Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud 2

Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud 2

                                                 Nate Stemple doing a signal flag presentation

                                                 Photo by Richard Stemple

After going through many, many journals I am finding that publishing may not be the best option for me. The ABA Journal’s, Behavioral Journals, and Speech and Technology Journals either want empirical data that has been gathered over months or have guidelines that restrict me from doing research at the same place where I work (a conflict of interest). The educational journals either had too many written requirements and no room for multimedia data or my research simply did not apply to their specific journal. I am now looking for a conference to present my findings. As a teacher, performer, and a professional musician I do not know why I did not think of this sooner. There are several conferences that look promising. There is the annual ABA Conference that my place of employment often makes presentations at and there are several educational conferences within the area (New England) that look promising.  If anybody knows of any educational conferences within the New England area feel free to post it on this blog. Any and all help is welcome.

Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud1

Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud1

                                                            Noah Stemple on an iPod Touch

                                                            Photo by Richard Stemple

It is difficult to imagine that I am almost finished with the CBR (Challenged Based Research) project and the EMDT program at Full Sail University. Since I work with children with special needs, specifically children with severe autism, I thought it would be great to base my CBR project on something that would benefit me and my students. My project turned out to be.. Motivation. How to motivate my students and staff to use the communication device is more? The students require 100% supervision and sometimes full physical help to move and communicate. Technology has advanced so much that instead of using pictures and a picture book to communicate, students can now use an iPod Touch or a Dyna Vox to communicate. However students and staff are sometimes reluctant to use these devices in the classroom, at the residence

 (where the students live), and out in the community. I think it would be great to publish the results of  my CBR project in either an ABA Journal, Behavioral Journal, a Speech and Technology Journal, or an Educational Journal.

Wk4 Publishing_Leadership project: Richard Stemple, How to improve communication for students with varying disabilities.

Wk4 Publishing_Leadership project: Richard Stemple, How to improve communication for students with varying disabilities.

Pennsylvania Educational Technology Exposition and Conference the web site is

http://www.peteandc.org/default.asp

My plan for presenting my CBR project involves just one conference, the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Exposition and Conference in Hershey Pennsylvania. This conference and exposition has a scope that my presentation is ideal for, the strand of Adaptive Technology/Special Populations/Accessibility. Since I am employed at a special needs school and my CBR is about motivating students, teachers, parents, and staff to use assisted augmentative communication (AAC) devices, this conference seemed the natural choice. I chose this conference and exhibition because it encompassed my entire CBR project and I felt it was the best option to share my work. 


Here are some blogs of my search to publish or present over the past several weeks.

Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud1

http://rstempleedm613.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-3-publishing-leadership-thinking.html

Week 3 Publishing / Leadership: Thinking Out Loud 2

http://rstempleedm613.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-3-publishing-leadership-thinking_26.html

Here is the link to my presentation document, enjoy.

files.me.com/rstemple/myskxo

Response to Edwin’s WK 4-Think out Loud 1 Leadership Presentation

Edwin Moy Posted:

Week 4 and thinking about a paper or creating a presentation for publishing.  With my back ground writing is not the path I would chose if ever given an option, so presentation is the path that I will be heading down as week 4 and month 12 approach.

In reviewing choices to submit I searched for conferences that were excepting submissions during the time frame of the EMDT program.  I started thinking about not looking at conferences geared towards solely teachers, but in thinking about the book The Art of Possibility I didn't want to limit and start a downward spiral of thinking so I looked at most sites.  EduComm is excepting submissions and will be located in Las Vegas next year.  The location was a factor but they are have a leadership category for presentations and I think my project would be geared towards that audience.

Now that the conference submission has been decided I guess it's time to get to work on the presentation.

                                                       Nate Stemple giving a presentation on communicating with signal flags

                                                       Photo by Richard Stemple

My Response:

I love your picture and your quote, this could be a chapter in the Art of Possibility. “ If you look high enough you can see your thoughts”, awesome, I wonder if anyone else could see my thoughts to? I thought I would love to publish some of my research, however I have to agree with you that not everybody’s strength is writing. I think a lot of us as teachers will find that presenting the research will prove to be a more logical choice since we spend most of our day presenting educational material already. I specially like the fact the found a conference in Las Vegas. I was excited for Heidi because she had found a conference in Austin Texas, however now I’m just jealous of you because you found a conference in Vegas. I’m sure it will be a great presentation and have a lot of fun. Remember “ what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. Good luck with the presentation, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Response to Heidi's Wk4: Publishing Leadership Project:

Heidi Faber wrote:

Wk4: Publishing_Leadership Project:

My plan for presenting my project involves two educational technology conferences. I initially wanted to apply for the Project Based Learning Conference or the National Art Education Association’s National Conference because my literature review and CBR project focused on art and project based learning projects to inspire motivation. However, these two conferences were closed to applications. I decided to turn to educational technology conferences because my ideas included a high amount of technology to supplement the lessons.

My first choice is the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITTE) whose next conference will be held in Austin, TX in 2012. Topics appropriate for this conference that coincide with my CBR include: Digital Storytelling, New Possibilities with Information Technologies, Arts & Interdisciplinary Education, English Education, and Teaching with Technology: Engaging Students through 21^st Century Learning. I chose this conference because it’s topics encompass my CBR project and I felt it was the best option available to share my work.

http://site.aace.org/conf/call.htm

My second choice is the Kentucky Society for Technology in Education (KYSTE) whose next conference will be March 7-9, 2012. This conference’s theme is “Connect, Collaborate, Change.” They are looking for presentations, which support technology as an education change agent, through connection and collaboration. I chose this conference because that is what I was trying to accomplish with my CBR was to use the knowledge I gained in the EMDT program and find a way to change and improve education to better engage and motivate students.

http://kyste.schoolwires.net/kyste/site/default.asp

                                                            Photo by Richard Stemple

Response

Great blog and what a great idea, I wish you were presenting a little further to the north east so I can take a road trip to see your presentation. Austin Texas is a lot of fun, they have great music, great clubs and bars, and from what I hear a fabulous art scene, I hope you get a chance to present their. Louisville Kentucky is nice but I’m not sure where your presentation in Kentucky will be, but it should be a lot of fun as well. I look forward to catching up with you in a few weeks. Hope you have a great first week of school.

The Last Blog about The Art of Possibility, Week 4

We know from previous blogs how much music means to me, which is why my last blog about The Art of Possibility will focus on the last chapter, which is about the New England Conservatory Youth Orchestra. The first quote that sticks out in my mind is “When the door of eye sight closes, what door is likely to open? Listening”. When 88 people choose to work on something with a common goal in mind things either go amazingly well or tremendously wrong. This is true in a classroom, a sports team, or an orchestra. The musicians in the story had evolved from playing music from memory to play music from their heart. Dvorak’s New World Symphony is a fabulous piece of music yet very tricky play.

                                                     Nate Stemple in the Marlboro Middle School Band

                                                     Photo by Rick Stemple

On a side note, and reference to my other blogs, Dvorak is a great example of why we do need copyright laws, Dvorak died penniless, alone, and in poverty in an apartment in New York. Almost immediately after his death his music became popular and was recognized as one of the great composers of the time.

The Art of Possibility had another great moment from the author was talking about how great the performance of Dvorak had been. He said “ it was a high point not only of the to work, but also of the year, and it took place in a small town between the major engagements, where nothing of importance was likely to happen.” As an old friend of mine used to say “ the Angels are in the details”. I know the quote is “ the devil is in the details” but we always try to be positive for the students. It is not always the big performances that make education and performing great, it is the learning moments in the classroom and in the practice room that you remember the most.

The authors use a musical term to describe the ending, or in this case the code which is Italian for tail. The authors describe the book is not a self help book, but as a tool for transformation. A transformation from a person who meets challenges that life serves up, to one who designs the stage on which life plays out.  What a great idea, and how do we achieve this transformation? Through practice, lots and lots of practice.  Just like performing or teaching, you only get better by doing it over and over again. Good luck and hope you all have a great school year.

Free Blog, Week 4, Thoughts on Technology and Media History

I would love to talk about the Rise and Fall of the Music Industry, however having lived through it, I feel that is a discussion for another day. I enjoyed to the NPR interview, I but was surprised to learn that the music industry let the computer industry have the right copy files from hard drives to CDs or other computers. This is a giant loophole they can drive a truck through and the computer industry obviously took advantage of it. I believe this is not only the fall of the music industry but caught in its wake music education will also fall as well, this too is a discussion for another blog.

                                                            Picture from Full Sail University interview with Ron Smith

 This blog is about the interview with Ron Smith. The interview was about how to use any method to reach students. Within this interview Ron Smith a teacher in the Hollywood schools discussed how his students use programs like Google Sketch Up, and Blender. These are all free software that you can use to create three-dimensional drawings and three-dimensional animation. I am anxious not only to try this new software but to see what my students can come up with as well. Mr. Smith also discussed the software Scratch which is supposed to be an easier version of Flash. The tutorial for Scratch seemed complicated, I cannot imagine how the actual software is. That being said, Flash is even more complicated so maybe Scratch is a little easier. I am interested if anybody has used any of the software? Also, if you are successful in using this software with your students in the classroom? I look forward to our next blog.