I visited Richland County School District One in South Carolina in February. MaryAnn Sansonetti wrote about my 24 hours in her district. Richland One does great stuff with technology and it was such a pleasure to visit. One thing they do is make READ posters. They take photos of visitors, principals, teachers, community leaders, and even beauty pageant winners. The photos are put into a background and the word READ is spelled across the top. They have a printer that prints out large posters in full color and you can see these posters throughout the district's buildings. I have the honor of being featured on one of these READ posters!

For more about the posters, read MaryAnn's post, READ Posters...You Can Be on One Too!

Labels: presentations, tonyvincent

As you know, I'm in the business of helping students learn. Most times that means training teachers in workshops. While I think workshops are valuable and necessary, I'd like to tell you about how nearly a dozen teachers in Fort Smith, Arkansas learned about integrating handhelds into their classrooms.

Tilles Elementary School was the lucky recipient of a grant to purchase Palm TX handhelds for each of their fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. I had worked with students and teachers in Fort Smith's school district before and they were kind enough to invite me back. George Lieux, Fort Smith Public Schools' Technology Academy Specialist and I worked on a plan to train teachers and students. Instead of teachers getting a subs and spending a day in a room with me, we did something different. Teachers and students learned at the same time! The first day involved other handheld-using instructors and seven 35-minute rotation sessions. Each class rotated to each instructor with their teacher to learn about care, operation, software, and rationale for their brand new Palm TX handhelds. My rotation period was all about MathAce. Others were about using keyboards, Graffiti, Memos, and beaming. All of this was preceded by an opening assembly I gave to all students to psyche them up about handheld computing (as if they needed to be any more excited).

George developed a schedule with 7 rotation sessions to orient teachers and students to the Palm TX.

The second and third days in the school expanded upon the first day's orientation with real curriculum-based activities. I did 45 minute lessons for math and language arts in each of the grades (10 different lessons in all). Teachers had subs and were able to join all of the classes I conducted. So, instead of me talking, demonstrating, or simulating lessons with teachers in a workshop, they saw it in action with Tilles' students. During their hour-long debriefing, teachers said they really liked this approach. Not only did they learn the technology, they saw it clearly integrated and they picked up essential classroom management techniques. Moreover, it was fulfilling for me. My strength is teaching kids and I enjoyed every second of it.

I did short write-ups of the ten lessons I conducted at Tilles. Additionally, you can read about the project in the short article Education Students Assist in Tilles Schools Project published in the UA Fort Smith News.

Currently I'm in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands working with two schools to integrate handheld computers. I'm taking the same approach as in Fort Smith: teaching students directly. It's great because I get to coach teachers, empower students, and continue to put into practice all that stuff I say about education and technology. And, it's so much fun!

Labels: palm, presentations, professional development

I want to encourage you to attend Handheld Learning 2007. The conference and exhibition is October 10-12, 2007 at Central Hall Westminster, London. As part of the steering group, I'd like to invite educators from all over the globe to attend.

I blogged about Day One and Day Two of Handheld Learning 2006 last year. I learned a lot in those two days and I look forward to learning much more this year.

I'll be presenting about innovative uses for iPods in learning. The preliminary program is online. A detailed program will be published shortly. Here are some other great sessions, workshops, and seminars:

• Learning While Gaming
• Technologies for Learning 2012
• Reflections on Pedagogy
• Creating Content for Mobile
• Science, Math, and Mobile
• Mobile Application Showcase

I've set up a Twitter group for the conference. If you are attending, please follow these directions to join in. If you would like to read Twitter updates from those attending the conference, this is the page for you.

If you are planning to register, please contact me and I'll provide you a code to save £70 ($140). Last year the conference filled to capacity--early registration is a must. I know, I know: It won't be easy to convince the-powers-that-be to fund your trip to the U.K., but it will really be worth it!

Labels: events, presentations

I repeated the "Make Marvelous Movies" workshop here at the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) conference in Spokane, Washington. Just like in Minneapolis, I showed participants ways to film and edit video to make movies better. With just over an hour of work time, one of the groups of four educators created the video below. Although they used only one digital camcorder, they stopped, repositioned the camera, and then continued recording to give the illusion of multiple cameras. The theme of this year's NCCE conference is 007: Agents of Change and the theme inspired the teachers. Check out the two-minute video via YouTube:

Labels: digital video, events, presentations

I spent today at Wisconsin's CESA #4 with about 30 school administrators in a workshop called Making Technology Work for You, the Administrative Leader. Here's the description:

As a classroom teacher and technology specialist, Tony Vincent propelled his school, Willowdale Elementary, to a leadership role in educational technology. Tony has valuable tips and advice for administrators for encouraging the use of technology for teaching and learning. Experience the latest technologies like handheld computing, blogging, podcasting, and RSS. Find out how administrators can use these new tools to do their jobs and to set an example for teachers and students. Discover practical, doable, and engaging ways these new technologies and method of communication are being used in classrooms. You'll leave with solid examples to inspire teachers! Bring your laptop and Palm handheld if you got one because there will be hands-on activities!

It was a pleasure to sharing my favorite tools: handheld computers, iPods, blogs, RSS, social bookmarks, and podcasting. If you would like to see more of what I covered in the workshop, check out the links we used today and/or download the handout. I like to make my handouts so that workshop participants have room to take their own notes, although I've already filled in some notes, specifically web addresses.

One look at the agenda and you can see that it was a fast-paced day. The 30 administrators have a lot to digest. In fact, as a reflection activity, participants are writing comments to this post to share what they have learned and what they plan to do about it.

Labels: presentations