Alabama Education Technology Conference (AETC) Fantastic!

I attended AETC this year and learned so much. The opening session featured internationally known presenter Alan November in addition to remarks from Governor Riley and Dr. Morton, our State Superintendent. Alan November said he didn't know of any other states other than Alabama that had the major political forces in alignment on distance learning! He commented that we had the alignment of leadership and vision from the top down. The governor, the state superintendent, and the head of the Alabama's Office of Technology Initiatives all have the necessary vision to move Alabama forward. It was exciting to hear the Governor talking about the ACCESS distance learning initiative. Alabama is able to offer courses in rural areas that just were not available before. You can read more about the ACCESS program here: http://www.governorpress.alabama.gov/pr/pr-2006-06-28-01-access-photo.asp

I thoroughly enjoyed Alan November's session on Global Learning. He said we must give kids a Global Voice. As teachers, we can't continue to give same types of assignments. We must give innovative, creative and motivating assignments that could not be done without the technology. Technology is not a $2000 pencil. We need to use it to do things that we couldn't do before. Alan gives excellent examples in his presentation and on his site. It isn't even difficult to do. He suggested you give kids job assignments to learn podcasting, blogging, editing, etc. Then you have them teach others and soon you are in business globally communicating and honing the communication skills that will be needed to survive in our global economy. You can find more at Alan's site here: http://www.novemberlearning.com/ or visit his global learning links: here http://www.novemberlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=159&action=cat&lcl=2&parentID=32.

Next, I enjoyed three sessions by Bernajean Porter involving Digital Storytelling. Powerful stuff! She says a lot of the same things I keep saying. The projects need to be real world, and the technology is essential and TRANSFORMING, where kids are producers of useful information not just consumers. This came from Grappling Technology and Learning Spectrum. You can find it here: http://www.bjpconsulting.com/files/MAPPSpectrum.pdf The bottom line of all of this is that it's not about the tech, it’s about the learning. The technology when used properly can accelerate the learning and allow us to give kids a global voice! You can see examples, and find resources for evaluating projects here: http://www.digitales.us/

Podcasting, blogging, RSS Feeds. If you don't know these terms or what they could mean for your students, it's time to show those lifelong learning qualities and dive in. The water is just right!

One final note... I found out that Bernajean Porter, one of the featured presenters I mentioned above, received her masters in instructional technology at Lesley University and was an adjunct professor there, too. I am currently a member of the Lesley cohort for the masters in technology program. It is an excellent face to face program that meets locally in Hoover once a month. If you are interested, please e-mail me at cmckinley@hoover.k12.al.us. Lesley also offers cohorts in Literacy and Integrated Teaching Through the Arts. Tweet