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Finding Your Next Big Idea at VSTE 2017

October 18, 2017 by timstahmer

While we hope everyone leaves the VSTE Conference with many new ideas to improve your professional practice, the best is always that one big "aha" that you can turn around and use immediately.

In this post, VSTE member Tracey Zaval talks about the great idea she brought back to her classroom from VSTE 2016.

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Last year I attended the VSTE conference for the first time. Not only was I looking forward to attending the conference as a presenter, I was also looking forward to the conference as an attendee. As I veteran teacher of 19 years, I know the mark of a great conference is one where you instantly get excited about something you learn and you can’t wait to get back into the classroom to try it out with your students, and I had high hopes for the VSTE conference. Well, let me tell you, that conference last year was a GREAT one!

One of the first sessions I attended was a “pop-up” session in the hall of the convention center. The one I attended taught participants about digital breakouts, a computer version of the very-popular escape room concept that require students to work collaboratively and think critically. I had never heard of digital breakouts but within 20 minutes of the presentation, I was excited and I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for the session to be over so I could start looking around the digital breakout site for myself to see how I could adapt their ready-made breakouts for my class.

As soon as the session was over, I found an empty table to sit at as I checked out the available resources on the digital breakout site. I very quickly decided I would need to create my own digital breakout in order to support my students’ learning, so I got right to work. There are a series of videos on that site that teach people how to make their own digital breakout - everything from how to build a google site, how to embed secret clues, and how to create a google form to house all the digital locks. I pretty much spent the next two days of the conference working on my digital breakout in between sessions until I had a finished product.

I debuted my first digital breakout, “It’s a Wrap”, in my classroom right before the winter holiday break. The premise of the breakout was to breakout out of the town that ran out of gift-wrapping paper and make it to the town of Wrappinville to buy more. My students had such a great time participating in this activity, they asked right away if they could do another one. At that point, I had already begun working on my next one, a content-related breakout involving James Madison as he was writing the U. S. Constitution. My students were so excited, three weeks later, when they got an attempt to break James Madison out of his office to help him find where he put his draft of the Constitution.

Since the conference, I have created three additional digital breakouts and each time I use one in class, my students’ excitement and engagement goes through the roof. I am so thankful I attended the VSTE conference last year. If there is anyone who is looking for a great conference to attend to enhance the use of technology in their classroom, the VSTE conference is exactly what you are looking for!

Tracy is an 8th grade civics teacher at Midlothian Middle School. Photos are of her students at work on their Breakout EDU.

Join us at VSTE 2017, December 3-5 at the Hotel Roanoke to discover your next big idea. Due to the size of the convention center, space is very limited and is filling fast. Register now!

Applied Digital Skills Curriculum Available From Google

October 16, 2017 by vsteadmin

New Curriculum From Google...

We have some exciting updates about our digital literacy and job skills program, Applied Digital Skills. The ready-to-use curriculum offers over 90 hours of video and project-based content that teaches digital literacy skills for life and professional scenarios.

The Applied Digital Skills program received ISTE’s Seal of Alignment for Proficiency last month. The following are highlights from ISTE’s curriculum review:

All projects are engaging, relevant, and connected to the real-world.
Each unit can be adapted as needed for the skill level in which it is implemented, and each promotes problem solving, creative thinking, and meaningful application of technology in substantive tasks.
Skills addressed in the projects will serve learners well in school and beyond, and the curriculum is accompanied by ample support for instructors to be able to implement the curriculum effectively.

Read the full report here.

To get started teaching, visit g.co/applieddigitalskills, sign in as an Instructor with a Google account and create your first class. Invite learners to sign in with their own Google accounts as Learners and input your unique class code. This step-by-step guide explains how to set up your first class in less than 5 minutes. The curriculum is flexible and can be taught anywhere. Units include Research and Develop a Topic, If/Then Adventure Stories, Plan and Budget, Plan an Event and more. Applied Digital Skills is a great solution whether you are looking for a semester-long technology curriculum, or to enrich your subject matter content over a few class periods.

The program provides lesson plans and example rubrics, as well as the ability to track learner progress. Here is an example of one way that a school in South Carolina is using the curriculum:

We hope you enjoy the curriculum.

It Won’t Be All Work at VSTE 2017

October 4, 2017 by timstahmer

The best reasons to attend the VSTE Conference are, of course, the many, many opportunities to learn and collaborate with your colleagues. But that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun during our three days in Roanoke.

To that end, we hope everyone will be able to join us for the annual VSTE Karaoke Night party. Sing along to your favorite tunes or just enjoy watching your friends warm up for their Voice audition. Either way, it is always a great evening.

Since our theme this year is about the superhero that is inside everyone, we also invite you to do a little cosplay and come to the party in costume. Whether you are channeling Batman or Ms. Marvel, or maybe you choose to go the alter-ego route and show up as Peter Parker or Diana Prince, this is always a highlight of the conference.

While the VSTE Conference is primarily about feeding your hunger for knowledge, we don’t ignore your need for real food (and snacks, of course). VSTE is one of the few conferences you will attend that goes all out to keep you fed.

Your Conference registration includes lunch all three days, snacks and beverages every afternoon, and lots of M&Ms, the official VSTE candy. And, since we are at the Hotel Roanoke, keep an eye out in the afternoon for their famous candied bacon. Because we know everything is better with bacon. But pay attention since this treat always goes quickly.

Registration for the 2017 VSTE Conference is now open but spaces are going fast. Because our Roanoke venue is smaller than in Virginia Beach, the number of people we can accommodate is also smaller. The conference will sell out.

So don’t delay. Register now and we’ll see you December 3 - 5 for lots of learning and fun in Roanoke.

VSTE Voices: Minecraft and Media Literacy

October 2, 2017 by vsteadmin

VE PLN Member Beth O'Connell describes a Minecraft lesson plan she developed and taught around the concept of media literacy.

Cross Posted from Beth's blog

I’ve been working on getting Minecraft into our school for about a year now, ever since I discovered for myself how (surprisingly) immersive and thought-provoking it can be. When our school system got a grant for a school calendar study which resulted in a twice-yearly Intersession week between quarters, the opportunity arose. I used Knowclue Kidd’s (Marianne Malmstrom) idea for real estate ads in Minecraft to teach some media literacy concepts. The kids had a blast playing, and even learned a little about how advertising techniques are used.

Once the new calendar was approved, the teachers and staff members were given one hour to come up with a plan for their intersession class. Each of us would be teaching a half-day class for five days. We had to provide fun activities that linked to our state standards. In just that short period of time, we came up with some amazing ideas! This was my submission:

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Intersession Title: Minecraft and Media Literacy

Grade Level: 7

Content(s) and Standard(s):

7.3 The student will understand the elements of media literacy. a) Identify persuasive/informative techniques used in nonprint media including television, radio, video, and Internet. b) Distinguish between fact and opinion, and between evidence and inference. c) Describe how word choice and visual images convey a viewpoint. d) Compare and contrast the techniques in auditory, visual, and written media messages. e) Craft and publish audience-specific media messages

Brief Description:

After learning about persuasive techniques in the media, students will build a house in Minecraft and create a video advertisement with machinima.

Are you tired of being manipulated by advertisers? Learn their tactics! Students will build a house in Minecraft and market it with a machinima real estate ad.

Detailed List of Materials Needed:

MinecraftEdu server and 25-30 licences (https://minecraftedu.com/purchase)

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Getting MinecraftEdu installed and working felt like swimming upstream against a strong current. Our IT department was very willing and supportive, but had a lot of competing demands on their time. Eventually we hope to have MinecraftEdu hosted on a district server, but for this project I ran the server on my school-issued laptop. We used a 30-workstation computer lab, which I spent several hours configuring so the server IP address was already added when the students started the software. (The IT department set a fixed IP address for my laptop.)

We’re using the Canvas LMS (learning management system) this year in our district, so I spent some time creating a course with assignments and resources for this class. My class was scheduled for the last half of the school day, so I spent each morning getting ready for the class. For the first session, the students wrote a bulletin board post introducing themselves, and took a Minecraft Experience survey (created with Google Forms). At the beginning of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th days, they wrote a guided reflection piece, and they took another survey at the end of the class. Nothing was graded, but most of the students did a good job completing the assignments (despite some grumbling about having to wait to play.)

We jumped right in at the beginning of the first day doing the MinecraftEdu Orientation. This build offers a lot for all levels, getting the completely inexperienced users started, and providing puzzles for the experienced players to figure out. The students were required to use their own real names, with no gamertags or numbers.

After we played for an hour or so, I stopped them and had them log in to Canvas to do the survey and introduction. I started talking about media literacy by saying: “You’re being tricked! Every day, advertisers try to trick you into spending your money, or getting your parents to spend theirs. Have you noticed how this can happen? How do you feel about this?” The students seemed really unaware of this, in spite of the vast amount of media exposure that most kids have.

The next day I played some real estate ads that I found on YouTube (available on this playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSn_3qRXdgj1DKid15BFNrHVqfSsFxaWp), asking them to look at some elements of video media (lighting, editing, sound, language used, what is featured, camera shots). We talked about features of houses, and generated lists of essential, advantageous, and luxury features that they might want to include. I played Knowclue’s machinima of her students’ Minecraft real estate ads to show what we were aiming for. Here’s what Knowclue said via email about her class’s process:

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> I gave my 5th graders 3 class periods to build any single dwelling house they wanted on a single account. Since we are a 1:1 school I allowed kids to use mods as well if they had them on their personal computer. Didn’t feel that piece mattered for this project.
> We spent one class period looking at array of real estate commercials from our town that I had preselected. The commercials represented a range of house types from apartments to higher end homes. Before we watched the commercials we did a quick brainstorm to populate 3 categories:
> What is essential? (bathroom, kitchen, etc)
> What is an advantage? (garage, en suite bathrooms, etc)
> What would be a luxury? (theater, tennis courts, etc)
> Kids generate the list pretty quickly and we use it for a reference when we watch the videos.
> I asked the kids to watch each commercial carefully to identify the language used, the camera shots and what is featured.
> It’s a blast to dissect each commercial – kids pick this up really quickly, without much prompting. They LOVE identifying on the conventions to “sell” – I gave them very little instruction, mostly just prepared to ask questions. Sometimes I would ask them to identify what kinds of word/phrases they used and after kids generated the list, we would rematch the commercial. It’s a really fun class and you can get through quite a few examples after you generate the list of needs to luxury.
> I give them one class to construct the commercials for their house. I let them choose to use video or pictures, most choose pictures as that is pretty much represents the commercials they saw.
> 5 classes – pretty straight forward. Just so you know the 6th grade ran a simultaneous challenge on OpenSim. I met with 6th grade twice a week and gave them 6 periods to build since the learning curve was steeper.

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I had set up a random world in Creative mode for them to use. They were to explore, find somewhere to build, and give me the coordinates. Some students finished their houses that day, while others were still exploring at the end of class. Several students asked if they could work with a partner, and I encouraged this. I was pleased to see some new alliances developing by the end of the week, between students who didn’t know each other previously.

The students did reflections at the beginning of each class after that. The next day I showed them how to take screenshots in Minecraft, how to find their screenshots and transfer them to their storage drives, and how to make a machinima with their screenshots in Moviemaker. They followed the directions with varying degrees of completion. I was learning along with them, staying one step ahead.

We did have some trouble with griefing. A few players flew around to other people’s houses throwing eggs, which then hatched into a plague of chickens. A few people’s houses were partially destroyed, and the perpetrators would not come forward. However, the worst destruction was my fault–on the last day I accidentally saved the world as the previous day’s work, losing all of the building they had done that day. ARRGGHH!! The class as a whole was very willing to help each other out. The responses I got from the end-of-course survey showed that the students really enjoyed the class and thought it went well.

I’m not sure how much the students really learned about media literacy. At least now they’re aware that it’s a thing, and that advertisers use techniques to get them and their parents to spend money. We’re having another Intersession in the spring, and I’m thinking of focusing on civics and developing a community. We had trouble with Moviemaker: although the students saved their files, I couldn’t open them up to show them to the class, so we couldn’t do the sharing at the end. Instead, I opened the world in Survival mode (no PvP) so they could play. That was really satisfying, and the inexperienced players had a chance to try it out.

I learned a lot from teaching this course, and getting to know the students better. I would say that they all were successful–they have a new awareness of media, they developed problem-solving abilities, relationships and coping strategies, and they had a great time playing together. The end-of-course survey showed an overwhelmingly positive response. I’m looking forward to working with our students in Minecraft again.

Learning Together at the VSTE Conference

September 23, 2017 by timstahmer

Attending the VSTE Conference is a great learning experience.

Attending with a team from your school or district can make that experience even better.

VSTE member Margaret Sisler came to the 2016 Conference in Virginia Beach with more than fifty of her colleagues and reflected on those three days in this post from last December.

Learning Together

Last week each school in our pyramid sent a team of educators (a mix of admin, teachers, tech coaches, and tech specialists) to the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) annual conference. This is our state conference, attended by over 1200 educators from all parts and regions of our state. Presenters are educators, administrators, tech coaches, vendors and cover so many topics I couldn’t even list them all here!

I’ve been to VSTE many times and serve on the Outreach Committee. I usually attend on my own and present a session or two. Attending with a team was both awesome and sooo different than what I was used to!

Divide & Conquer: When I’ve attended on my own (or with a friend or two from another school), I’m usually very conflicted about what sessions to attend. I was presenting 4 times this year, so that meant 4 sessions that I couldn’t attend and there were so many great offerings! When there was a session I was super interested in, I asked if someone on my team could present. It was incredible to work together this way because it meant we learned and gathered the resources from all of the sessions that anyone on our team attended. We used a note-taking template that I got from my #TOSAchat friends. I made a copy of the template for our team and we all added our notes to the template as we went. My team took notes on one google slide deck. Other teams from our pyramid took notes collaboratively in google as well and we all shared those notes.

Relationship Building: Being together with teachers, admin, tech coaches and tech specialists from my school and these 9 other schools allowed us to relax and really get to know each other and build connections. THIS is what going to these conferences does for me. I’ve now got this huge network of people that I can reach out to. I KNOW that I don’t have the answers to every question, but I bet someone in this group does!! We were also able to connect with folks from around the state who are deep in the work we are all doing. It’s so interesting to hear this wider perspective. We often get bogged down by the district way of doing it and this helps us to open that up view of things!

Read the rest of the post on Margaret's site, Edutechnically Speaking. VSTE thanks her for allowing us to share her experience with our members.

Margaret is an Instructional Technology Coach in Chantilly, Virginia. She works in a large high school with over 3000 students and is passionate about building relationships with staff and students, engagement, Google Apps for Education and innovative teaching ideas! She is a former elementary teacher and has been a Tech Coach in both Elementary and High Schools. In addition to her blog, Margaret frequently shares her thoughts on Twitter: @TechyMargaret.

Registration for the 2017 VSTE Conference, December 3 - 5 in Roanoke, is filling fast. Plan now to join us.

If you write about learning and technology on your blog, related to the Conference or not, and would like to share one of your posts here at VSTE.org, we would love to hear from you. Send us the link and your email address, and we will get back to you very quickly.

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