Leading Future Learning 2016

Learn how to fully integrate social media into your curriculum through a student-centered, blended learning environment. In this session, participants will see how students use social media apps, webtools, tablets and iPads to enhance engagement and achievement. Participants will see how students at Platt High School use Twitter to conduct research, connect with their peers, and consult with academic experts from across the country as resources for their projects. For example, Platt High School seniors in a history class used Twitter as a research tool to explore Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in U.S. military veterans. In doing so, they take ownership over their learning by finding articles of interest to them before holding a group discussion. Participants can also learn how creating a hashtag for a current event enables students to hold a Twitter Chat to share insights in real time. For example, tweeting during a presidential debate connects, students with their peers, teachers, and even local journalists for a substantive conversation about the candidates.

This presentation will offer a variety of social media apps and webtools, as well as effective use of learning management systems used by teachers and students across many disciplines to promote anytime, anywhere learning. By creating a student centered learning environment that can help with rigor, critical thinking and increased student engagement, students will see social media as less of a distraction, and more as a resource for learning. This presentation is for the novice to the expert.

We will share our district journey and facilitate discussion on the creation of social media policy, digital citizenship and online safety programming and instruction. District staff will discuss some of the creative ways we've addressed these important issues, including through the unique Student Mentors Club in which high school students provide guidance to younger middle school students in how to stay safe online as part of digital citizenship training. Student projects and student perspectives around social media will be highlighted through interactive technology and conversation. District administrators will share their perspectives on safely and fully leveraging social media as a communications tool.

Co-Presenters:
John Marcus, Director of Technology and Libraries, Sharon Public Schools; Kevin Madden, Principal, Cottage Elementary School; Mark Whipple, Instructional Technology Specialist, Sharon Middle School

The Natick Public Schools embrace the use of social media as an important public relations tool. As with many things in education, there are pros and cons to embracing social media. On any given day the cons can outweigh the positives but there are many days when it works in a school or district’s advantage to utilize social media. Being proactive in managing your digital presence and modeling for the school community the appropriate ways to use social media to represent your district, school or classrooms in a positive way is key! Find out how one district uses social media in combination with online communication tools to establish a digital presence, construct online communities, engage stakeholders, provide timely information, and open communication channels! Our panel will discuss the advantages to using social media and the pitfalls to avoid!

Co-Presenters:
Dr. Anna Nolin, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning and Innovation
Marianne Davis, Human Resources Director
Ian Kelly, Principal of Bennett Hemenway Elementary School

This presentation will examine practices to promote the development of "responsible use" policies (as different from "acceptable use" policies), which place emphasis on how district stakeholders use technology in empowered and positive ways.

In a workshop-style presentation, I will first engage participants in conversation about the assumptions surrounding policy decisions related to technology and social media. We will discuss the difference between "responsible" and "acceptable" use policies and the implications of this difference on social media use and engagement districtwide.

Participants will then examine how social media is treated in multiple examples of district technology plans. How do technology plans treat social media? How are these plans reflective of the communities from which they come? To what extent are our own technology plans encouraging responsibility versus articulating barriers to integration? These are a few of the questions we'll tackle as we collectively examine technology plans from our area and around the country.

Finally, the presenter will share her process for including district stakeholders in the development of a district technology plan and responsible use policy that incorporates social media, and invite members to ask questions and share their own experiences.

Conversations are happening everyday about schools by staff, students, communities. Schools have a chance to engage in those conversations using social media as a platform. What voice is your school going to have? More importantly, what message is your social media policy sending? Students, staff, and families are on social media everyday engaging with each other and determining the narrative of your school. If your school needs to consider how it is going to treat social media use. Three options are ignoring it, using social media as a positive platform, or treating it as a punishable tool.

Every school can determine the message they want heard in the community. All of this starts with your school or district social media policy. If your social media policy is non-existent then you are left out of the conversations about your school that are happening anyway. If your policy is too restrictive of staff or students then you close the door to countless opportunities to educate and to positively promote your school.

Old Rochester High School teacher MJ Linane and principal Michael Devoll are both active on social media and view it as a platform to promote positive images for schools. They will present on a number of case studies that show ways students, teachers, schools, and districts, can use social media positively as a platform. Participants will be asked to review their own school social media policies and to consider how they can be designed to educate users of social media rather than treating social media as a punishable tool.

In this session you will be introduced to Apple's eight elements that are the foundations for successfully creating technology-rich learning environments. They represent what we’ve learned from over 30 years of working with education leaders to envision, plan, implement, and evaluate environments that meet the needs and aspirations of their institutions.

Co-presenters:
Steve Kowalski, Apple Inc.
Devin McLaughlin, Apple Inc.

Social media has single handedly change the dynamic of not only the world, but classrooms as well. Social media provides educators with an outlet to not only share they own ideas and creativity, but also that of their students. My presentation will show how to effectively use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Docs and Wordpress to open and share your classroom, gain ideas from other educators and share your students accomplishments.

Our presentation will consist of three components:

The Pro Social Use of Social Media and Professional Learning Communities

Using Social Media from a District Perspective

Promoting Academics through Social Media

All too often teachers from across campus, or even across the hall, don’t know about the innovative teaching and learning happening nearby. Spreading this knowledge throughout campus and beyond is the first step in helping teachers learn from one another. The more you share and celebrate small moments from classrooms you visit, the more you begin to build a collaborative culture throughout the school. When teachers see that you’re excited about what is happening in their classroom, they will invite you in more often. And, when teachers see what you’ve shared from their colleague’s classes, they are more likely to reach out and learn from one another.

In this session, you’ll learn how to share these moments instantly -- with photos, graphics, or quotes -- on social media platforms and through existing methods of school communication. You’ll also see how administrators have successfully used blogs, podcasts, and online newsletters when specific teaching and learning moments deserve more attention. Most importantly, we’ll focus on how sharing will lead to a shift in school culture that encourages the spread of innovative teaching practices.

Presentation Materials: http://bit.ly/lfl16

Participants will learn how to navigate the use of social media for public relations. We will demonstrate some tips & tricks for using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, S’More, Remind.com, and more digital tools that can be used to improve public relations and communication. These tools provide parents with a window into our classrooms and our school.

Additionally, participants will hear how we are organically growing the number of educators in the district who are using Twitter for professional development. We will describe how we use hashtags and developed a twitter chat to connect educators who work 30 miles out to sea with educators around the globe.

Participants will leave this presentation equipped with the strategies and specific tools they need to leverage the power of social media in their school or school district.

Co-Presenters:
Alice Crowley - 8th grade math teacher
Adriene Lombardi - 7th grade English teacher
Tracy Mailloux - 6th grade science teacher

Current statistics regarding social media use show that there are over 1.5 billion users on Facebook and over 300 million active twitter users. If educational leaders use these tools to tell their school or district story, they can reach well over 75% of their community in an instant.

For the past 3 years the West Bridgewater Public Schools has been using Facebook and twitter to improve community support, engagement and communication, while creating a positive brand for the district.

This session will give an overview of the whys and hows of building a bigger social presence for your school or district through the use of Facebook and twitter. Topics will include but may not be limited to ; The benefits of a strong social presence, how to get started, building an audience, strategies of posting, and tips for success.

Far too often, discussion around social media focuses on what should be restricted instead of exploring the potential to positively transform teaching and learning. First, social media can be leveraged as a powerful tool to personalized professional learning. It can also be leveraged to articulate the district's vision, celebrate accomplishments towards this vision, and provide powerful examples of student learning within the wider community. In this session, you will learn how Bristol Warren’s innovative uses of social media to enhance professional learning and community communication have positively impacted student learning across the district.

We have experienced how Twitter can be used to collaborate with colleagues, communicate successes with a wider audience, and learn from educators across the globe. In particular, Twitter “lists” featuring our administrators and educators provide a streamlined way to connect teaching and learning together. Professional development opportunities and resources are also offered for educators, administrators and school committee members, providing them with guidance and inspiration for using Twitter as a learning tool. Examples will also be provided regarding how Twitter is used to reach out and connect with the local community.

We will also demonstrate how to transform traditional sit & get professional development into highly engaging, interactive learning environments featuring educator voice, choice, and peer collaboration. Teachers lead sessions highlighting digital learning strategies that have proven successful, then dive into these strategies to collaboratively develop lessons. Google Hangouts were used to provide a gamification session led by Devin Young of Classcraft, despite him being in New York. All the while, teachers were backchanneling on Twitter via the #KMSTech2015 hashtag and sessions were shared on the district's YouTube channel for educators across the district to access. Through BWEdTech.org, we then archive this work and provide staff with online access to each session’s resources. Our success has evolved through the ongoing collaboration of teachers and leaders committed to a vision of professional growth to advance and celebrate the learning of adults and students in our district.

Connect with the Presenters:

Tom Driscoll | @Mr_Driscoll | Director of Educational Technology for Bristol Warren Regional School District 
Mario Andrade | @MarioJAndrade | Superintendent of Bristol Warren Regional School District 
Diane Sanna | @BWAsstSupt | Assistant Superintendent of Bristol Warren Regional School District 
Jared Vance | @Principal_Vance | Principal of Kickemuit Middle School (BWRSD)

Twitter Executives reported in 2014 that over 4 million Tweets per day surround education topics. Teachers worldwide are using Twitter for professional development, lesson planning, collaborative networking and student engagement.

Getting an entire district on-board using Twitter takes encouragement, support and enthusiasm. Come learn how we "hijack" the Mashpee hashtag to share the hard work going on in our schools. Strategies to engage even the most reluctant Tweeters will be shared as you navigate the public realm in a new way. In this session, participants will be given strategies and resources to support the benefits of social media throughout a district. Through the use of tutorials, examples, games, contests and events, district employees can learn about the value of Twitter all while sharing the positive learning experiences going on in classrooms district-wide.

Utilizing a district hashtag allows an entire community to become involved and engaged with what is happening in schools. Session attendees will come away with many ideas for increasing online engagement through the use of Twitter and other social media outlets. Online resources, checklists, tutorials and interactive activities will be shared so attendees can begin building online communities of their own.

If the story of education in your district is going to be told online, doesn’t it make sense that it is told by those deeply invested in the work being done? Come learn how to tell your story together.

In this session, we will explore the concept of a virtual open house or parent meeting. Holliston Public Schools recently piloted this model by giving parents access to a live Google "Hangout on air" and a form that allowed for questioning in real time. The pilot was a success, but provokes interesting conversations around appropriate use of digital resources to empower parents to connect with administrators. We will both cover the technical aspects of setting up such a virtual coffee talk as well as the potential pitfalls of such an offering.

Presentation link: bit.ly/itslikebutter

I will share a practical and easy way that administrators can use Twitter to curate and distribute information to teachers that will help enrich and support use of technology in the classroom. I will provide examples and share a list of individuals to follow that will help administrators get started using Twitter.
Presentation