Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

This blog post was originally written for ISTE's blog  originally published on October 20, 2020, with a republish on May 3, 2021. I miss attending conferences in person. Face-to-face learning, the opportunity to travel and get a change of scenery, meeting old friends and new, the energy and excitement that you see in everyone sharing the same space all make attending conferences an invigorating experience. But times are different, and virtual conferences are the only safe option right now.  I think it’s safe to assume that virtual conferences won’t go away after the pandemic ends. With this new style of professional development, there is sure to be a learning curve. Here are my top 10 tips to help you make the most of your next virtual conference. 1. Clear your calendar . Act as if you were out of town attending an in-person conference. Close your email, turn off notifications, and move your phone out of reach. If possible, put a vacation responder notification on email a...

Written for Illinois Computing Educators ' August Newsletter Learn Some, Play Some Do you get a summer vacation?  How did you spend it?  Did you sip tropical drinks and bask in the sun enjoying endless lazy days?  After all, that’s how most of society sees the summers of educators, right?  What most folks outside of education don’t realize is that an educator's mind never takes a vacation.  Even if we are not on a school campus it’s always in the background. We constantly think about teaching, supplies that we need, how to reach that one stubborn student. We can be on vacation in the middle of a store or in the middle of a movie when an idea for our profession pops into our mind. It really doesn’t end. Most non-educators also don’t realize how much of our summers are spent increasing our personal knowledge to better our craft, reflecting on our previous lessons and prepping for new school years (not to mention answering emails from parents and completi...