In early November I had the privilege of attending the Vermont Fest (a 2 day technology festival).  There were break out sessions, a keynote speaker, the "un-convention" sessions, and opportunities to talk one on one and in small groups with experts in different fields.  What I decided to share will be my notes from the 3 sessions I felt were the most useful.

Using Open Educational Resources:An Introduction to Gooru Learning

Opening up choices for students and professional development for teachers

Curriculum Development (takes years to write and roll out)

   Design-develop-implement-monitor-evaluate-renew...repeat cycle

   Compliance vs Fidelity

   Look up Act 46 in Vermont (8 years to create)

   Too slow (18-24 months per subject area)

   Too cumbersome for current context (CCSS, other Standards)

   Expensive

   Development and implementation (look at the gaps)

   Inflexible (standards based vs personalized education)

Open Development Model

   Build curriculum from the ground up (like open source software)

   Connect teachers across schools in a common development platform

   Standards used as a "tagging" scheme

   Closes gab between curriculum design and implementation

   Leverages internet based content

   Minimizes reinventing the development wheel in each building or district

   Serves to expand the curriculum

   Educators own it

Hewlett Foundation- OER

OER Adoption

   Curriculum materials developed using public tax dollars should be licensed for open use (Creative  

   Commons)

   Less expensive to develop

  Better knowledge sharing and development

   Supports personalized learning in depended learning

   Up to date (curriculum and textbook)

   High quality instructional materials to all students

   State and federal policies promoting adoption

In Vermont

   Curriculum development shifting to Cloud based tools

   oercommons.org.  Curriki

   LMS usage increasing

   Connection between external clod based resources and internal local systems (LMS)

   Connect state and regional work (proficiency based learning)

   learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)-a standard for integrating web based tools

LTI

Gooru Learning...look at the California School District

Haiku Learning

Gooru

   You can start fresh or use somebody's presentation

   Slides, videos, pictures,etc

   Custom collections- your content you saved and manage learning, see progress and analytics, etc

Sharing a cMashing it up

   Connects educators I a single ecosystem

   Common communication system and collaboration

   Connecting ecosystems (connecting between districts and state)

   Leveraging content from outside state (use from other states, districts, countries, etc)

   LMS-learning management systems

Hunters/Gatherers of information, lessons, materials, sources, textbooks, etc.

   Collective borrowing/borrowers

   Selective borrowing/borrowers

Federal Government

   OER- you create something for education using federal tax money this will become part of OER (you 

    receive credit)

 We need to look into OER and how schools in CT can support each other.

Overhauling Tired Learning Spaces-A Collaborative Conversation

Look up VITA Learn

Innovative schools changed their work spaces.  (Desks facing forward and teacher desk facing front-no innovation)

   Look at lighting, room color, flooring, etc.

The worse consequence of your best idea

Need to shift your paradigm

Look up Burr and Burton School...Reggio Amilla education Italy

Look up student desks at UConn...what are they called and how much ?  Does UConn help schools purchase chairs?  Grant? Webpage funding?

   School Node Chair with Casters Classroom...the chairs I want

   Can we change the flooring?  Can we change the lighting?  Can we change the paint?  Can we purchase  

    paint?

   paletton.com . Look up site for colors and matching colors.

(Civics and Int Stud- working together, representatives, compromise, vote, debates, elaboration, critical thinking, )

High Tech High School California..design and colors..minimalist

bsdvt.org or wsesu.net

As educators we need to look at the classroom, how it is arranged, and the psychology behind this.  All of this impacts the level of learning in the classroom.

Node Chairs gives you the ability to move chairs into any configuration you and your students would like (at any moment with limited disruptions and complications)

Level Up with Games Based Learning...Engaging students using game based learning and gamification

Goosechase Adventure-digital scavenger hunt with Leadership board (10 teams for free)

7 Principals of Game Like Learning (quest to learn...high school in New York)

   Everyone is a participant

   Failure is re framed as iteration

   Everything is interconnected

   Learning by doing

   Feedback is immediate and ongoing

   Challenge is constant

   Learning feels like play

Essential Play

   People develop problem solving skills, critical thinking, and social skills

   Immersive games enhance these three skills

   How can teachers harness immersive play?  (Immediate feedback)

   Game experience-create or use a game to support students In learning the concepts associated with      probability

   Game, game like, and gamification

Game design

  Start small, redacted, get fancy.  Repeat.

   Create a game using paper, a die, markers, and a dinosaur.

   Game play, board, rules, etc can be modified

   Write code for the game later

Classcraft

   Gamified and game like

Gamified

  Immediate feedback

   Layers over any content area

   Use it anywhere

   Experience feels like play

  Randomness

  Does not replace your classroom

   Time needs to be set aside

   Keep up with rewards or punishments

  Rejection and obsession

  Connecting to academics

Institute of Play (school)

   Print and play games

  

Kahoot

Quizizz

Someday-identity/beyond borders (teacher created)

   In Wiks and Google form

After returning I had my International Studies classes create games, with limited supplies.  We were learning about cooperation, collaboration, and competition.  They had several days to work in groups.  They created the games, rules, cards, money, board, etc.  After 3 days they played their game and one other group's game.  They provided feedback to each other.  They loved this idea and could easily describe how the concepts of cooperation, collaboration, and competition were embedded throughout this lesson.  (These 3 concepts will be part of the underlining themes throughout the year).

As for my classroom I am looking into seeing how I can obtain funding for the Node chairs and possibly paint.  I would like my classes to come up with designs about how the room should look and feel.  This would change the dynamics of the room.  Having the ability to have a variety of seating arrangements in the classroom appeals to me and my students.

 I am looking into open educational resources.  This concept appeals to me.  If all of the teachers in one content area (high school Social Studies) worked collaboratively on a grade specific course we could share the best of all of your work.  This could create a new curriculum with input from every teacher.  We could see what other states are using and modify this to meet our curricular needs.  Think of how powerful this could become.