Research on Bi-lingual Language Processing Grows

With an increase of funding and neuro research on bi-lingual language processing, this Education Week article emphasized that human brains are wired to learn best in social interactions indicating that babies in a study learned best when interacting with a tutor of a native language foreign speaker in comparison to viewing video tutorials. It made me think about how important it was for us to share with our A'o Makua parents that speaking Hawaiian language with their keiki is significant, especially at a young age....research proven. :)

Playing Around with Mobile Real Time Texting Tools

Since attending the Schools of the Future Conference, I was inspired to dive further into exploring mobile tools. Therefore, I have decided to test things out at our upcoming team meeting tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. At least I'll receive immediate feedback that will assist me in deciding whether or not I'd like to integrate these tools into my upcoming Virtual Schools Symposium conference presentation happening in a couple of weeks.

Here are the two tools I have been exploring. The first tool was used by Mark Hines at the Schools of the Future Conference and the second tool was shared by my husband, Brent.

1. Poll Everywhere: allows for easy gathering of live audience responses via mobile texting, Web or Twitter. I'm going to try the polling function live at our team meeting tomorrow. Team, get ready for an interactive session. :) It didn't take me long to create an account and set up a poll. It even has a downloadable PPT with sample instructions and the live poll integrated for immediate use.


2. Wiffiti: publishes real time messages to screens from various sources such as mobile text, Web or Twitter. I'm planning on utilizing this interface as a "back chat" during our team meeting tomorrow. Creating this account was also fairly simple and easy. I was even able to customize my own bkgd for my screen, which Iliked. Here's the link to the page I created: http://wiffiti.com/screens/41989/. Brent also shared a video of how this tool has been used in an educational setting.

Adobe Introduces Acrobat X Pro

This The Journal article mentions new version features of Acrobat X Pro such as an increase in collaborative tools, electronic portfolio features and integration with MS SharePoint.

Schools of the Future Conference 2010 & Hilton Strike

Although getting into the parking structure at Hilton took awhile due to the strike in the morning, once I got settled into the Schools of the Future Conference with 1,200 other attendees, the rest of the day was full of learning and aha moments. Here are some of my highlights for the day:

1. Morning keynote by Sir Ken Robinson was refreshing. His main messages included the need to change the way we educate our keiki in today's world: a) we are living in a time of revolution, b) to meet the challenge, we need to think differently about ourselves and those around us, c) we need to act and behave very differently, including how we do things. I loved his quote, repeated several times - "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
   
2. Mobile Technologies, Teens & Education by Mark Hines & Bob McIntosh. I was blown away by learning how Mid Pacific Institute integrates mobile learning technologies into their school setting. We were even able to contribute to polls and provide live feedback using texting on our mobile phones during the conference. Presentation slides are available via the Schools of the Future ning site. I already signed up to play around with the tool he was using, Poll Everywhere. I also didn't you know that you could text Google to search for answers from your phone (GOOGL - 46645)...don't forget to check your sources and remind your students as well.
   
3. Embracing Change in the 21st Century - How Do We Get There? by administrators and teachers from Mid Pacific Institute preschool, elementary, middle and high school. It's amazing how their entire school has embraced change resulting on a transformation in their school culture. The various projects shared utilized various technologies as a tool for learning with the focus on students' voice and choice to inspire them to achieve critical problem solving and critical thinking skills.
   
4. During the last session, Nick Payne visually captured the presentation live through his artwork. I was amazed at his skill set and thought what a wonderful way to summarize for everyone. Of course light bulbs went off for me thinking how useful this could be to possibly capture future operational and strategic planning discussions. With his permission, here are photos of what he did for the day.

I'm glad I took time out of my schedule to attend the conference. I was inspired by what other schools were doing locally within our state. There's always so much to learn and so much more we could do to motivate our 21st century learners.

Brent just taught me how to post to my blog from my iPhone. Cool!

FETC Fall 2010 Virtual Conference

I enjoyed the FETC conference last year, so I knew it would be a good idea to participate again this year. In fact, I emailed all my co-workers in case they didn't know about it. :) It was a pretty hectic week. Therefore, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the convenience of participating virtually right from my desktop and being able to catch up with my work at the same time.

I didn't get to attend as many sessions as I wanted to, but I did enjoy the two I selected to drop in on. Some key take aways included:

Mobile Learning in the K-12 Classroom: Get the Facts Straight from the Practioners
by Elliot Soloway, Lenny Schad, Kyle Menchhofer, Sue Tomko, Cathie Norris

1. MLD = mobile learning devices
2. Many K-12 schools were able to provide devices to students due to reasonable cost of this technology
3. Schools that piloted MLD turned off phone and text functions
4. Some schools were able to add computers to classrooms by integrating MLD, especially in remote areas with no infrastructure
5. Less technical challenges in comparison to maintaining computers
6. How you use and integrate MDL is important!

Professional Development in a Web 2.0 World
by Meg Ormiston

1. Twitter is a great tool for PD...don't feel guilty if you don't read through all your tweets. Use it to filter good tweets. Re-tweets are a good indicator.
2. Tweet Deck is a good mobile app to access and organize Twitter accounts. In fact, I downloaded it and love the interface so far.
3. Nancy Duarte's blog is a good one to follow, http://blog.duarte.com. Looking forward to reading her slideology book focusing on the science and art of great presentations.
4. Skype is a great tool to connect with other professionals synchronously. I never thought of that. I mainly use Skype to connect my almost 2-year old daughter with her aunty that lives in China and grandparents who live on the Big Island. :)
5. I was aware of Wordle, but never heard of Tagxedo. It's a twist on Wordle where you can even add some style to your word clouds.
6. I haven't been a heavy Twitter user, but I think I may need to rethink that after attending this session.