Posts Tagged ‘Generation YES’

New! Join the ‘Connect All Schools’ movement

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Generation YES is proud to be one of over 80 educational organizations taking part in a new Connect All Schools Initiative, which aims to connect EVERY school in the United States with the world by 2016.

Through the Connect All Schools interactive website, schools share stories using text, photo and video about how they are currently connecting their students to the rest of the world through such activities as student and teacher exchanges, global issues curricula, video-conferences and “Exchanges 2.0,” the use of new media and communications technologies to expand, extend, and deepen international cross-cultural exchanges.

Not seeing the video?
Direct link to YouTube video introduction to “Connect All Schools”

“Despite the importance of global competency and engagement, US teachers are not aware of the many options for introducing their students to global issues, world languages, online international interaction and physical exchanges,” said iEARN-USA Executive Director Ed Gragert, who is spearheading the project. “By reading stories of what schools are already doing, additional teachers across the country can learn about specific examples and work with partner organizations to replicate the successes around the country.”

“Imagine the possibilities for our students to learn WITH the world, instead of just about it,” said Dr. Gragert. “Research has clearly demonstrated that authentic interaction with the world’s students across the curriculum results in enhanced learning, improved test scores and a heightened motivation to learn.”

For more information on this exciting initiative or to share your story, please visit: www.connectallschools.org

Sylvia

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Posted in cool links, fun/free stuff, Generation YES, global, In the news | 1 Comment »

NCCE conference video – by students

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

For the second year in a row, Generation YES coordinated a student tech support team for NCCE. Some really talented students devoted untold hours to helping speakers and conference attendees, and doing their part to make schools a better place throughout the Northwest!

This video was created by students from McNary High School in the Salem-Keizer School District,  Oregon to showcase the conference. Love it!

For those of you blocked from YouTube, here’s a link to check out later! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgIoDBWQWI

Don’t you love how young people totally understand the “vocabulary” of filmmaking - from the establishing shots to the closing credits.

Sylvia

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Posted in conferences, Generation YES, student project samples | Comments Off

Exciting events at the ISTE conference

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

ISTE (formerly known as NECC) is the largest national educational technology conference in the U.S. This year it will be in Denver, Colorado June 27-30.

Generation YES will be there in full force with a booth (#855) and other events. If you will be in Denver, we hope you will come by and say hello!

Pre-conference event - The Constructivist Celebration, Sunday June 27
Held once again the day before ISTE starts, this is a day-long workshop focusing on creativity and computing. For a very reasonable $60, you will receive free creativity software worth hundreds of dollars from the world’s best school-tool companies, breakfast, snacks and lunch, and a full-day workshop led by Gary Stager and other members of the Constructivist Consortium. Added bonuses: a free just-released “ImagineIt2″ DVD and a TechYES mini-kit. It’s always a sell-out, but right now there are still a few spaces left to join in the fun, so register today – you won’t regret it!

Sessions

  • Dennis Harper – Establishing Student Technology Leaders Programs for Districts, States, and Nations Wednesday, 6/30/2010, 8:30am-9:30am, CCC 605.  Discover how districts, states, and nations can establish effective student technology leaders organizations that meet integration, infrastructure support, and technology literacy goals.
  • Sylvia Martinez – Tinkering Toward Technology Literacy Wednesday, 6/30/2010, 10:30am-11:30am, CCC 605. Combine tinkering and technology and you have a time-honored tradition that allows imagination and creativity to lead the way to technology literacy.

Events in the Generation YES booth #855

  • Adora Svitak (12 year old author, blogger, and the youngest person to be invited to speak at TED) will be sharing her ideas for education from a youth’s point of view.
  • We will be sharing a new technology literacy study by a well-known researcher making the case for project-based technology literacy assessment. (more about this soon)
  • GenYES and TechYES teachers and students from nearby schools will be in the booth sharing their projects and tech integration tips.

Plus… we will be printing handy business cards for any teacher who forgot theirs at home!

Hope to see you there!

Sylvia

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Posted in conferences, fun/free stuff, Generation YES, professional development | Comments Off

Welcome, Steve!

Friday, July 10th, 2009

photo-2I’d like to say a belated welcome to the Generation YES family to Steve Hicks. Steve has come on board to help coordinate new project development for Generation YES and work with districts and service centers to implement custom solutions for student-centered technology integration.

Steve has also had a huge part in developing our new TechYES TLC – Technology Literacy Curriculum.

Steve is a Midwestern transplant to the Northwest. Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, he graduated from The Evergreen State College in 2002. After graduation, Steve became certified to teach ESL and moved to Japan where he spent the next three and a half years. Many travels later, Steve returned to St. Louis and began working with special needs students in the Hazelwood School District. Currently, he is working on a Master’s in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College.

Steve says, “I’m a bit of a philosopher, particularly the philosophies of education and politics. I strongly believe that through technology and collaborative learning, schools can become more effective and efficient in their mission to prepare students for the responsibilities of productive citizenship.”

Looks like he’s fitting right in!

Sylvia

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Climbing up the charts!

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Here’s a video of my NECC 2009 session: 30 Years Later: The Best Technology Professional Development

It’s rocketing up the charts of “most popular “videotaped sessions from NECC 2009 with a huge 96 views!!! I can’t wait for my NECCY award ;-)

See other popular videos at www.istevision.org

Sylvia

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Happy birthday to us! One year of blogging

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

GenYES blogWell, we’ve been blogging here at Generation YES for a whole year. In February 2007 we started posting some practice posts, and about a month later linked to it from our main site.

In one year, we’ve done 212 posts within 22 categories that gathered 300 comments — thanks very much to all of you! The comments have been fascinating, smart and incisive. Sometimes it’s been tough to find the time to post, sometimes there’s almost too much to talk about!

Most viewed posts/pages

It’s tough sometimes to keep focused on why we started this blog, because the most popular and most commented posts aren’t about what we do as a company. It’s tempting to write posts chasing popularity, but that’s really not why we started this. As I wrote in the post, Welcome to the new Generation YES blog:

We’ve decided in the sprit of Web 2.0 that we like the idea of sharing with the world. Although we have a definite point of view about how schools should be using technology and how students can be key stakeholders in their own education, we don’t believe we have all the answers. Further, we completely believe in “transparency” — the act of thinking and doing out loud.

We think that we are ready to walk that talk.

Other random facts

  • Akismet has protected the site from 14,773 spam comments
  • Technorati says 282 blogs have linked to our posts
  • Technorati rank: 74,992 out of 71 million blogs – We started at about 2,000,000!
  • Authority: 91 – We started out at zero, and the most popular blogs have authority numbers in the tens of thousands. It’s not bad!

A year later I’m pleased with our effort, and humbled by the people who tell me they read and enjoy our work. For a kid who spent most of high school ducking out of anything that resembled writing or speaking, it’s a strange experience to hear that anyone would go out of their way to read what I write.

I hope you continue to read, comment, and contribute as we move into our second year of the Generation YES blog. Your suggestions are most welcome!

Sylvia

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Posted in Generation YES | 6 Comments »