TLI – Tech Expo Draws Educators Looking for Inspiration and New Ideas

Approximately 300 people attended the LHRIC's annual Tech Expo April 5, an event that attracted teachers and administrators from dozens of local school districts as well as vendors from 21 educational technology companies.

Dr. Yong Zhao speaks at Tech Expo 2013.

Dr. Yong Zhao, an internationally known scholar, author and speaker kicked off the day-long event with an entertaining talk on creativity in education, or more importantly, the lack of it.

In his presentation titled, "Global, Creative and Entrepreneurial: Defining and Delivering High Quality Education with Technology," he questioned the idea of creativity and if indeed it applied to today's education system.

"In human history for a long time we didn't have a need for it and in fact most of the time we don't use it," added Dr. Zhao, author of over 20 books, including "Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization" and "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students."

Surprisingly, Dr. Zhao is not always a fan of creativity, especially when it comes to some of modern society's inventions, like high-rise cities in his native China where pollution is at its highest.

But, he conceded, creativity is needed when it comes to shaping an education system that intends to adequately prepare students for the 21^st century working world.

"America has been one of the worst education systems in terms of homogenizing kids, and the Common Core is trying to make sure our children are homogenous, not creative," Dr. Zhao added, referring to the Common Core Standards that states across the country will be implementing in the months and years to come.

Because of the changing economy and as a result, the shrinking middle class, Dr. Zhao said students must acquire different talents, skills and affinities. "Traditionally, we did not need people to express their individual talents," said Dr. Zhao. "But in a new age, we have to because special talents can be very powerful and useful."

The spotlight speakers included Travis Allen, founder of the iSchool Initiative, a student-led, non-profit organization dedicated to revolutionizing the education system through innovative technologies.

In his presentation, "Becoming a Mobile Learner," Allen described his journey into the world of digital technology, from playing video games as a child to quickly adapting to social media after acquiring his first smart phone at age 16. Allen recalled "doing everything" with his phone, quickly realizing there was a "huge gap between education and real world experience."

At the time, there were no cell phones allowed in Allen's Georgia high school, and Allen still believes this is true today. "They are bound to four walls and a desk and they are killing creativity," he said. "The current education system is built on an outdated and antiquated model that fails to account for the different learning styles of today's digital natives."

While still a high school student, Allen spent four months making a YouTube video about his beliefs, talking about where he felt education could go if mobile learning was allowed to take hold in America's classrooms. The video went viral and Allen created the iSchool Initiative as a result of it.

"The power of an idea can lead to so much," noted Allen, who has since presented in over 26 states and three continents. "With technology today, our youth has more power than ever before." 

The day's other speakers included Karl Fisch, the director of technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Co., and the original creator of the "Did You Know?" (Shift Happens) series of videos, in addition to representatives of local school districts and vendors attending the event.

They covered topics such as flipped learning, cloud networking, engaging students with language through technology, iPads in education, the use of Google Plus, blended learning and the Common Core, and the uses of SuccessMaker to support data-driven instruction, among other interesting discussions.

To add your own views on some of that day's topics, go to the specially created collaborative Google Doc at http://tinyurl.com/techexpo13.

TLI - Tech Forum Showcases New Technology Trends

The idea of media branding for schools, innovative approaches to STEM education, flip learning, and the adaptability of iPads in the classroom were just some of the interesting topics discussed at this year's Tech Forum held Oct. 19 at the Westchester Marriott hotel in Tarrytown.

The annual forum, which is sponsored by Tech & Learning magazine and the TechLearning.com website, attracts many of the region's educators as well as an impressive lineup of technology company sponsors who use the forum as an opportunity to educate teachers and administrators about their latest products and innovations in the instructional technology industry.

Approximately 50 district TLI members from many of the school districts the LHRIC collaborates with on a regular basis were in attendance.

Similar Tech Forum events are held in other cities throughout the country, including Austin, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago.

In his opening keynote presentation, Patrick Higgins, supervisor of Instructional Services for Caldwell/West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey, suggested that schools might want to consider branding their institutions, similar to the kind of branding that is conducted in the business world. Mr. Higgins noted that by leveraging social media, school administrators could learn to grow their districts' brands.

Other noteworthy talks included the growing use of iPads in classrooms in our region. Rob Miller, the director of information for the New Canaan Schools, said there's been a lot of innovation throughout his Connecticut school district. Its benefits include enhanced learning, more self-sufficiency among students, closer alignment to the curriculum as well as reduced costs.

One area that is reaping the benefits of this technology is the special education classroom. Vicki Windman, a special education teacher in Clarkstown High School, has been using the iPad for two years. Her students, while technically of high school age, are developmentally between the ages of 4 and 7.

With over 67,000 educational apps available for download, Ms. Windman said the choices are endless. She subscribes to a site called Moms with Apps, which shares information each Friday on apps that are free to users. Ms. Windman said her students have adapted quickly to the apps she's introduced, and most importantly, all of them align to the state's Common Core standards. "My kids can't write, but if you put them on that iPad, they're masters on it," she said.

At Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, Patrick Fogarty, advisor of instructional technology, said the iPad has been transformative in raising student test scores and generally creating an environment where they have control over their own learning.

The school started using iPads in the classroom after examining the 1:1 iPad initiative at the Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland, the first educational institution to fully engage students with the Apple device.

Administrators at Xaverian got "all fired up about going one-to-one with iPads," said Mr. Fogarty, and in a short few months, the machines were deployed throughout the school. Mr. Fogarty said the device offers a much richer educational experience for the students, something the Whiteboard cannot provide. "We don't want them to cherry pick the knowledge; we want them to be active parts in that creation," he said.

The one-to-one iPad initiative works particularly well at the high school level, noted Mr. Fogarty, with students using it to search for information, do homework, and send and receive emails, among other tasks. According to the Fleischer Research Group at Princeton University, 82 percent of teachers said students do more in-depth research when using the device and 90 percent of students said the iPad has had a positive impact on their learning.

Despite the fact that some mistakes were made at the start of the project, Mr. Folgarty said schools should not be fearful of the transition to such an initiative. "When we went into this initiative, we purchased apps that we expected to use frequently, and we didn't use any of them. But in the end, we learned what does and doesn't work in a classroom environment."

"Our goal was to untether the classroom from the physical space, to create a cloud classroom and to move from teacher to facilitator," he added.

A number of roundtable discussions kept participants engaged throughout the afternoon, including information on using social media to flip faculty meetings, using the iPad for movie-making in the classroom, digital storytelling, creating iBooks and more. A number of industry spotlights and demos from various vendors were also scheduled during the day.