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.

Main Session Workshops

One Hour PowerPoint: Ten Strategies for Improving Student Presentations

Being able to communicate effectively has never been more important…
This presentation provides participants with a set of classroom-tested strategies for dramatically improving the ability of students to produce high-quality presentation media. Ten practical strategies, which are based in brain biology and the principles of visual literacy, will be demonstrated. The session will be supported by the classroom materials (presentation, documents and script) that teachers can use to make a one-hour classroom presentation to their own students. Leave the session with strategies and materials you can use tomorrow to improve what you and your students do.

Developing Digital Learning Spaces: From Vision to Reality

Yes, emerging technologies have great potential. But how do we make them work in our schools today? This session explores the implementation of a multi-dimensional digital space with three components—a course space, a student-content creation space and a knowledge commons that supports both—and examines how they support the development of learning literacies. Come prepared to evaluate these three spaces and discuss the organizational readiness required to take them from conversation to implementation.

Creating Immersive Learning Environments with Mixed Media

This session provides participants with an understanding of how to design interactive and immersive learning environments by blending together a wide variety of different online media. Participants will have an opportunity to examine media rich resources that can be blended together through the use of embedding techniques. Participants will then learn how these resources, along with primary source content and more traditional online resources such as Web sites, can be combined together with contemporary learning platforms such as wikis and Google Earth to create dynamic learning environments for students.

Digital Storytelling 2.0: What’s Next?

You’ve started using digital storytelling with kids. You’ve had success. But what’s next, and how can you grow your use, or your program? This session explores the new tools, the new media and the new networks of digital storytelling that will enable students to further extend their voice, develop their message and engage in a lifetime of creation and contribution.