• Treat attending the conference like a job – there were enough presentations and events (and the need to reflect on all the things happening) to be busy from the start to the end of the day
• But have fun – my favorite memories were interacting with colleagues from my program all around the conference
• Forget about having a normal work week – I tried to Skype into a meeting at MSU, and it didn’t work not because I was not physically there, but because I was in between sessions and thinking about things related to the conference
• This is obvious, but some quick notes I took went a long way to helping me reflect – I’ll take more next time
• Bring friends – I think a large reason I had so much fun was my EPET colleagues, and I only wish a few more could have come

Photo from Dr. Punya Mishra (http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2013/04/01/site2013-new-orleans-2/)

Tuesday, March 26th

• 10:15 – 12:30 (Bayside C): Breaking Disciplinary Boundaries in 21st Century Learning: Creative Teaching with Digital Technologies: Part I, Punya Mishra, Chris Fahnoe, Danah Henriksen, Kristen Kereluik, Mike DeSchryver, Sean Leahy, Laura Terry, and Leigh Graves Wolf

• 12:30 PM (TBA), TPACK SIG meeting (Best TPACK-Related research Chris Fahnoe & Punya Mishra)

• 1:30 – 3:45 pm (Bayside C): Action-Oriented Research: News Paradigms for Research Innovation in Hybrid Graduate Education Environments, Aroutis Foster

• 2:45 pm (Bayside B). Paper presentation, K-12 online and blended teacher certifications: Striking a balance between policy and proficiency. Kristen DeBruler and Joe Freidhoff.

• 4:00 pm (Grand Ballroom E): Training Teachers for Classroom Technology Integration: Changing Times, Changing Needs, Angel Kymes, Susan Stansberry, and Penny Thompson

Wednesday, March 27th

• 8:45 am (After Keynote): SITE 2013 Outstanding Paper Award, Chris Fahnoe and Punya Mishra

• 10:35 am (Grand Couteau): Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Development of Turkish Pre-service Teachers of English, Punya Mishra

• 12:10 pm (Oak Alley): The Evolution of an Exceptional Online Educational Technology Course for Pre-Service Teachers, Chris Shaltry, Danah Henriksen, and Min Lun Wu

• 1:30 pm (Salon 817): Do 21st Century Learning Environments Support Self-Directed Learning? Middle School Students’ Response to an Intentionally Designed Learning Environment, Chris Fahnoe and Punya Mishra

• 1:30 pm (Bayside C): Panel on development of future faculty: Building comprehensive digital media and learning programs with teachers. Matthew Boyer

• 2:45 – 5:00 pm (Grand Ballroom A): The Hitchhikers Guide to Hybrid and Online Doctoral Programs: Part 1, Punya Mishra, Danah Henriksen, Matthew Koehler, Andrea Zellner, Robin Dickson, and Patrick Dickson

• 6:00 pm: EPET Dinner at Red Fish Grill, All

Thursday, March 28th

• 10:15 am (Southdown): Empowering teachers toward efficacious adoption of game-based learning, Mamta Shah, Aroutis Foster, and Sagit Betser

• 11:30 am (Nottoway): Using Authentic Tasks to Support Technology Integration, Kathryn Dirkin

• 11:30 am (Grand Ballroom C): Creating a RISK FREE Environment for Preservice Teachers Learning to Teach with Technology, Susan Stansberry, Penny Thompson, and Angel Kymes

• 1:50 pm (Bayside A): Is Social Annotation an Effective Tool for Peer Assessment? Kun Li, Fei Gao, and Jamie Smith.

• 2:10 pm (Bayside A): Using Social Annotation to Foster Collaborative Learning. Tian Luo, Fei Gao, and Yanyan Sun.

• 5:15 pm (Southdown): Review of Mobile Device Use Policies in Public High Schools, Joshua Rosenberg

• 5:35 pm (Grand Ballroom E): Enhancing Interactive Communication in an Asynchronous Online Class, Kari Richards and Min Lun Wu

Friday, March 29th

• 11:30 am (Bayside B): Shared Video Media: A New Environment to Support Peer Feedback in Second Language Learning.Yanyan Sun, Jia Yu, and Fei Gao.

• 12:10 pm (Grand Couteau): Pedagogy and Situational Creativity in Synchronous Hybrid Learning: Descriptions of Three Models, William Cain and Danah Henriksen

• 1:30 pm (Salon 817): Learning Using Smartphones: Analyzing What Current Learners Think and Do, Sandra Sawaya

   

In previous posts, I wrote about “Playing (and working) well with others” and more generally about “Where we work.” I wrote these because my cohort and other  colleagues in EPET have been a great source of friendship.

Until recently, however, I was not friends with any of the hybrid EPET students. It turns out this was a mistake, and it has fortunately been remedied.

Both hybrid and face to face students have different experiences. The more I have discussed my experience with those in the hybrid program, and have heard my cohort and other face to face students engaging in similar conversations, the more I see our differences as a strength.

In fact, I think this is a huge source of strength of and opportunity for our program in general. Anyhow, I am in my first “hybrid” class this semester, CEP 901B. This class specifically and the hybrid program in general make me reflect on the unique and great position in which we find ourselves. There is a lot of opportunity in this area, and just beginning to tap into the potential of friendship and collaboration with hybrid students is really exciting.

Two colleagues described a process of writing a paper together.  First, they divvy up different parts of the paper.  After they write their sections, they edit one-anothers work, then edit the paper as a whole.  I like this process, and feel myself drawn to it – I want to stick with and impose with process (or a related, similar process) to all of my collaboration.

But, each situation is different.  And this sensation – clinging to one way of working with others – is a reflection, I believe, of my uncertainty about the process.  Because of my uncertainty, I want this to work!  So, this is also a question for us idea players.  How do you work (“play”) with others in graduate school?

I read a great blog post last week, “Why we (still) believe in working remotely” from a company called StackExchange, which discusses strategies for and benefits of the practice. Here’s an excerpt:

Stack Exchange now employs 75 people, roughly evenly split between sales (and sales ops and marketing) and product (development, ops, design, community management). The product side is where our remote working happens: we have 16 full-time remote and 18 in-office developers, sysadmins, designers, and community managers. So we are very much a hybrid team, which I’ve come to believe is the best of both worlds.

The post includes super-useful sections on “What we’ve learned” and “How we do it” which are very relevant to us as graduate students. Part of adjusting to graduate school for me is deciding where to work – like many graduate students I was allocated an office, but I didn’t use it much – I didn’t use it last semester, at all, actually. I worked in the graduate student lounge, at the conference table on the 5th floor, outside in the library, at Sparty’s or another coffee shop, or at home, in decreasing order of my productivity.

Anyhow, this semester, and I wanted to be more productive, somehow. I felt working from home wasn’t doing the trick. I was able to make my office more accommodating to work, and I’ve benefited from having a place in Erickson to call mine (and to leave my stuff). But back to the great blog post – I think there are many benefits to working remotely. StackExchange has explored a number of ways to work remotely better. I’ve found, in a bit of a different direction from which both my personal trajectory from classroom to graduate student and a general trajectory toward more remote working, that using my office has helped my productivity.

Anyway, head over to the StackExchange post for more ideas.

I am compelled as I learn more generally about learning theories.  I am drawn to the situative perspective, which describes how thinking develops socially, and that how knowledge is used is tied to how knowledge is learned.  It is important to learn in meaningful ways that affect our lives.  I think connectivism and the situative perspective are related, and am interested in exploring their relationship by participating in #etmooc.

By way of introducing myself (that’s the first assignment, along with connecting one’s blog to the blog role – note the tag #etmooc to identify this post to the course’s blog aggregator), I’m an online teacher for two awesome courses and a student in the educational psychology and educational technology (aka EPET) PhD program at Michigan State University.

I was a high school biology teacher and soccer coach before joining EPET.  I’m fascinated by educational technology – and technology – and more recently have extended that interest to educational psychology.  I also like soccer refereeing, science, biking, running, and am cultivating a budding interest in sustainability and environmentalism.  And if I could become expert in one thing, it would be programming computers.

By the way, it’s not too late to join up – check it out if you’re interested.

What’s RSS and Google Reader?  See this post.

2012 Was Hottest Year Ever in U.S.

Last night, I thought about both my and our collective inaction in the face of climate change.

I attended Warren Wilson College, a very liberal college, for three years.  I transferred to the University of North Carolina Asheville, still liberal, though much less than Warren Wilson.  I taught high school and am now in graduate school at Michigan State University.  My personal trajectory has been from the far left of the political and social spectrum (Warren Wilson College) to rather mainstream (Michigan State University).

I recognized that my views toward the climate are tied to my views toward liberalism.  It’s hard to say, “I’m an environmentalist” because that view is, collectively, the same as saying “I’m a liberal.”

I hesitate to say that because it doesn’t match my self-image.  I’m not a greenie.

It’s time to separate the individual and collective.  Protecting the environment is our priority, regardless of how we each feel about liberalism.  I think there’s no time other than now to start – so I’m starting today.  The enormity of what to do individually and collectively shouldn’t stop us from doing what small things we can.

Changing my Twitter and Facebook profiles to identify with making environmentalism a priority won’t do a thing, collectively, but I can’t imagine a better place to start.

The zen-like title of this post comes from Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson.

I read it over break, after *accidentally* taking a copy from my family.  There is much to learn from this detailed, interesting, rich book, but when someone asked me what I learned, I responded with one thing.

What someone decides not to do is important.  To Jobs, what he didn’t do defined his simple, minimalist personal and professional style.

An anecdote.  When Jobs arrived at Apple from his first departure, he cut programs for software and hardware, like a Palm Pilot-like device with a stylus.  He told his team, we’re going to make a laptop and desktop, with a consumer and professional version of each.  That’s all.

• Ran a 1:34 half-marathon in Charleston
• Had a great article published in the Shelby Star
• Attended the 2012 National Science Teachers Conference 
• Ran my first marathon in Nashville
• Graduated from the Master of Arts in Education at Michigan State University
• Proposed to the love of my life, Katie!!!
• Traveled to Singapore and Thailand
• Began PhD school
• Learned slowly in PhD school – and that’s a good thing
• Spending the holidays and more time with my wonderful parents and brother

Some things which were challenging:

• Moving from North Carolina, where Katie grew up and I lived for seven years
• Missing science: teaching, learning, and loving the subject I studied for years
• Leaving friends in North Carolina, who now feel like family