Tag: Keynote

Better Looking Presentations

by dougpete, posted in application, Computers, ECOO, Education, Read/Write Web, software

This post is for all who do presentations but specifically to those working on their presentations for #ECOO13 this summer.

I hope that you’re not just firing up Keynote or Powerpoint or LibreOffice and filling in the blanks in a template to call it a presentation.  While this works, keep in mind audience engagement.  They want to hear YOU and the presentation behind you on the big screen helps guide the development of your topic.

This guide works best when it’s attractive and has the imagery to support your message.  I had the fortunate good luck to have a superintendent who delivered the very best presentations.  He was a master story teller and masterfully worked with Keynote as his presentation tool.  I actually booked some time with him one afternoon to learn how to be as effective as him.  That’s impossible but his tips did help me quite a bit.

He broke the mold about presentations long before it became popular.  He never started with a template (unless you called a blank screen a template…) and just filled his presentation with imagery, thoughts, and guiding principles to support his message.  In particular, he always included images of children doing things to support this message.  It was so effective.  You just wanted to hear his stories and follow along with the pictures.

His colours were right too.  At the time, we had just licensed Adobe Photoshop Elements for all Ontario schools and he made good use of it.  Before a picture got into his presentation, it went into Elements where he would use the eyedropper to get the colour codes from the images so that any text or drawing that he would use looked so professional.  Wow, this was one application of Elements that I hadn’t though about…and I was on the OSAPAC team that licensed it.

You can use it or find an even easier method using Pictaculous.  So, for example, this image from an infographic that I had made for myself at one time might make it to a slide in a presentation.

And, I’m bad with colours.  My philosophy has always been things go better with green.  So, this slide might well look like

and, of course, the complimentary colour with green is yellow.

Throw that up on a data projector and watch your audience gag!

Fortunately, Pictaculous comes to the rescue.  It’s very simple and even bypasses the need to use the eyedropper to get colours.  Of course, you’ll use Elements for more involved things.

All I need to do is upload my image and seconds later, I’m presented with the colour palette and suggestions for colours that will work well with the presentation.

Could getting the colours right get any easier?  There’s even an option for use with your Smartphone.

This will be really helpful for students who often confuse design with content!

Good luck with your presentations, Ontario Educators!

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The Role of the Teacher in the Now Century

by dougpete, posted in Computers, Education, Read/Write Web, Teaching

For me, the highlight of the 2012 ECOO Conference occurred on the Thursday afternoon.  The last session of the day was a discussion among all of the conference keynote speakers.  Nora Young from CBC’s Spark led the discussion with John Seely Brown, Jaime Cassap, Donna Fry, and Michael Fullan.

The panelists all brought a unique angle to the discussion. It was important to have Michael to put an Ontario context to the discussion and Donna, not only brought Ontario to the table, but the reality of day to day education in her job as principal.

Nora showed her expertise as a host by keeping the conversation moving, on track and redirecting the panelists when necessary.  She had made her own recording of the discussion and parts made Spark last weekend as previously noted here.

Today, the entire panel discussion is available to the world through the ECOO website at this link.  If you were in attendance at the ECOO Conference, I think you’ll enjoy the replay.  If you missed the conference, please enjoy.

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Blogging About the ECOO Conference

by dougpete, posted in ECOO, Education, learning, Ontario Edublogs

It’s been a week already since the ECOO Conference in Toronto.  It was a great few days and certianly a lot of learning at the time.  How does it stick?  One of the ways is thanks to the blogging of folks that were there.  I set a Google Alert for #ECOO12.  I know that I would miss blog posts but hopefully, Google wouldn’t.  Here’s what we found….

The ECOO Experience #ecoo12

Scott Kemp presented at the conference and shared his thoughts plus his presentation slides “It’s Not About the Number – Learning Without Marks”.  I thought that the session was particularly timely.  There’s a lot of discussion about assessment and the value of our current system.

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ECOO 2012 – Learn in the NOW Century

I thought that I had missed my friend Diana Maliszewski.  She warned me that I wouldn’t recognize her at the conference and she was right.  I expected some sort of wild and whacky hair colour.  I didn’t know until after the fact that the Minecraft icon who bowed to me was actually Diana inside!

Her blog entry is actually her report to her principal about her reflections on the conference.

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Moving From Newsletters to Blogs – My Presentation-That-Never-Was at #ECOO12

This session was on my personal calendar to view.  After all, I had blogged previously “Your School Doesn’t Need a Newsletter”.  I had re-read the original post and was curious to see how closely aligned my thoughts were to Erin Paynter’s.  Sadly, I had to announce to the Thursday morning group that the session was cancelled.  However, Erin has at least provided the slideshow that would have been used.  A good Plan B.  Thanks, Erin.

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ECOO12 – BYOD Panel Discussion

Mark Carbone and I have had this discussion lots of time.  Over this period, the focus has shifted from “Is this a good idea” to “How do we make it work?” to “We need to step back and evaluate this going forward”.  In fact, it was the focus of my keynote at the summer CATC Camp a couple of years ago.  At ECOO, Mark assembled a panel to continue the discussion.

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In the post, Mark lays out the format of the conversation including their guiding questions.

Sticking Your Neck Out

One of the keynote speakers at ECOO had an impact away from the conference.  Colleen Rose shared a quote from Michael Fullan that her principal Donna Fry had shared with her.  This quote is indeed worthy of thought.

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Take a Risk- Tales from ECOO

@hendylou shared her thoughts continuing the theme of risk taking by sharing some of her thoughts during the panel discussion.

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The focus that John Seely Brown noted about the bottom fixing itself is very interesting.  Instead of the top down “One and Done” approach to PD, it really amplifies the notion that professional learning is continuous and needs to be personalized.  In the quest for personalization, we need to be willing to take those risks and fail in order to learn.  Absolutely.

Let’s Play! Now Let’s Document!

Early Years’ teachers always seem to be able to on what’s truly important.  Jocelyn Schmidt talked about her presentation at the ECOO conference.  It sounded like there was a great turnout, noting that she was overwhelmed by those who were in attendance.  And they all weren’t full-day kindergarten teachers.

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I really liked the brainstorming wordmap that was provided on the blog.  She must have really enjoyed the time that John Seely Brown’s comments on Montessori.

‘Digital Storytelling’ presentation at ECOO

What would a technology conference be without sessions about digital storytelling?

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I had to smile at the comment that digital story telling is one of the things that her students do best.  What better testament for the effective use of technology?  When you think of all of the pedagogical and technological learnings that one needs to be successful, wouldn’t it be great if everyone could make that claim?

Forming an ECOO Presentation

Every wonder what goes into a success conference presentation?  Tim King read a book.  Actually three books that helped him frame his discussion.

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The message in this session is important for all to hear.  You can’t just stick 25 boxes in a room and call it computer integration.  Who cares if 25 kids can type 25 stories in a word processor at the same time?  Tim explored how to try to reach the promise that technology affords.  It doesn’t look like the traditional setup.

ECOO 12

Camille Rutherford had an interesting presentation. “Using Technology to Support the Distribution of School Leadership”

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We’re using the technology for everything else.  Why not distributed leadership?  Can there be no better evidence that we need to have everyone onside and learning?

Minecraft Madness and Play at ECOO 2012

This was where Diana was headed!  What can mining and Minecraft bring to the classroom?

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I think that it’s so cool that Liam found a group of students ready to sit in on his session.  They had to be from Royan Lee’s group.  I think it’s also cool that they were there to learn along with their teachers.  Did you ever think we’d see that?  Often students come to a conference to work on a panel and then leave.

Excitement for #ecoo12

And, why not go to a conference for some quality time with your dad?

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That was one of Jamie Weir’s goals for the conference.  (I also wanted to talk to her dad!)  I didn’t get the chance but hopefully she did.  I did get an opportunity to have a nice chat with Jamie which was one of the highlights of the conference for me.  As she notes, it’s always nice to get together and chat with people that we learn with daily.

There were lots of great posts describing the ECOO experience.  Thanks everyone for sharing.  If I missed yours, blame Google and please let me know!

You can read these blog posts at the original site and all of the great blogs from Ontario Educators here.

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Mobile for ECOO 2012

by dougpete, posted in Computers, ECOO, Education, learning

 

Yesterday was a great planning day.  Those of us on the ECOO 2012 Planning Committee got together to continue the process of making sure that everything is all set for this year’s conference on October 25, 26.  The preconference on the 24th adds even more value to the conference attendees.

As I blogged earlier, the conference promises to be the most social ever – we’ve even got a Facebook page where we’re sharing some of the exciting sessions, one day at a time, highlighting the awesome sessions that will be offered by Ontario educators.  The hashtag is in place – #ECOO12 and folks are already discussing in anticipation.

What would a good technology conference be without an app?  We’ve got you covered there as well.  We’re using the Lanyrd service to assemble and schedule all the component pieces.  With an audience using such diverse technologies, it only makes sense to push the web application for those who like to plan ahead and explore everything!

So, check it out on your mobile at http://m.lanyrd.com/2012/ecoo12/ or on your desktop at http://lanyrd.com/2012/ecoo12/.

Here you’ll be able to explore the event, plan your conference, see who’s attending, and read speaker biographies.

From top to bottom, there are great events with content designed to appeal to everyone.  Nora Young is but one of the keynote speakers and she’s going to host a panel discussion of the other keynote speakers:  Jaime Casap, John Seely Brown, and Michael Fullan.

The Committee is excited to see how all the pieces are starting to fall into place.  Please take the time to bookmark the web application so that you can join in on the excitement and I hope to see you there.

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Socially Gearing up for the ECOO Conference

by dougpete, posted in Computers, ECOO, Education, learning, Teaching

The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario’s annual conference is fast approaching.  Ontario (and other) educators will gather in Richmond Hill for this big event.

Registration is open and available here.

The keynote addresses by John Seely Brown, Norah Young, and Michael Fullen promise to get your mind thinking about what it means to be an educator in the year 2012.  Surround this with educators sharing what they’re doing and a big exhibition hall makes this an event not to be missed.

Run by educational volunteers for educators, there should be much to appeal to everyone’s interest in the use of technology in the classroom.

The hashtag for the event will be #ECOO12 and people are already using it to discuss things leading to the event.

A Facebook group has also been created so that folks can talk about the various professional learning sessions to be enjoyed.  All of the sessions are available for preview on lanyrd.

In many cases, social media kicks in at the event.  It’s great to see what people are learning at the event and to gauge the enthusiasm for what’s happening.

It’s interesting to see what happens when the social kicks in a month before the event.  If you’re going, why not chip in your thoughts and perhaps let the world know what sessions will interest you.  After all, all the sessions are available now for your review.

With over a month remaining until the conference, join us and let us know that you’ll be there.  What sessions are you planning to attend?  Get some ideas and thoughts out in the open so that your presenters know where your interests lie.

 

We all would love to hear from you; let’s use the social to the best of our abilities so that when we gather in Richmond Hill, we can hit the ground running.

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