ISTE CONNECTED EDUCATOR--ONGOING!

Crossposted from Oh! Virtual Learning! 

 I'm so proud of this. ISTE SIGVE has continued producing "nearly monthly" "Connected Educator" Google Hangouts to share resources and new developments in virtual worlds ever since the US Department of Education's Connected Educator Month back in August 2012. I am proud to say that I have, really, nothing to do with this.

Why in the world(s) do I say that?

Because back in 2009, when we founded ISTE's "Special Interest Group (SIG) for Virtual Environments," I worked pretty hard on it. I gathered consensus, formed a plan for proposal, wrote a proposal, and jumped through necessary hoops to get the largest and most diverse international organization for technology in education to recognize our tribe as an official SIG. Once we were official, the real work began: We built on an annual "Playground" at the international conference into an event of importance. We took on monthly Second Life "speaker sessions" in the tradition developed by our esteemed pioneeer Kevin Jarret (KJ Hax in Second Life), monthly sessions that continue to this day and show no signs of cessation. We salvaged ISTE's bailout (not in the Obama General Motors sense, but in the "jump ship" sense) from investment in virtual environments by an orderly (though sometimes painful) process of committee, a process which resulted in the founding of ISTE SIGVE in Second Life, a robust and actually growing community that continues to evidence new talent and innovation.

That's why. The community is thriving in ways I have nothing to do with. It's oh so much bigger than I, bigger than any individual. Sure, there are primary movers, most notably like Karen Novak, aka Kae, aks Qae, aka so many other aka's. Like Andy, aka Spiff. Like Blubarker, aka Blubarker. Like Knowclue, and Maggie, and Gridjumper, and Lucas, and Rosie, and Bob, and Gordon, and on and on and on. My apologies if I left your name off this post, you know who you are, and so do I, and so does our tribe.

My gift to all of you is this: One day you'll see some really great stuff develop out of ISTE SIGVE that you have, really, nothing to do with. That will make you proud. We are so much bigger than any individual, yet so dependent on individual initiatives and innovations. Now, if you haven't, watch the latest ISTE SIGVE Connected Educator installment, this one featuring our best asset, our children and their parents. Listen and learn...

Help Re-envision the Virtual Environments Playground!

Help yourself to this, and help ISTE SIGVE radically rethink its Virtual Environments Playground for ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. Pretty please?

Created with Wallwisher

Help! Now! Voting Ends Sunday!

I was in a meeting today with my dear friend (and ISTE President) Dr. Kecia Ray, and she introduced me as an internationally recognized expert in the field of 3D virtual learning. That felt good, even though I tend to run from the room anytime anyone invokes the "e" word. Help us kinda sorta prove that. Daily, from each device you have with a unique IP addie, visit http://edublogawards.com/vote-here/, and vote (at least) in the Social Network category for ISTE-SIGVE. Help make this happen. It'll be huge, at least in a small way. 11:59 Sunday night, from I think Eastern time zone, it's over. You know what you need (and want) to do. Sincerely, with hugs from Nashville, Tennesee, Scott

Friday, writing and working out, sort of

I can't believe it's Friday again and I'm once again at Level P9 and tomorrow? December. It's 6:30 a.m. Colin's been out the door for 20 minutes, the pup has been up and is back in his crate upstairs, and I'm pumping my way to nowhere again, synced into the 9th of 10 different pre-programmed configurations (levels) of my magnetic-recumbent bike, typing on my Dell XPS which is resting into a custom-built rack spanning across said bike's handlebars.

P9 is not my favorite. It's straight-graduated light to hard, then over again. There are 10 one-minute sections in each level's configuration. sometimes alternating light and heavy, easy and hard if you will, as if one is biking up a hill and down a hill, up a hill and down a hill. Once the 10 minutes are up the pattern repeats. P9 is like starting out on the level and climbing the roads up to Kerry Park Overlook in Seattle, gradually increasing straight on up. Sometimes I do 30 minutes or so, just enough to log some burnt calories, and on weekends I've been known to do as much as 75 minutes. However long I "workout," I log particulars in a Google form I keep online for motivation. I've got its results set up in the spreadsheet, and as of the next moment, when I will check it (mind you I'm adding to this as we write), 6569:11:00 minutes, 1607.18 miles, and burned 59097.26 calories.

According to my approximating math, that's just short of 109 hours, or a little over four 24 hour days on the bike.

 Let's have some fun with this. 4 days of my life on a bike since March? I guess that's fair, since at my last physical I had lost 9 pounds since the physical the previous year. Of course that revelation caused me to celebrate by taking it easier on myself and I put a few of those back on, but I'm snapping out of that lately. I hope by next full physical, come May or so of 2013, to have improved a little on that number. Where could I have biked in that amount of time, achieving that number of miles? Go go gadget Google...

Eureka, www.mapsofworld.com has a neat little tool whereby one can calculate distances to other cities from a location. In this case, let's make it Nashville, Tennessee. Well, I couldn't have made it to Boise, or Las Vegas, or LA, apparently, but just look at all the places I could have made my destination in that 4 days of non-stop biking:

 

Yes, I do suspect those are air miles, but let's not quibble here. We're fantasizing. 

What about the calories? http://www.cookingnook.com/calorie-calculator.html wasn't really any help, though it's a fun way to project weight loss goals in hard and fast calorie counts. According to my results there, if I want to lose 13 more pounds over 90 days (my first entry of 30 days resulted in an "unsafe" warning), I need to maintain my moderate exercise routine and lower my caloric intake by around 500 calories per day (or burn those in addition to my moderate exercise).

At http://caloriecount.com, I received the following information, interestingly parsed out to what? About 90 days again:

You should consume about 1,746 calories a day to reach your goal weight . This is at a reasonable weight loss average of 1 lbs per week, which should be reached by March 01, 2013.

Experts recommend weight loss at the rate of 0.5-2 lbs/week. Remember that this estimate is based on your body weight, height, age, gender, and activity level. It may vary slightly depending on other factors.

Generally, women should not consume any less than 1,200 calories per day, and men should not consume less than 1,500 

calories per day. 

So anyway, I'm sweating pretty swell now and leaning into my 44th minute this Friday morning. I can't believe it's Friday but I do know I'll feel better about it all day because of this time spent in low-impact exercise. I think I'll take in Johnny's Monday morning "Wake up Yoga" class at The Yoga Room again next week, largely to work on the "critically tight" hamstrings he noted last week, obviously further tightened by my what will be 50 minutes on the bike today. You have a good weekend. That's a wrap, at 51:47, 6.5 mi., and 493 calories. Cool.

Teacher's Apple--Infographic

This gorgeous piece of work has been much reposted and repinned, but I'm not shy. I sometimes put stuff in my blog just 'cause I want to remember it. With so many other options for that function available (see http://about.me/scottmerrick), it's not a consistent strategy., but that's mine of choice this fine crisp Sunday winter morning.

Before I do, let me opine that this graphical/text object is interesting because it reads like an article without actually being an article. And that I'm not sure I buy into the prediction of Apple's dominance, though I will further share my opinion that their intentional, focused work in the education sector mirrors the way that they have focused their sales on one particular device, and that the profligacy of android devices noted in the infographic goes well noted in that respect. Personally, I'm suspecting that the Google Chromebook may the the ticket, at least in education (see friend Kathy Schrock's "first impressions" of the Chromebook).

All that said, enjoy:

An Infographic by Open Colleges

Saturday morning in MNPS Virtual School Worlds

Happy Saturday morning. Got 20 minutes or so to view a little tour of the virtual world(s) I'm building out for my school? If so...



 And pardon all the throat clearing...I'm working out a little upper respiratory thang. If you are a member of the general public, you may visit our Public world at http://www.kitely.com/virtualworld/Scott-Merrick/MNPS-Virtual-School-II-Public. If you are one of our teachers or students, visit that Public world to get your avatar and download the client software to your computer, then send me your Kitely username and I'll whitelist you into our private world. Seriously. Teachers? Incentive credits for exploration and fearlessness! Students? I would wager I can get you a little extra credit in your course if you've managed to work your way into our virtual world--again, credit for pioneering. It's time.

A poem from my morning walk, as always, best read aloud

being alive

Scott Gardner Merrick

Hundreds of cackling grackles

emerge from one horizon,

wings beating and gliding,

sets of six beats, then one long glide,

flapping six times again,

then gliding,

each of them, flocking

across the crisp October sky,

This pattern of motion conspires

with this number of birds

to create overhead an

impressive illusion of order

in a fleeting, private event

of sight and sound.

I am astounded.

Soon they dance away between me

and the full bright silver moon,

his ancient blue-lined face

askance always--

I can almost hear the “Meh...”

A sunrise pink-tinged Learjet

eases across the crisp

cerulean sky after them

sounding one big steady wind,

its engines’ blowings fading,

followed by a light plane’s props,

chainsawing away,

steadfast and unseen.

Unseen also, at long last,

in the far distance behind

my green and golden ridges,

the Louisville and Nashville

morning train, itself

a song intensely complex,

sweetly deep and rich.

And ah, there’s the whistle blast.

One russet leaf spirals lazily

from its tree, down

across the road

and down

and down,

settling.

What is not to like

about being alive?

100,000+ Pageviews!

Granted, most of them are me, writing or revising, but somehow that 6 digit figure looks good to me. Maybe someone _is_ reading. Have a great Sunday!

Senior Moment--MobiLearnAsia

 Just working out some things here. I just blew a gig. It was so all my fault.

Well, not really a gig, but a commitment. I had committed to present at a conference in Singapore this week, invited to do so by Mr. Patrick Ho, CEO of "MobiLearnAsia," a conference held to bring together people who are interested in the burgeoning move to digitize, profitize, and maximize participation, learning, and community. From the website, MobiLearnAsia was "organised for education professionals who are interested in deploying and developing the latest technologies and best practices in mobile learning and elearning, and for corporate executives who are interested in leveraging mobile learning technologies for employee and compliance training, product and sales training, customer service and performance support, this event will feature over 30 international expert speakers and a host of sponsors and exhibitors"

I was to be one of those "experts." For months, since  ISTE 2012 in San Diego, California, where I was approached by Mr. Ho to present, I have been looking forward to it. I had tested the interface, at Vidyo, with the organizers and had responded last night to a request to test again. I did so, and when I heard my wife driving up into the driveway outside my basement garage office I said, "See you tomorrow!" and disconnected. I never had a clue they were expecting me to present momentarily.

I spent some time with my honey, made sure my 16 year-old genius songwriter boy was safely home and in bed, and retired. At 3:41 I was awakened by our kenneled puppy's whining for release. I took him out to relieve himself and pulled down the Murphy bed in the guest room. He climbed up next to me and we slept until time for everyone to get up. At work, I dove into work, and I honestly didn't get a chance until around lunchtime (the middle of the next night in Singapore) to check my personal email to discover the frantic "where are you" emails that ensued after I had disconnected.

So, okay, I apologized to all concerned via emails. Then I got to thinking.

This was such a learning experience for me, and I hope it was for Mr. Ho and his colleagues.

1. It was never a condition of commitment for me to be compensated in any way for presenting.I'm sure that if I'd been flown out to Singapore I'd have been on time. Just kidding.
2. Their schedule was clearly posted on their website. I made a conversion error. Wrong, and clearly my fault. I have always been somewhat dyscalendaric. Great word, just coined.
3. In my defense, never was my cell phone number asked for: All communication happened via email ("the way you communicate with old people," according to a student of mine years ago). If I'd just shared my phone number, they could have called me and I would've jumped back downstairs and presented on the fly. Shucks.
4. Language and culture differences can skew an interaction. Never was my presentation time confirmed verbally or even via that old communication technology, email, though there was an initial email correspondence with the correct time. There was a lot of assuming going on, on both sides. I assumed I entered my presentation time in my calendar coreectly. Those in Singapore assumed I knew what I was doing. Sadly, both of us assumed wrong
5. As I proceed past this "clustercuss," to quote The Incredible Mr. Fox, I will bank my learnings. As Professional Development Chair of ISTE SIGOL and creator and organizer of the "Priceless ProfDev in Less than an Hour" webinar series, I will make sure I have cell phone numbers as we approach event times. I will confirm times 3 days out with presenters. I will never assume.

That's about it, but you, dear reader, please learn from my mistakes. I share them for that reason. It's what I do. I only wish I'd set my calendar right and been able to deliver on my commitment to share with MobiLearnAsia's attendees.

Posted 11 hours ago by Scott Merrick

Labels: mobileearnasia scottmerrick oops

Virtual Worlds and Games UNsymposium!

Mark your virtual calendars! And visit http://vw.unsymposium.org/ to learn more about the Virtual Worlds and Games UNsymposium November 1, 2, and 3.

MobiLearnAsia Schedule and More

I connected last night via Vidyo.com's light client to the conference planners in Singapore for MobiLearnAsia, coming up next week. It was interesting to work out some connection issues and to have them turn their webcam around to share the vast room that I'll be projecting into for my one hour session "3D Learning Environments at SIGVE," wherein I'll do some 'splainin' about how we set this up every year in order to share the goings-on at the huge annual ISTE conference with members scattered around the globe both online at at the ISTE Headquarters in Second Life, pipe in presenters to the SIGVE Playground, and ustream the whole kit and kaboodle out onto the Internetz. Here's a screenshot I took at the last moment:

It should be fun. I may just need to work out some nice new mashup of online platforms for the event. I so enjoyed mixing up Prezi and Wikispaces for this year's Podcamp Nashville and the (live next week at K12OnlineConference--going on now!) Wallwisher/Audacity, CamtasiaStudio thing I just completed. Hmmmmm... I do know that I'll be sharing both ISTE SIGVE's Second Life Headquarters and some videos and also my work in Kitely for MNPS Virtual School. Unfortunately it's only for the local participants, but I'll make any lasting resources I share available here. It's never boring, unless you're bored by learning!

Pearson Learning Executive Forum, September 2012

A

decade or so ago, working in a private school setting as Lower School Technology Coordinator at University School of Nashville, I forwarded the notion that any of our esteemed faculty and staff who benefited from funding to attend professional development workshops should be required to share what they learned from the experience. That suggestion was never formalized, though I did my best to hold myself to that standard here at my blog. Previous posts as far back as 2006 shared my travels in learning with the world, and the fun part is that they stand as a lasting archive. Here's the most recent addition to that body of work.

 

Thank you for attending 2012 PDL PreK-12 Executive Forum “Common Ground and Higher Expectations” in Orlando, FL. 

We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to meet educators just like you and discovered exciting ways to reach your destination and tools that will help navigate you toward your goals of higher student achievement.
 
Your input is important to us! If you have any questions or wish to discuss digital solutions available to you and your students, visit www.pearsonschool.com/digital.
 
Thank you again for attending the 2012 PDL PreK-12 Executive Forum! 
 


Chris Dragon,

President
Pearson Digital Learning

Last Wednesday I hopped aboard a Southwest Airlines flight with colleagues (also esteemed) Adrienne McNew and James Witty to soar down to Orlando, Florida at the invitation of Pearson Digital Learning to attend a two day conference they were calling an "Executive Forum." I've never thought of myself as an executive, but if we stretch the definition to one that includes one who is executing a program to offer online learning options in a public school setting for the first time in history to secondary (and eventually K-12) school students in Tennessee, well, okay.

The flight was filled with chat, as we, missing our middle Bs boarding group and ending up at the second to last row of seats in the 737, at least were able to sit together. Adrienne, self-professed aviophobic, had told us that she usually sleeps on flights, but our talk was so lively that proved to be impossible for her. This congeniality would set the stage for the rest of our trip. I came back to Nashville more than ever convinced that I am blessed to work in the company of these folks.

We hit some fairly serious turbulence about an hour out, and it was good we were laughing. I don't like that stuff either but I'm glad we had established a light tone. I think the shaking was serious enough that anyone standing might have been tossed around a bit. Luckily, everyone in the plane heeded the pilot's warning and was buckled up. Once we landed, we all laughed when the pilot heaved a dramatic heavy sigh over the intercom and exclaimed, "Yay. We made it!"

Yay. We made it!

We grabbed a cab to the hotel, and wow it was hot and humid. I had to ask the driver for more AC, which he did provide, and we got to the Renaissance Hotel Sea World safely, if a bit sweaty. As we entered the hotel we ran into Sharon Anderson from Putnam County, TN schools, a program which has been around considerably longer than ours (though we are the first recognized actual virtual School in Tennessee). Her group was on the way to a dinner Pearson-hosted for the Tennessee contingent. We retired to our respective rooms and changed clothes, then all met and snagged another cab to the hotel. We almost didn't get into the van, as the cabbie reached back from the driver's seat to open the side door from within but failed to take his car out of drive and only corrected his mistake when we yelled that his car was rolling!

We made it to Roy's Restaurant in one piece, or three, and had a wonderful dinner with lively conversation. Back at the hotel, we retired for what looked like a full day the next day.

I was up early as always and did an hour or so on the stationary bike in the wonderful Fitness Room then hit the whirlpool for a limbering up soak. I intended to plop into the pool but the water was really chilly so I deferred, headed up to my room, then down to registration. The first thing on the agenda was lunch! It was a wonderful meal, and I chalked up my second good meal of the trip. First up, a welcome by Pearson Digital President Chris Dragon, then I tweeted:

Scott Merrick ‏@scottmerrick

Listening to Lee Crockett and greatly enjoying his keynote at Orlando's Pearson Learning Executive Forum

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9:45 AM - 20 Sep 12 · Details

Lee was spectacular. A longtime PLN (Professional Learning Network) contact whom I'd never actually met, this fiery fast talking Canadian--co-author with Ian Jukes (whom I have met and interviewed for my long-running podcast "Snacks4theBrain" ((grab episode 41)) and Ted McCain of Understanding the Digital Generation) served up visions of the future including my paraphrased  take-home from his talk, "In a very short time, anyone who needs to be managed will be unemployable." View a "presentation perspective" and by all means click that link on the last slide to subscribe to Ian and Lee's "Committed Sardine" newsletter. You'll get a free e-book, "Highly Educated Useless People" when you do.

Crockett was followed by Shawn Mahoney, Vice President, School Product Design Research and Evaluation at Pearson Digital Learning, who gave us a very detailed run-down of the ongoing processes by which courseware and curriculum are developed and tweaked for optimal performance. While a bit technical (this is a very smart woman) I found myself building trust in this organization, clearly Ms. Mahoney's intention. I heard a top level Pearson representative speak at the ISTE Leadership Symposium in San Diego last year say "Our online courses aren't very good. They are the best available but we have a long way to go to make them be what online students deserve and need in order to be educated for the digital future to come." This is  a paraphrase, obviously, but I was impressed to hear such candor from a commercial source. Clearly Ms. Mahoney is leading the development of some very good stuff, even using eye-tracking results from test students to drive design for efficacy. More power to her.

Maureen Martin shared some of the early learning offerings from Pearson, including Waterford Early Learning and Success Maker. Though our elementary education work is a bit down the road, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more.

Steve Bane closed the day with a session on Success Maker, a powerful digital literacy platform for the middle school years and Write to Learn. The intelligent individualization features of the former are fascinating, and you can read more about that here.

Free from our seats, we adjourned to the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) "Appy Hour" in the hotel lobby. My sense was that the assemblage, 52 attendees from 13 states, were pretty over-informed by that time, though we did head over to the Write to Learn station to chat with Steve, where I learned that it can be incorporated into existing courseware as an add-on tool for high schoolers. This platform has a sort of built in Artificial Intelligence which can grade essays, a development I find fascinating and intend to pursue more fully. A student can use it to submit work, then revise that work based on its commentary feedback. Cool as beans.

Dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill at SeaWorld was excellent. We walked over, eschewing the proffered van for a bit of exercise in the warm and humid evening. Once there, we found ourselves hiking deep into SeaWorld to the restaurant, where we gathered outside for champagne and chat (and sweat) by the lake prior to being marched into the long tunnel leading to the restaurant. Dinner was wonderful, and we enjoyed lively chat with Sharon and Jan, a regional Pearson rep before strolling back to the hotel to retire. I tried to read a book and awoke around 4:30 am with the open book on my chest and the bed lamp still blazing. Good enough for that. I got up and headed down to the fitness room for another bout with the bike. I have learned that a little exercise in the morning always makes my days go better, and yes, I'm addicted.

Eric Wagner woke us up big time and here's that tweet:

Scott Merrick ‏@scottmerrick

Eric Wagner wakes us up at Pearson Digital Learning's Executive Forum at Renaissance Sea World in Orlando, FL pic.twitter.com/9iADIBd7

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His talk centered around the future of the future, and much like Crockett's the day before, set us up for participating in the breakout sessions which followed with a mindset in that vein. I followed his futurist predictions with interest, especially fascinated with his focus on all things mobile. His description of how GPS and databases collecting personal interests and information would work together in the future to, for example, let you know when you are near a Home Depot where you can pick up those nails you need and, more than that, order, pay, and have the service rep meet you in the parking lot with your nails and a receipt, was engaging to say the least.

Two 45 minute breakout sessions followed, and I attended Steve Bane's on GradPoint, the "son of BrainHoney" Pearson LMS we'll be expanding our use of come Fall 2013 as we wean ourselves off of BrainHoney;  and Maureen Martin's, on Write to Learn, which remains as a focus goal for my investigation over the next few months.

Steve Bane closed things down with a Writer to Learn talk, and though we were all clearly "monkey-skunked" by then (from my late father-in-law: "As the monkey said while having relations with the skunk, 'I don't think I've had as much as I want but I'm pretty sure I've had just about as much as I can stand.'") it was informative and he's such a lively speaker that we all attended, well, attentively.

We snagged box lunches on the way out, and having already checked out of the hotel Adrienne and I camped out in the lobby for a couple hours before heading to the airport in a cab, her to head home to Nashville and me to meet my dear brother Ed and take a rental car to our late brother Bill's family home to spend a couple more days visiting our sister-in-law and our nieces, nephews, and their families. But that's another story. Thanks to Pearson Digital Learning for a great learning opportunity completely in keeping with their tagline, "Always Learning."

Snapshots from Our First Ever MNPS Virtual School 2012 September Picnic in the Park!

		Picnic in the Park! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Thanks to all who joined us for Wednesday's first ever MNPS Virtual School SeptemberPicnicInThePark! It was fun mingling and gnoshing the burgers and hot dawgs so ably grilled by Ms. McNew's able husband Matt. We are all looking forward to the October Fall Fest. Students, stay tuned!

And congrats to Sabrina Briscoe, the lucky winner of our little student raffle. Enjoy your iTunes gift card and other goodies!

Mr. M.

EdTechLeadersOnline Fall Webinars

Re-shared from ETLO's email campaign! OF course I want you to take in all of these, but October 30? Probably attendance-required!

Join us for these fall webinar events!

Increasing Student Achievement: Digital Tools in Online Learning Environments   Date: Wednesday, October 17 Time: 3:00-4:00 PM ET Presenter:  Dr. Lisa Hervey, NBCT, Research Associate at The William & Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation

In this webinar, Dr. Hervey will discuss and reflect on the importance of selected standards from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) related to teaching with multimedia and online tools. She will also share several free, open-source digital tools that can support online educators in meeting these standards. The webinar will focus on four guiding questions: Authenticity: How do the selected SREB and iNACOL standards address student engagement? What does this mean for online educators? Clarity: How can digital tools be the "solution" for increased student engagement in online learning environments?   Impact: How do digital tools such as Screencast-O-Matic, Diigo, and Voki engage students? (a brief overview of each tool will provided) Opportunity: What opportunity is there to encourage educators in using these or similar tools when teaching online? To access EDC's Collaborate system: 1. Go to: http://econference.edc.org. 2. Type your name in the text box in the upper right corner of the page where you see the words "Type your name here." 3. Click the button titled "Log in as a Participant." 4. You may be prompted to download the software required for Collaborate. Pre-registration is not required. Hope to see you there!

Creating and Running a Public Online High School:  Challenges, Successes, and Lessons Learned   Date: Tuesday, October 30 Time: 4:00-5:00 PM ET Presenter: Scott Merrick, Online Learning Specialist, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Virtual School     The challenges and successes involved in crafting, improving, and delivering an online public school are significant. MNPS Virtual School in Nashville, Tennessee, now in its second year as the first public virtual school in the state of Tennessee, has many lessons to share about both the model MNPS Virtual School is using to build a strong virtual district school and the challenges they have had to overcome along the way. Scott Merrick, an Online Learning Specialist who has worked with the school since it began in 2010, will discuss these lessons and offer a personal vision of where public virtual education is going. Scott came to the public school sector after 15 years as an educator in a private school setting and feels dedicated to making sure his currently 82,000+ student school district will continue to offer online learning options to its incredibly diverse and growing population of students.     Growing a Successful International Baccalaureate Online Program   Date: Tuesday, November 13 Time: 3:00-4:00 PM ET Presenters:  Kirsten Peterson, EdTech Leaders Online and John Willoughby, Pamoja Education     This webinar will showcase online courses designed to prepare a global collection of online teachers, site-based coordinators, and students to run a successful online International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Over the past two years, EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO) and Pamoja Education have collaborated to grow the online IB program through a collection of targeted professional development and orientation courses that focus on teacher learning communities and student engagement. Come join a dynamic discussion with ETLO and Pamoja Education leaders about how a fast-paced needs-driven online program influenced program design and facilitation. In addition to looking at example courses for IB teachers and students, we’ll have a question and answer session built around some of the more provocative “what would you do” scenarios faced by Pamoja Education and ELTO throughout the program design and facilitation.       Have you missed any of our previous webinars? The recordings are available on our website: http://www.edtechleaders.org/webinars. You can also continue discussions on the webinars and other online learning topics in the ETLO Forum.  http://moodle.etlo.org/course/view.php?id=215     Trouble viewing this message?  Click here to view in a web browser.

This message was sent to scott@scottmerrick.net from:

Barbara Treacy | EdTech Leaders Online @ EDC, 43 Foundry Avenue | Waltham, MA 02453

Busy October!

 Just touching base on a few presentations I'll be doing in October. It's going to be a busy month. First, for ISTE's SIGOL, I'll be facilitating and hosting  a 59 minute session as the opening event for the bi-monthly SIGOL Webinar series "Priceless ProfDev in Less than and Hour!" I'm really looking forward to this one and I hope you can join us, as Cat Flippen (who can resist a smile at that name?) shares some great successes she's had using online tools in her high school classrooms. This one will be of great interest to all of us working in online learning environments as well as to anyone in any classroom with an internet connection, anywhere! Here's the brief description, and I'll add more details as we get closer to the event itself:

Wed., Oct. 17

3 pm Eastern

Catherine Flippen

Online Assessments, Data Collection and You -- How to assess, reinforce, and collect data without using paper to improve student success in the classroom.ll

Then, during Artclectic weekend (am I crazy?) I will take an hour out of those events to share our own ISTE SIGVE successes at ISTE 2012 in San Diego last June with attendees at Singapore's MobiLearnAsia conference. The theme is our Virtual Environments Playground's house of digital mirrors and just how we set that up so that attendees all over the planet could take part in the San Diego presentations in Second Life and on Ustream.tv. I'll be Skyped in for that one and I am hoping for a good crowd. We don't have a time yet--I may be up in the middle of the night! It's sometime during the day on Saturday, October 26 though. Stay tuned. And see the website for info about the conference.

Finally, on October 30, I've been asked to share the successes and challenges we've enjoyed and met in the development of MNPS Virtual School, the first public virtual school in the state of Tennessee and a growing viable option for students across the state. That's for the stellar organization Ed Tech Leaders Online, hosts of the annual Online Learning Institute attached to ISTE's annual conference. The session will be at 3:00pm Central time and is free. Watch their "Keys to Online Learning and Community-Building" webinar series page for details of that as we get closer.

That's it for now, as I head down to Orlando, Florida tomorrow for Pearson Learning's two day Executive Forum with two of my colleagues from Virtual School. Never boring, I must say!