Friday, September 24, 2010

Digital Jam 2010

Last Monday, Sept. 20, 2010, the ESSDACK staff had their first digital jam held in the Hutchinson ESSDACK office.

What started out to be a small group swelled to a gathering of nearly 50 people for the inaugural Jam organized by the ESSDACK staff.


The brain child of Kevin Honeycutt and our leader and director Mike Cook, the day's attendance included Superintendents, Principals, Assistant Principals, District Tech Coordinators and ESSDACK Ambassadors from central Kansas.

The day was spent exploring ways to use technology in the classroom, with the general theme of "Technology Rocks". There were six "concerts" or stations participants visited during the Jam including PD 360, Sing Snap, Wii game (data collecting and Wii fit) iPad tutorials, and second life in the classroom.

The interested group rotated around the room in 20 minute time periods in order to have a chance at the hands on learning experience before them. Chatter among the group led to many discussions about how to use technology in the classroom and the ideas where grabbed and taken back to individual districts with a renewed vigor in all attending.

After a lunch of Anchor Inn mexican food, the group ended the day with a boost of technology confidence by ESSDACK Specialist Kevin Honeycutt, an advocate of K-12 education. He came across with an example everyone in the room could understand. "A Quarterback doesn't throw the ball to the receiver where he is, he throws it to where he is going to be." Giving that as an example to the educators meaning we don't want to teach our students to be where they are today but where they need to be in the future.

A big thank you to all who attended the first Digital Jam! Thanks for taking the time to come and learn about possibilities in the classroom in 2010. See you all again soon!