Deeper Connection - Jaime Vandergrift and Hangouts

I learned so much from Jaime Vandergrift. (I love the name Vandergrift, because you have to pay attention when you say/type it or you will wreck it!)

We did a hour long hangout on July 5th (yes, she had to work). I had a few questions about Hangouts on Air and she suggested we do one.
It was so fun.  I learned about new features in Hangouts.

Of course, the chat feature is great for sharing links and side conversations.

The Screenshare is a wonderful way to... share what is on your screen. Did you know that you could do a screencast with it? Here is the link to a nicely put together tutorial about how to do that by Alice Keeler. She did it with a Chromebook (AWESOME!) but I did one with my PC laptop.

The Capture feature was great. Make sure you click on the feature and your name appears in the box, then capture the wonderful people in your hangout!

The Hangout Toolbox was full of great tools.
I especially love the Lower Third feature. You can put your name, job title, a flag, change the color of the bar, or put a logo on it. Made me feel official to see my name on the bottom.
I finally figured out where the sound effects in the Techlandia podcast come from!
I would tell you more, but you need to explore the rest of the features yourself. Or you could ask me to Hangout with you and we could explore together.

Jaime and I then talked about what she does as a consultant and other side jobs. That woman is busy!
I noticed during the EduVue Youtube session I attended, the tweets she sent out were copied by EduVue. She showed me Grouptweet. This is a great way to let people tweet through a twitter account without giving them full permission. Her tip to me about using it was be aware what you tweet. Good thing I do that already.

The final item we talked about was her about.me page. I found out (again) that I have known of her since 11-20-12 when I favorited her about.me page. I think I did this when I saw that she had the same job title as I did. Crazy how life brings us full circle. Anyway, she and I decided to freshen up our pages.
Here they are:
Jaime Vandergrift

Rodney Turner

Can you guess our favorite colors?





I will continue to share more with her because she is a wealth of knowledge and colleague to help all our teachers and their students be the best they can be.

BTW, if you don't follow her on Twitter or G+, you really should.

Camp Plug and Play Part Deux

Here I sit late at night/early morning Thinking. Camp is essentially done. The lessons are created and shared. The Ignite is presented. Many campers are tired from the brain overload or just plain exhaustion.

I, on the other hand, want to keep going. I guess I love this type of interaction.
It gets me thinking and pushing toward what I can do to help teachers, students, and the community.
So, what does it do for other teachers?
Should I worry about them and what they want to do to help others like I do?

Yes, I should. What they do or don't do hurts me indirectly. If teachers take risks and blend more tools into their instruction, then I have a job to help them be better at what tools to use and how to use them better. If teachers don't take risks, then I must walk a fine line of what to say, how much to push, and when to hold back. I'm not impressed with teachers who take the low hanging fruit and do just enough to get by. At the same time, I must realize I don't know them or their circumstances nor see their whole picture.

No, I shouldn't. They are grown folks and have had time to grow and be better at their jobs and in life. Their morals and values are not mine. They do not have the same background experiences as I do, therefore I can't put my own morals and values on them and expect them to follow them. They are responsible for themselves. (An attitude I should have learned in Kindergarten and still learning.)

Balance is needed. I must walk that fine line of what to say and do as well as when to jump far off the path and know when to do either.

That balance must be struck in the relationships I need to build with teachers. They can not nor will not respect me right when I meet them. Respect has to be earned through a consistent and meaningful relationship. That is what I need to do.

What do you do to bring balance in your educational life and the stress it brings?

BTW, you didn't miss the first part,

#iste13 - Sessions

This was my 3rd ISTE conference. San Diego in 2006, Atlanta in 2007.

San Diego was overwhelming but I loved the feeling. I didn't know anyone and was by myself most of the time. i attended as many sessions I could take the cold rooms.

I got a lot of great ideas for the time, but those have faded as I didn't revisit them

Atlanta was great because I had a close co-worker, Penny to go with.  

We touched base throughout the day. She even scored extra tickets to sold out sessions so I could join her.

I have a few more educational items from Atlanta than San Diego, but still not enough for me.

Meanwhile social media explodes. I join Twitter and Facebook, watch online streaming of webinars in Canada, UK, connect with Aussies, and conduct global collaborative activities.

Confession time:

I attended 2 sessions all of #iste13. Yes, 2.

I registered for 4 sessions, but just couldn't get to three of them.

What got in the way? The people.  Read it and let me know if you need clarification.

I went to the session Who needs 100 apps? 

The presenter, Melissa Herring, shared 10 apps with VPP and regular prices, how it could be used in classrooms, and how they were used in classrooms.

Great step toward content-focused tool use. I like how she had pictures of actual student work.

I will make sure I have more student examples.

The other aspect I liked was the backchannel for questions and comments. It was pretty robust, when I was connected. There was a mentioned mediator. Essential to keep some boundaries.

She also gave another list of apps that have similar features. These were mentioned in the backchannel so I know she did her homework beforehand.

Improvements I suggest

• Share fewer apps, 
• Give time to download and explore, 
• Share what they found might work in their classrooms/schools
• Make it a hand-on session.

I understand that all sessions can't be hands-on, but why not?

If we are gathering information, data, tools to use back at home, why not have time to use it with those who have curated it for me?

The other session I attended was the Conference Welcome and Opening Ignite presentations.

I've done several Ignite sessions thanks to Tony Vincent's push and most of these were better than mine.

The passion, time, and flow were spot on and made the whole time worth it.

Do I remember the content, I'm sorry I don't but I do remember the presenters and how they delivered their message.

Carrie Ross was great as was Wes Fryer and Dean Shareski.

These ignites helped me to focus my own Ignite ideas and what I can do to deliver a more powerful message.

In short, the sessions were helpful to show me how I would conduct Professional Development in my schools, gave me examples and non-examples as to what might work when sharing and showing teacher how to be more inclusive of ideas out their "Box". (Another post for later.)

Do you have a session that still sticks out in your mind? What was your takeaway?

#iste13 - People

What a ride! Let me back up before I get there.

Camp Plug and Play 8.0
Not many know my personal story. Let's just say AZK12 Center's Camp Plug and Play in Tucson June 10-14 were the best days in my personal and professional life, to date.
I received much affirmation and resources from great educators from all over the great state of Arizona.
Watched hockey, ate sushi (well, went to a sushi shop), hung out until midnight and talked with great people about almost anything under the sun. (sound familiar, yet?)
I gained a better understanding of who I really am and how others viewed me. Not that it should matter, but everyone needs that type of reminder and confirmation, every once in a while.
Yes, I took pictures in Tucson of those whom I met, but not such a large scale like #iste13. I got the idea from a high school mate, who takes pictures with people he meets so he could remember the occasion. Thanks, Bill.

I learned that they are people like
me, with issues, challenges, and victories, just like me. Why did I think they were different? Because I saw the good they presented online and in the brief moments in person. Fair enough, sure. We don't want the world to know all the hurt and pain we have going on back home or currently in our heart. But we are still people. I loved my time with @classroomawesom, @edrethink, and @joelwisser, @techbuzzin1st and Jamie Vought. They are authentic and genuine people.


Fast forward eight days to San Antonio, #iste13.
Wow! What a ride! At last count, (yes, I counted) I met over 111 people and took a picture with over 100 of them.
Why?
I love lists and I wanted to make the best of the time I had to meet those on my bucket list.(No, I'm not dying nor going away soon) I went into this blindly, not knowing what would happen if I asked for a picture.
Was I surprised? Yes!

Selena Ward was the first person I met. Going to get the Windows Surface RT issued to my school, I saw her in the hall walking out. I recognized her because of her glasses, but I couldn't think of her twitter name. She was very patient with me in my flustered state. I shared my twitter name and she knew who I was. I was over the moon! Took the picture and finally let her go on her way. Normal person.



At "dinner" I and Len (best friend and co-worker) went to  meet Paula Naugle and Jan Wells. I had never seen him was so excited to go. Big hugs and smiles all around. Educator who had known and worked with each other for years. A bystander would have not known any of us hadn't met face to face before. There was an orange glow over the whole situation.

Shannon Miller walked by and I almost came unglued. I had admired her work and shared it with teachers all over my district. She did want a picture with me. Normal person.








I posted this about my current mental state:

Trying not to be a silly mess while here. I think I have kept most of it together. It is a blast meeting so many online PLN f2f. #iste13
— Rodney Turner (@techyturner) June 23, 2013

Shannon tried to bring me down

Jenny Ashby brought me down even more:
Don't forget everyone is just as excited to meet you also and are probably just a silly mess inside also. Enjoy!

Could I recount almost every interaction with every person I met? Sure thing, but I won't. I did have a few people I was not going to leave without meeting. Amanda Dykes. Why her? Not sure, but I know that we have professional commonalities. Many times we have helped each with technical issues over twitter (very hard to do within 140 characters), shared resources, and laughs about life at work and home. Len can't count how many times I told him about what Amanda and I tweeted about. I spent time talking to her and it was like we were continuing a conversation from yesterday. Effortless. Normal person.

I had to meet Ginger Lewman. She gave me the inspiration for my current and relevant tagline - NWOPBETTI - Not Wires Or Pliers But Educational Technology That Inspires.

Extended time with people like Michelle Baldwin, John Spencer, Joan Young, Philip Cummings,  Jaime Vandergrift, Chad Segersten, Crista Fairman, Tony Baldasaro, Kate Petty, Paul Shircliff, Adam Taylor, Bill Selak does something to you. Five days in a conference and seeing them almost everyday does crazy things to the 2D relationship. It morphs in to 3D, deepens it, and strengthens it. You begin to believe that they will help you in any way possible and that is comforting and validating.











Kyle Pace has this thing about twitter celebrities. There are none. We all are teachers and educators who share what we do and what we live.
After this week, I agree. In Atlanta at #iste14, we all should find an educator who is new to the conference, get to know their story, take a picture with them, and share it. Mutual admiration celebrates every person's wonderful job they are doing to better the future through students. We need to focus our attention where it needs to be, students and teachers who work with them.

At #iste 13, I chose to celebrate those who I know who do just that.

What people at #iste13 struck you and what did they do to have that type of effect on you?