PLAYDATE OKC 2014: Saturday May 10th

You are formally invited to register and attend PLAYDATE OKC, coming to John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City on Saturday, May 10th from 6 pm to 10 pm. No presenters. No agendas. Just playing. That’s right, a FREE night of tinkering with apps, playing with technology tools, and collaborating with other innovative educators in and near Oklahoma City! More information is available on playdate.edcampOKC.org, including registration via EventBrite. Please help us spread the word! A PDF marketing flyer is available you can print and share!

playdate-flyer

Find out if PLAYDATE is a good for your professional development by watching the 52 second video, “Is PLAYDATE Right For You?”

More information is available about the “backstory” of PLAYDATE OKC 2014! We’d love for you to join our volunteer organizer team!

Why EdCamp? A Crowdsourced Video Project

Did you attend EdCampOKC 2014? Have you attended EdCamp somewhere else? We want to know YOUR answer to the question: WHY EDCAMP?

One of our EdCampOKC 2014 organizers, Anne Beck, has agreed to put together these videos into a longer video we can share in advance of EdCampTulsa on Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Jenks. Here’s what we need you to do to help out!

  1. Record a 15 – 30 second video of yourself answering the question, “Why EdCamp?”
  2. Upload your video to a cloud storage site like DropBox or Google Drive. Set the sharing to public and copy the link to the video file.
  3. Email THE LINK to your video file to annebeck2586 [at] gmail [dot] com by midnight on Sunday, March 9, 2014.

Be sure you agree to our licensing terms: We’ll be sharing your video (along with others) on YouTube under a Creative Commons Attribution-Only License.

If you have questions about this project or run into trouble, send a tweet to Anne @MrsBeck25. She’ll share the compiled/composite video of submissions soon afterward, most likely by the end of next week so we can use it to help build more interest in EdCampTulsa!

Also, if you haven’t already, please register to attend EdCampTulsa on Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Jenks. Registration is FREE and available via EventBrite. There are 132 registered as of today, and the facility capacity is just 200, so you need to register soon. This may be our first EdCamp event in Oklahoma to sell out! 🙂

First PlayDateOKC Scheduling

One of the exciting ideas which emerged from EdCampOKC last Saturday was hosting a free “PLAYDATE” event in Oklahoma City later this semester. If you’re interested in this after reading this post, please complete this 1 question poll/survey also embedded below.

playdate

Saturday April Gustafson and I discussed hosting a PlayDate in the evening on an upcoming weekend at John Marshall High School where April teaches science in OKCPS. We’re thinking maybe a Saturday night from 6 – 10 pm.  If you’re not familiar with the “PlayDate” concept, check out the official PlayDate Google Site. PlayDate conferences are a brainchild of the amazing #BurNTA teachers in Chicago. PlayDate events correspond very well with the ethos and philosophy of EdCamps. They explain PlayDate conferences this way on their site:

A new kind of conference.
No presenters. No agendas. Just playing.
Explore the things you’ve never had time to explore.

This is a new kind of conference. Think about the last time you attended an EdTech PD, conference or other professional learning event. Oftentimes, we leave full of new knowledge and a list overflowing with new apps, programs and skills to try out. However, once we return to “the real world” many of us lack the time and support to actually try out all of these new tools.

PLAYDATE is a space for us to come together and collaboratively explore these tools we’ve always wanted to learn more about. The concept is to invite educators from around the area to join together on one day, sit in a room for a few hours and just play. They will collaborate to learn about EdTech apps, programs and tools with one another. There are no presenters in the room, no experts and no agenda. Simply time to play, tinker, and explore.

Like EdCamps, PlayDate conferences are now popping up around the United States. The key elements for a successful PlayDate are summarized in Carolyn Skibba’s tweet today: The time must be “collaborative, self-directed, presenter free, & hands on.”

For more background about PlayDate conferences, read Jenny Magiera‘s November 2012 post, “PlanePlanning: The Birth of #PLAYDATE13.” You can also check out this 30 min video “What’s a PlayDate?”

What do you think? Would you be interested in attending a FREE Saturday evening “PlayDate” conference later this semester in Oklahoma City? The Saturday evenings we’re considering are Sat March 29, or any of the Saturdays in April Please add your thoughts as comments to this post, and submit this poll (several times if desired) to let us know what date(s) are best for you.

posted by Wes Fryer

Meet Beth Richert, Director of Ed Tech

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Beth Richert

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Director of Ed Tech

How are you involved in education?

  • I am the district Education Technology Director, formerly a principal of five years and a teacher of nineteen….and always a teacher at heart

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal classroom would be something outside the box. An environment with no rows of desks but comfortable think stations. This could be comfy sofa’s, tables and chairs with built in plug in for mobile devices. The students would be working individually or in collaborative teams on real world, authentic projects that not only sparked their intellect but their passions. The teacher would be found milling around checking on student progress and possibly delivering mini-content lessons as needed. Students would be checked in, connected and self-motivated because they have ownership of their own learning.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Google apps for education, tech integration matrix, iPads in the classroom, Chrome extensions, Google Templates

Do you have a website or blog?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Najah Hylton, English 2 and 3 teacher

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Najah Hylton

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • English 2 and 3 teacher

How are you involved in education?

  • I teach English 2 and 3 at US Grant. This is my first year to do so. Last year I subbed at Star Spencer. I want to continue teaching English (maybe to a different grade, or creative writing) for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day I’ll get a master’s and teach at the college level too.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • The ideal classroom is collaborative. The students know I am the leader and they come to me with questions, but they also trust each other and work together to try to enhance their own learning. The students are problem solvers who practice using their resources before calling in reinforcements.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Lead a session?! I wouldn’t! But if I HAD to, it would be about cultural relevance in the Language Arts classroom. Why do students have English class? Without using the standards, how would you summarize the objective of ELA learning? How has it changed in 10 years, in 20, in 40? Does our instruction reflect those changes?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Howard Walker, ETS Coach

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Howard Walker

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • ETS Coach

How are you involved in education?

  • I coach and train teachers. I’m a 26+year educator with 16+ of those years as an instructional technology coach or trainer in the largest school district in the state of Oklahoma.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal school/classroom is one where the Almighty is acknowledged by all, instructional technology is pervasive and yet transparent, and one where students do lots of teaching (and of course lots of learning of the highest quality); and teachers do lots of learning (and directing and of course lots of teaching of the highest quality).

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • “Using Google Apps for Student ePortfolio!”

Do you have a website or blog?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Jason Johnson, Director of Instructional Programs

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Jason Johnson

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Director of Instructional Programs

How are you involved in education?

  • Having taught in every grade from Kindergarten to 12 and subjects as diverse as music, literature, history, and competitive academics, I transitioned a few years ago to leading technology. More recently, I have moved into a position that better combines the areas of curriculum, professional development, and educational technology. This helps to bring better focus to technology and curricular initiatives and to align with ideas like TPAC and the SAMR model.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal classroom would be one where everyone can learn as she or he is comfortable. It would be based around principles of individual sovereignty and human dignity. While technology would be an important component, traditional and even ancient methods, tools, and resources would still be useful and important.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Not sure. There are a number of areas I could contribute, but I’m not looking to lead necessarily. Some areas I can address are educational philosophies, technology concerns, strategic planning, and network security.

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet John Allen, Educational Technology Coach

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What’s your first and last name?

  • John Allen

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Educational Technology Coach

How are you involved in education?

  • I work with classroom teachers to help them integrate technology as effectively as possible into their everyday teaching.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • It should be a place where students are encouraged to ask questions and seek answers. They should be given a variety of options to seek knowledge that is both important to them and the things they need to know. The ideal classroom is also a place where the teacher finds a way to read something aloud to the students every day.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Digital citizenship is not just a one and done kind of thing. It should be ongoing throughout the school year and cover the wide range of things students need to know to be save and responsible online.

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Don Wilson, Coordinator of Educational Technology

Don2012

What’s your first and last name?

  • Don Wilson

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Coordinator of Educational Technology

How are you involved in education?

  • I have been an English teacher, a media specialist, a technology trainer and a district administrator before I came to Career Tech to help empower learners with technology.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • I would like to participate in a discussion about how technology can enable more robust Project Based Learning.

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.