Professional+Development

=Week 8: Attend a "21st Century" Conference (in your PJs!) = =Introduction = Time is money, right? Everyone's life is busy. Whether it's school, work, kids or other activities, it is difficult to find the time in your day to learn something new. Good thing for us the conference circuit has shifted to virtual, asynchronous options. Translation? You can attend a conference in your PJs!

One great example is the [|K-12 Online Conference]. This conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. Each year the conference opens with a keynote followed by two weeks of sessions. Over 50,000 educators worldwide participate each year. The sessions, going back to 2006, may be viewed online or downloaded anytime. It's a conference that never closes. This year's live conference is October 17-28. You can keep up with the conference by accessing their website or the conference [|Facebook fan page].

Important to note, K12 Online Conference doesn't necessarily focus on technology. The trend over the past few years has been a strong shift towards pedagogy and big ideas. The topic areas for 2016 are Learning Spaces, Student Voice, Creativity, and Design Thinking.

Discovery Exercise
Visit the [|K12 Online Conference] site and "attend" two (2) presentations of your choice. Sessions are available via YouTube,[| iTunes U], or just linked from the Conference website.

Pick sessions that seem interesting/compelling to you, view the presentations and explore the supporting links or resources and see what you can learn! Be sure to view the included "essential questions," even if you do not wish to leave a Voicethread response. (Check the Task, Part 1 below for blog post requirements).

Now that you are aware of the [|K12 Online Conference], I hope you will return to this resource for future learning, that you will "attend" the 2016 conference and visit the archived sessions for 2006-15 when you have time and interest. Please share this wonderful resource with your colleagues. ¤ NOTE: Session lengths vary, keynote presentations will be much longer. You should see a video "run time" or length listed next to the presentation link. ||  ||
 * # Pick a year. I recommend you start with the more current, but there are technology tools that have been around for several years and you might find something interesting in an older conference.
 * 1) Pick a category, for example, "Getting Started", you will find several blog posts listing presentation titles, presenter information and a session description.
 * 2) Click a post/session title to view the full session page, where you will find a full session description, and links to stream or download the presentation (typically in video format).
 * 3) View session. Many sessions will provide accompanying resources (such as a companion wiki site or related links) as supporting content for the presentation. ||   ||
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Task

 * PART 1:** Write a blog post sharing your thoughts about the sessions you viewed (be sure to include links, others may want to attend after reading your post!) What were the main points? Were the sessions worthwhile? Did you learn anything new? Did you find value in the online, anytime delivery option for professional development? Is there anything from the sessions you might use in your classroom or professional learning? Include a link to the session in your post. Be sure to include "Thing 29" as part of your post title.


 * Part 2:**

Your final product for D36 Learning 2.0...

 * Time to start reflecting. A final project for this course will be to tell your story, your life-long learning journey through Learning 2.0. What have you taken away? How have you grown? What part of your professional practice will change? For this piece, you can use the tool of your choice- VoiceThread, Google Presentation, Prezi, Animoto, anything else. It's up to you.**

Your finished product must be ** embedded in your blog by January 30, 2016 at Midnight. ** If there are storage issues with your blog, you may upload your story to another site, just be sure to link it to your blog to allow others to view.

(uploaded or from the web using creative commons, [| image generator]or [|bighugelabs])
 * Minimum Requirements:**
 * Your Voice
 * Photos/images
 * Music- nice addition, but optional
 * At least 2 minutes in length

media type="custom" key="22843184"
 * What is Digital Storytelling? Man on the Street Video**

http://d36learning20.wikispaces.com/DSResources
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Resources for Final Product - Digital Storytelling **