in our country.

Stories of Connection: This presentation provides information on how I W Evans Intermediate school implemented Without Worksheets Wednesday as a way to increase the rigor. The principal Susan Baker, developed WOW tag to help teachers understand different techniques to teach without worksheets. While some stuggles at first students and teachers alike can see improvements in the depth and complexity of lessons. Students learn without even knowing they are doing work. They are no longer bored from endless worksheets. Come along as we take you on our journey. The link at the end will provide several resources to allow you to start your own WOW Wednesday.

Stories of Connection: As an educator, I have been running an NGO for 20 Years. In the past few years I began collaborating with teacher colleagues around the world. Teaching in their classes, have them teach in mine. I will share many of my experiences and encourage YOU to join us on our journey of making the world a smaller place. This is what REAL education is about.

MakerEd: Who doesn't love a robot? Viewers at this session will learn how to add robotics to their makerspace with the Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots. Regardless of grade level robotics can ignite the imagination and capture the attention of almost any student.

Stories of Connection: Connected educators have done an amazing job of flattening their learning experiences for students, and bringing the world into their classrooms. But what happens when we leverage social media to bring about real change locally in our own communities? How do we bring our connections back down out of the cloud to create opportunities for members of our communities to grow and learn together? View three different examples of individuals coming together on regional and state levels through social media to bring about real change and create lasting memories.

Stories of Connection: In this video recorded session, participants will be introduced to ways to connect students to the world through innovative instructional practices and integrated technology. Likened to building a bridge, participants will be guided through the entire process of global collaboration through the Plan, Design, Constructors, Tools, and Connection. Specific examples of global projects and connection to national and international standards of instruction will be examined and tech tools and apps for collaboration will be demonstrated. Participants will be directed to explore and try out all technologies digitally throughout the session. Nearpod will be used in coordination with the videocast to offer an example of innovative teaching practices. Participants will leave with ready-to-use ideas for instruction and with ways to create global projects in their classrooms. Join for a fun and exciting session that will help to build the bridges that will bring innovation, connection, and inspiration for the future!

Stories of Connection: The purpose of this session is to bring together multiple perspectives and participants to conceptualize #WalkMyWorld as a space to explore avenues for pre-service teachers, as a tool for focusing on media literacies, and as an exploration of a community of writers. Evolving pedagogical models for new literacies and emerging technologies allow texts to unfold in new reading and writing spaces. These studies explore an evolving “community of inquiry” called #WalkMyWorld. This cross-platform poetry project cut across chronotopes of time and space as participants explored various lifeworlds by responding to and authoring multi-modal poetry.

MakerEd: Game jams have been growing in popularity. In a game jam, teams are challenged to design a game in a short period of time. In essence, game jams are a game about making a game. Students apply systems thinking, user empathy, collaboration, storyboarding, and iterative design, while also learning how to tackle broad, open-ended problems. Matthew Farber, author of Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to game-Based Learning, will discuss his use of game jams in his middle school social studies classes, as well as digital game jams in the after school club he advises. He will share resources from the Moveable Game Jams he attended in the New York area this year, including Quest to Learn, in New York City, as well as the A. Harry Moore School Game Jam Day, in Jersey City, NY, which he facilitated.

MakerEd: Creator's Studio is a 7th/8th grade elective course taught by John Umekubo, Director of Technology for St. Matthew's Parish School. This video explores the essential elements of this course, from electronics, to mechanical motion, and robotics. Students work through these three modules before taking on their own personal project. Hear reflections from the instructor and students as you view a number of sample student projects.

Stories of Connection: Do you know how to take your learning global? Embedding global understandings, connected learning and global collaborative activities across the curriculum within a digital learning environment is an imperative objective for all educators today. It must become 'virtually unstoppable. But how? The Global Educator shares what attributes, skills and mindset need to be adopted by educators in order to embrace connected and collaborative learning that is global in concept and practice. This presentation is a journey we will take together as we create our own stories of global connectedness. The attributes of a global educator are shared as are essential objectives to do with online global collaboration. Become a virtually unstoppable global educator by learning new strategies and approaches to global learning. The Global Educator shares what attributes, skills and mindset need to be adopted by educators in order to embrace connected and collaborative learning that is global in concept and practice.

MakerEd: The workshop will highlight the evolution of a project that has been successful in engaging girls in coding via Making with Soft Circuits and eTextiles. Inspired by M.I.T. ‘s robotic garden, Lucie deLaBruere is developing coding lessons/activities that helps students create LED enhanced artifacts for a collaborative community garden and learn to code a Lilypad Arduino microprocessor to give each artifact a unique presence in the garden. The project not only builds interest in coding, it also builds confidence in your ability to code.

Stories of Connection Keyonote: We all start out our educational careers (meaning when we were in kindergarten) intrinsically knowing the value of sharing. Somewhere between there and graduate school we lose track of this simple concept, be it worrying about intellectual property rights, fearing theft, or just questioning the value of what we do. The open ecology of the internet can undermine what I think is learned and limiting stinginess. In this presentation I want to celebrate the True Stories of what happens to people when they share something openly on the web whether they think it ordinary or amazing. I asked colleagues to share their own stories of something unexpected, valuable, powerful, or just plain inspiring as a result of sharing that piece of media, document, video, blog post, even a single tweet that became valuable to someone they did not know before. The power, the strength, the future of the internet as we know it now, depends on this two-way flow. Share openly, appreciate what others have done, and then share your story. I cannot guarantee amazing results or free trips to exotic countries. But I can guarantee, if you never share anything openly, you will never having an amazing story happen to you.

MakerEd Keynote: The maker education movement carries with it the momentum and promise to transform education -- and ultimately, how we view learning and teaching altogether. It brings together elements of various educational pedagogies and practices, historical movements, and current trends, engaging all youth in interdisciplinary, hands-on learning experiences that are reflective and purposeful. Maker Ed, a non-profit organization that works with educators, organizations, and communities nationwide, help to train, support, and connect educator's efforts to integrate making into their educational approaches and make a deep, long-lasting impact on their youth.

Pre-Conference Keynote 2015: Don Wettrick is an Innovation Specialist at Noblesville High School, just outside Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of “Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level”. Wettrick has worked as a middle school and high school teacher; educational and innovation consultant; and educational speaker. Don is passionate about helping students find their educational opportunities and providing them with the digital tools they need to give them a competitive edge. This video provides a look inside Don’s Innovation class. He begins with how the class started started, and goes into the “ROTH-IRA” method of innovation. Lastly, several of Don’s students discuss the Innovation class and the impact it has had on them as students and learners. Presentation supporting documents: http://theinnovationteacher.com/blog/

STEAM: Join Dr. Z in the journey 6th graders took into the Crazy World of Rube Goldberg. You will experience the fun they had developing “complex chain reactions to accomplish simple tasks.” Using a Problem-Based Learning format, these students explored physics while they built contraptions to drop a marble in a bucket, dip a chip in salsa, pop a balloon and even create a banana smoothie. Dr. Z shares how the inventors expressed their experiences through KidBlog and how these activities aligned with Common Core Standards in Science, Technology and Writing. It’s 20 minutes of fun and exploration into exciting ways to learn.

Passion-Driven: Introduction to several Web 2.0 tools that will spark creativity and ignite a passion in your students, and a review of ideas for implementation.