Join fellow educators at the DEN Virtual Conference, online or at Stevenson, Saturday Oct. 25

Join us on Saturday, October 25 for the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) Virtual Conference! Connect with educators from all over the country during this unique professional development experience where you can attend in-person, online or both! Learn powerful ways to integrate digital media and Web 2.0 tools into your instruction as well as discover an abundance of resources to expand your own personal learning network. And it’s free! (You can't beat free!) Educators who cannot attend our in-person regional event still have the opportunity to participate virtually in the full-day conference.

The day will feature presentations from Discovery’s own Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, Jannita Demian, Scott Kinney, Matt Monjan and Lance Rougeux as well as a special spotlight session from STAR Discovery Educator Jennifer Dorman. These sessions will be broadcast to each of the regional gatherings. In between the virtual presentations, participants will attend breakout sessions presented by local STAR Discovery Educators (TBA). Session details are at: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/files/2008/10/den-virt-con-session-times-and-descriptions.pdf

This is the second year of hosting for the DEN Virtual Conference at Stevenson. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Please be sure to register so we have an idea of how much food to order.
Visit: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/fall-virtual-conference

Come for all or part of the day.
Map to Stevenson: http://www.district125.k12.il.us/documentation/maps/map_to_shs.pdf

DIRECTIONS:
Tri-State, Milwaukee Ave. or Rt. 41 to Rt. 22, West on 22 to school. -OR - Rt. 53 North to Lake Cook Rd. East. to Buffalo Grove Rd. North on Buffalo Grove Rd. to Rt. 22. East on 22 to school.

Gear up for K12 Online!

This is the third year for the K12-Online Conference -- a totally free and perpetual learning experience, delivered exclusively online, by volunteers who have a passion for education!

This year's conference will follow a similar format as in previous years, with a Keynote kickoff on Oct. 13, followed by forty presentations published over two weeks (Oct 20 - Nov. 1), each 20 minutes in length or less. This year's them is "Amplifying Possibilities" and contains presentations in four strands. In the first week, "Getting Started" and "Prove It," followed by "Kicking It Up a Notch" and "Leading the Change" in week two. See the full schedule here: http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2008schedule.html

I'm happy to report also that this is the second year I am actively involved. Last year I volunteered to facilitate during one hour of "When Night Falls" --a live, 24-hour open forum that culminated the two-week long event. It was there I met Dennis Richards, a superintendent from Falmouth, MA, who had been "newly baptized into all thing Web 2.0." Dennis had uncovered the learning made possible through the participatory, or "read/write" web when he attended Alan November's "Building Learning Communities" conference during the previous summer. Dennis has since become a loud voice in this "education conversation" by making it his personal mission to spread the good news, by starting his own blog, and collaborating on a number of wikis, and much more (as you will see when you read his blog).

This past year, Dennis and I kept "bumping into one another" online; such as the time we happened to strike up a conversation in the virtual world of Second Life, not realizing who each other was in real life. As we exchanged ideas, our conversation led to the K12-Online conference, and we then realized we had met while co-facilitating the same live "When Night Falls" session. Call it Kismet, or coincidence, we have now teamed up to present a session at this year's conference, in the "Leading the Change" strand. In preparing for our session, we were invited to create a "teaser" for our session. I hope you are enticed, and will tune in for our presentation: "There's Something Going on Here You Need to Know About..." which will be available on Oct. 31.



I posted information about the conference last year, and several of our teachers used the sessions as "independent study" toward advancement on the salary scale. Professional development and University credit is available for both 2007 and this year too.

Continue the learning!!