Outside of the Box Peer to Peer Tech Training Strategies / MACUL Conference Presentation

Here are the resources for my March 19, MACUL 2015 Conference Presentation on Outside of the Box Peer to Peer Tech Training Strategies

PDF Version of Presentation Slides

Tech Talk

Becoming a Digital School Administrator at iTunes U

iPad Tips and Tricks by MHS iWizards at iTunes U

Mercy Drop-in Lab (Video by Ann Lusch)

Alison's Video

A Culture of Peer to Peer PD (video)

Student to Student Training (video)

iWizard Take-away (video)

Students Teaching Students-- the Benefits Work Both Ways!

For my upcoming presentations at MACUL and ISTE on Peer-to-Peer technology training I have interviewed two iWizards. Their experiences come from teaching new students at the Mercy iPad Orientation and 7th/8th graders at iCreate. Here are some sound bites that I found very perceptive and interesting.

Taylor's remarks on the effectiveness peer-to-peer instructions

Katie and Taylor reflect on the benefits they have received as trainers from Peer-to-Peer training.

MACUL '13, Looking Back

Last week, as I have posted here, I gave three presentations:

1) A webinar on iPad professional development on edWeb.net

2) A presentation on iPad professional development at MACUL '13, Cobo Center, Detroit.

3) A presentation on Individual assessments within group challenge and multimedia projects at MACUL '13

As I was tweaking my slides I thought back on how I had arrived as a presenter on "multimedia projects".

Well, it all started at MACUL '07, which I felt I had been forced to attend since I had no particular interest in doing much of anything in the classroom with multimedia.  I attended a session on creating mp3's by telephone using Gabcast.  

I began creating audio files and used them in my American Government class.  I then starting collecting podcasts in all of my classes.  The centerpiece of my Government course was a legislative simulation which I began to move online.  On a lark, I decided to apply to become an Apple Distinguished Educator, even though I taught in a P.C. school.  In order to apply, I needed to make a movie, so my daughter taught me iMovie.

Miraculously, I was accepted to the program.  Attending by first ADE Institute introduced me to Challenge Based Learning.  My first experience with CBL was a game changer.  I applied to MACUL '10 to present on CBL.  I also posted some of my multimedia to this blog.  It was noticed by Apple.  I then found myself more vitally involved with the Apple Education community.  This led to more CBLs and more ADE Institutes.  

I am very thankful to all the interesting people and experiences ed tech has brought me in this, my fourth decade of Education.

MACUL 2012 Conference

Today,  we are making a presentation at the MACUL state conference in Grand Rapids, MI.  I will be joined by two of Mercy High School's department chairpersons, Ann Lusch (Religious Studies) and Susan Smith (Art).  Our topic will be  "Free Multimedia Activities for Secondary Students That Don't Gobble Time!"

We hope to fly through as many tech tools and lessons as our time constraints allow. By taking a multi-disciplinary approach, we hope to inspire rather than instruct.  In other words, rather than laboriously showing our lessons, we hope to give a taste of several easy recipes, hoping that each person in attendance will find one or two things for his or her students. 

Here are the slides that we will use at our presentation:

 "Free Multimedia Activities for Secondary Students That Don't Gobble Time!"

MAME37 Presentations -- Dearborn Hyatt Regency

It's great to be back at the MAME Annual Conference this year.  This will be my third appearance at a MAME activity, and the school library media specialists are a favorite audience.    Last year, I introduced a presentation on my digital anthology, a topic I repeated for the MHS staff and the MACUL Cloud Conference.

Today, I am presenting on the following topics:

(12:45- 1:45) Using Apple’s Challenge-Based Learning to Build Learning Networks
Apple's Challenge-Based Learning model fosters authentic understanding and leverages technology. Students use the web for research, planning, and collaborating while seeking solutions. The media specialist's role as guide will be explored.

(2:00 - 3:00) Building A Knowledge Hub for Your Learning Community presented by Larry Baker
Baker's M-Hub Project helps life-long learners build personal learning networks.  It is grounded in the Department of Education's "2010 National Educational Technology Plan."  Staff are networked as real-time resources.

This will be the maiden voyage of my M-Hub preso-- It has recently been accepted for MACUL at Cobo Center in March.  But today will be unique, because I will be honored with the assistance of two student leaders from M-Hub.

As promised to attendees, here are the slides of the presentations: 

Challenge Based Learning 1

Challenge Based Learning 2

Challenge Based Learning 3

Building A Knowledge Hub

  

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Screen capture from CBL 2

M-Hub Update

My involvement with Challenge Based Learning has been pretty all-consuming these days.  But M-Hub has grabbed my attention in a big way.  This is largely due to having a remarkable student-leadership team which is bent on getting things done has helped move moved M-Hub from an interesting idea to a reality.

The basic concept of M-Hub is to provide studetns with a tool for building personal learning networks within our greater school community.  We want to build a highly searchable database of "expert" alumnae, staff, parents for students to contact for a wide variety of information.


The idea has received support from all parties, but actualizing the plan has been challenging.  Suddenly, we have major break throughs

Data Collection
We believe that Zoomerang can provide us with a polling instrument that we can send out by email or link to a web site.  If the "free version" is too limited, we think that the "pro" pay version can certainly meet our needs.  We are ready to begin building a prototype.

Web Solution
Finding a place to store our data which would allow students to gain access has been more perplexing.  However, with the help of some "seed money" from the school we will be able to secure the services of a web designer who is going to begin constructing the back end of this database.  He also is confident that the data from Zoomerang will be easy to import to the web site.  Working with Drupal our web designer will be able to integrate this feature right into the school's web site.

Fund Raising
In order to pay for the complete services of the web designer and meet other expenses such as an upgrade to Zoomerang Pro, we will need to raise funds.  Here, our status as a school club comes hand.  With 25 club members its feasible host activities.  One likely possibility is a sale of M-Hub logo flash drives.



Leveraging Technology
I'm also pleased to note that while we are not overtly a "tech club",  we are pretty clever at finding virtual tools to help us keep pushing M-Hub along.  We use "Doodle" to schedule leadership meetings.  We also carry on discussions between meetings on a private blog site created with iWeb.

MAME /MACUL
The world is about to hear about M-Hub.  Two of the student leaders and I will be presenting our project to the school library media specialists at MAME 37, this week.  I also just learned that M-Hub has been selected as a topic for the 2011 MACUL Conference at Cobo Center in March.

What a rush!

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Screen capture of M-Hub leadership private blog site

Reflections on MACUL 2010

Some random thoughts about last week's MACUL conference:

Most mind-blowing: Learning how Holland Christian schools had made their Macbook webcams a ubiquitous part of their curriculum across disciplines.

Best choice -- Choosing Cool Cat Teacher's presentation as my first. She is a true powerhouse of ideas and energy. Got me psyched. Enjoyed getting to check out her Kindle too.

So Odd -- Realized sometime Thursday morning that in another life I had attended a basketball clinic at the Pantlind Hotel (Now Amway Center). Big name speakers like John Wooden ran plays in the Civic Center (now Devos Center).

So Sad -- Having presented at both Cobo Center / and Amway-Devos this school year, it is depressing to note how inferior Detroit's facility was in nearly every way. Why do we set the bar so low?

Worst Exhibitors -- Gale Cengage had two booths and three persons attending. Not one of them could answer a simple, important question about ebooks.

Happiest Exhibitor -- The C-Span rep was ecstatic to have an American Government teacher stop by. I signed her email list (only the second name, though I visited shortly before closing). She urged me to take extra pencils and confided to me that I was privileged to be getting at C-Span pen because I was a Gov. guy. Woo-hoo!

I Surrender -- Apple's Helen Hoffenberg vehemently recommended Tony Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap two days after Will Gervais had done so, I ordered it on the spot with my iTouch.

Swimming in Ideas -- The drive home went very quickly as I reflected on engaging conversations with such interesting folks as:

Dan (Traverse City West) -- Using Challenge Based Learning for A.P. English.

Andy (Calhoun Co. Intermediate) -- Finding "Big Ideas" for Challenge Based Learning

Jane (Apple), -- An amazing Alaskan human interest story involving collaboration.

Calvin (Apple) -- The wonders of the new QuickTime and Apple's aggressive buy-back program for schools who choose duddy P.C.s. Hope we get together for coffee to continue that conversation.

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"Day Dream" Flickr Creative Commons photo by perfect day dream

MACUL Conference Presentation on Challenge Based Learning

I'm the Amway Plaza, today (March 12), presenting for the 2010 MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) Conference. Here's the description of today's session:

Using Apple’s Challenge-Based Learning to Build Learning networks
Larry Baker, Teacher, Mercy High School

This presentation outlines Apple’s “Challenge Based Learning” as implemented in two courses. CBL is not dependent on specific software/equipment. It fosters authentic learning and leverages technology tools and resources. Students use Web 2.0 for planning, collaborating, and sharing, while seeking solutions. The shift from teacher-learner to co-learners will be examined.

I've been looking forward to this presentation ever since the students completed their presentations in early December. I am going to let their videos and online solutions do much of the talking. Here are many of the presentation resources:

My 2010 MACUL Presentation Slides: Challenge Based Learning

The Challenge Assignment: Create an Authentic Medium for Improving our Democracy

Student Video Interviews: Challenge Based Learning

Student Created Challenge Solution: Gov Love Ning

Student Created Challenge Solution: Operation iVote Demo

Student Created Challenge Solution: The Ideal Voter Site

Student Created Challenge Solution: The Democracy of Tomorrow Site

Student Created Challenge Solution: What Up, Gov! Facebook Group

Apple Computer: Challenge Based Learning

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Screenshot from Apple Keynote created slide Challenge Based Learning presentation

MHS Board of Trustees Presentation

Tonight I will shift into hyper-drive and give the MHS Board of Trustees a fast motion look as how I have blasted off into Web 2.0 education. It should be fun. I've probably put too much multi-media into my slides.

Here are some of the resources that I have created or have tapped.

Board Slide Presentation: One Teacher's Tech Explosion

Student Interviews: Challenge Based Learning

Baker Animation: The Digital Anthology

Virtual Conferences: Thursday's P.T. Conferences:

Apple Computer: Challenge Based Learning

Next stop, Grand Rapids, for the 2010 MACUL Conference. Come back on Friday for those goodies.

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Screen shot from "One Teacher's Tech Explosion" Keynote Presentation

Full Circle

In March. '07 our entire staff was required to attend the MACUL Conference at Cobo Center in Detroit. I was more than skeptical. Our school was transitioning to a 1:1 HP Laptop program, and I had the impression that we were just chasing after tech for tech's sake. Nevertheless, the conference changed my professional life. I got excited about Google's apps and decided to explore podcasting as a result of sessions I attended. For the rest of the spring I began to aggressively put mp3s on Moodle for the students. In May I required my first student podcasts.

In the '07-'08 year, I decided that I could jettison my American Government text. I also presented a list of tech integration suggestions to our school administration. By the end of the year they had formed a tech integration group for '08-'09. And by that time I was growing very curious about using video (something I knew nothing about) . While serving on the tech integration committee I plunged into tech whole heartedly. I initiated my blogging on vlogs site for AP and began to use wikis and Google Sites. In November I started this blog. By December '08, I was planning my first workshops for staff and had decided to apply for the Apple's Distinguished Educator program. As part of my application, I developed a couple of major Web 2.0 projects.

Of course, the ADE experience greatly expanded my personal learning network and helped to give me the confidence to pursue sharing technology solutions and ideas with other educators. This year I presented to MAME 36 and MAPSA. I led our staff in-service day. But I had the sense of coming full circle when two week's ago I was chosen to be a presenter at the March, 2010 MACUL conference.

A lot has happened in three years.
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"Halo, 22-degree halo, Solar Halo, 22 degree solar halo - aka (incorrectly) Rainbow, Full Circle, 360 Degree, Round, Circular, Whole. Directly overhead. Morro Bay, CA. 12 June 2009. Flickr Creative Commons photo by mikebaird.