Although today was a snow day for much of St. Louis, once the roads cleared I made my way across town to the Midwest Education Technology Conference (METC).  The afternoon sessions I attended addressed key aspects of 1:1 planning, using Web 2.0 tools to improve student achievement, and the changing nature of information literacy.

One-to-One Technology Project Planning: Christine Tomasino

One of METC’s featured speakers, Christine explored the issues/questions surrounding the adoption of 1:1 computing.  Drawing from her extensive experience as a classroom teacher, administrator, consultant, and trainer, she shared her “Big 6″ ideas for developing a successful program:

• Professional Development
  • Instructional Practices with Digital Tools
  • Instructional Management for Classrooms with Digital Tools
  • Learning Communities (reflection and feedback)
• Technology Support
  • Orientation and Deployment for all stakeholders
  • Expectation and Service Guidelines
  • User support
• Engagement for All Stakeholders
  • Leadership, visioning, learning expectations, “walking the talk”
  • Students in an active role
  • Parents in an active role
• Sustainable Funding
• Learning Expectations, Policies and Procedures
• Evaluation and Continuous Feedback
  • What’s working? What Needs to Work Better?

As we are in the first year of our 1:1 program, I found her insight quite validating; we followed much of her model without realizing it existed!  For those beginning the 1:1 journey and/or wanting more ideas and information regarding ubiquitous computing, Christine’s webpage is a great resource and worth a visit.

Impacting Student Achievement Through the Use of Web 2.0 Tools: Henry Thiele

Henry is the Director of Technology at Maine Township High School District 207 and a self-described “geek interested in learning about everything.”  Using Marzano’s top three “school level” factors in student achievement as a guide (curriculum, goals and feedback, and parent and community involvement), his district is using a variety of resources to meet their needs:

• Google Apps for Education
  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Docs
• Organizational Tools
  • Parent Portal
  • Website
  • My207
• Other Tools
  • Wikis
  • Ning
  • USTREAM TV
  • YouTube

These tools, which range in scale and cost, are most effective when deployed purposefully as Henry and his staff have done.  His complete presentation is available to METC attendees, but many of the aforementioned resources are free and can readily be explored.

Information Literacy: Will Richardson

One of two keynote speakers at this year’s conference, Will is well known within the education community.  His session on information literacy explored strategies for finding, managing, and sharing the over-abundance of information at our disposal.  From simple approaches such as using an RSS reader to developing a customized homepage via PageFlakes, Will’s practical advice should resonate with anyone who utilizes the Read-Write Web.

Will’s session (as well as much of his other work) is available on his Weblogged wiki, and if you haven’t done so already, I would encourage you to read his Weblogg-ed blog.  The definition and nature of literacy have changed, and Will’s insight and resources bring clarity to this timely and important topic.

Posted: 01|27|09 at 6:53 pm. Filed under: Conferences.
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