Goodbye Seattle!

After the closing keynote speaker we all needed to get out for a walk.  The weather was beautiful in Seattle.  Julie, Art, Matt, Shannon and Juanita and I all walked along Pike Place Market and the waterfront.

 

Then we headed to the Taphouse Grill to catch up with everyone else:

Raced back to the hotel to walk over to the Sheraton to catch our bus.  It appeared we missed our bus so we caught a van that could hold all of us (Art Sikkink, Kelly Nelson, Jillian Crerar, Michele Nokleby, Juanita Moore, Julie Hainline, Crista Anderson, Brittnie Keilman, Matt Clausen, Shannon McWilliams and myself) (Dave Burch went ahead of us).

We got to the airport hungry and very early.  So several of us went to a restaurant at the airport for a little dinner and a final chance to visit and grab some food before heading to the gate to catch our plane around 9 p.m.  

 

Overall, this trip was very educational and social.  I learned a lot of new things educationally and I also got to know some of my peers much better, too.  

Closing Keynote Speaker - Anthony Salcito, VP Worldwide Education for Microsoft Corporation

After the last session, Julie and I headed across the street to the Daily Grill for a great salad.  Attended the closing keynote speaker, Anthony Salcito from Microsoft.  He talked about how technology is helping to prepare teachers and students for the educational challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.  I was a little disappointed in this presentation. I felt like a lot of what he introduced I was already doing with other tools  I think they are a little slow to jump on board and are trying hard to catch up. He talked about Partners in Learning which he helped launch in 2003.   He introduced a new free online program called Photosynth.  I think I can already pretty much do what this program does, but I will check it out.  He talked about Bing.  I already use and like Google, not sure why I would switch.  He did talk about Mouse Mischief, which I had not heard about before.

Professional Development 2.0: Using Web 2.0 Tools in Technology Professional Development

Attended Professional Development 2.0:  Using Web 2.0 Tools in Technology Professional Development with Mike Agostinelli, Jason Neiffer and Dr. Ann Minckler. These guys are great.  I met Jason for the first time earlier today and have worked with Mike during the EdTech Cadre last year.  I worked with Ann in the days of adult education.  It was wonderful to see both of them again.  They talked about not teaching the technology tools in isolation.  That you should first teach the tools and then get into how they all work together.  They are doing great things!
2010 Ncce Pd 2 0 Final

View more presentations from Jason Neiffer.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom with Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Elements

 Attended Digital Storytelling the the Classroom with Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Elements by Joe Dockery. Finally was able to get to one of Joe's sessions. He is awesome. I love his teaching philosophy and his great resources. He is an Adobe Education Leader and is an Adobe Certified Associate.  He always has his workshop resources available for teachers to use.  He is teaching teachers this summer and I would love to attend one of his workshops this summer.

Probing the Prospects of a Paperless Presence in the Clasroom

Attended the workshop called Probing the Prospects of a Paperless Presence in the Classroom with Jason Neiffer.  He did a great job of explaining his views on this and how there is a time and place for printing out various things, however, for the most part everything is digital.  He demonstrated how he uses Moodle and Google apps for all of this classes.  Learned a few new websites like Keynote & Dropbox.

Probing the Prospects of a Paperless Presence in the Classroom for NCCE 2010

View more presentations from Jason Neiffer.

Explored Waterfront and Pike Place Market and Dinner at Cutters

Got back to the hotel and posted my paper for my leadership class.  Explored the water front and Pike Place Market with Jillian and Kelly.

 We walked around the waterfront and Pike Place Market and ended up at Cutters for dinner. 

Moodle & Google Apps - Web Based Learning Tools for the "Traditional" Classroom

 Was really looking for a way to seamlessly integrate Moodle and Google Apps.  This really wasn't about that.  The presenter, Scott Coleman, talked about both applications individually but not really integrating them.  I was looking for a way to post my Moodle documents in Google (docs) and link them in Moodle.  Right now when I upload a Word document and later decide to update this resource, I have to delete the old Word document and upload a new one.  I thought it would be great if you created your link to Google docs and when you made changes in your Google doc, it would automatically update your Moodle link.  One of the problems I realized with this method is that students have to be able to log into Google to see the doc.....doesn't quite work if students are blocked from Google docs.....bummer.

Library of Congress - Teaching with Primary Sources: Photos

I was really hoping to obtain some resources for my Graphic Design and Video Production classes.  I thought about obtaining pictures from the Library of Congress and creating a historical documentary video.  This session really wasn't about that.  It was really about looking at old photos and determining when and where they were front.  Resource:  http://locncce2010.ning.com/

ePortfolios Using Open Source Software called Mahara

Randy Orwin did this session on Mahara.  What I heard at this session was not really encouraging.  It runs best on a Linux server.  The students have control over what and when they post.  Teachers really don't have any control over what a student posts in the portfolio.  It has a social networking component to it and also does not give teacher any rights to take something down that might be inappropriate.  I think our district will feel that this is too big of a risk right now. One encouraging thing was that Mahara can be a link on your Moodle site and get into Mahara with a single sign in from Moodle.

Lunch at The Pike Place Pub

 

 Matt Clausen, Julie Hainline, Art Sikkink, Juanita Moore, Shannon Williams, Dave Burtch, Kelly Nelson, Jillian Crerar and I ate lunch at The Pike Pub.

   

 

Keynote Speaker: Philippe Cousteau

Philippe Cousteau was our keynote speaker.  He is the grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.  He is continuing the work of his father and grandfather.  He is the Cheif Ocean Correspondent for Animal Planet, where he works on various ocean and water-focused documentary programs, including "Ocean's Deadliest," which he completed after his co-host Steve Irwin was fatally wounded during their expedition.  He hosted Oceans, a HD Discovery Channel/BBC co-production.  He also hosted and narrated his own one hour special on Discovery called Living Loch Ness.  He has a master's degree in history from the University of St. Andrews.

He made a big point of saying that he doesn't believe:  you can make a different.  He believes every choice you make (no matter how small or large) - makes a difference.

PBS TeacherLine: Online Professoinal Development that Works!

Attended PBS TeacherLine:  Online Professional Development that Works! by Jeff Allen.  Recommended two books work reading:
1.  Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen.
2.  How People Learn by the National Research Council.

Courses are located at:
www.pbs.org/teacherline

Olympic Educational Service, District 114 teamed up with PBS, NCCE and Chanel 9 to offer PD to their district.

Saw some great opportunities for teachers to take quality PD courses in their field online aligned to the ISTE standards.

Dinner at Ivar's

The rest of crew from Missoula showed up this afternoon:  You can't go to Seattle without going to Ivar's for a little seafood.  So Matt Clausen, Art Sikkink, Juanita Moore, Shannon McWilliams and I went to Ivar's for dinner.  Now it is time to finish my leadership paper and read some some curriculum chapters.  Oh joy.  Also need to figure out which sessions I will be going to tomrrow.

Yeah! Got into Moodle Multimedia Marvels

Yeah!  I got into Randy Orwin's Multimedia Marvels class.  Class was full, but Randy let me in!  Hopefully I will learn something new.  He covered zipped files, Lightbox, Slideshow, audio and Nanogong.  I got to to play around with Nanogong and really see some great potential for Choir, Band, Orchestra, Language Arts and more.  Students can record their assignments and turn them in.  The audio icon is available on on all pages where editing is available.  The icon appears right next to the Insert Image icon.

Didn't learn a whole lot new on video.  I did learn a few things from my neighbor, such as:

Can download video in Firefox by doing this:
Tools, Page Info, Media tab, select the "embed" file and save it.

Heading to the opening of the exhibits for a litle while, before dinner.

Cheesecake Factory for Lunch

Had lunch with Shannon at the Cheesecake Factory across from the convention center. Shannon attended a workshop called Creating Easy E-Portfolios by Katie Kotynski. She said it was great. Students convert all of their portfolio files into a .pdf file and put the .pdf files into PowerPoint and make a "slide show" out of it that can be opened without the need of a PowerPoint program. Great idea!

Had a chicken salad sandwich, soup and salad. Wow - it was a lot of food. Of course, we had to get cheesecake's to go!

Original Starbucks

Got up around 7:30 a.m. and headed to the original Starbucks.  Wow - there are a lot of Starbucks in Seattle.  I walked by a couple of Starbucks on my way to the original Starbucks (only a few blocks).  I went to the Starbucks that seemed logical, right at Pike Place Market:

However, after ordering my coffee and a yogurt, I discovered this is not the original Starbucks.  The original Starbucks was three blocks down the road.  Okay, so I walked three blocks down the road and there was this very small, old Starbucks with a different logo.  Evidently it is the original Starbucks logo.

 

I asked permission to take a few pictures and I was told it was good that I came early, because usually there is always a like outside the door.  I had to get a few pictures for my daughter, Ashley, who works at Starbucks in Missoula.  There was a film crew there this morning and the employees really looked like they were having fun. 

Dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery

Dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery with Matt, Art, Shannon & Julie.  Great food, great company and best of all - great beer!  After dinner, Julie, Shannon and I went to the Elephant & Castle Restaurant & Pub located in the hotel for a night cap.   Hoping to catch a workshop by Joe Dockery tomorrow.  I have a couple of chapters to read tonight for my curriculum graduate class. :(

Moodle Databases: The Big Science Notebook & Other Uses

Attended Randy Orwin's Moodle Databases:  The Big Science Notebook & Other Uses from 1:00 -4:00 p.m.  This was a great glass.  I was really able to understand Moodle Databases and learned how to edit the HTML code to have the databases appear the way I want them to.  His Moodle will be a great resource.  He also had the Book and Nanogong modules in his Moodle.  I was able to test these out and play a little.  Great modules!  Hope to be using these in Missoula, soon.  Heading to dinner at 5:00 p.m.

Arrived in Seattle, WA

Dave Burtch, Matt Clausen, Julie Hainline, Shannon McWilliams & Art Sikkink and I left Missoula around 7:00 a.m.  Only around an hour long flight.  Arrived in Seattle, WA, around 7:30 a.m. and met up with Colette Bartow.  Got to the Red Lion Hotel around 9:15 p.m.  Took us almost two hours to get to our hotel, via Downtown bus.

Went to Lowell's for breakfast with Dave, Julie & Shannon.  Split fresh dungeness crab benedict with Julie.  Beautiful view overlooking the water.  Stopped at Cow Chip Cookies to have dessert on the way back to the hotel.

Heading out to the convention center to pick up registration packet and attend Moodle Databases:  The Big Science Notebook and Other Uses by Randy Orwin.