Last Wednesday, I attended (and presented) at the EdTechRVA conference in Richmond. It was probably one of the last events with anyone over 250 people to attend before the state called for social distancing. (I wonder how that statement will read to anyone who may look back at this? Good gracious, it’s a been a week.)
Just like last year, I really enjoyed the experience. It’s a smaller version of the state’s 3-day VSTE conference and the attendees are so open with sharing experiences from their classrooms and schools; it’s just the right fit!
This year’s Keynote presentation was conducted by the Griffin Gurus, a student led organization of tech experts at Quioccasin Middle School in Henrico, VA. Originally, it was designed to build key skills for students in:
- Professionalism
- Public speaking
- Confidence in speaking
- Teamwork
But the students wanted to do more and now work on developing technology based professional development sessions with teachers, conduct classroom visits to teach classes about technology tools and Tech Talks teaching mini sessions about tech with peers.
Their sponsor Tedra Buckler started the group as a project for her gifted students, but the group has spread to the entire student body. Students can apply on their own or be encouraged by a teacher. Because they may miss class time, students know that they are responsible for all missed work and can only leave class with teacher permission. They meet as a large group to learn about technology and develop PD during their 5th block study hall time.
They have dedicated “Play Days” where they work with different technology tools and apps available in their building and work to figure it out, solve problems, and find resources for solutions. They also work in small group to evaluate their public speaking and become more confident before speaking to a larger audience. One of the items they recommended is taking videos of yourself practicing your speech. Are you speaking too fast? Too slow? Doing this makes you more confident when speaking to a group.
I was very impressed with these well spoken middle schoolers and what they have been accomplishing. In my high school we have created different pathways for students, including Health and Medical Sciences, Fine and Performing Arts, and CTE courses to allow for students to understand what kinds of jobs are available after graduation and set them up for success with certifications and apprenticeships programs while still in school.
Next year, we are adding an education pathway and I think a program such as the Griffin Gurus would be excellent to partner with this pathway. It would give students a chance to understand what it is like to be a teacher, planning lessons and teaching before they go off to college.
My first breakout session of the day was Classroom-based, School-based, and Beyond: Getting started with student showcases of learning. I want to see students in my school move from being consumers to creators and I think by showcasing their learning more, this will help with the transition, so I went to this session looking for ideas for how to do this at the high school level.
We broke up into groups based on if we were looking for classroom-based, school-based, or division-based showcases. I went to the school-based group and my biggest takeaway was the idea that showcases don’t have to be done in person, especially being a 1:1 district; we could set up a digital format and have some kind of survey or Flipgrid board for student and parent feedback. I wasn’t sure it would be the best fit, but looking at our current situation, I think its highly applicable now! Unfortunately, I didn’t walk away with anything that I felt would be a sure solution. Instead, I felt like the conversation I had with other secondary teachers only cemented the idea that showcases happen much more at the elementary level than secondary.
My next session was on Cospaces, a tool that allows users to create their own virtual reality spaces. There’s a lot you could do with it, if you’re willing to pay the subscription fee, which I am not. The free version only allows you to create one class with up to 29 students and 2 spaces in which to create your VR lesson. I know it also can work with Merge Cubes, which my school just got. I think the best way to use this initially would be to implement it with a future makerspace. I learned that you can take students out of the one class and add in others, so this would make sense to use it with something that isn’t for a grade and allow students to figure out how it works and problem solve.
If you want to try it out, you can use the code COSPRO1920 for a free 30 day trial.
The 1:30pm time slot was when I did my presentation, which I thought went very well. I presented on Remaining Aloft in the Twitterverse, a session for Twitter users that want to learn about advanced ways to use Twitter. You can find the updated version on the workshops page. I ran into former colleagues at the conference and one of them attended the session. It’s a high compliment when someone who has been doing this job longer than myself can walk up to me afterwards and say they learned something.
During the session, I conduct a sample of what a real Twitter chat would be like and I think it helped those who had never done if before. Some teachers told me they were still nervous to jump in, but felt better equipped to know what to do should they participate in the future.
The last session I went to was Out of this World with the 5C’s. This session focused on how you can appsmash some tools together with the 5C’s. This husband/wife duo had a great chart of tools and which “C” they would function well with. Here’s the link to their presentation: bit.ly/AppSmashEdTechRVA
I was really excited about one of the tools they showed called Board Builder and I thought it would be great to appsmash with Google Sites. However, after looking up more about it, I realize it’s a Discovery Education tool, which my district doesn’t use. But if yours does, it’s looks pretty cool!
They also showed Fliphunts, which I had completely forgotten about! At the time, I thought I need to keep this in the back of my mind in case schools close, so here’s a great tool that we can all use! Fliphunts are a digital scavenger hunt played through Flipgrid. Focus on an objective or your subject matter and what you want your students to know, then think about how could you gamify it? Connect your content and objectives to a Fliphunt “task” and let your students show what they know by giving them the opportunity to be creative with their Flipgrid responses. Here’s a great resource that tells you more.
Thank you EdTechRVA for a chance to share and learn!
Ms Priester EDU 