I have been asked to develop a new Web Design course for the Montana Digital Academy.  When I was at the Adobe Education Summer Institute, I met a couple of people that started the Adobe Generation.  The Adobe Generation is a series of free online creative courses, including Animation, Games Design and Photo Imaging. It´s your chance to learn from the best digital and creative designers in the world. You'll study the latest techniques, share ideas and develop practical skills that will help you stand out out from the crowd.  The courses run for 1 hour a week per course, for nine weeks. You won't have to pay a penny and you'll even get an Adobe Generation certificate at the end.

I have been working with Roxana Hadad from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.  She is an Instructional and Project Designer. and Greg Hodgson from The Chalfonts Community College,  Buckinghamshire, U.K.  I would much rather develop a course for the Montana Digital Academy Consortium (three other states) with Adobe software than with free, open source software.

After (Adobe Connect) connecting with Roxana and Greg Hodgson from The Chalfonts Community College,  Buckinghamshire, U.K., there appear to be several hoops that have to be dealt with before we can really move forward. I will keep working on this.  I may have to develop the course for the Montana Digital Academy and then create another, maybe level 2 course for Adobe Generation that the Montana Digital Academy could use.

I submitted two proposals for NCCE 2013.  One on InDesign and one on Dreamweaver.  While I have done a lot of teaching both to students and adults, it seems a little intimidating to teach to teachers that also know the software and may even know it better than me.  I have had a good role model, however.  Joe Dockery clearly knows a lot about Adobe video software but does not purport to know it all.  How can anyone know it all? There - now I feel better. I have to admit every year I push myself to do something that I am not always comfortable with but in the end, I have learned that I can do many more things than I think I can. Good lesson to learn.

TEDxMCPSTeachers

Towards the end of the school year last year, we held our first ever TEDx event.  It was held at Hellgate High School.  It was a lot of work but wonderful to see so many dedicated teachers, students and community members chip in and help get it up and running.

I want to include a couple of my favorite presentations that are now available for viewing.  My first and absolute favorite presentation was one done by a fellow master's student and co-worker's wonderful outlook on life, learning and family.  Wendy Lofthouse is currently teaching second grade at Paxson Eementary in Missoula, Mont., and after 17 years of teaching she marvels at the wonderment of childhood. With a master's degree in Technology Education, Wendy advocates for technology in schools by sharing best practices and implementing technology use in her classroom. Currently she serves on the iPad Leadership Team working to develop and implement a 1:1 iPad initiative for Paxson students. Wendy takes pride in being the mother of three teen boys, and in her free time she loves to ski and travel.  All I can say is what a great lady and what a great mom!

Another presenter I thoroughly enjoyed was Mackenzie Lombardi.  Mackenzie was a student of mine last year in Web Design.  She was a junior at Sentinel High School in Missoula, Mont., in 2012, Mackenzie is active in Speech and Debate, Theater, and community service. She recently qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament with an original piece on apathy in our schools. An inspiring student leader, Mackenzie is also a Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador for Montana and a member of the National Honor Society. Mackenzie was a great student and has a bright future!

Kasey Dirnberger teaches Computer Applications/Business at Meadow Hill Middle School in Missoula, Montana, and a beginner computer course at the Adult Education Learning Center. She has a bachelor's from the University of Montana in Elementary Education, a Master's degree in Technology Education from Lesley University, and Business Information Technology Education endorsements from the University of Montana. She has taught for 12 years in several school districts and at all ages, and she leads technology workshops for teachers.

Scott Chook currently teaches an exploratory Creative Communications class at C.S. Porter Middle School in Missoula, Mont. In his 7th year of teaching, Scott's current class is designed to engage students in the production of authentic products, while grounding them in the standards of Communication Arts. Although he was born in New York City and has lived throughout the country, Scott has called Montana his home for the last 20 years. He has a 16 year-old son and enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and playing guitar and mandolin.

AEL Summer Institute Reflection

I attended the AEL (Adobe Education Leader) annual Institute which was held last week, July 23-27, at Adobe headquarters in San Jose, CA.  Approximately 120 AELs from all over the world (including Norway, Germany, Canada, Great Britain and more…) came together to learn from each other and from Adobe leaders and product managers. I have to say that this was the most inspiring learning event that I have attended since I re-started my teaching career.

I was not only inspired by the AELs, but also I was very impressed with Adobe as a company.  I have worked for a lot of different companies in my lifetime (before re-entering the education field) and was blown away with the level of listening that company employees did – everyone from the product managers to the new Vice President of Worldwide Education Marketing, Jon Perera.  I was quite impressed with Jon Perera’s leadership and vision.  He listed three key trends in terms of a technical perspective. These included devices, the cloud and its social.  Most K-12 districts in the U.S. have an iPad deployment underway. Smartphones just out shipped P.C.’s last quarter. Most likely we can count on a chaos of devices in the classroom. HTML 5 will be front and center.

One of the most exciting aspects of the Institute was that I got to experience an amazing level of collaboration that was happening across the world. After Tuesday’s presentations by Adobe leaders, Wednesday and Thursday consisted of AEL to AEL presentations and hands-on workshops. The amount of talent and energy in the AEL community is astounding, and the fact that everyone is so generous and sharing with their ideas and content is truly inspiring. I have to say this was a little intimidating given that there were people from Ivy League higher education institutions to 8-12 grade teachers from around the world presenting.  I also have to say, however, I felt so comfortable with everyone that I think I can get past this. I have submitted two proposals to NCCE (National Council of Computer Education) in February, 2013, in the areas of InDesign and Dreamweaver.  I hope to have a lot of time to practice and should feel much more comfortable to present at the AEL Summer Institute next year.

I am getting ready for my first Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute.  I am very excited about this event.  It is hard to find people in Missoula, Montana, passionate about Adobe software.  I understand that there will be people from all over the world at this event sharing and learning together.  I just looked at my schedule and it looks packed.  I arrive in San Jose, California, around 12:30 p.m. tomorrow and immediately need to go to the Adobe Headquarters from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.because I signed up to participate in the conversation about the Creative Cloud and what it means, and could mean, for students, educators, and institutions.  I feel like this could be a great opportunity to help shape the future of Adobe's tools and technologies for use in education.

There is an AEL Quarterly Meeting scheduled from 4:00 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. I have attended these before, but always virtually.  This will be fun to attend this face-to-face this time. We get a break form 6:15 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. and then attend a welcome reception at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel until 9:00 p.m. After that I am helping to help pass out and show how to use DSLR cameras so students have time before we meet to shoot some footage.

Tuesday, breakfast is from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and there are a series of presentations focused on creativity and innovation in education. Lunch is from 12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., however, I have a district meeting that I would like to attend virtually.  This meeting has to do with implementing Google Apps in our school district, our new school website and e-mail in the district and professional development for these.  From 12:45 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. there is an optional Lytro Camera Demonstration.  I would like to see this, as I read about these earlier and was fascinated by the technology.

In the afternoon I have a series of sessions that I have signed up for:

• Adobe Connect Roadmap
• Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Roadmap
• Adobe Touch Apps Roadmap
• Adobe Muse Roadmap

That brings me to 5:50 p.m. at night.  Reception/Dinner with Adobe Executives and Product Teams is scheduled for 6:00 p.ml. - 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday we start the schedule all over again.  8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. breakfast, 9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. daily kickoff, 9:15 a.m. - 10 a.m. AEL to AEL Presentations.  I am scheduled to attend the following on Wednesday:

• Using Interactive Video and Infographics to Tell Complex Stories
• Developing a Digital Creativity Curriculum Online
• Gamifying the Learning Environment
• iPad Trail at Arts University College

At 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. there is a Fice Minutes of Fame presentation where we hear tips, tricks and triumphs from our colleges in five-minute mini-presentations.

Dinner is at Campo di Bocce, which sounds very interesting.

Thursday I am scheduled to attend the following:

• Easy Ways to Connect Like a Pro
• Adobe Touch Apps Workflow (I am the proctor for this session)
• Adobe Premiere Pro & Adobe Audition CS6 - New enhancements for Video and Audio Editing
• Creative Web Sites with Adobe Muse
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and the Tapeless Workflow

Thursday night from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., we will be spending at the Tech Museum - now this looks like fun! It seems like a great way to end the week. I can't wait!

Had the opportunity today to help Vicki Davis with her next book.  She is writing about Collaborative Writing in the Cloud. She sent an e-mail to the Flat Classroom Certified Teachers and wanted to get some feedback on Chapter 1.  What got me was her her comment about "A book on collaborative writing without some collaborative writing is a hypocritical sham."  I really agreed with that and am happy to see that she is truly trying to make it collaborative.  I spent time today making comments and suggestions.  I think this is a great idea for anyone writing a book.  I am guessing that you can spend so much time looking at the same words over and over, that you could miss things that other people might see right away.  She can choose to use or not use the feedback, but to just get it, I think would be great!  I am looking forward to reading the next chapter.

Another ISTE Day!

Adobe Education Leaders Booth

Monday was a very busy day.  It started with a "booth meeting" at 8:30 a.m.  This is where they go over all of the details of working in the booth.  After this I had some time to walk around the different exhibits.  This exhibit hall is so large, there was no way I was going to see everything.  I did have a change to stop by the Gaggle booth and the Moodlerooms booth.  I looked for Schoolwires, but didn't see it.  Talked to the Gaggle guys about Google Apps and student e-mail.  Talked with the Moodlerooms guys about cost of their services as an option for our Moodle situation. I had a session on Google/Moodle.  It was awful.  The speaker really didn't teach anything.  He just talked a lot.  I left early and spent some time in the Adobe booth.  Learned about a new extension for Photoshop called LevelUp. I had some time to play around with this and it looks great for students.

PETCO Center

Had a chance to go back to the hotel before meeting everyone at the booth at 5:30 p.m. to walk to the Marriott Gasslamp Altitude Sky Lounge. It is located on top of the Marriott Hotel.  Here is a picture I took looking out at PETCO Center where I watched the Padres play the Mariners Saturday night.

 It was a beautiful view of the water, too.

Denny Washington's Yacht, Attessa

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the Marriott Bayfront.  This hotel was right across from the San Diego Marina.  Very close to where Denny Washington's boat, Attessa was docked.

After breakfast, I volunteered to help out at the poster session for the Flat Classroom group.  It was fun to meet Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsey and some of my classmates from the Flat Classroom Certified Teacher class that I took.

 

Once that was done, I stopped by to see Joe Dockery who was teaching a Flash Animation class.  His daughter was helping him and I got to meet her.  Spent some more time in the Adobe booth, with some great people and then headed out to have dinner with Diane Woodard and Dustin Herbert.

Diane, Dustin and I took a ferry over to Coronado Island and sat outside overlooking San Diego bay and had dinner at Peohe's restaurant. We didn't have much time there.  I would have liked to have a few more hours to explore the island.

 
Wednesday morning I had a workshop to attend.  This was an InDesign workshop taught by a fellow AEL, Linda Dickeson.  What a great lady.  She has written books about the software I teach called, ClickStep.  It was really nice to have met her before, while in the booth, and help her out during class.  It was a pretty basic InDesign class, but I picked a few things up that I think I knew before but forgot about.



 
After the workshop, I headed to the Adobe booth to say goodbye to everyone.  Diane and I went to lunch at, of all places, Dick's.

We shopped a little and then headed to the airport.  I have to say the days went very fast.  I love San Diego.  The weather was beautiful.  It was sunny and in the 70's with no humidity, which made it very nice. I have to get back here again some day and spend some vacation time.



Here is a link to all of the sessions.  If you click on a session, you will have access to the presenter's materials.  There are some great resources here!  ISTE 2012