Instructional Services Report to LEA Administrators January 2013 Rhonda Sheeley, Director of Instructional Services Keystone AEA 1400 Second Street NW Elkader, IA 52043 9564 800 632 5918 (Ext. 1303) rsheeley@aea1.k12.ia.us Spa Day for Technology Coaches Keystone AEA Technology Cadre continues to adapt services to meet evolving needs of our districts. This school year Keystone became aware that several area districts have hired a full time technology coach or designated a technology coach in buildings. Technology coaches are responsible for supporting classroom teachers in using technology to improve instruction. In visiting our area buildings, we heard that the coaches wondered how others in their same positions were operating. Our responsive (and creative) technology integration specialists suggested a special day for professional development and sharing by district tech coaches that would be named a Tech Spa Day to denote that the session would be fun and informal. The invitation was sent out to school tech coaches to attend a "meet and greet" in Elkader from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on November 7, 2012 in Elkader and December 18, 2012 in Dubuque. Over 50 Technology Coaches attended these sessions. The objective was to meet each other, share resources and ideas, collaborate, make connections, and have some FUN! Sessions included: Dealing with Adult Learners Twitter Google Apps Tips/Updates/ Tools for collaboration Ideas for screencasting or creating tutorials Hippocampus How to setup and manage training/assessment in Atomic Learning Integrating tech into the Professional Learning Community Easy to use tech tools for any teacher evocabulary strategies across the curriculum Digital citizenship/cyberbullying Online primary sources New Keystone online resources: Digital library and simultaneous access E Books Thinkfinity Student management tools (Moodle, Edmodo, etc.) Social Media in Schools the good, the bad and the ugly ipad apps ipad integration ideas Tech Utilities (doodle, keepvid, quiettube, view pure) Assistive/Adaptive Technology Tech Spa Day participants will continue to participate in an online discussion board via Wiggio, throughout the school year. Keystone staff, Norma Thiese, Deb Henkes, Mary Hauber, Bev Berns and Kathy Hay did a wonderful job creating and delivering these days to support local technology coaches.
Feedback from the Technology Coaching Spa Days of 2012 follows. Please describe the new skills, information, and/or practical recommendations that you acquired. Lots of sites to check out! Love all the real examples and showing of the sites being used and HOW they were used with projects in the classroom. I plan to use Camtasia to create a series of videos to assist teachers in learning about various Web 2.0 tools. I will also pass work with the guidance counselors to develop a way to share cyberbullying information with students, with a focus on an anonymous bully reporting system. I really appreciated not only the resources, but the description of how we can advise teachers to utilize these resources in their classrooms. It was also very helpful to take time to work with the resources. I have a wealth of websites that I can share with my teachers. I also have a better understanding of the Iowa Core Technology Literacy, and I have ideas of how to help build this literacy in our students. OMG too many to list. I can't wait to try them all! I realize that I need to be doing more but it will also require me pushing/encouraging my teachers and engaging the support of my principal I learned some great tools to use with kids and teachers and practical applications for them. I even learned a little more about what the Keystone site has to offer. Just a lot more web tools also learned more about Google Chrome. Awesome! I have so many ideas I don't know where to start. Thank You! MANY new tools to assist teachers with technology integration. Some great discussions about needs that need to be addressed as we transition to the role of technology coach. Valuable time to discuss and share with other TCs. Acquired a wealth of valuable resources. Learned how to use camtasia. Everything we learned today was outstanding and extremely helpful! I explored many new 2.0 tools such as Wiggio, Gamification, and Camtasia. I also learned more about the Tech Literacy strands of the Common Core and was able to bookmark many wonderful resources to help support my students and teachers. My only suggestion with this kind of presentation is to do LESS and do them in more depth. It's frustrating to be exposed to so many great tools but not have ample time to really dig deep. I would much rather focus on one or two things and really have time to explore and become expert in them. Camtasia, for example, could have been 2 3 hours alone. Much of the learning today was new to me. I was familiar with some of the topics either through last year's TIC conference and from Norma giving a presentation to teachers at our school earlier this fall. I am leaving with an arsenal of ideas to delve into further and share with teachers. I also have the Iowa Core in mind and how I can incorporate the standards and benchmarks through the activities that I will incorporate into my teaching and with teachers. New web tools and ideas for working with adult learners. I really liked the pd model that was presented and see a lot of value in using that as a model in my situation I learned a bunch of new websites and ipad apps that I can use back in the classroom. Many online resources that will benefit my teachers I really like the ipad apps and how to integrate more ipad apps in the classroom. Excellent presentations to new Web tools. I love the new AEA site with Web resources. The professional development gaming is a great idea. What further assistance do you need? I would LOVE more of this! More often! I know that I can contact Deb, Norma, Kathy, and Mary with questions about various technology tools. I feel that they are a strong support system I have as a first year tech coach. I know that if I need assistance, Deb, Norma, and all the Keystone folks are just a phone call or e mail away. They are wonderful resources!!! After we have worked and played for a while we should come back together to share the ways we are using some of them.
I need more time to go back and look at the information and sites that we learned about before I know what assistance I will need. I just need time to absorb all of this and figure out how to use with staff. I also need access to more hardware in my building. After the district makes some decisions about what sites it will be supporting, we could use additional training on how to specifically integrate some of these tools into real pieces of the curriculum. We definitely could use additional time to share ideas and practical suggestions with AEA staff and each other. I will continue to need more in services and time to learn additional ways to write grade appropriate technology lesson plans. Right now I just need some time to digest the resources that were presented, meet with classroom teachers, find what they need to integrate technology successfully into their classroom and then match the best resources to make that happen. Would love some more follow up to the pd models and how to use professional learning communities in a school more effectively. Time one on one with individuals to help me with tech education. I really enjoyed all of the resources but would like to see sessions about what technology coaches are doing in their schools how this job functions in other districts I want to be able to use the ipad to it's fullest capabilities. Other Comments: Thank you! Great job! Today's training session was so beneficial. I feel it was tailored to our needs as new tech coaches. Information was relevant and tools shared were suitable the educational setting. I would love for another T.C. Spa Day to be scheduled for the spring. I love that links to all the resources are linked on the Keystone website and the agenda for today. I don't have to remember them all (it's a bit of a blur at the moment), but I know where I can go to refresh my memory and dig deeper into what we learned today. Thank you so much for all of the great work you did to give us the information today! A little overwhelming again, but I am excited to try. A very worthwhile day lots of food for thought, review of some resources I already knew about, and introduction to a number of them that were new to me. The presenters were very knowledgeable. They helped tremendously...and were very respectful of our questions and concerns. The presenters Deb, Mary, Norma and Bev were excellent so knowledgeable. Wish I could take them home I know how to reach them and I will not be afraid to ask for help. I do believe it gets me excited about what is there. Next time I would like to bring a couple of classroom teachers with me. We are SO very appreciative that you were able to bring this presentation down to Dubuque. There are always sessions that I'd like to attend that are offered in Elkader, but I just can't make it work to get up there. This was a very valuable presentation! Super ideas and discussions! I would love to have guidance on how to write a complete unit plan or a set of lesson plans that integrate technology. A template or a guide for writing future plans that integrate technology that I can use in the future with other units. Thank you for a wonderful "spa day"!! Today was a fabulous day!! I think a tech spa day should be an annual event in Dubuque! Thank you for all your preparation and presentations today! You guys rock! Great day thanks! Possibly give the attendees the opportunity to have a big "share session" so ideas can be openly shared. This would have been a GREAT opportunity. Thanks for all you do. You are all amazing!!!
3D Printing is coming to Keystone AEA! The maker movement over the past few years has drawn attention to 3D printing. If you are wondering what a 3D printer is or what it does, this is definitely an example of where a picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words: http://bit.ly/wug6mr As STEM education continues to be a priority for both, our state and the nation, 3D printing opens up a wide variety of creative options for students and teachers in many curricular areas Industrial Tech, Ag, Science, Math, and more. Beyond STEM, students can use a 3D printer for art and social studies projects imagine creating a sculpture or 3D model of a historical building or battlesite map. A 3D printer can be an outstanding tool for kids to produce physical models of objects they have designed.
The exciting news is that Keystone AEA has purchased a 3D printer; teachers and students will be able to submit designs electronically to our production shop. The printed object will then be shipped back to the school via Keystone van mail. Exact details regarding costs, expected turnaround time, etc., are still being worked out, but affordability for schools is our goal. Of course, to use a 3D printer, you must first have a 3D digital design to print. There are many programs that can produce the proper files for 3D printing, including Blender, Google SketchUp (now owned by Trimble) and AutoCAD (the most common file formats are.stl and.obj). While these programs are great, the drawback is that they can have a steep learning curve. For those of you who want to use this service, but may not currently use any 3D design software, there is another option: Tinkercad (https://tinkercad.com/). Keystone has been awarded a grant of 1,000 free licenses for this web based software for teacher and student use. Tinkercad software to be very intuitive with a built in, step by step tutorial and practice projects. Since this software is web based, it will run on PCs or Macs, opening up 3D design to a wide audience with its easy to use interface. Interested yet? Here is how you can get involved: Keystone is offering a ½ day training around using the software, getting a look at the printer and some physical samples, finding out the details on how to submit designs, and sharing ideas with other folks in your curricular area/grade level. The two dates/locations for this training: February 25, 2013 in Elkader and February 28, 2013 in Dubuque. More details to follow, so save the date! Please contact Jason Martin Hiner (jmartin hiner@aea1.k12.ia.us) with any questions you may have and I hope you can join us for one of our dates in February!
Registration now open for TIC Conference in Dubuque on June 18 19, 2013 http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/index.cfm?nodeid=46062&audienceid=1 Recertification credit is available for $85.00 Course #: 21361 VREP Information and Update Virtual Reality Education Pathfinders is an educational initiative providing opportunities for K 12 students to develop and expand their learning across the curriculum through the use of Virtual Reality and 3D. Partnerships between school districts and businesses drive the initiative. VREP provides low cost access to high end computers and 3D viewing devices. Originally schools received 3D TVs, computers and 3D glasses, but the program has evolved with the technology and 3D projectors have replaced TVs. A goal of the program is to provide free software access and low cost equipment to schools so all students have the opportunity to participate. Started in 2006 by Rex Kozak principal at East Marshall High School in LeGrand with a donated Virtual Reality system donated by Mayo Clinic the program has expanded to include over ninety schools in Iowa and schools in the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut and most recently Arizona. Keystone has supported the program by hosting regional conference for students and has conducted several school visits to better understand VREP and how it can be a model for other student centered, mostly independent learning, programs. Currently, Kathy Hay is contracted by Keystone AEA to support our VREP schools. Kathy had been the teacher mentor at Allamakee.
Keystone AEA 1 currently has eight school districts participating; Clayton Ridge Howard Winneshiek MFL MarMac Allamakee, Valley Postville West Central Clayton Ridge hosted the fall regional conference in October with three area schools in attendance. Students in the program become self motivated learners and mentors for peers as they create VR projects of their own choice and for educational use within their district and other VREP schools. Students use the free open software program called Blender to create and design. As they work, students network with each other to solve problems and improve project performance. Networking is available online through the VREP website and face to face at regional and state conferences. Students work independently with minimal teacher intervention as VREP was designed to support student centered learning. Students set goals, work at their own pace, and evaluate their progress. Most schools set VREP up as an independent study with a teacher mentor who can come from any discipline, but has to have a willingness to watch his/her students proceed and not worry about his/her inability to use the software. VREP often takes at risk students and improves their attitude and performance at school. Students have opportunities to travel the state as VREP trainers, which often leads to internships with Rockwell Collins, John Deere and more. Connecting to businesses in NE Iowa is supported and can be assisted by the program as well. Jack Harris Director of Advanced Manufacturing Technology at Rockwell Collins has kept his company a significant corporate sponsor since the beginning. VREP continues to expand. Schools active in the spring of 2011 received 300 free seats to the professional 3D modeling program called Creo donated by the Parametric Technology Corporation. Not only is this available to VREP students, but can also be used by CAD, art, GAT students and more. Keystone AEA is purchasing a 3D printer this spring for use by students involved in these programs. An added benefit will be 1,000 free seats in the software program called Tinkercad, another 3D software program, which saves files ready to go in the new printer. Both the Blender and Creo programs also save files in formats to use with the printer. VREP schools have been notified of the new opportunity and are anxiously awaiting its availability. VREP is now a non profit corporation with a board of directors made up of members through the Iowa Business Group. To get your school started in VREP contact Kathy Hay at Keystone AEA (khay@aea1.k12.ia.us) or Rex Kozak, principal at East Marshall High School in LeGrand and VREP Director: Rex Kozak East Marshall High School 201 North Franklin Street Le Grand, IA 50142 rkozak@e marshall.k12.ia.us For more information you can visit the VREP website: http://www.vrep.org/index.php