ITD TALKS: Social Media for School Districts

Anthony Rotolo, Social Media Strategist
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
Social Media for School Districts
January 18, 2012, 12:00 - 3:00
CNYRIC, Rodax 8

Social media are changing how we share information and interact with private and public organizations. What can school districts learn from the business and nonprofit world about leveraging these tools to build a community of interest and support?

Please join us for a great opportunity to meet with our keynote speaker and network with other curriculum and technology leaders! Register here.

Anthony Rotolo is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, where he specializes in Social Media and the study of real-time information. His course, “Social Media in the Enterprise”, addresses the changing expectations of information users and how businesses and organizations of all sizes can leverage social media to achieve strategic goals. This course at the Syracuse University iSchool leverages real-time social media to deliver a fast-paced, hands on experience and has developed its own online community of learners, practitioners and experts who join the class each week via Twitter. In 2009, Rotolo was appointed Syracuse University’s Social Media Strategist, which was the first position of its kind at the university. In this role, he led a team of staff and students to develop and implement a strategy that established Syracuse as a leader in the use of social media among its peers in higher education. Less than one year later, Klout, an organization that ranks online influence, rated Syracuse as the second-most influential college in social media, behind first-place Stanford and ahead of third-place Harvard. Rotolo has received the Faculty of the Year Award (2009, SU iSchool), as well as the Web-based Information Science Education Consortium’s Excellence in Online Education Award (2009). In 2011, Rotolo was awarded “Young Technologist of the Year” by the Technology Alliance of Central New York. Rotolo is also a cofounder of enormo.us, a creative agency that specializes in social media consulting, interactive design, digital video and animation. He has been a contributing writer for Mashable, SocialFresh, PRSA Tactics, the Syracuse Post-Standard, and other widely read publications and blogs. He has also been featured in articles in the New York Times, ABC News and other news outlets. Professor Rotolo recently completed a speaking tour titled, “Social Media 101: Join the Conversation,” which visited thirteen cities nationwide. Attendees are invited to strategize on how social media can be used to achieve professional and personal goals.

ITD TALKS: 20 Lessons from 20 Years of 1:1 Computing

Dr. Gary Stager, Ph.D.
Executive Director: The Constructivist Consortium
20 Lessons from 20 Years of 1:1 Computing
November 17, 2011, 8:00 – 12:30
CNYRIC, Rodax 8

No educator has more experience leading professional development in as many 1:1 schools as Dr. Gary Stager. During this keynote, Gary will reflect upon lessons learned in the twenty years since he worked with the world's first laptop schools (1990). Twenty pivotal lessons will be shared with video-based examples and recommendations for sustaining innovation. This session focuses on teaching, learning, curriculum, planning, policy, leadership, and implementation issues.

Please join us for a great opportunity to meet with our keynote speaker and network with other curriculum and technology leaders! Register here.

Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, is the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. Since 1982, Gary has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world's first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, was a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab's Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's Learning Team. Stager's doctoral research involved working with longtime colleague, Dr. Seymour Papert, on the creation a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens. This work documented Papert's most-recent institutional research project. Gary's recent work has included teaching and mentoring some of Australia's "most troubled" public schools, launching 1:1 computing in a Korean International School beginning in the first grade, media appearances in Peru and leading a middle school S.T.E.M. project in Brooklyn. He was a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University, Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine and Founding Editor of The Pulse: Education's Place for Debate. His advocacy on behalf of creativity, computing and children led to the creation of the Constructivist Consortium and the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute.

Model Schools TIES

Model Schools Technology Integration Exchange Sessions (TIES) provides a forum for instructional technology specialists in the Central New York region to share best-practices for technology integration tools and teaching strategies with the goal of transforming teaching to meet the needs of 21st century learners.

The target audience includes teachers, teaching assistants, and/or administrators who are charged with supporting a district’s technology integration goals. The group will share technology tools, teaching strategies, and innovative approaches to technology integration. Instructional Technologists will, in turn, help support teachers’ curricular initiatives through technology integration.

The Model Schools Coordinator at the CNYRIC will schedule and publicize face-to-face meetings (video conferencing option available) and will establish a wiki website and listserv to facilitate communication among a professional learning community of technology integration experts throughout the region.

Contact the Model Schools Coordinator to join:

Wiki Website: http://modelschoolscnyric.pbworks.com

The establishment of Model Schools TIES offers an effective professional development model whereby technology tools and strategies are shared among instructional technologists throughout the Central New York region, building capacity in technology integration across the curriculum.

ITD TALKS: Nintendo Goes to School

Dr. Cathy Leogrande
Le Moyne College
Nintendo Goes To School
May 12, 2011, 8:00 - 1:00
CNYRIC

Students often complain about schoolwork, yet spend hours on difficult, complex tasks in video games. Researchers and teachers who study games and gamers find that the most popular games use core elements from learning theory. Educators now apply these components to in-class instruction, as well as bring in video games themselves to teach problem solving and collaboration. This session will focus on the state of educational research and practices related to gaming. From edutainment games like The Oregon Trail that had little content value to smart games that balance learning and fun, there will be lively discussion, resources, and opportunities for hands-on experience. Are you ready to play?

Please join us for a great opportunity to meet with our keynote speaker and network with other curriculum and technology leaders! Register here.

Cathy Leogrande has been an educator since 1976. As a special education teacher and administrator, she always looked for alternative ways for student input, processing, and output. However, she credits her role as parent as providing her the most valuable information on how diverse learners think. She developed and teaches a graduate course called Video Games & Learning, and has presented her research, Nintendo Goes to School, at several conferences.

ITD TALKS: Challenging Assumptions About Technology Professional Development

Sylvia Martinez, Generation YES
Challenging Assumptions About Technology Professional Development
March 17, 2011, 8:00 - 1:00
CNYRIC

Forty years after the invention of the personal computer, schools still find themselves begging teachers to introduce technology into classrooms. Conventional wisdom attributes the lack of effective technology use in classrooms to a shortage of, or poorly run professional development. At the same time, student-centered learning environments require teachers to develop more expertise not only in technology but also in pedagogy. Rather than continue to do more of the same, we should question assumptions and explore new models of teacher learning that address these issues.

GenYES and TechYES in Action
Teachers and students from Jamesville DeWitt High School and Baldwinsville’s Ray Middle School will be on-hand to discuss their experiences with the GenYES and TechYES programs in their respective schools. GenYES is the only student-centered research-based solution for school-wide technology integration. Students work with teachers to design technology-infused lessons and provide tech support. In TechYES, students show technology literacy by creating projects that meet state and local technology proficiency requirements. As part of TechYES, a structured peer-mentoring program assists the teacher or advisor, and provides student leadership opportunities that serve to further strengthen the program and enrich the learning community.

Please join us for a great opportunity to meet with our keynote speaker and network with other curriculum and technology leaders! Register here.

Sylvia Martinez is a veteran of interactive entertainment and educational software industries, with over a decade of design and publishing experience. Sylvia has been a featured speaker at national education technology conferences in areas ranging from the use of the Internet in schools, Web 2.0 technologies, student leadership, digital citizenship, project-based and inquiry-based learning with technology and gender issues in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) education. She holds a Master's in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.