AI Salsa Slam

I signed myself up to attend the AI Salsa Slam. I wasn't sure with the time differences if I would get to watch it live. But thought I could always go back and watch the recording. To my surprise it started at 9am NZ time and with my school away at a noho marae I was home and able to join the Slam live. I was so great to recognise so many of the names from ISTE. The 1 minute introductions gave you a good insight into what where the most valuable parts of some of the AI tools. A couple I want to look at further in detail are mirror talk for feedback and reflection. We got a free year subcription to the tool. Websim for creating web sites. Look at the AI apps in Canva mockups, cartonifs, image to frame. Claude AI using chatbots to create games and video games using artifact window. Eric Curts has a video on how to do this. TeachAid had countires curriculums on it including the NZcurriculum to plan lessons using our own curriculum. The Slam was quick and it was fast. But best of all they where giving away lots of swag and Tshirts and I was lucky enough to win a swag of lots of goodies. Can't wait for them to arrive from the states. Having joined lots of email lists form ISTE I get lots of invites to all of these wonderfull courses and resources. Looking forward to the next one.

 

The 5th Te Hiku Film Festival

We have just completed our 5th Te Hiku Film Festival at the Te Ahu cinema on Wednesday 11 September. There were 14 movies from 8 of our 9 schools. Pukenui, our brand new school to the cluster came down and watched the movies and will enter some next year. The movies this year had some juniors shown at the cinema and what an outstanding hit they were. This year I was lucky enough to have Natalie Samson from REAP support me on the day and also be the judge. She comes with a very extensive background in movie making, TV producing and educating others in the movie and TV roles. To spice up the event this year I created a photo frame and got some prompts and had a photo booth which was very popular. We also had the red carpet which adds the effect of a special event.

The students were there with the usual buzz and excitement of seeing themselves on the big screen. This is what makes all the organisation and hard work worthwhile.

This year Dave Winters also visited and sat in one one of the sittings. It was nice to have him visit the Far North.

 

Term 3 Toolkit Digital Storytelling

After attending great workshops at ISTE around digital storytelling I desided to do a toolkit around all the fantastic resources that where shared with me. It was also an oportunity to share about the ISTE trip at the beginning. There was so many valuable resources, sites, padlets, wakelets with great teacher and student resources. It was a bit of a resource drop or dump with lots of links. But I did take them to the main sites and pages and showed them what was available so they could go back and look in their spare time. I did have 43 register but only 23 attended. It was on the last day of toolkits at 4:30pm. But it is frustrating when you prepare for a large group and only half turn up. The feedback I did get was very positive. I am still searching through the resources and picking out ideas that I can connect to our cyber smart curriculum and Summer Learning Journey activities. So many ideas and so little time.

Interviewed for ISTE video

I was stopped on my way to a workshop and interviewed by a film crew and was in this video.

ISTE Denver 2024

15367 participants attended ISTE Denver 2335 presenters from 34 different countries 84 total countries participated. My favourite place to visit was definitely the exhibition Hall. It was so big with over 419 exhibitors showing all the latest technology, latest apps and programs and a lot of the tools and fun gadgets that can be used in education. There was 1027 booths. A lot of the exhibitors had hands-on people there to support and help you and take you through how to work the programs and apps but they also had workshops available that you could sit down and listen and watch. At the Google stand I watched two: one was on media literacy and the new resources that they've got out and another was on how to use Gemini to create and support students making pick-a-path stories. At the Legos stand I also did a workshop here looking at how they use Lego robotics. They were lots of fun. I really enjoyed that workshop and could see the value of robotics and creativity. Also how they are connected with many aspects of the curriculum. I also went to figjam,brisk, school AI, Explain Everything,magic school, padlet, snorkl, go noodle,diffit, Gemini, kahoot, gimkit and many more I can not remember the names of. A great experience, lucky it is the school holidays in a week after I get back so I can spend so time going back of workshops, notes and videos. Also putting together some presentations and catching up on my blog posts. Our Thursday in Denver after the conference was a morning walk with my new dear friend Robyn and then out to the castle rock factory shops. Got my last lot of goodies for home. Then out to dinner at the cheese cake factory with Jono, Alison and Robyn. Bags all packed ready for the Friday journey home through San Fransisco. Later that night a text message comes through 12 hour delay in San Fransisco Air Nz would put us up at a motel for the night. Luck there was 2 of us Robyn and myself so didn't feel to stressed. Then friday morning another text message I am now flying home through Houston. Lucky I had Robyn so I was not on my own and also Chris was on the same flights. Robyn and I made our way out to the airport early and had lunch and hang out at the massive Denver airport. We got our transfer at Houston, lucky we all waited for each other and helped each other to find our transfer gate at the even bigger Houston airport.We arrived as they where just starting to board. A long flight back to NZ 14.5 hours. We arrived to no luggage it didn't make the transfer at Houston. It arrived Tuesday night to my door step. Then I had a 5 hour delay to get my Auckland to kerikeri flight. Which went quickly, it was nice to be home. The trip went by so quickly. What a experience of a lifetime.

ISTE Wednesday

The last day of the ISTE Denver 2024 conference. It has been a lifetime experience to be lucky to win the fellowship to attend. It has been mind blowing on the share size of the venue and numbers of people attending. To the variety of workshops to choose from. I feel inspired, motivated, reassured and exhausted. It is hard to take in so much in such a short time. Wednesday was Multimedia Extravaganza Playground … Explore and Interact With Tools for MultiMedia Learning Experiences, I had 2 hours playing and talking to lots of people in this section. Lots of great tools and ideas. Then onto Revolutionizing Play: Sphero Indi Cars Ignite Creative Learning, was another hands-on playing with the sphero cars and seeing how they had created lessons around the different curriculum areas. Back up to the exhibition hall to get some swag and T-shirts being the last day. I went to the Qball pro stand to purchase a ball speaker to take home and the nice owner gave me one to bring back to NZ. A real nice guy. Then the closing ceremony in the big theatre the robot dancer was incredible what a life story about living her dream. Then they asked the NZ team to hang around after to get photos taken with the CEO as we had travelled the furthest to attend the conference. Then more photos off us all under the blue bear. Back to the hotel for a debrief. Then off to the famous rooftop bar for drinks being put on by BP tech. A very nice bar and view of the rocky mountains.

ISTE Denver Tuesday

Tuesday I went to the keynote speakers this morning and there were a lot of very diverse and inspirational speakers. Then I went to“I See What You Mean”: Telling Your ISTE Denver Story, unfortunately it was postponed to early in the morning due to the temperatures being in the 40s. But a lot of us never got the notifications. So they went over what they were going to do and how they created them on canva. I volunteered time on the Hapara stand, then went to Redesigning Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI. I also spent more time in the exhibition hall exploring and learning. Tonight was the famous Karaoke night which was sold out but my stomach was playing up so I decided to have a quiet night.