An important part of my job is to learn more about emerging technologies. I try to attend and present at as many local conferences as possible to increase my learning. This year, I set a goal for myself to attend and present at a conference outside my state, hoping to gain a different perspective. My friend Stephanie Gauthia and I were so excited that the presentation we submitted to NCCE was accepted and that the MIE Travel Program agreed to sponsor our presentation!
Stephanie and I have found success engaging our students with digital breakout games using Microsoft OneNote as the platform. We developed a presentation titled "Escape the Ordinary: Using Digital Breakout EDU to Engage Students" to demonstrate how we create our games and to show examples of the games we have used with our students. Here is a link to the presentation that we used in our session: https://sway.com/sNmOReHiBkBMAAV0?ref=Link.
We started the session with a digital breakout that we customized for our attendees. The game focused on the commonalities between Georgia and Washington. The prize was peach flavored salt water taffy locked in a box, and the first group to solve all of the clues won the taffy! Our participants were very enthusiastic about the digital breakout and quickly realized how digital breakouts would engage their students as well.
We then explained to our attendees why OneNote makes the best platform for digital breakouts, benefits of using digital breakouts, and our planning process for developing these games. We showed our participants examples of the different digital breakouts we have created (and one made by a student!) and some helpful hints that we have learned along the way.
Stephanie and I were overwhelmed by the response to our session. We loved chatting with participants after the session about how they thought they could use the ideas we presented with their students. We hope that our attendees will share with us the digital breakouts they create, or pictures of their students using the digital breakouts that we shared with them.
I also attended several amazing sessions full of ideas that I can't wait to share with students and teachers in my district. Here are some of my favorite sessions!
1. "Choose Your Own Adventures in Learning with Microsoft Forms and Sway" This session taught attendees how to use Forms to differentiate instruction based on students' learning preferences. I could also envision using the branching tool in Forms to have students write their own Choose Your Own Adventure stories.
2. "Connected Classroom: Foster Student Learning with Teams, OneNote, and Flipgrid" I have recently started using Flipgrid with my students, and it has been wildly popular! I loved hearing how fellow MIEE Cheryl McClure uses Flipgrid with her students.
3. "Making Office Mobile: APPreciating Microsoft Apps for Education" This session packed a lot of information into an hour! I have not used the Office apps much before, but I will after this session.
4. "Introduction to Computer Science with MakeCode for Minecraft" I thought this session would be like all of my other attempts to learn how to play Minecraft, but I was wrong! This session actually taught me how to get started with Minecraft and also how to use MakeCode to program the game. I would love to use this with my technology club students! MakeCode is definitely one of my favorite things I learned about at NCCE18. I can't wait to order some Circuit Playgrounds and have my students program them using MakeCode.
5. "Taking Your Students to a New Dimension with Paint 3D" My students already seem to know a lot about Paint 3D. Now it's time for me to catch up to them! Sandi Adams taught this amazing session in which I learned how to create 3D models and mixed reality.
One of my favorite parts of the conference was the interactions that happened between sessions. I loved connecting with other Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts from all over the country. These interactions provided those other perspective that I was hoping to gain during the conference. I learned about how the role of the media specialist in schools outside my region. I also learned a lot about how other elementary schools are using Microsoft products. The MIEE community is strong, vibrant, and committed to helping our students and each other. I now have my own network of professionals who are encouraging me to take risks and will help me if I get stuck.
NCCE18 was truly one of the best, most useful conferences that I have ever attended. I loved Seattle, the sessions, and the people!
