VSTE

Dec 12 2013

VSTE Reflections

This year, I attended VSTE with Zoe Parrish and Bea Cantor. They both helped me present on Monday about Google Apps and the GAFE Dashboard.

Peter Martin also attended and volunteered as an IT support guru.

I also had the honor of helping present this year’s Making IT Happen Award, as I was last year’s recipient. This award is given to education leaders who have made a significant contribution to the field.

I also had the evening opportunity of serenading VSTE attendees at the Hotel Roanoke with music by Bach and Philip Glass.

Okay John, but what did you learn!?

AppShed – a Tool for making web-based mobile apps
Rushton Hurley – What to do (and not do) to get teachers to use technology in the classroom – this session focused on demonstrating benefits for teachers and not expecting everyone to do the same things with technology
NextVista Resources – online resources from Hurley – including materials to inspire others
Waze.com – Mobile app for taking headaches out of driving
Animation Funkification – Great presentation by former GES-teacher David Clough on animation tools for the elementary (or secondary) classroom
Professional Development for Professional Learning
Podcasting App for iPad

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: links, VSTE

Dec 8 2013

Protected: Under the Dashboard with GAFE

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: conference, google, hapara, VSTE

Jan 14 2013

Learn with VSTE

I’m proud to be a member of VSTE and have served as one of their directors since 2008. Today, Liz Kuhns also serves on their board. Feel free to ask either one of us about some of their free learning opportunities.

Tonight on the VSTE Island in Second Life beginning at 8PM is a talk by Rob Furman on motivating the reluctant reader using technology. You’ll need to start sooner if SL is new to you, to set up an avatar and download the software. But SL is a really cool environment and these free sessions by VSTE are well-done.

Thursday the 17th at 8 PM VSTE is offering afree webinar on Dispelling Myths about Using Copyright Materials in Education. My friend Michael George, an ITRT from Fredericksburg City, is the presenter.

And VSTE is offering a virtual conference in the evenings from January 28-Feb 2nd. It kicks off at 6:30 PM with a keynote from Pam Moran and Becky Fisher from Albemarle County, VA. Their presentation is on “Hacking Education: from Tweaks to Transformation.” I know it should be good! Learn more about this opportunity on the VSTE website.

All of these VSTE offerings are FREE and come with recertification points for participating. (Be sure and get their certificates and bring them for approval by your principal.) If you participate in one or more sessions at the VSTE Virtual Virginia 2013 event mentioned in the preceding paragraph, I’m willing to count that as a technology integration course if you get approval first by telling me which sessions you plan to participate in.

If you’d like future events such as these delivered to your inbox, take a few minutes and become a VSTE member. Talk to Liz Kuhns or I about VSTE if you have questions. Membership is complimentary.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: free, learning, pd, VSTE

Nov 30 2012

John at VSTE: Towards an Ideal Concept of Book

What does the future of books hold? I believe we’re at a transition point between “books” and something… else. Below you’re going to find my “dry run” at this December’s VSTE conference, where I will demonstrate the use of iBooks Author 2.0 from Apple as a tool for creating rich-media digital books.

But I also think in taking the leap to create such a monster we have to understand our place in the landscape of digital media, including video, PDF, movies, the Web, and more. I believe that today there are a lot of viable mechanisms to distribute digital texts, and a lot of competing, viable formats (ePub, Flexbooks, PDF, the iBooks just to name a few). But I also believe today that the iBook app on the iPad and the rich textbook model from Apple are a pair of strong solutions–simply because the tool to create them is free and so easy to use.

The “chapter” isn’t finished on this… and that’s my point: we’re in a state of flux and development. The real innovations will take place with how we use these new interpretations of “book” to advance our mission as educators.

iTunesU and iBooks Author Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: VSTE

Dec 6 2011

Conference Reflections

I’ve been really inspired over the past week after having attended two regional conferences that were chock-full of excellent speakers.

Professor Yong Zhao of the University of Oregon (above, at VA-ASCD) was on fire earlier, at the end of last week at the Virginia conference for ASCD. He talked very little about technology, but instead the American education system, with special insight into the connections between International test scores on things like Math and Science, creativity in education, and how we can compete globally. His talks (I attended both) were peppered with humor. His conclusions made me sit back and take notice; I found them at once both sensical, refreshing, and emotionally overwhelming. I look forward to studying his books.

Next, Chris Lehman, who appeared at both the VA-ASCD and VSTE conferences, who is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Wow. I heard him at ISTE this past summer, and his message this time around was as focused and important. His school does G21 all the time. He gives promise that transforming a school to one that practices twenty-first century skills with an all-project based approach is possible.

Adam Bellow closed the VSTE conference and was new to me. But his message encapsulated with both humor and fast-paced engagement what I’ve been hearing from others for over 5 years… he was a good speaker, made deft use of slides to illustrate his points, and provided common-sense thinking on how and why we should utilize technology.

It will take me a few more weeks to wrap-up all the digestion from what I was able to observe. Goochland educators Sandy Kasch and Bea Cantor presented on addressing literacy with iPads, and Bea also did two more presentations in the Apple-sponsored room at VSTE on iPads: Flat to Fabulous on creating eBooks with Pages and iBooks and the other on iTunes U resources for K-12 educators. My colleagues Sean Campbell and Peter Martin also attended, Sean, working on the tech team for the conference committee in a volunteer role.

Below, I prepare to go into my presentation on the formation of VSTE Special Interest Groups. Congratulations to Mrs. Cantor for becoming elected as secretary of this new VSTE SIG.

john_vste_2011

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: ascd, bellow, lehman, sig, VSTE, zhao

Nov 29 2011

Supporting Education in the Copy-Paste Revolution

I am looking forward to presenting at the 26th annual VSTE conference, in December.

Supporting Education with 21st Century Skills from John Hendron on Vimeo.

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: g21, VSTE

May 17 2011

Innovation

What is?

I often times struggle with the term “innovation.” It sounds expensive. But I think it’s a very positive word. Especially when we feel we’re faced with problems.

Solutions mute problems, but often times, the solutions we need aren’t at the ready… we need to innovate.

As a technologist, I struggle too, because the gadget gene in me is drawn to new and shiny things. But I had a really good, common sense discussion with some of my fellow VSTE members about innovation in this most recent VSTE podcast.

65 minutes is a long time, but consider putting this on your phone or iPod. I actually learned a lot in the discussion I had with Tom from Henrico, Becky from Albemarle, and Karen from Winchester.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: innovation, podcast, VSTE

Mar 28 2011

Podcasting for Students

Last week I led an after-school workshop on podcasting with students, and I’ve turned my portion of the presentation into a video podcast.

Thanks to my friends at VSTE, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education, for hosting the podcast. This month they’ve been highlighting and focusing upon mobile devices in learning – and podcasting certainly fits the bill for putting educational content on the gadgetry teens crave.

The example I created and PDF handout is available here.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: podcasting, VSTE

Jun 7 2010

Role of Innovation in Tech and Education

As a member and director of VSTE, I’ve been involved with its newest special interest group, focused on innovation. Today (June 7, 2010), we published our first white paper on innovation in education.

Membership in VSTE has a benefit for all educators and education administrators. One of the benefits is connecting with other educators across the commonwealth with an interest in getting the most out of each school’s investment in technology.

Download the Innovations Whitepaper online. The paper includes quotes from a few Goochland educators, plus many others from across the state.

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: innovation, VSTE

Mar 9 2010

Congratulations to Dr. Karen Work Richardson

My educational colleague in Virginia, Dr. Karen Richardson, has been named the new executive director of the Virginia Society for Technology in Education. Both of us are board members for VSTE, and Karen was recently selected to lead the organization through this role starting this summer, after Dr. Daniel Arkin’s retirement.

Karen has had a wide variety of experiences in education including classroom teaching in middle school, high school and, now, higher education. She also has extensive experience with teaching and learning online. She is a certified online instructor for PBS Teacherline and CaseNEX and has both developed and taught content for these organizations. She is teaching an online Master’s level course for Virginia Commonwealth University. These experiences, as well as her recent doctorate in Curriculum and Educational Technology from The College of William and Mary, provide a unique, insightful perspective on public education, particularly in Virginia, which will be of great benefit to VSTE and its membership.

Karen has been to Goochland more than once in her role as a professional developer for VITAL. For teachers not sure what VSTE is–membership is free and the organization is doing great things. Visit their website today and sign-up for membership. I know I’m glad I did back in 1999!

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: VSTE

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