On February 20 2016, I was fortunate enough to attend the MDUSD EdTech Symposium. The event exceeded all of my expectations. I attended three sessions: An introduction to Zaption, Creating a Maker Space at your School, and the Student Roundtable Discussion.
Zaption:
What is Zaption?
From the company: Zaption transforms video-based learning with interactive content and tools that engage learners, deepen understanding, and track progress. Teachers, trainers and instructional designers use Zaption to quickly add images, text, and questions to existing online videos. Share lessons with individuals to watch on their own, or watch together with Zaption Presenter. With Zaption’s Analytics, instructors get immediate feedback on how viewers interact with content and understand key concepts.
My take: Zaption is a key tool to creating a flipped classroom. Zaption's ability to provide live feedback to educators and results about student performance allows for the creations of video based assessments and discussions. I also believe that Zaption is a key tool to creating a classroom where student engagement and learning is the priority - it is an added bonus that Zaption can be used for assessments.
Creating a Maker Space:
While I did not learn anything revolutionary, I did have the opportunity to see some sample Maker Spaces at other schools and talk with others about what we could implement at Northgate. I hope to be working with Michael (fellow HelpDesk Member) to improve/create a new Maker Space for Northgate. It will be based around Arduino - everything else has yet to be decided.
Student Roundtable Discussion:
The last session of the day was by far the most interesting. I met like-minded students from a variety of schools in and outside of the district. Everyone had interesting stories to share and both Mrs. Hawes and Mr. Eagan were present for much of the discussion. To prevent a long soliloquy, some of the highlights included a discussion of what students do EdTech wise at our schools, what are interests are and why, and what happens at each school in the district. The most interesting conversation of the whole session revolved around the restrictions placed on iPads at Northgate (#FreeNorthgateiPads) as well as the crummy Internet at Northgate and other schools.
Did I mention that all of this took place on a Saturday??? Yes, I spent a whole day at the Symposium and I had a great time!
Since the Symposium, I've had a lot of ideas that can be put towards making HelpDesk better. I will most likely devote my next blog post to all of those ideas.
On a slight tangent, last Friday, March 4, 2016, I had a meeting with Chris Walsh the CEO of Zaption, Mr. Tobin, and Mr. McAlister regarding Zaption implementation at Northgate (following HelpDesk's presentation at the ALL STAFF meeting on March 2nd) as well as organizing a possible showing of the movie: Most Likely to Succeed. Again, I will update the blog when I find out more information (date, timing, etc.).
Finally, my ILE has been going swimmingly. It is a massive undertaking, even more time-consuming than my first semester project. Take a look at what I am doing by clicking here (and scanning with Aurasma - iOS Download - Android Download)!
Zaption:
What is Zaption?
From the company: Zaption transforms video-based learning with interactive content and tools that engage learners, deepen understanding, and track progress. Teachers, trainers and instructional designers use Zaption to quickly add images, text, and questions to existing online videos. Share lessons with individuals to watch on their own, or watch together with Zaption Presenter. With Zaption’s Analytics, instructors get immediate feedback on how viewers interact with content and understand key concepts.
My take: Zaption is a key tool to creating a flipped classroom. Zaption's ability to provide live feedback to educators and results about student performance allows for the creations of video based assessments and discussions. I also believe that Zaption is a key tool to creating a classroom where student engagement and learning is the priority - it is an added bonus that Zaption can be used for assessments.
Creating a Maker Space:
While I did not learn anything revolutionary, I did have the opportunity to see some sample Maker Spaces at other schools and talk with others about what we could implement at Northgate. I hope to be working with Michael (fellow HelpDesk Member) to improve/create a new Maker Space for Northgate. It will be based around Arduino - everything else has yet to be decided.
Student Roundtable Discussion:
The last session of the day was by far the most interesting. I met like-minded students from a variety of schools in and outside of the district. Everyone had interesting stories to share and both Mrs. Hawes and Mr. Eagan were present for much of the discussion. To prevent a long soliloquy, some of the highlights included a discussion of what students do EdTech wise at our schools, what are interests are and why, and what happens at each school in the district. The most interesting conversation of the whole session revolved around the restrictions placed on iPads at Northgate (#FreeNorthgateiPads) as well as the crummy Internet at Northgate and other schools.
Did I mention that all of this took place on a Saturday??? Yes, I spent a whole day at the Symposium and I had a great time!
Since the Symposium, I've had a lot of ideas that can be put towards making HelpDesk better. I will most likely devote my next blog post to all of those ideas.
On a slight tangent, last Friday, March 4, 2016, I had a meeting with Chris Walsh the CEO of Zaption, Mr. Tobin, and Mr. McAlister regarding Zaption implementation at Northgate (following HelpDesk's presentation at the ALL STAFF meeting on March 2nd) as well as organizing a possible showing of the movie: Most Likely to Succeed. Again, I will update the blog when I find out more information (date, timing, etc.).
Finally, my ILE has been going swimmingly. It is a massive undertaking, even more time-consuming than my first semester project. Take a look at what I am doing by clicking here (and scanning with Aurasma - iOS Download - Android Download)!