Had an awesome time in Leslie Fisher’s iLife preconference workshop today (hosted by SIG MM). Found the Faces tool in iLife iPhoto ‘09 which is totally awesome face recognition – and connects to Facebook! How cool is that?!
Also had fun with Garageband and made a little podcast, with pictures…
for your 30 second viewing/listening pleasure.
I know, not as exciting as the podcast interviews that Ben Rimes has posted, but it’s a flavor of the learning that happens at the MACUL conference!
Hope that you can catch at least one session with Leslie Fisher this year!
Like any large event, there are always last minute changes. The MACUL conference is no exception to that rule. Below is a list of all the last minute changes to the conference. We’ve got some new sessions, some sessions that sadly had to be cancelled for one reason or another, and a few changes to previously scheduled sessions.
NEW Sessions
Thursday, March 19
Free Resources! Free Training! MORE on MeL.org.
10-11am Room W2-64
Barbara Fardell, Technology Manager, Michigan Department of Education, Karen Hairston Project Manager, Thinkfinity Grant, MDE.
Michigan Online Resources for Educators (MORE) is a database with thousands of high quality resources aligned to the MI GLCES and HSCES. It’s free and it’s on MeL.org. But wait; there’s more! We need YOU! Find out how you can join one of the fun-filled alignment workshops being held around the state assisting MDE and the Library of Michigan. Learn how you can become a MORE Field Trainer!
Friday, March 20
The Best Teacher Tools for Busy Educators
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Andy Mann, Educational Technology Consultant, Calhoun Intermediate School District
Why recreate the wheel? Find the best teacher created PowerPoint presentations, games, educational clipart, and music in this fast-paced presentation. Explore sites to create seating charts, jeopardy games, word searches, and more. Discover the best tools to manage your time including Delicious, iGoogle, and Weebly.
Ask/Tell MDE! Stimulus Dollars, Technology Grants and More!
11:30am – 12:30 pm Room W2-64
Bruce Umpstead, Director of Technology and Data Coordination, Michigan Department of Education.
Come join in some stimulating conversation surrounding the Federal Stimulus money coming our way! Find out what’s new in Ed Tech Grants (EETT). Give us your ideas for what Michigan schools need to upgrade their technology needs. Speak out!
Cancelled
Wednesday, March 18
Preconference workshops
SIGPL 3 – Research-Based Classroom Formative Assessments
Thursday, March 19
(Workshop) Moodle Basics (8-10am
Ask MDE: Michigan’s Digital Classrooms Initiative (10-11am)
(Workshop) Student Productivity and Assessment Using the New $299 StudentMate Laptop (1-3:00pm)
iPod in the Classroom? It’s Not Just for Music Anymore! (2:30-3:30pm)
Friday, March 20
Data Warehousing for Student Success (10-11am)
Free is Good – The Third Wave (10-11am)
Ask MDE: Michigan’s Digital Classrooms Initiative (11:30am-12:30pm)
New Day/Time
David Rose session (Teaching and Learning Science for All Students: Early Report From NSF Research on Universal Design for Learning and Quality Science Instruction) moved from Friday at 1:00 PM to Thursday at 4 PM in Room W1-51.
New Exhibitors – Additions to the Conference program
New Presenters
Wednesday, March 18
SIGTC 1: Budgeting for Technology. Fred Sharpsteen for Don Koperski
You wanted Back Channels, and MACUL has delivered!
Take a moment to check out the video below to see just how the official MACUL Space or Twitter Back Channels can help you connect in real time with other conference attendees. Share information about a session (while sitting in on the session), help cheer someone up that’s halfway through a mind-numbing lecture on the significance of packet shaping, or just see what a friend is up to on the other end of the conference center.
You can also view a nice large full size version of the MACUL Back Channel video by clicking on the link here.
Feel free to use the MACUL Space chat, or MACUL Twitter Feeds to keep yourself connected and share thoughts while at the conference, just remember your best Internet etiquette 
Many of the pre-conference sessions on Wednesday, March 18, are filling up fast. The variety of pre-conference sessions this year is great, so there check them out now if you have any chance of being able to attend. There are full and half-day sessions available. Most will be held at Cobo Hall in Detroit, some are at other metro-Detroit locations.
The pre-conference sessions offer participants time for hands-on experiences, which allows more in-depth knowledge and exploration.
Online registration is now over; contact the MACUL office asap if you would like to attend a session.
Carol Mayer and Jackie Campbell from Wayne RESA did a fabulous job explaining Web 2.0. They created a training Wiki http://web2forpd.wikispaces.com/which starts with a great explanation of Web 2.0. They then have a list of Web 2.0 sites for participants to explore and comment on. The Wiki is open so anyone can edit and add to it. They plan to use it other traiining sessions, so this Wiki will be very valuable for trainers etc. and professional development.
We had some great conversations about the validity of Web 2.0 sites especially Wikis. There is the fear of students only using Wikis to get their information and not checking their sources. Also, Web 2.0 sites are constantly changing and morphing. Is it better just to purchase a product that is stable? We did not solve these issues, but these were great conversations.
The SIG-EE sponsored a full-day preconference with Dr. Jason Ohler. Jason was masterful at helping everyone see that digital stories have everything to do about the story, and little to do with the technology. By the end of the day, EVERYONE had written and produced a short digital video using either iMovie or MovieMaker, then we shared our creations with the group. The stories were fabulous! Dr. Ohler will be presenting three sessions. He works with K-12 students in classrooms on a regular basis, understands the need to use free or low cost software/equipment, and makes it all fun and easy. I highly recommend that you attend at least one of them!
I have just made it to my umpteenth MACUL and am really excited to pick up new hints and tips this week!
I am attending the Camtasia pre-conference led by Sandra Plair. We are learning how to create a video tutorial complete with a fancy title.
TechSmith is located in Okemos and is a great company to work with. If you decide to purchase the program, make sure to purchase the educational bundle which includes Snag-It.
I know it’s difficult for many conference goers to come for the full three days. In fact, due to current budget reductions and belt-tightening, I often receive looks of jealousy and envy when I gush about a preconference session that I had. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any of the precon events last year, but with this year’s offerings, I’m going to try my hardest to make it to at least a half day session on Wednesday, the 5th.
What has my interest so peaked? With precon sessions ranging from Lego Robotics (play like a kid) to Moodle (play like a bigger kid), and Universal Design for Learning (play with all the kids), I’m going to find it difficult to decide which to attend. I wish I could attend them all, and hopefully enough conference bloggers will be in attendance to give us highlights of the precon sessions, but I know whichever I choose, I’ll be treated to half a day of edutastic (it’s totally a word) technology based learning.
Add to that all of the hands-on MAC and PC based sessions on Thursday and Friday, and there’s more than enough to keep me busy. Of course, precons and hands-on session cost a bit extra, but you get 2 ot 4 hours (some precons lasting all day) of dedicated hands-on time to play with new tools, and often will leave with a wealth of knowledge, and a really nice freebie piece of software. Check out the links below to see if any of these sessions are for you.
Did you know that the MACUL Conference gets going on Wednesday, March 5? There are many awesome pre-conference sessions on a wide variety of topics this year. Sessions include:
- NXT Robotics – Lessons with Math and Science Applications
- Gridworld: New Case Study for the Computer Science AP Exam
- Seeing Technology: Evaluating Technology’s Impacts Beforehand
- Telling Your Story: How to Tell an Effective Story, Regardless of the Medium
- G.A.M.E.S. – Great Applications for Multimedia Engagement of Students
- Photoshop Elements for Mac: Cool Tips, Tricks, and Features
- Introduction to Flash for Educators
- Web 2.0 Tools for Professional Learning
- What am I Going to Do on Monday to Ensure that All Students Are Learning?
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is Like Differentiated Instruction (DI) on Steroids!
- Screencasts and Portfolios with Camtasia
- Online Teaching/Online Learning: Skills for the 21st Century Educator
- ZENworks Desktop Management to the new ZENworks Configuration Management
- ZENworks Imaging and How to Reduce the Number of Required Workstation Images
- Designing a District-wide Portal and Intranet Using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
- Gaining Control Over Your Network: Deploying Microsoft System Center to Increate IT Efficiency
- Content, Creativity, and Collaboration: Web 2.0 in the Classroom
- Introduction to Moodle
- Deeper into Moodle
- REMC: Building a Learning Gateway – How Portals are Changing the 21st Century Learning Experience
The Registration Booklet has descriptions for all of these sessions, beginning on page 8. Check them out and consider attending one or two of them!
I got my copy of the MACUL Registration book yesterday in the mail, and was instantly drawn to the top of page 2. In dark bold letters it proclaimed that ROBOFEST (imagine a quasi-futuristic echoing voice over) will be held this year at MACUL on Wednesday, March 5th, the pre-con day. I had only been vaguely aware of the competition, but it wasn’t until I saw it printed in black and white that I started to get excited!
There will be dozens of middle school and high school teams to compete with their completely autonomous creations that will have to solve puzzles, compete in a RoboSumo contest, vie for most beautiful bot in the fashion show, and other challenges. It’s like Robot Wars, only much more creative and exciting since the students have built the robots to complete difficult and varying tasks, rather than just destroy one another. If you’re looking for an excuse to get your students and/or colleagues fired up about MACUL, consider watching a few of the ROBOFEST YouTube videos, or bring a team to MACUL and see if you can qualify for the championship rounds to be held at Lawrence Technical University outside of Detroit in April.
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