ISTE 2013--Post4: My Schedule

Here'tis, the more or less final schedule for my time in Texas. If you want that Free Hug, just look me up. Note some conflicting events, because it's my policy to enter everything I identify as interesting to me, or useful to me, or a commitment I've made, in order to have it all literally in hand on my iPhone as I navigate the glory that will be ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas starting Saturday!

Personal Conference Planner

      

ISTE 2013 Schedule for Scott Merrick

Saturday, June 22
	2:00pm-6:00pm	Mobile MEGAShare Location: SACC 101
	6:30pm-8:30pm	Core Volunter Social Location: Ballroom Bowie, Grand Hyatt (next to the convention center) Invitation only event
Sunday, June 23
	9:00am-12:00pm	SEL   Epic Leadership: Beyond the Hype of Gamification Location: Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom A
	12:00pm-6:00pm	Presenter's World Hours Location: Registration West
	12:00pm-1:00pm	Making IT Happen Reception Location: Adjacent to EPIC event Making IT Happen Reception Sunday, June 23, 2013, 12 noon–1 p.m. Grand Hyatt, Texas Ballroom
	12:30pm-2:00pm	Conference Welcome/Ignite/President's Award Location: Hall A, SACC The presentation is during the Conference Welcome and Opening Ignite Session which is 1:30-3:00 pm on Sunday, June 23 in Hall A of the San Antonio Convention Center (doors open at 1:00). Please arrive at 12:30 pm for a brief walk-through on stage.
	1:30pm-3:00pm	Conference Welcome and Opening Ignite Session Location: SACC Hall A
	2:00pm-5:00pm	Global Education Summit Location: SACC 103A
	3:00pm-5:00pm	ISTE 2013 Tweet-up Location: SACC Tower View Lobby, Table 20
	3:00pm-5:00pm	SIG Open House Location: SACC Tower View Lobby
	5:45pm-7:00pm	Learning is an Epic Win Location: SACC Hall A
	7:00pm-8:00pm	Opening Social Location: SACC Tower View Lobby
	8:30pm-10:30pm	President's Reception Location: Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom Foyer Sunday, June 23, 2013 8:30–10:00 p.m. Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom Foyer 600 E. Market St, San Antonio, TX
Monday, June 24
	8:00am-6:00pm	Presenter's World Hours Location: Registration West
	8:00am-9:30am	MSIGOL   SIGOL Forum: Connect, Collaborate, and Create with a MOOC! Location: SACC 103A
	8:30am-9:30am	An Integrated Model for Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning Location: SACC 001B
	11:00am-12:00pm	SIGOL (Online Learning) Annual Meeting Location: SACC 102
	11:30am-1:30pm	Volunteer Leadership Lunch Location: San Antonio Conference Center, Lonesome Dove Room
	12:30pm-4:00pm	Innovation in Teacher Education Playground Location: SACC Park View Lobby
	2:00pm-4:00pm	Maintain Academic Integrity in the Cybersphere Location: SACC Tower View Lobby, Table 28
	5:00pm-7:00pm	Happy Hour at AWE Location: Esquire Tavern Hello, Thank your for RSVPing for the Happy Hour at ISTE in San Antonio!
	5:30pm-6:45pm	SIGVE Machinima Fest Location: SACC Lila Cockrell Theater
	7:30pm-8:30pm	FlipSwitch Dinner Location: Barriba Cantina with 1 guest
Tuesday, June 25
	8:00am-6:00pm	Presenter's World Hours Location: Registration West
	9:00am-12:30pm	Mobile Learning Playground Location: SACC Park View Lobby
	10:30am-11:30am	ISTE Board Linkage Event Location: Bloggers Cafe When: Tuesday, 10:30–11:30 a.m. Where: Bloggers Café Presented by: ISTE Board Linkage Committee and current and former board members
	10:30am-11:30am	Minecraft: Learning Blocks! Location: SACC 217A
	11:15am-11:45am	Photo Shoot Location: SACC 002 and 003 River Level
	12:15pm-1:15pm	Playing It SAFE: Modeling and Practicing Citizenship through Play Location: SACC 212
	1:30pm-5:00pm	Virtual Environments Playground Location: SACC Park View Lobby
	2:00pm-3:00pm	Embedding Social Media in the PBL Process Location: SACC 103B
	5:00pm-6:15pm	SIGVE (Virtual Environments) Gathering Location: SACC Park View Lobby
	6:00pm-8:00pm	CILC Open House Location: Grand Hyatt Presidential Suite To celebrate Ruthie's retirement and Pam's ascension to the Chair. +1 guest if I want.
	6:30pm-11:30pm	SIG Reception Location: tba
Wednesday, June 26
	8:00am-3:00pm	WOLL   Online Learning Institute Location: Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom A--Host Roundtable during Session 3 at 11:30
	8:00am-2:00pm	Presenter's World Hours Location: Registration West
	5:00pm-10:00pm	Pick Up Rental Car and Drive to Lake Conroe Location: Airport Budget Car Rental pick-up Wed, Jun 26, 2013 06:15 PM SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL APO - SAT 430 SANDAU ROAD SAN ANTONIO, TX 78216 US hours Sun - Sat 5:00 AM - 12:30 AM phone 210-824-0737
Thursday, June 27
	6:00am-6:00pm	Fish Location: Lake Conroe, Texas
Friday, June 28
	6:00am-6:00pm	Fish Location: Lake Conroe, Texas This event continues through Sunday, June 30, after which I fly home to my family, rested and relaxed and ready to work.
Un-scheduled
		Visit NBC Learn Location: Booths: 13231 Visit NBC Learn at booths: 13231
		Visit ProctorU Location: Booths: 9051 Visit ProctorU at booths: 9051
		Visit OpenEd Location: Booths: 7259 Visit OpenEd at booths: 7259
		Visit Shmoop Location: Booths: 5249 Visit Shmoop at booths: 5249
		Visit Logitech Inc. Location: Booths: 5295 Visit Logitech Inc. at booths: 5295
		Visit National Network of Digital Schools Location: Booths: 3274 Visit National Network of Digital Schools at booths: 3274
		Visit Blackboard Inc. Location: Booths: 11058 Visit Blackboard Inc. at booths: 11058
		Visit Atomic Learning Location: Booths: 14092 Visit Atomic Learning at booths: 14092
		Visit Agilix Location: Booths: 14095 Visit Agilix at booths: 14095
		Visit Edmodo Location: Booths: 7196 Visit Edmodo at booths: 7196
		Visit Pearson Location: Booths: 11159 Visit Pearson at booths: 11159
		Visit Atomic Learning Location: Booths: 14092 Visit Atomic Learning at booths: 14092

ISTE 2013 -- Post3: SIGVE Virtual Environments Playground Overview and Schedule

Let's talk about the Playground.

First, it's important to remember that the ISTE SIGVE Virtual Environments Playground has been a feature of the huge annual conference hosted by the Mother Ship, the International Society for Technology in Education, since 2007, when it was called the "Second Life Lounge." How many years will it have been held once we convene our annual meeting at 5:15 pm on Tuesday, June 25 in the San Antonio Convention Center? Seven, by my count.

I'm not going to outline the history of this event here, because that's been done (albeit in pieces--maybe we do need to pull all that together, hmmmm) elsewhere. Suffice it to say that it's appeared in many configurations, from a three-day series in which we hosted 35 back to back presentations with no transition time on two "stages" to a single day event (see http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/Virtual+Environments+Playground+2012+Schedule for last year's events schedule), to this year's half day event. We've always tried to keep it exciting and dynamic because its topic, how educators are using virtual worlds for learning and teaching) is so.

This year, we have 3 and a half hours to work our magic. Will this limited "supply" and the unknown quantity of "demand" for information about virtual worlds in education serve to bring us a new batch of interested educators or will it thrust us into the shadows amidst the hundreds of concurrent events at a conference which can draw tens of thousands of education-field attendees? Who knows.

What we do know is that we are shaking it up this year. The format has morphed into one that will certainly be a challenge to maintain and present, but will as certainly provide a show.

This year, we are hosting six Learning Stations, and they will each be ongoing the entire span of the 3 1/2 hour ISTE SIGVE Virtual Environments Playground. Each will also be "personed" by a recognized thought leader in the use of each of the themed topics. Each will be featured at a more or less certain time slot at our main presentation area, via an ongoing Google Hangout onscreen, hosted and facilitated by Lowly High Grand Poobah (Chair) Elect, Kae Novak. These stations and their facilitators (the first name in each list is the primary facilitator and the estimated Hangout feature time is in parentheses) are:

1. Second Life! Scott Merrick, Andy Wheelock, with others (tentatively 1:30 ti 1:55)
2. Quest Atlantis/Active Worlds! Bronwyn Stuckey, with others (tentatively 2:00-2:25)
2. WoW/Games! Peggy Sheehy, with others (tentatively 2:30-2:55)
4. Madly Miscellaneous! Cynthia Colongne, Gord Holden (remotely from Canada), with others (tentatively 3:00-3:25)
5. OpenSimulator! Andy Wheelock, Kitely's Ilan Tochner remotely from Israel), with others (tentatively 3:30-3:55)
6. MInecraft! Marianne Malmstrom, with others (tentatively 4:00-4:25)
Following the Playground we will hold our Annual Meeting in the same space, from 5:15 to 6:45.

The event along with others during the ISTE Conference, will be streamed into Second Life at our ISTE SIGVE HQ at http://tinyurl.com/sigvehome and live on YouTube via the Google Hangout. In Second Life, our stalwart Gridjumper, Beth Ghostraven, and Bluebarker Lowtide, will be holding down the fort. This global share of ISTE is something we've done for years now, so if you can't be there, or even if you are at another session at the Conference and want to see what we're up to, join us at HQ. See you there, one way or another!

ISTE 2013 -- Post2: Exercise Ramblings

I apparently lied to you when I said I'd blog daily. It just got very busy at work and frankly, I forgot that in the last post I promised to do so. So here is random blog post in preparation for ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. We'll be flying in on Saturday.

Let's talk about exercise.

I begin most mornings on my trusty Body Power Recumbent Bike, purchased at around half price from Woot.com a year ago April, and I began documenting my "workouts" (I put that in quotes because I've rigged a laptop stand across the handlebars and sometimes the event is less active than others, though most times I do work up a sweat) with a Google Form I created. I set up six cells with formulas to keep a running total of the following:

Time in minutes    Miles        Calories
11617:51:48          2695.78    93725.26

And yes, those are actual totals,, logged since March 8, 2012. When I hit 4030 miles I plan to celebrate, because I will have biked the equivalent of the distance from my home in Nashville, Tennessee to Anchorage, Alaska.

A month or two ago I got a little smarter and added some 1 pound hand weights and I do reps of curls and presses with two of them together with each arm, hoping to rebuild or at least maintain some muscle as I get older (with any luck). I do my age plus one each set of reps, so it's, yes, 64 of each, sometimes as many sets as three each arm (when I'm feeling I need the extra challenge). I've been logging those in a comments section, but as I write this I realize I should set up extra fields and record those like the other data, as an added incentive to do them regularly.

When I travel, I maintain my habit of rising early and either running or hitting the hotel exercise room. I even used the gym on our anniversary cruise back in March. When I do run, I don't run like I used to: When I lived in Los Gatos decades ago I would run around 40 miles a week and punctuate every run with sprints. My old knees don't like that anymore, so I run a little-old-man jog, but I feel that's better than not running at all. I'll be little-old-man jogging by the Alamo next week in the mornings, and through the suburbs of Lake Conroe the following weekend, so if you see that sad spectacle, say hi. It's only me.

ISTE 2013 -- Post1: Anticipation (Free Hugs)

Yes, I am hearing Carly Simon's classic foreplay song in my head. You can listen to it as you read by clicking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSelIFBR8s .

I've not been blogging so much of late. I hereby play the Work card. We've been so busy all my writing has been in emails of support, help tickets, and communication with our small but mighty team at MNPS Virtual School, related to our Summer Success 2013 program, in which over 200 public school students are earning half credits (or more, if they are dedicated, and many are!) toward catching up or accelerating their education and earning their high school diplomas.

Our Team of 5: Sherry Hill, Scott Merrick, Adrienne McNew, Dr. James Witty, and Michael Terry

 That's the team, above. Sherry's holding down the fort and the rest of us are staying connected via the magic of the internetz, but will be in San Antonio. If you see any of us at any time, say hi!

I'm also working behind the scenes to help make ISTE 2013 the very best ever.

All that said, I hereby pledge to blog every day from now until I finish my fishing expedition to Lake Conroe, and hopefully doing so will get me back into the habit (including the fishing days will give me time to reflect and also to write about things not ISTE). Let's see [opens calendar], they say if you do a task correctly 26 times in a row you can unlearn the wrong habits. Well. That will be only 15 blog posts, but maybe that will suffice in collusion with my immensely good intentions.

To start, I want to share my schedule in San Antonio with you. Many of these scheduled events, done so at http://isteconference.org using the facile "Conference Planner" are in conflict, time-wise, but it's my strategy to get everything I hope to attend in hand on my iPhone, and then to pick and choose in the moment. I'm still working on it and I will update here as I do my revisions. Meanwhile:

 ISTE's Annual Conference & Exposition, June 23-26, 2013 Planner

for Scott Merrick
Note: Free Hugs, come and get 'em (not speaking for my team, but I'm in)!

Saturday, June 22
----------------------------------------------------------------
6:30pm-8:30pm
Core Volunter Social--by invitation
Ballroom Bowie, Grand Hyatt (next to the convention center)
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Sunday, June 23
----------------------------------------------------------------
9:00am-12:00pm
Epic Leadership: Beyond the Hype of Gamification
Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom A
NOTES: Registration Received, co-facilitate
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12:00pm-1:00pm
Making IT Happen Reception
Adjacent to EPIC event
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12:00pm-6:00pm
Presenter's World Hours
Registration West
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2:00pm-5:00pm
Global Education Summit
SACC 103A
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3:00pm-5:00pm
SIG Open House -- both SIGOL and SIGVE
SACC Tower View Lobby
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5:45pm-7:00pm
Learning is an Epic Win
SACC Hall A
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7:00pm-8:00pm
Opening Social
SACC Tower View Lobby
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8:30pm-10:30pm
President's Reception--by invitation
Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom Foyer

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Monday, June 24
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8:00am-6:00pm
Presenter's World Hours
Registration West
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8:00am-9:30am
SIGOL Forum: Connect, Collaborate, and Create with a MOOC!
SACC 103A
NOTES: Speaking Engagement, co-facilitate
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11:00am-12:00pm
SIGOL (Online Learning) Annual Meeting
SACC 102
NOTES: Speaking Engagement, accept VP position
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11:30am-1:30pm
Volunteer Leadership Lunch--by invitation
San Antonio Conference Center, Lonesome Dove Room
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12:30pm-4:00pm
Innovation in Teacher Education Playground

co-facilitate, wrangle three SIGOL presentations
SACC Park View Lobby
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5:30pm-6:45pm
SIGVE Machinima Fest -- bring popcorn for first 30 attendees, livestream
SACC Lila Cockrell Theater
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7:30pm-8:30pm
FlipSwitch Dinner
Barriba Cantina with 1 guest

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Tuesday, June 25
----------------------------------------------------------------
8:00am-6:00pm
Presenter's World Hours
Registration West
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9:00am-12:30pm
Mobile Learning Playground
SACC Park View Lobby
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10:30am-11:30am
Minecraft: Learning Blocks!
SACC 217A
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12:15pm-1:15pm
Playing It SAFE: Modeling and Practicing Citizenship through Play
SACC 212
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1:30pm-5:00pm
Virtual Environments Playground-- Facilitator with a great deal of tribal collaboration
SACC Park View Lobby
NOTES: Speaking Engagement
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5:00pm-6:15pm
SIGVE (Virtual Environments) Gathering
SACC Park View Lobby
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6:30pm-11:30pm
SIG Reception
tba

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Wednesday, June 26
----------------------------------------------------------------
8:00am-3:00pm
Online Learning Instituted -- co-host Roundtable, session 3, with Dr. James Witty
Grand Hyatt Texas Ballroom A
NOTES: Pre-Registration & Fee Required
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8:00am-2:00pm
Presenter's World Hours
Registration West
     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5:00pm-10:00pm
Pick Up Rental Car and Drive to Lake Conroe
Airport Budget Car Rental

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Thursday, June 27
----------------------------------------------------------------
6:00am-6:00pm
Fish
Lake Conroe, Texas

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Friday, June 28
----------------------------------------------------------------
6:00am-6:00pm
Fish---continues through June 30, then fly home to loving family rested and relaxed
Lake Conroe, Texas

Our two friendly enemies of a Saturday morning...

We Don't Have to Remain in Death Valley--Sir Ken Robinson Shares Why

Take the time to watch this. Why? Because it will make you feel better about your teaching and your learning, and it will make you feel hopeful about our collective future in America. Really!

Bandwidth: the Bottom Line

Dear friends,

I have often said that every conversation about technology in schools boils down to one about bandwidth. It doesn't matter how many netbooks, iPads, or other hardware a school can manage to purchase, if a child has to wait 15 seconds, or longer, for the results of every click on a website or online resource for its results, the gains won't happen. Now that I'm striving to improve the quality of education in the Public Schools sector I understand the need to level the playing ground; and not only level it, but to raise it higher for all of our children, not just those in pricey private schools.

http://blog.edtechteam.com/2012/02/updated-ipad-for-educators-workshop.html

You don't need to know what a SIG is, or what ISTE is, or what any of the other plethora of acronyms we educators can come up with at the drop of a flying feather, this is important and deserves your attention and action. I received this email yesterday. Please take the 30 seconds it will take to jump through the very simple hoops needed to verify your digital signature on this petition. Help assure all children have the access they need to avail themselves of the opportunities that are afforded by developing online technologies:

Here's the letter:

Dear SIG Leadership Council,

Last week, ISTE submitted a petition to the White House regarding broadband access for students. We were able to get the 150 signatures needed for the petition to go up on the White House website, but there is still a long way to go to reach the 100,000 signatures needed by the end of April so that it goes in front of committees. It's an audacious goal, but one we're eyeing. Please share the link with your SIG listserves, professional networks, friends, families and colleagues and invite them to sign. Together, our voices will carry.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to support this critical advocacy initiative. April is Advocacy Month, and we're determined to make the most of it!

Here's the link: http://wh.gov/LVL7. 

Warmest regards,

Lauren Suveges

Volunteer Leadership Manager

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

180 W. 8th Avenue, Suite 300

Eugene, OR 97401

Now use your clicks!

MNPS Virtual School Dedication--Check!!!

I'm very proud of the teamwork and dedication to excellence that helped make this day possible, as Dr. Jesse Register said "a very special day...because I am so proud of the work that is going on at the MNPS Virtual School." You at least owe it to yourself to hear his opening remarks, but what follows is also very very informative. Enjoy...

"Colin Merrick" is worth your listen...

...and purchase! I'm so proud of this studio project and I listen to it at least daily. Several themes have arisen in listeners' comments to me, chief amongst which is that most young songwriter/singers' efforts seem to be trying to copy some star or other and that Colin's work is fresh and original in a way no one seems to be able really to quantify. See if you don't agree, then...

or

You'll enjoy it, I can promise!