ITSC Program Events

Now What Do We Do With IT?
Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Mt. Hood Ballroom: Marco Torres

Now that we've grown it, pulled it, built it, mass produced it, mass consumed it, digitized it, and even googled it-- its time we create with it, be creative with it, remix it, and create new "its". Schools, now more than ever, have to re-shift the focus to the right side of our brains and make sure learning is as creatively rich as it can be. If the US wants to continue to lead and add value to the global community, we must take full advantage of ALL of the channels we have available to us to help our kids see schools as more than just schools-- but as studios, stages, and communities waiting to network and grow. As educators we need to embrace options, and technology today can help us achieve a connection that had been absent from our classrooms. See how producing movies, music, photography, and the arts in our learning spaces can REALLY keep us adding value to our children, but to the world as well.

Voices of the 21st Century
Monday, February 18, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Mt. Hood Ballroom: Student Panel

Listen to the voices of this next generation. Are we doing all we can to create a learning environment that will help students be prepared for the future? Maybe they can give us a few hints to help us! Did You Know?

The Gift of Significant and Meaningful Contribution
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Mt. Hood Ballroom: Dr. Tim Tyson

Too often in today’s discussions about educational technology we focus on the technology. In this keynote Dr. Tyson emphasizes leveraging meaningfulness, significance, and the gift of contribution with the tools we now have available to us. Peppered with a generous number of powerful student-made examples, this presentation reframes our conversation away from technology and connectivity. These students have designed their digital media to be deeply moving and to convey a substantive message in a compelling way that calls for thought and action from everyone who experiences their work. They beg us all to rethink a mindset that underestimates the capacity in our children to have an international voice that can make our world a better place!

Digital Storytelling: The howz and whatz of the wowz!!!!!
Mt. Adams: Marco Torres

Attendees will learn, at a minimum: the concept of story, its purpose and value, the essential nature of digital video, as a teaching/learning tool, basic rules for using DV in teaching, essential elements of DV composition, tips/tricks for ensuring very high-quality (even professional grade) end products, step-by-step procedures for PLANNING a DV project, and techniques for working in teams to develop DV learning projects.

This is not a click and drag workshop, but a practical and useful workshop for teachers interested in teaching and learning how to communicate effectively with multimedia.

Monday: The BlogShop Workshop and All Things Podcasting: Powerful Tools for Learning and Communication
Garden A/B: Dr. Tim Tyson

In this workshop you will learn about blogging in education, see numerous teacher examples, and even go step-by-step through setting up your first blog to learn how easy using this tool is. You will also learn about "all things podcasting", see astounding examples of podcasts that have been created by students, teachers, and administrators, learn what tools are available for creating podcasts (Windows and Mac), and then see a demonstration of how to create an audio-only and enhanced podcasts. This is an introductory session to these tools, and assuming you have no prior knowledge at all, is a great way to be introduced to these tools for the very first time!

Tuesday: Leadership Applied: Leveraging Technology for Systemic Change in the Learning Community
Garden A/B: Dr. Tim Tyson

How can school leadership maximize student engagement and academic achievement? How can leaders encourage teachers and students to collaborate with peers and professionals around the world? In this presentation and workgroup session, Dr. Tim Tyson, former principal of Mabry Middle School, will share lessons learned and philosophical frameworks gleaned from that school's exploration of best practices and ways to leverage technology through school-wide blogging and school-wide student/teacher/administrator digital media creation in their efforts to make learning irresistible.

Under Dr. Tyson's leadership, Mabry received Scholastic and Intel Corporation's prestigious Schools of Distinction Award for Technology Innovation. He set up MabryOnline.org, a collection of over 100 blogs which served as the school web presence and features students', teachers' and administrators' digital media creations, serving up over 1.5 million files a month to users all over the world. Educators from around the country and several foreign countries visited Mabry to see firsthand the innovative ways technology is used to maximize student achievement. This session will outline a philosophical framework, plus provide participants with concrete examples of how to build community, and engage staff and students in meaningful and creative ways.

Tying Together Curriculum and Technology
St. Helens D: Dottie Coven

This workshop will focus on using technology to enhance delivery and assessment of content. See how SMART Boards and Classroom Response Systems can be used to help with classroom management and delivery of curriculum. During the workshop spend hands on time connecting technology to the content that you teach.

Monday's Workshop is a repeat of ITSC 2007.
Tuesday's Workshop is an advanced workshop from ITSC 2007.

Coach, Collaborate, Communicate, Coordinate, Conference, and Comment: Using New Tools to Impact Teaching and Learning
St. Helens B: Kathy Schrock

From blogs to wikis to podcasts to Second Life, the number of new tools available to use to both grow professionally and impact the teaching and learning process is multiplying daily! This 3-hour workshop will present creative ideas for using the "best of the best" to support professional development for educators and with students. The workshop will include a brief overview of the types of tools and be followed by group work using these tools, as well as the sharing of best practices both in person and online.

The Good, Bad and Ugly. Taking Digital Pictures Effectively
St. Helens C: Leslie Fisher

Leslie Fisher has been fortunate enough to learn her digital photography skills from some of the biggest and brightest in the industry. This presentation will go over examples and methods to take better digital pictures. Everything from composition, lighting, flash techniques and point and shoot camera settings will be discussed. Time permitting, Leslie will show you some of her favorite Photoshop tips to help you enhance your digital images.

Google and Beyond
St. Helens C: Lynn Lary

The word "Google" was once the name of an Internet search engine. Today, Google is not only a search engine, but a company that provides many online tools to internet users. Last year, participants learned where to find out about Google's latest technologies and how to use some of these tools.

This year, we'll take a look at how some of Google's search tools have changed as well as some of the cooler new tools that are available. You'll also see new ways to obtain information--as we are no longer tied to using search engines to find information. Instead, we'll investigate the use of layers and RSS (really simple syndication) in conjunction with Google Earth (GE) which will allow us to access information from a geographic perspective--and have it displayed globally. Imagine reading the news--not in a newspaper, not on a web page, but reading it from the location where it is taking place!

Join us and learn how you can use Google tools to find the information you want and Google Earth to help your students make global connections to your instructional content.

To prepare for this workshop, please be sure that you have downloaded Google Earth. If your computer does not meet the minimum system requirements for running Google Earth, be sure to check out a conference computer.

This is not a repeat of last year's workshop, new tools, new topics.

Online Writing Process
Hampton Inn: Nick Viani

Email, discussion groups, chat, blogs, wiki, and numerous (expensive) Learning Management Systems (i.e. Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn) are all tools that support online teaching and learning. WriteSite is the inexpensive solution for managing content area writing in grades 3 through post high school. Pure and simple, WriteSite provides teachers and students a secure environment to post and discuss writing, to critically read and respond to writing, and to revise, publish and anthologize their writing via the Internet. You will leave with a free, fully-functioning, version of WriteSite that you may adapt to your writing program. Your students, their parents, and you will love it. Materials supporting WriteSite abound, and feedback from teachers drives each successive update. And because WriteSite supports any language using the “Roman” alphabet, teachers in ELL and foreign language programs are adapting WriteSite to their programs as well. Why not join us and be part of this powerful tool’s development? WriteSite Resources

Online Content Tools in a F2F
Hampton Inn: Darren Hudgins

Breeze through Moodle, onto some of the newest web tools and resources offered for free for you from the ODE resource OVSD (Oregon Virtual Schools District). Uploasd video or podcasts, host your own webpage or blog and peruse content. At the same time contemplate the classroom applications all in a hands on, interactive and fun workshop.

Math + Technology = Learning
Cascade A/B: Tammy Worecester

In this workshop, you will learn how to use common computer programs in clever ways for teaching and learning mathematics. See how math lessons and learning can be enlivened, enhanced, and updated through the integration of resources and tools found on the the Internet and on the classroom computer. Explore some fascinating ideas and resources that will inspire both teachers and students. You’re guaranteed to go away with many ideas you can implement tomorrow with your students!

Classroom Collaboration
Cascade C: Tim Chase

Kids these days don't need help knowing the importance of communication and collaboration--that's what the MySpace generation does best! But to take these amazing tools into the classroom . . . how to make it safe? Where to start? This hands-on session lets teachers explore the best communication tools available and develop strategies for using them in your own classroom.

Tools: Student Emails & Groups, Blogs, Wikis, Forums, Cell Phones, Collaboration Sites
Discussions: Internet safety, Harassment, Innappropriate use, Keeping students on task

Preparing our Schools for the 21st Century
Garden C: Todd Hamilton, Krista Parent

South Lane SD is a community of practice where the focus is always on student learning. The District’s shared beliefs that Children Come First, Decision Making is Student Centered, and Children Learn Best When They Want to be at School is the foundation for this success. Dr. Krista Parent, 2007 National Superintendent of the Year, and Todd Hamilton, Director of Technology and Literacy, will share how South Lane SD is bursting through the technology roadblocks and preparing students for the 21st Century. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves, be part of the conversation, and develop a plan for moving your own district forward.

Share Student Success with the World
Garden C: Joe Buglione

Have you wanted to share photos from a field trip, or post a student’s project, online viewable for the entire world? Participants will work through the steps needed to post student work online using a variety of Web2.0 tools. Several issues will be examined, such as the different tools available for use, copyright questions, ethical concerns, and logistics in conjunction with your school’s website.

Get Out of the Darkroom: Digital Photography Solutions for Education
Mt. Adams: Marco Torres

Migrate your photography, journalism, yearbook (or even personal photos) programs to digital and prepare students with professional photography skills. Communication via photography is one of the most powerful mediums to communicate. This pre-conference workshop will cover and uncover the basics of better photography and visual storytelling. Bring your point and shoot. Bring your DSLR!!!!!!

Rev Up Your Reading & Writing Classrooms with Technology
Cascade A: Tammy Worecester

Want some clever ideas for using computers in your reading and writing classrooms? This session will feature dozens of quick and easy tools and activities that you can use immediately! We will explore a series of innovative activities through which you will learn how to use the Internet and other electronic tools to support literacy, word processing, and the publishing of students' work.

Podcasting and the Struggling Reader
Garden A/B: Carol Greig

This workshop will look at how to use different Mac and PC based applications to create simple podcasts that are designed to engage struggling students in learning and improving their reading skills. Using MP3 technology to deliver teacher designed interventions kids can "take learning home" in a way that provides more on task time, greater engagement in the activity, and increased opportunity for learning. Based on a successful project called "Reading Buddies" this project design has been used successfully in K-5 classrooms with modifications developed by middle and high school classrooms.