Archive for July, 2009

2009 Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

AEL Institute

Photo by Ian Usher

I can’t believe it, but another year came and went, and before I knew it, it was July and time again for the Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute. This year was extra special, as a new group of Higher Education Adobe Education Leaders joined us K-12ers in San Jose. The joining of the two groups was a brilliant move, with both groups learning from one another how we can all prepare students for the ever-evolving demands of the new workforce. In addition, as everyone there noted, the Higher Eds were raising the bar on the presentations and the discussions we were having throughout the Institute.

Ian Usher and I, along with Greg Hodgson via video clips, presented on our Game Design Workshop. Ian did an excellent job of formatting the presentation using different Connect layouts and our guest speakers (Colin Maxwell and two GDW students, Owyn and Rob) were wonderful at speaking a bit about their experience with the project. We received excellent feedback from Adobe staff and fellow AELs. We got great ideas for the future and made excellent connections with others interested in our concept.


Maybe this year will go by just as fast as last year, which would be great: I can’t wait for next year’s AEL Summer Institute!



Posted in Presentations | No Comments »

Chicago Teachers’ Center

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

CTC


For those of you who do not know, I have a new job! I am now the Director of Math/Science/Technology (MST) at the Chicago Teachers’ Center (CTC) at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU).* The CTC is a wonderful place that has been around since 1978, with the defining purpose of reforming urban education. It’s a really exciting place to be, at an exciting time, with exciting responsibilities. I’ll be designing, developing, and implementing MST programs, writing grants that support these endeavors, and providing professional development for my colleagues and the teachers we service. I am thrilled to be working here with such wonderful and experienced people, who believe as strongly as I do that education is a human rights issue.



My time at Northwestern and the Collaboratory was invaluable and I hope to continue the great work and relationships developed there. It’s a great shame that a program as innovative as the Collaboratory (it was “Web 2.0” before they even came up with that term) was not able to follow us into classroom of the next generation, but I do think it provided great inspiration for many of the great programs we see in schools today. I’m looking forward to seeing what it is we can continue to do to foster curiosity and a life-long love of learning in our students.



*Yes, I am aware that I went from Northwestern to Northeastern. No, I will not only work with organizations that are named after intermediate directions.

Posted in Neat Stuff | No Comments »