VITA-Learn - Full Conference description

VemontFest 2006 is the premiere educational technology conference in the State of Vermont. At this 21st year of the conference, we offer outstanding workshops for teachers, technology and school leaders. This year we return to our roots and offer most of our workshops by classroom teachers for classroom teachers. We have many exciting strands including Tools for Teachers, New & Interesting, Integration at Elementary, Middle & High School levels, Driven by Data, In the News, Integration: Leading the Way and several vendor presentations. We also have exciting pre-conference workshops on Wednesday including School of Photography where participants receive a 5 megapixel Olympus Digital Camera to take home as well as other resources including software.

Each attendee receives an Olympus FE 115 or better, 5.0 megapixel digital camera (worth $250) a detailed digital photography manual, lesson plan packet, and a free copy of Tool Factory Workshop (worth $199). You’ll be taking quality photos for yearbooks, newspapers, flyers, lab reports, worksheets, presentations, bulletin boards, and much more! We’ll cover the basics of digital photography. Edit your images, improve lighting, and eliminate red-eye. Come prepared to experiment!

This hands-on workshop is aimed at teachers who want to learn more about how visual organizers work and how to use them with their students. Using 30-day free trial software, you will learn how to use both Inspiration and Kidspiration visual organizing software. You will see how visual diagrams can reveal patterns, interrelationships and interdependencies. They also stimulate creative thinking. There are so many uses for them that you will explode with ideas. We will also discuss on-line visual organizers and free open source options. All you need for this workshop is your laptop and a willingness to explore.

Are you looking for a low cost relatively easy way to monitor your students’ progress? In this session you will be introduced to developing a database using Microsoft Excel and then use Pivot Charts and Pivot Tables to monitor student achievement using a wide variety of variables that include NECAP results, local assessments, and relevant demographic data. If time allows, you will also learn a simple group process that will allow you to use this data to lead discussions with administrators and teachers.

Although Apple and its products (including the I-Pod) have helped make Podcasting “hip and cool” – you don’t need a Macintosh or an I-Pod to create a Podcast.~ This workshop will provide participants with the training and opportunity to produce a podcast using free software available for Windows based machines. Microphones and digital voice recorders will be provided to capture audio.~ You’ll learn how to install, configure, and use Audacity (free) to create and edit your podcast.~ You will learn to publish the podcast to the web, add a link and free player to your web site, and finally create an XML file that will make your podcast available through I-Tunes. Participants should bring a Windows based laptop with administrative access to install Audacity and LAME mp3 encoder.~ All other software and~tools will be provided. ~

In this “hands on” session we will work with some open source applications: The Gimp (an alternative to PhotoShop), NVU (a web authoring alternative to FrontPage, Go Live, etc) and OpenOffice (an alternative to Microsoft Office). Other OpneSource Applications will be available to try as well such as Scribus (Desktop Publishing program) and Audacity (a music creation program). You can come with the programs already installed. They will also be available for installation at the workshop. If you are planning on using a Macintosh, make sure X11 is installed. All of this software runs on Windows, Macs, and Linux machines.

In this session, participants will be introduced to Tracker, a free video analysis software application. They will use the software and existing video clips to analyze the mathematics of a dropping ball, hockey pucks colliding, a pendulum swinging, etc. After investigating Tracker’s capabilities with existing videos, participants will create their own video(s), get the videos in a format compatible with Tracker, and analyze them with Tracker. The session will conclude with a discussion of possible applications of this software in the 7^th-12^th grade mathematics classroom.

NOTE: Participants must provide their own laptop with wireless access with and with administrative access to download and install software. Users must have THE LATEST version of java, and Quicktime 7 to run the software. Windows only

Five years ago, Maine initiated a statewide one to one project known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI). The project is moving forward with a new four-year lease of computers, software and professional development.

Bette Manchester, Director of Special Projects, will talk about the learning and critical elements of successful implementation at the state and school level. The focus will be on professional development and leadership.

Bette Manchester serves as Director of Special Projects for the Maine Department of Education with responsibility for integrating, focusing and aligning education technologies with state educational efforts at meeting the Guiding Principles and Maine Learning Results. Manchester has experience as a classroom teacher, special educator, director of special education, elementary and middle school principal. She presently serves on the Implementation Team of the Great Maine Schools Project, a statewide effort at high school reform. She is the recipient of educational awards, which include Maine Distinguished Principal of the Year, Milken Award, Principal of a National School of Excellence-the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, and the Governor’s Award in Education.

This session, designed for teachers, technology coordinators, and technology integrationists, is focused on describing and applying the core components of a support system for electronic portfolios.~ Topics will include: choosing an ePortfolio system, identifying partners, assessing technical needs, training methodologies, facilities, staffing, and connection to institutional assessment.~ The principles and components of this presentation have been applied at Plymouth State University where iWebfolio has been used as the ePortfolio tool of choice for the past three years.

"I'm Going to be on I-Tunes!" exclaimed Rebecca, a 5th grader, who is working with other Middle School students to produce podcast episodes published~on the school's website and through I-Tunes.~~ Students are using Inspiration and PowerPoint for storyboarding and planning, word processing for writing scripts,~and free tools for producing and publishing radio styled shows called Podcast.~ Student and teacher presenters will share their excitement,~technical how to's, lessons learned, and ideas for using podcasting in your school.

The Technology Grade Expectations and Performance Assessment Tasks are a part of our life! You need to incorporate these into your curriculum, but where do you start? There are tons of questions racing through your mind. What specifically are you responsible for? How do you make the integration meaningful and enhance you curriculum with technology? What resources are out there waiting to be used? How do you make sure students have plenty of practice opportunities before you assess? What tools can you use for assessment? How will the task work in your classroom with only a few computers? In this session your will find some helpful suggestions to these questions and other questions that really work in the classroom!

Developed by Stanford University, the CricketSat is a remote sensor circuit that allows for real-time data collection via a sensor that is then transmitted as a radio frequency. This low-cost system has multiple applications both in the air and on the ground and can easily be modified to meet individual needs. Educators can use the CricketSat in the classroom as a data collection system, allowing students the ability to directly study atmospheric conditions and as a tool for demonstrating scientific phenomena.

Using only a ball of clay and a digital camera, we’ll demonstrate how to make a clay character come to life.~ The instructor will~show how to shoot a sequence of digital photos, and then use them as the frames of a mini clay-animated sprite.~ Transfer images to the computer, and then assemble the frames into a looping cartoon.~ Free copy of MultiMedia Lab V (worth $99), instructive manual, plus a subscription to Elementary Zone.

System, VCAT (vcat.us) is a powerful web-based system that enables teachers and administrators to plan, administer, and assess student learning based specifically on a district’s curriculum and Vermont Standards. This presentation will include a full demonstration of this solution to all of your local assessment needs.

Looking for ways to motivate reluctant readers? Learn how we’re using an interactive whiteboard to differentiate and involve kindergarten and first grade emergent readers and writers during their literacy block.

You’ll see hands on demonstrations of the effectiveness of using an interactive whiteboard to promote early literacy with at-risk learners. Some of the things you’ll see are letter formation, cloze activities, word sorts, and games. Any of these activities can be adapted to other grades.

Open source software is growing at a tremendous rate. It opens up all kinds of possibilities that may not have existed before because of cost. The number, quality and kinds of applications continue to grow. Among the applications we will examine are, GIMP (a photo editor) OpenOffice 2.0 (An alternative to Microsoft Office) AbiWord (low overhead word processor), Scribus (Desktop Publishing), Dia (diagraming software), Firefox, and more.

Technology Performance Assessment Tasks can start at any grade. This presentation will focus on using Kidpix and Kidspiration and cover both Information Technology Grade Expectations and the curriculum areas in math, writing, science, and social studies in the primary grades.

Kids love to see themselves on the big screen. This project involves students with all aspects of creating a school newscast. Students of all interests and abilities can find their niche. The roles include reporters, interviewees, anchors, camera operators, script- writers, sign makers and iMovie editors. The focus is working together, trying new things and contributing to a product they can be proud of. You will see a first attempt that will allow you to imagine the possibilities.

With new demands around technology grade expectations, and the challenging schedules of most high school teachers, this process becomes even harder. In this workshop, based on a research study conducted at Milton High School, we will explore what core factors really need to be in place for successful technology integration to work. The data collected during this research was from the teachers and technology leaders in the high school. Research based ideas, model strategies and teacher recommendations will all be discussed. This workshop is great for school and technology leaders as it looks at the big picture strategies that schools can adopt to begin to successfully integrate technology at the high school level in a systemic way.

Introduce database skills at any level, elementary to high school.~ Using a comprehensive library of clip art, teachers will create their own databases, based on their current teaching themes. We’ll show you an effective way to introduce each step in creating databases. Finish with lively discussion on effective ways to introduce database skills at key grade levels.~ Receive a free copy of Tool Factory Workshop (worth $199), plus a subscription to Elementary Zone.

Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a nationwide non-profit organization, provides computerized adaptive assessments that adjust to each student’s achievement level. The tests, aligned to the instructional standards for the state of Vermont, provide immediate results, contain no time limits, and may be administered up to four times a year. Reports address individual student needs to facilitate differentiated instruction as well as provide growth and historical data. Our mission is to help ALL children learn.

We are living and working in an ever more evidence-based culture where stakeholders and colleagues want to see measurable results that support our practice. As emphasis is placed on technology integration there is a need for evidence to support best practice and promote successful integration models. This presentation aims at helping teachers, integration specialists, and administrators identify measurable outcomes and develop evidence that supports these outcomes.

The session will use an interactive dialogue to provide participants with models for collecting evidence to support technology as well as providing participants the opportunity to inform the presenter and each other on models and potential application from the field.

Media literacy education is a framework for analyzing, evaluating and creating media content that will enable students to develop critical thinking and media production skills necessary for living and learning in a global culture that is increasingly connected through a variety of media. Powerful images, words and sounds influence students as the amount of time they spend “media multi-tasking” continues to increase.

All 5th & 6^th grade students at Waitsfield School complete a media literacy program that addresses technology GE’s, is linked to curriculum, and views students as both consumers and producers of media. Participants in this presentation will discover skills, strategies and lesson plans useful in teaching media literacy.

It is recommended that assessment of Vermont students’ technology skills start as early as grade two. (Vermont Technology Grade Expectations). If assessment starts in grade 2, instruction must start as early as kindergarten. This presentation will focus on how K-2 teachers in one school district prepare students for assessment in the early grades.

Start with the name of a famous mathematician. This presentation lays out a successful strategy for integrating Math History into your classroom. The purpose of the math history project is to give students an opportunity to research and explore the life and contributions of a historical mathematician.~ Examples of student PowerPoint presentations that integrated graphing calculators, Smartboards, and internet links will demonstrate how far students can go with math history when given the opportunity.

Teacher websites come in all sizes and shapes. This workshop will show you how one teacher utilizes his website to~provide students with teacher-created, web-based solution guides for chemistry and physics problems using common office tools.~Learn how concept mapping is tightly integrated in advanced science curriculum to foster knowledge construction. Gain insight into the use of~physics simulations via SmartBoard technology (as time allows).

Come to this rowdy seminar and find out what you never discovered about your digital cameras!~Learn creative tips when shooing sports, panorama, zoom and super-macro. Explore a photographic library and build a~project~that includes narration and sound effects. Use a paint program smudge out a frame, stamp down a border. Learn how to procure digital cameras through training budgets and get strategies for district-wide training. Free software (worth $199), great manual.

Join us for an exciting session featuring the latest products and technology directions for education from Apple Computer. The session will be loaded with exciting demonstrations and will have plenty of time for questions and answer.~

You can have the classroom library, organizing web searches (for students and colleagues), grade book, assessments, and records all at the touch of your keyboard. The time spent creating these tools is worth the payoff – no more lost index cards, no crunch time for calculating grades, few file drawers needed are just some of the benefits of these tools.

Should wolves be allowed to resettle in Vermont? Does listening to music while studying affect learning? What places in Vermont are most interesting to children? What do your students really want to know? Learn about ways to bring excitement to your classroom by engaging your students using inquiry-based learning strategies and technology resources and still meet grade expectations and standards. Make their learning and your teaching meaningful, memorable and fun.

Who were the men Vermont sent into the American Civil War?~ The answer is just a click and a step away. Join my fifth and sixth graders as we visit gravesites and websites to learn more about whom we sent and why they went.

The objective of this presentation is to provide educators and administrators an opportunity to effectively communicate curriculum, school events, coursework, and other germane information through their school’s or district website. Individuals will observe how to use the necessary tools to create effective WebPages and then create WebPages that demonstrate proficiency in design, graphics, and usable information. This will include understanding and appreciation of what makes an effective webpage. The presentation covers topics ranging from physical tool utilization (i.e. digital photos, scanners and video), to software utilization, Microsoft Word, FrontPage, Dreamweaver Adobe Reader/ Writer, HTML/ web editors, graphic/ animation creation and web shareware.

If you love printed projects, then this is the seminar for you! Learn how to combine your favorite digital photos with the school’s logo to create a rousing banner for the lobby or a classroom newsletter. Experiment with paint tools that emulate felt tip, water color and pastels. Attendees receive a comprehensive lesson plan packet, a free subscription to Elementary Zone, plus a free copy of Fresco or Tool Factory Workshop (worth $199).

The best way to record music on a Mac is now the best way to record podcasts. Podcasting in GarageBand 3 puts you in the control room of your own full-featured radio station. And new iWeb integration gets your voice on the Internet in minutes.~ This session provides an in depth review of pod casting, focusing on making enhanced pod casts with i-life 06. We will also share some the innovative pod casts being produced in Vermont Schools.

Get ready to explore some of the most amazing technology innovations for education. We’ll start with a standard digital camera to explore super-macro, and panorama modes and demonstrate claymation shooting tips. We’ll employ a screen reader to speak the text in English or Spanish then using a standard microphone we’ll use our voices to control the movement of characters in a game. Free copy of MultiMedia Lab V (worth $99), and subscription to Elementary Zone for all who attend.

Heather Chirtea is the president of Tool Factory and is determined to, “Make a difference in Education”. As the co-author of Digital Photography for Educators, she conducts over 400 seminars annually. She’s written over 5,000 standardized test questions, manages the software development for Tool Factory, and has set up a $50,000 grant program for educators. Heather strongly supports the public school where her twins attend.

In this session you will be introduced to how a function of Microsoft Excel, Pivot Charts and Pivot Tables, has been used in Milton to provide an effective, low cost solution for using data to improve student achievement. In a time when it is important to find tools that can be easily used by districts, administrators, and teachers, here is one way that one district has been able to do it.

Join this presentation by the Vermont Department of Education concerning the ongoing development of two online tools: Teachers' Workplace (TWP) and Riverdeep Learning Village (RLV). TWP is an online Mentoring and Collaboration tool that has been piloted broadly in Vermont. It is being rolled out more broadly this fall. RLV is an educational resource clearinghouse that is being piloted now. It will become THE center for instructional and assessment resources for Vermont. Both tools will be available, free, to all active Vermont educators.

Send your students on a virtual class trip to China and beyond through a CultureQuest. In this session you will experience a China CultureQuest and learn how to easily create your own cultural adventure to any country. See how to provide a rich multi-cultural experience for your students through a student-centered, technology challenge. This model can be easily accommodated for other destinations and grade levels.

This workshop will give teachers an overview of how you can use technology to create an archive of your local history. Using various resources including local and state historical societies, research librarians, old newspapers, and online archives, we will discuss ways we help students find the answers to local history mysteries. You will also see some of the teaching tools we've created to support the third grade study of the history of Fair Haven and West Haven.

Taken a good look at the Andromeda Galaxy lately?~ How about photographing the stunning Orion Nebula some 1,500 light years from our pale blue planet.~~ Students take their pick from these celestial objects - or from the likes of star clusters, galaxies, planets, and even our Moon and Sun -~ to photograph, research, and present PowerPoint multimedia at "star parties".~ Following a brief iMovie presentation on the history of the

Learn how creative technologies can engage a variety of learners in high-level projects. Explore student-created examples of multimedia, video, imaging, and animation that showcase the power of authentic work with technology. Come explore a variety of student-created projects, including clay animation announcements, video biographies, and more. See how these projects were created and what resources are necessary. Discuss obstacles to implementation and learn strategies for integrating creative technology projects across subject areas and grade levels.

Using an inquiry-based approach to teaching everything from environmental sciences and mathematics to social studies and literature, participants will explore models created with STELLA Systems Thinking Software. See how Systems Thinking and STELLA software help to create environments whereby students can learn how things work by doing and seeing. STELLA models inspire the exciting "ah-ha" moments of learning by offering students the opportunity to as "what if" and watch what happens.

This session uses the lens of Doug Reeves, Vicki Bernhardt and other researchers to demonstrate the capacity for using data from the Common District Model (CDM) and the Education Data Warehouse (EDW). Local implementation of the CDM will be discussed as well as warehouse use during action planning.

Podcasting-a term combining the words IPod and Broadcasting-refers to a specific way for someone to create content and then to deliver that content as a broadcast. Others subscribe to the broadcast and receive new content when it is created. Recently, this technology has begun to offer new opportunities for educators to reach students. Teachers can create curriculum and send it directly to students' MP3 players.

Students can then listen to homework, assignments, lectures or notes at any time or place. We will be highlighting Podcasting and Blogging using Windows based programs. We will be sharing how we have used Podcasts in our K-8 school system. The Blogging tool we will focus on will be Classblogmeister. A middle school teacher has established a Blog for students to share their writing pieces. She will be sharing her experiences using it over the past 9 months. This workshop will touch on the basics of Podcasting and Blogging.

Students in Irasburg Vermont know a lot about whales! Join Sean as he walks you through a unit he did with 6^th and 7^th grade students on Whales. Students utilized the web and located video and audio clips as well as solid research on a variety of whales. Their mission was to learn as much as they could before going on a real Whale Watch off the coast of Massachusetts. The students developed multimedia presentations prior to their trip, then using a Webquest after their return put some inquiry-based learning to use in answering an essential question about the hunting of Bowhead whales. The students learned a lot, and Mr. Wallace learned even more. Share his experience in this informative presentation. Sean Wallace is involved in the Vermont One to One Computing project. Any classroom teacher can utilize his experience. Join him!

This workshop will focus on integrating TinkerPlots Database software into a middle grades writing program. “Writing to persuade” has long been a Vermont Portfolio assignment. Matt Lutz used his students’ complaints about getting too much homework as the springboard into a larger discussion about middle level students’ use of time. What evolved out of the discussions was a survey of 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade students at the Charlotte Central School. The data was entered into TinkerPlots and the resulting graphs were used to support student portfolio writing. It isn’t surprising that the original complaint about homework faded and many other aspects about students’ time use became the focus of the writing.

In this workshop, we will show how to use TinkerPlots and share our experiences with the software. We have been very impressed with the straight-forward design that gets students working with data quickly and easily. TinkerPlots helps fill the Vermont Technology Grade Expectation for students to learn to effectively use database software.

Japanese Knotweed is a bad, bad plant; more specifically, it is an exotic invasive plant species that crowds out native vegetation on riverbanks in Vermont. This presentation tells the story of how Main Street Middle School students learned to use GPS units and arcGIS software to survey Japanese Knotweed populations in Montpelier. During the project, students worked with Montpelier's planning office to create maps and with Montpelier's parks department to go out and stomp Knotweed. Students also raised public awareness with Knotweed raps, Knotweed podcasts, Knotweed teach-ins at other schools, and even a Knotweed cookbook.

~The use of ‘streaming’ digital video to support web-based learning resources is rapidly becoming an attractive and viable option for many within school systems.~ School systems are now utilizing the web as a medium to educate students and provide additional course materials to assist those students in need of additional help.~ This workshop will take you through the stages of developing and delivering online presentations or ‘virtual classes’ combining digital video, PowerPoint slides and other web elements.~ We will share many examples and discuss the different technologies being used in the classroom to create and deliver web based course materials.

In multiple content areas. This session will also include a tour of curriculum and assessments available at vt.vcat.us, the free public database maintained by Effective Assessment. All systems examined use the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Tool (vcat.us) for curriculum delivery, data collection, and report generation.

NECAP, NCLB, VDC, AYP, CIRS, DRA, LCAP, POA, PASS, LEP, SES, IEP, and, for some of us, LSMFT...if you know what these are, you need to come to this workshop. Data mining, warehouses, student information systems, data teams, classroom assessment systems...how to make sense of it? In this session you will learn a framework for understanding data and data systems at a classroom, school, and supervisory union level. Includes recommendations from the 2006 Vermont DOE report, lessons from current readings, and practical steps you can implement.

Chittenden East Supervisory Union is developing a K – 12 technology curriculum that is systematic, integrated into the existing core curriculum via performance tasks and is accountable in an on-line database. Join us in discussing one district’s successes and tribulations of tackling its K - 8 technology curriculum development and integration, and the possibilities for its future 9 – 12 technology curriculum.

Using various technology tools (WebQuests, digital video cameras and editing software, digital sound recordings) 8^th graders at Hartford Memorial Middle School totally immersed themselves into the research and development of life in the 18_th century. As a final product they created 2-3 minute digital video of A Day in the Life of a Colonial American.~ The DVD included re-enactments of trades and lifestyles of the times.

Teresa Piette and Jeff Coburn will share strategies for integrating technology into the middle grades language arts classroom including an innovative use of Inspiration, Inspiration notebooks, and MSWord in the Writing Process. Teresa is also employing book discussions within a Moodle virtual classroom environment, and the use of multimedia presentations with her poetry students. While Teresa is one of the teachers currently involved in the Vermont One to One Computing Project, her experiences will show all teachers how to better utilize inquiry-based learning and web-based materials in any classroom.

The workshop will illustrate how the LOGO learning environment supports such diverse curriculum areas as writing, the visual arts, music, mathematics, computer science, simple and complex machines, and robotics, not to mention an authentic place to teach to the technology GEs. Young students as well as older students benefit from exploring LOGO. Using LOGO can be motivating for academically challenged students as well as academically gifted students. LOGO is a versatile educational tool in a constructivist teacher’s toolbox. LOGO can be a valuable part of a project-based classroom, or as a learning center, or as a means to differentiate instruction.

Pricing, policies, benefits, even the way software is deployed affect your budget, and your teachers' time and efforts. Which software includes work at home privileges (Microsoft has DIFFERENT policies in place- beware!), when is it better to jump to the next tier (example: once you need more than 82 licenses of Inspiration, buy 100...it's cheaper! - Symantec, Adobe, Macromedia, and many more publishers have similar licensing quirks. Which titles are compliant on OSX 10.1 - 10.4...these are 4 separate operating systems. Which publishers are addressing Rosetta and the intel Mac? How has

Microsoft Wizard and the new Mac operating system affected publisher's decisions. Expert guidance on licensing how tos and don'ts will be addressed. All this and MUCH more will be covered. A full description of programs compliant to the newest systems (and older ones as well) plus links for free product and downloads will be provided, CURRENT PROMOTIONS, as well as LOTS of full demo cds and handouts. Don't miss this very popular session. Come ready to ask questions, get expert advice, and leave feeling as if you're a bit wiser on a very tricky subject.