Improving Schools for Digital-Age Learning

NETS Days is HERE!  NETS Day is HERE!

Improving Schools for Digital-Age Learning

Join AzTEA & ISTE

1:00 pm to 5:pm, Friday, February 20

Multiple sites participating statewide (from Tucson to Flagstaff)

Pinal County site:

Casa Grande Union High School District Office

1362 North Casa Grande Avenue

Casa Grande, AZ  85222

District Office – Board Room

Check-in between 12:30 and 1:00

Classroom Teachers are welcome to join after school lets out!

Who should attend:

This FREE, collaborative and interactive session has been designed for District Curriculum Coaches, Administrators, and Instructional Technology Support Personnel.

If you have already RSVP’d, no need to do so again.

If you have not registered, there is still room.

Email:  achayefsky@cguhsd.org or call (520) 876-1128

Walk-in’s WELCOME!

MAP: http://tinyurl.com/bclkqz

NETS Day Organizers:

(Scottsdale/Phoenix/Tucson): Dr. Christopher Johnson, Ph.D. – President AzTEA, U of A, 21st Century Education Consultant;  Dr. Helen Padgett – ASU, President-Elect ISTE, AzTEA Governing Board;  Ann Lumm – AzTEA Governing Board, Maricopa County Technology Integration Specialist, County ESA; Ferdi Serim – ISTE Board Member at Large (NM)

(Casa Grande): Amy Chayefsky, CGUHSD Technology Integration Coordinatoe, AzTEA Governing Board

RSVP to achayefsky@cguhsd.org by Friday, 2-12-09.  Late RSVP’s – call me at (520) 876-1128

Feel free to forward to other educators and local business leaders who might be interested.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Or is it?  I have been working on a post regarding ‘Education is National Security’, it’s a work in progress based on that phrase, borrowed from one of my bumper stickers!  But, in the interim, this is more pressing on my mind.  I got this URL from Curtis Robert Dutiel, posted on a social networking site.  http://tinyurl.com/celuw7

While it certainly feels like the sky is falling, and perhaps it has dropped a few thousand feet (like  a powerful earthquake that drastically alters and changes the landscape), maybe this is our opportunity to dig into those creativity pockets and those outside the box pockets we sometimes leave hidden, for just such a crisis.

Just as an earthquake can shift the course of a mighty river, destroying the dam and the poor town down below, it also restores the flood plains, the natural landscape and related flora and fauna.  If we are in the poor little town it is indeed NOT a good thing.  but if we sought higher ground, or if we were that long forgotten flood-plain, the natural flora or fauna, it would be a GOOD thing.  And as with an earthquake, while sometimes slow, there is recovery, nature prevails, communities come back (maybe just above the dam this time.)

So perhaps as we reel at the economic devastation swirling and mounting around us, impacting and possibly devastating our personal and professional environments, lets seek that pesky little silver lining.

• Is this your opportunity to talk with you districts ‘bandwidth police’ (you know who I mean) and gain access to more FREE web 2.0 resources?
• Is this the time to engage your district and staff in a discussion of viable FREE on-line professional development (eliminating driving to and from, asynchronous versus face-to-face) providing just a tiny bit of personal control over when participants … participate?
• Is this when we really encourage teachers in utilizing amazing web resources robustly, to more deeply engage students – edutainment is SO over!!!
• Is this when we introduce reluctant staff or administrators to the joys of on-line collaboration – versus face to face meetings for EVERYTHING? (Google Docs, Google Sites. Social bookmarking, videoconferencing, social networking with educators (think partnerships in facing challenges and developing strategies) – think webcams/Skype/iChat – if you don’t have ’serious’ ITv equipment – Social Networking).  If you have the ability to videoconference, creatively seek free or inexpensive partnerships.
• Is this when we finally move the technology deeper into the hands of the students, to improve student learning, because it holds the promise of creativity and innovation and the potential for learning transformation.
• Now that districts can barely afford gas for field trips or to attend meetings and conferences, overtime for drivers and admission fees … how about a virtual tour or a videoconference with content providers, peers or experts, to hold meetings across districts, county’s, states….!
• Participate in a growing number of web-based conferences and podcasts

Oh yes!  Seize this opportunity to introduce and engage others in a broad and active dialogue and implementation of Web 2.0, on-line collaboration and more!!!

This may be our 21st Century opening into this dialogue, but even more urgently, into action!

If there is NOT funding to be had, if the river of money (Hold the Phone!  Education never DID have a river of money, did we?)  has shifted to a distant plane, how will you cope?

We can and SHOULD parlay this problem into a challenge and shift it into an advantage for our students, teachers and administrators.