iPadpalooza Austin, TX!

My #iplza14 Story, via iMovie Trailer

Team Apptivators was ready for the Appmazing Race Challenge at +iPadpalooza! Our team included +Sue Gorman +Jenny Grabiec +Kyle Pearce & +Shannon Soger. (We met virtually before the conference, divided up tasks when we arrived, and worked as a team to submit the final video by Noon the last day.) Apptivators ended in 4th place, but the overall experience was incredible! 

Here's a link to the Connect Challenge: New friend Thinglink, +Kasey Bell and the Share Challenge: Our final video on YouTube.

+Sue Gorman & I did a hands-on session "Aurasma is the New QR Code." Over 100 people joined the session, including +Kevin Honeycutt, +Meghan Zigmond, @SAtechnoChic, and @mathycathy! 

Please check out our presentation slides at http://bit.ly/ARiplza14

Finally, here is my first attempt at a Storify! I hope you enjoy my reflection!

If you've read this far, I'd like to conclude with calling iPadpalooza and above the line event. I'm referring to it as an event because it didn't resemble the look or the feel of a conference. iPadpalooza brought significant task redesign (redefinition). Yes, the conference couldn't not have taken place without iPads, but to me it was so much more. Since my experience, I've continued to collaborate with educators I've met via social media. Further, many hours and a few states away, @mrhooker and I met via Google Hangout to brainstorm ideas for a similar event in @SouthBerwyn100.

That being said, save the date for another one-of-a-kind conference with the South Berwyn spin on it... May 8 & May 9, 2015... iEngage: Syncing our Learning! #redefinition

Self Paced Professional Development

As an Apple foundation trainer I receive updated training manuals for two years after my Apple Academy graduation. (Class of June 2011 & February 2013) As I was reading my manual in an iTunes U course on my iPad and creating screencast for how-to videos on my Mac in QuickTime, a lightbulb went off in my head...

Last year when I was coaching I worked with a few teachers on creating self-paced lessons or units using the Pages or Numbers applications on Mac. I thought to myself why can't I do this for professional development? Participants were at all different levels, and I knew some teachers would need some initial help troubleshooting.

I always posted resources and how-to videos in my iTunes U course and/or on my personal or school district YouTube account. Usually at the end of my trainings I would tell the participants to go back and find the videos. Today was "Getting to know Mavericks" professional development for School District 100 teachers; I only had three hours to teach it. So, I spent all day yesterday creating how-to videos, shared them in my iTeach Above the Line iTunes U Course and created a Maverick Playlist in YouTube. I also created a professional development community in Google + to post resources for anyone that attends a PD in South Berwyn this summer.

I started the training by reviewing the SAMR model; I walked 3L Pershing's About Berwyn project up the ladder. Then I gave one hour for self paced learning. Teachers watched the how-to videos by following along on my OS X Mavericks Keynote presentation. As teachers watched the videos for an hour, I acted as a facilitator. I was able to walk around the room and help teachers with questions they had, while others could keep working.

+Mo Gorman & +Jen Lehotsky brought their iPads with them, so they viewed the videos from iTunes U. 

Key take aways:

• Self-paced PD allows for trainer to act as a facilitator 
• Self-paced PD allows for participants to work at their own pace
• Post resources in multiple formats for iOS and laptop users 
• Create how-to videos for participants to refer back to