November Learning: Expanding the Boundaries of Learning

David Jakes

About David Jakes
Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Glenbrook South High School, Glenview, IL

David Jakes has spent twenty four years in education as a teacher, staff developer and technology coordinator. From his first Macintosh Classic to his current tablet PC, he has witnessed firsthand the changes in education that educational technology have empowered. Jakes shares this knowledge as a frequent speaker at technology conferences across the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe and most recently, China. His interests in educational technology include digital storytelling, visual literacy and developing online communities of learning through blogging, wiki and other connective technologies. He currently maintains his Website, Jakesonline.org and a blog, The Strength of Weak Ties — both dedicated to exploring and improving the use of technology in education.

Pre-conference Session

Capturing Stories, Capturing Lives: An Introduction to Digital Storytelling

See examples of amazing student products and learn how a digital story is created and assessed. Digital storytelling is the process of capturing those stories, first by writing, and then by making the story come alive by adding powerful multimedia elements such as voice, video, imagery and music. All participants will have the opportunity to build and share their own digital story.

Note: This session is cross-platform. Participants are asked to come to the session with a laptop computer with either iMovie or Photostory 3 already installed.

Participants will be able to:

• Describe the components of a digital story.
• List the components of the process required to build a digital story.
• Use a storyboard to plan their digital story.
• Locate imagery and music resources online to use in their digital story.
• Build a digital story with iMovie (Mac) or Photostory 3 (PC).
• Discuss copyright and intellectual property rights as they apply to digital storytelling.
• Describe how to evaluate a digital story, using the Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling from the Center for Digital Storytelling.
• Explain how the process of digital storytelling meets recognized state and national standards.

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Main Session Workshops

Life on the Screen

As our personal and professional lives become more and more engaged in the digital, how do we utilize connective technologies to support our learning, our work and our lives? This session explores methodologies that can be used to creatively and consciously manage and enrich our online experiences. We will explore a variety of tools and their affordances, and we will see how mobile devices can serve as a platform for connecting and learning. Leave the session with an understanding of new tools, a plan for scaffolding these tools accordingly and a developing perspective about how to learn and help others learn online.

140 Characters and Beyond: Extending Your Use of Twitter

Do you want to know what I had for breakfast? How bad traffic is in Chicago rush hour? Of course not! But by now, you have probably have had a chance to try out Twitter and engage in the actual conversations that can help you become an active member of an always-on learning network. This session will help you extend and add value to your Twitter experience by demonstrating a variety of new Twitter tools that can serve to create a more comprehensive and capable platform for learning. Leave the session with an understanding of how to enlarge the affordances of Twitter and how to make it an essential part of your practice.

Creating a Digital Footprint: What Educators Need to Know

Our kids produce a wide variety of media, in a wide variety of venues. While some of this creation occurs at school, most is created beyond the brick and mortar experience of school. Given this, how can we proactively help students understand that their digital footprint is more than Facebook and what Google returns on a search? This session will explore the importance of a digital footprint, what the components of a successful footprint are and how schools can assist students in the development of a positive digital representation of themselves.