Just returned from three fabulous days at CUE 2015. It was definitely worth the 10-hour drive (each way). Many thanks to Mike Lawrence and the CUE team for a well-organized, exciting event, start to finish. Below are a few of my take-aways.

Thursday

• Can I Use That? Copyright & Fair Use for the Remix Generation – I loved the opportunity to co-present with California librarian extraordinaire Jane Lofton. I also loved our great audience. Thanks for kicking off the conference with our session! I will continue to add to the Can I Use That? A Guide to Creative Commons based on questions from you and your colleagues.

 

• Common Core = Technology Integration – I was only able to attend the tail end of Jeremy Davis’s session. His workshop description sums the importance of meaningful technology integration for the elementary schools:

Gone are the days of teaching a “technology lesson” a few times a year, as the Common Core State Standards have technology integration and digital literacy skills embedded in standards starting in Kindergarten. Come dig into the standards and discuss the need for cultural change towards technology integration into all curriculum areas.”

Big take-away: I love how the Capistrano School District (Jeremy’s district) has built on and tweaked Long Beach’s CCSS K12 Technology Scope & Sequence Plan, starting with the title: (Draft) Digital Literacy in the K-12 Classroom. I agree with their statement that “This document provides a roadmap for teachers and administrators to adapt curriculum to ensure that students are building digital literacy competency as well as technological skills for college and career readiness and online assessment” and I applaud their K-12 vision (as opposed to separating elementary from secondary).

 

• Improving the iPad Workflow in a Google World – I’m a big fan of the awesome team of Karen Larsen and Gene Tognetti. With so many teachers looking for useful apps for their iPads, check out the presentation with its chart of apps and great SAMR illustration.

 

• Teaching above the Line – OK, I didn’t actually make it to Pablo Diaz, Ann Kozma, and Holly Steele’s SAMR session, but, oh my, what a great resource their slideshow is. Thanks for sharing! Like Gene and Karen’s session (above), this team makes visible what “giving students a chance to develop their own voice and purpose in learning through SAMR” looks like.

 

 Friday

• Jennie Magiera’s bring-down-the-house keynote – Wow! What an amazing kick-off to Friday morning’s events! I was fortunate to be in Jennie Magiera’s group during my 2012 Google Teacher Academy experience, so I already knew her keynote would be like no other. And, yes, that is California Superintendent of Ed Tom Torlakson dancing out in the audience.

 

• Google Certified Teacher’s Panel – A great session that definitely lived up to its description: “The latest and greatest tips, tricks and tools for Google Apps, and other Googly things.” Loved the energy and the excellent tutorials each of the presenter provided. I think you’ll want to checkout all 9 presenters. Biggest take-away for me would probably = Alice Chen’s Choose Your Own Adventure template for Google Slides, with the sample of introducing class rules via interactive slides, as opposed to teacher going over the rules.

Saturday

#PopBOMB – Creating 7 second videos that can change the world – Sorry that Matt did not include a link to his presentation. It was awesome. I heard Matt speak three years ago at Fall CUE and have ever since been a huge fan all of the options KQED offers teachers and students – starting with DoNow.

Matt explained “#PopBomb” as “infiltrating stoical  media conversation with short, visual, satirical arguments.” He demoed how 3 apps – Twitter, Meme Generator, and Vine – can be used to build “#PopBombs.” His samples of parody and satire wonderful (and great example of arguments for “fair use.”):

• SNL’s Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood – 10 years ago, this SNL series was a great sample of many to  many model – incredible democratization of media (participatory culture alaHenry Jenkins). But you needed some media background and skills create these.
• Vader Sessions – Darth having nervous breakdown?!

The tools for digitizing mashups are now readily available to all of us: democratization is powerful!

• Meme generator – meme (image macros) – download on phone. Choose from your photo library or take pic > name photo > add text top/bottom.
• Quick Meme Generator
• Know Your Meme
• Imgur – Love this one! Pick a meme image and add your message.

Big take-away = Using Vine to create 7-second video that you can start and stop to make multiple cuts. Checkout the powerful juxtaposition of sweatshops and fashion juxtaposition in Matt’sine 7-second remix.

 

Be a Graphic Artist without Going to Art School –  Nick Cusumano’s was my last session for #CUE15. I attended because I wanted to explore Canva, a great resource for adding a graphic wow factor to your presentations. In a nutshell:

• Register as an educator. If there’s a $ sign, you only pay when you print – It’s the pic that might have the fee, not the template. So you can upload your own images – which you can then download for free. You have 24 hours to use download – or you pay again.
• Great for infographics – many freebies
• You can share for collaboration
• Try combining Canva + LucidPress for brochures. LucidPress for K12 and higher ed = free.

A few more take-aways:

• Google Cultural Institute – Historic Moments – Google gives you a template to use. You can upload your own.
• PicMonkey – Cool effects to add to images. Now a Google AddOn
• photofunia.com – Just plain fun. Upload a principal’s photo, for instance, and convert it to a historical figure.

Again, a huge shoutout to Mike Lawrence and to all the great #CUE15 presenters for three amazing conference days!