Summer days.

baumes_04051 Hard to believe the academic year is winding down, and things at times seem to have slipped by. The summer is always a unique time to disconnect, get some down time, a chance to reflect and more importantly relax. So often our academic year is so busy, demanding, engaging, and always on. The break and space of the summer gives us permission to disconnect, wind down and stop. It takes a few days to switch gears, and get into a new tempo which allows time for nothing. This transition and then state of having less to do, provide space for reflection and synthesis which is important part of the learning process. The challenge often is how do we curate such time and disconnect with our busy days during the academic year.

Some like to use the summer as a time to catch up on reading, time for which is always in short supply during the year. This month, we’ve included a number of selections on topics of relevance to the ECIS ICT community.

Digital Bytes: Summer Reading about Technology, Leadership, Change and ICT

Mark Prensky shares out his latest thoughts about the future, education and learning

 

Professional Development

32 summer professional development opportunities
eSchool News shares out a comprehensive list of options for further learning over the summer.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2013/05/15/summer-professional-development-workshops-seminars-and-reading-lists/2/

ETT Workshops for teaching with technology 2014
http://edtechteacher.org/summer/
2014 brings our 12th Annual Summer Teaching With Technology workshop series, and we have built an incredible program, on a diverse set of topics, in six locations across the country. We have exciting new topics to compliment favorites from previous summers, and have brought together some of the best educators in the country to lead our workshops.

8 iPad Professional Development Opportunities
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/blog/8-ipad-professional-development-opportunities-all-1-to-1-educators-should-consider
Opportunities for professional development that are focused on effectively integrating iPads and other tablets into the classroom.

Edutopia Professional Development Guides
http://www.edutopia.org/professional-development-guides

Professional Learning?@ISTE
http://www.iste.org/learn/professional-development

Education Technology Professional Development
http://www.cue.org/

Find out about a Google Apps for Education event in your area.
Upcoming Google in Education Summits produced in partnership with Google in Education:
Full schedule of events and locations
http://www.appsevents.com/

Flat Connections Conference – Sydney, Australia June 18-20, 2014
The Flat Connections Conference is a unique event that includes students and educators to envision the future of education and of learning communities as they use leading technology tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking and digital storytelling.

Flat Connections Workshop – Atlanta, Georgia, USA, June 25-26, 2014
The Flat Connections Workshop – Connect, Collaborate, Go Global – will take place at Atlanta International School, just ahead of the ISTE conference. This workshop provides educators and education leaders with the resources and skills to connect their learning and take it from local to global. Embedding global learning and competency is not a plane ticket but a mindset and a curriculum imperative. Where do you start? This workshop will show you how. Workshop designer and leader: Julie Lindsay

ISTE Conference – Atlanta, Georgia USA June 28 – July 1, 2014
The ISTE Conference will be held in Atlanta this year and will feature hundreds of sessions on the theme “Connected learning, connected world”.
They are gathering input on keynote speakers for this year, feel free to submit your suggestions at https://www.isteconference.org/2014/program/keynote.php.
Information about registering for the ISTE Conference is available here: https://www.isteconference.org/2014/attend/.

l2logotext

Register today: early-bird rates end 30 April
http://learning2africa.org Professional learning: global educational experts,  extended hands-on learning sessions, inspiring mini-keynotes, participant-led workshops, poster sessions, DIY unconference and many networking opportunities. September 18-20 2014

European PowerSchool Conference – Malta, September 25-27, 2014
The third annual European PowerSchool Conference will be held in Malta this year. This year’s conference will have a twin focus on scheduling and customization, along with many other stand-alone sessions. Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your skills, network with other PowerSchool users, and get your questions answered!
Questions: Romy Backus <rbackus@zis.ch>

Digital Evolution Unconference hosted at http://www.isdedu.de/   October 17 and 18 2014
We are living in exponential times. New technological innovations which promise to reshape the educational landscape appear on a regular basis. Learning analytics, machine learning and augmented reality are all examples of technologies that could radically transform school as we know it.
How do we incorporate these new technologies into our visions while maintaing the focus on what matters, student learning? Would you like the opportunity to explore these questions with other like-minded educators?
We invite you to the second annual 2-day un-conference at the International School of Düsseldorf. The agenda will be driven by all participants and together we will build and share our visions for the future of technology in education. To find out more, please visit: www.digi-evolution.com and/or Adriaan van der Bergh (vanderbergha@isdedu.de)

This will be my last post as Chair of the ECIS ICT Committee, I very much look forward to being connected beyond this blog and turn the pen over to Alan Preis incoming Chair of the ICT Committee for 2014-15.  You can always catch me at http://beyonddigital.org  and/ or @jmikton    Warm regards  John Mikton  Chair of the ICT Committee ( 2008-2014)

A note from Alan Preis  Incoming Chair of the ICT Committee 2014-15

I want to offer special thanks to John for his contributions to the ECIS ICT Committee and to the international school ICT community over the past several years. John has been instrumental in helping to organize the conferences, raising the profile of ICT among ECIS schools, and fostering communication among ECIS schools through channels like this blog. We will miss his participation on the committee, and we wish him the best of luck next year.

Have a great summer !   Sunshine daydreams

 

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One comment on “Summer days.
  1. Massive kudos to you, John, for overseeing the creation and cultivation of this fantastic resource over the last several years. You have managed to make it a consistently vibrant monthly exercise in information sharing, that is well-balanced in its ability to inform, to celebrate, to connect and to provoke. Great stuff!

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