Thursday 3 March 2016

FutureSchools Recap Day 1

My first FutureSchools was definitely not a disappointment. Even better, is that there was a dedicated Young Learners Conference aimed at promoting technology in the early years. I have been to past conferences that have been geared to secondary (without disclosing this until you turn up, even though they promote K-12) or upper primary. I feel that early years education tends to be locked up, ignored, and placed into the 'too hard' basket. 


That said, I was geared up and ready for Day 1!

The first keynote for the Young Learners' Conference was Kari Stubbs, an international guest from BrainPop (Jr). She focused on filling up our virtual backpack with tools that can be used in our early years classrooms to promote meaningful learning through digital play. I love the idea of play in the early years but I have never really thought about it in terms of digital play.

Kari first introduced DIGITAL GAMES to promote play using the Game Up section of BrainPop. 

 This was followed by a whiz through CODING GAMES. Kari made reference to an Edutopia article outlining coding in Kindergarten, and it is my belief that if concepts are introduced early enough, the foundations of learning are strong and solid. I love the idea of Run Marco! an online and app coding game for kids. I can't wait to try this one in my classroom! Kari also discussed the ISTE Connect Standards Refresh. The standards now include Computational Thinking. I believe these standards should be added to the toolbox of twenty-first century skills our students need to build. 

Another tool to add to our backpack was PLAYFUL ASSESSMENT. Kari discussed a paper by Barry Fishman which looked at gaming in assessment. 

 Next, Kari focused on how DIGITAL CONTENT can lead to learning, followed by BLENDING PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL PLAY. She rolled out the usual amazing tools such as #BreakoutEDU, makerspaces and Google Expeditions. 




Now that our backpack was full, Kari briefly touched on research from the American Academy of Pediatrics about screen time. It is worthy to note that the guidelines call screen time "time". I'm not going to list their recommendations here, but the article is worth a read. 

 Following on from Kari was Paul Hamilton. He started off with this statement, which supported his keynote on turning teachers into innovators.
#AGREE!!!!! 

I found the following infographic shown by Paul very interesting as well:  

He also put up the good 'ol pencil metaphor. I can see many "erasers" in my life!!!!

 Paul also role-played the idea of a conversation with "Yes AND..." and "Yes BUT...". The power was with the person using the "Yes AND..." sentence. It is my belief that you need to look for the positive in everything. The "Yes BUT..." mentality is a very negative way of looking at possibilities. 
Paul is an amazing educator who found it important that students engage in creative tasks using technology rather consume content. He raised the question "What do you want technology to do with our students?"


I'm a big believer of creativity over content consumption. Go Paul!

 Paul also looked at encouraging students to be problem solvers when it comes to technology. 

Paul discussed ways that ScratchJr can be used to teach mathematical concepts. I love his coding rules as well. 


 Paul provided examples of using Hopscotch and Sphero in the classroom. I love his "Saving Superman" Sphero challenge.

 Finally, this graphic outlines why Creativity is so important. Personally, I see how creativity build resilience by building a risk-taking environment. 

 After morning tea, I had the pleasure of watching these guys in the RoboCup challenge. Go Bees!!!

After lunch I was involved in a TeachMeet in the PD Theatre. I presented my experiences of Google Draw in Mathematics.  
I loved Jackie Child's talk about using makerspaces with literature. I quickly shared the idea of squishy circuits with my Stage 3 colleagues studying electricity. Thanks to Brett for the flattering photo of me during my talk.
After the TeachMeet I had the wonderful coincidence of meeting Dan Day from Kinderloop. Kinderloop is an app I implemented a few months ago for my son's day care. It was great chatting to him face to face and learning about what's next on the agenda for Kinderloop. 

 For my session, I cannot stress how humbled and blessed I felt when I received so much positive feedback about Higher Order Thinking in K-2. 



I finished off the day with a keynote from the wonderful Jeannie Magiera on Courageous Edventures!
I was so engaged I didn't take notes but found some great tweets about her keynote presentation. Essentially, she is another great educator that challenges people who says that younger children cannot use technology. She says that the littles can do what the bigs can do. We need to FAIL (First Attempt In Learning) and SAIL (Second Attempt in Learning) with them. 

Yes, I am happy to share my crazy pills with anyone. I want them to catch my contagious disease of believing that little kids can learn just as well as the bigs. Can't wait for Day 2. 

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