Here is the video of a recent talk I gave on ebooks as instructional resources in early childhood and elementary classrooms.

 Session Resources

1. Download When Ebooks Go to School (Epub format)
2. When Ebooks Go to School Bibliography
3. Read the rest of this entry…

This isn’t my typical educational technology related post. I mean, it kind of is, but it really isn’t. I believe that we all learn and grow from experiences that happen both inside and outside of the classroom, so in essence, this post is about education and technology, but it’s also about more than that. It’s about a new opportunity, a new way to look at the things around me, a new way to approach literacy and how people interact with text, media and each other via social media.

This past week, I had my own opportunity to learn outside the classroom. A few months back, it was my good fortune to merge paths in the Twittersphere with @JGuyMAC, Director of Communications for the Mid-American Conference. Back in February, I was a guest of The University of Akron’s Men’s Basketball program at a pretty big game against Ohio University. The Zips had asked me to serve as a Social Media Correspondent on Social Media Day at the arena.

As a social media correspondent, two Zips fans will cover both the men’s and women’s games as members of the media, including insider access to pre and post game activities, media seating during the game and more.

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EdCamp Columbus was held yesterday at Gahanna Lincoln Clark Hall, which is a beautiful facility. It is also a really nice example of ways private and public sectors can come together to create learning spaces that benefit the entire community. The photo below from Sean Wheeler is a great example of the type of learning space you find in Clark Hall.

One of the conversations I submitted to the Big Board was “Textbooks are Dead, People: The Relevance of Student Created Ebooks in the Common Core.” I’ll admit, I went for a somewhat controversial title in hopes of gather a decent crowd for the conversation.

We had a nice crowd and the comments, questions and suggestions were really good. You can review the Google Doc from the conversation if you’d like to see how the conversation broke down. Not everything discussed made it into the Doc, but there were a few people tweeting from the session. Their Storify story is below. Read the rest of this entry…

Here’s a nice quick reference visual that lays out the major changes taking place in Ohio education from 2010-2016.

I participated in #ohedchat last night where the topic was “PARCC ASSESSMENTS.” Based on Wes Fryer‘s post from earlier in the day, I decided to try Tweetchat.com. I found the service to be helpful for filtering the conversation into a single stream. This was great for following and focusing on only the #ohedchat discussion, however I quickly became frustrated with the inability to see @replies that I receiving during the chat. I ended up following the chat using Tweetchat, but also using Hotot for Chrome on my Samsung Chromebook to interact with others.

I took away a lot of great information from the chat. I’ve collected and curated the pieces I found most helpful using Storify. You can view them below. Read the rest of this entry…

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I was down in Columbus, Ohio this week to attend eTech Ohio‘s annual educational technology conference, OETC13. I was involved in a number of interesting sessions, but my one “official” conference presentation was a BYOT titled “Student-Created Multimedia eBooks on the iPad in Grades K-3.”

The Google Site I created as a resource can be found here. I included quite a bit of background information that covers the current research on ebooks for young children, types of ebooks, selecting ebooks and also evaluating ebooks. This content is Flash-based, so if you’re trying to review it on an iPad, you’re out of luck. Sorry! But trust me, it is good stuff, so find a desktop or laptop and go through it!

The BYOD activity for the session is here. Please feel free to borrow, steal, use or remix with your students or teachers. If you’re just looking for my app recommendations from the session, here are the FREE ones and the PAY ones. If you want to learn more about how the session went, read on…

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I’ve spent the past few days getting everything in order for my trip to the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in Columbus. The conference runs from February 11-13, 2013. This year, I have a pretty full schedule. Part of that is due to the fact that I’ve been heavily involved in the planning for a new aspect of OETC. For the 2013 conference, a small team of edtech professionals from around the state have been working in conjunction with eTech Ohio to put together OECTx, the “official UNconference of OETC.”

OETCx is an event that’s happening in conjunction with the eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference on Tuesday, February 12, 2013. This event will take place on the second floor of C-Pod (rooms C-224 through C-226) all day.

The idea is to combine social network tools and a participant-driven schedule to make the eTech conference more interactive and engaging.

In 224 and 225, we’ll have a number of areas set up for “unconference” style sessions. We’ll use a format similar to the popular EdCamps, where topics are decided on the fly and participants engage in conversations about those topics. This format allows anyone with an idea to collaborate with others around that shared interest. It also gives regular session presenters the opportunity to have followup sessions to continue the conversation and get feedback from attendees on their sessions.

Meanwhile, in 226, we have a number of sessions scheduled. These will include a simulcast and real-time discussion of the keynote, roundtable discussion of BYOD and 1:1, an Ignite-style session where teachers will share ideas in 5-minute presentations with 20 auto-advancing slides, an App Smack Down, and several scheduled sessions that will be in the conference planner. Read the rest of this entry…

I recently had an opportunity to visit with Katherine Boyd from the local CBS Radio affiliate 104.1 FM and talk a little about educational technology.

Boy, times have changed when it comes to teaching our kids in the classroom.

Used to be a teacher relied on books, rulers and a chalk board to instruct the class.  Today, books are being replaced with tablets and e-readers, rulers are replaced with smart phones, and chalk boards are replaced by monitors and laptops.

In this edition of Cleveland Connection, we talk to three local educators who are on the cutting edge when it comes to technology in the classroom.

Listen to a a podcast of this show: 01 CC Technology In The Classroom

Thanks to Ryan MacRaild, Instructional Technology Educator at St Joseph Academy in Cleveland, for working with Kat to make this segment possible!