#IDEAcon 2020

Robots in English class? Of course! Learn to meaningfully engage your students in targeted content through creative robotics using the Hummingbird Robotics Kit! In this hands-on learning session, participants will program the LEDs, motors, and sensors of the Hummingbird Robotics Kit using block-based coding. While creative robotics can certainly build coding and computational thinking skills, it can also engage students holistically in authentic engineering and coding tasks through high-interest AND content-aligned projects like Robot Petting Zoo, Robot Shakespeare, and Modeling Joints. The Hummingbird Robotics Kit and the accompanying educational materials were developed through NSF-funded research at Carnegie Mellon University. All skill levels are welcome, including absolute beginners.

Creative student voice and choice activities can be essential parts of any classroom learning experience. When students engage in exploring and creating visuals the research shows that learning sticks. This session will introduce and explore Adobe Spark Pages, Posts, and Videos. Attendees will learn about Adobe Spark and have a chance to explore the resource as they design visuals, videos, or webpages that could be used in their classrooms the next day. Join us as we explore how Adobe Spark can support and engage all learners. Attendees will also have the opportunity to explore additional visual design resources and challenges. 

Common Sense Education invites you to a series of 30 minute, mini sessions that will equip you with the resources you need to build a whole community approach to digital citizenship. The first session will cover our new and improved K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum that has flexible resources in Google Drive. Then dive into the second session to learn how to enhance your digital teaching skills. The third session will showcase resources available to support your Parent Community with the ups and downs of raising a kid in the digital world and the 4th session will show you how to tie all your work together with the Common Sense Recognition Program. Join us for one session topic or stay for all four.


1. Introducing the new and Improved K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum from Common Sense Education
We are excited to share our updates to the curriculum informed by new research with Harvard’s Project Zero to make sure educators have the best resources to prepare today’s students for success. Join us as we showcase the new scope and sequence, highlight new lesson topics and share implementation ideas.


2. Professional Development Resources to Enhance Digital Teaching and Learning in your classroom
Looking to enhance your digital teaching skills? Join us as we share engaging professional development content, including lesson plans, teaching tips, and how-to videos will help you get your students ready to navigate the digital world safely, responsibly, and ethically.

3. Parenting in a Digital Age: Family Engagement Resources
Help families navigate the ups and downs of raising kids in a digital world. We will share our family toolkit that includes research-backed resources covering a range of topics -- from online safety and cyberbullying to media balance and learning with technology -- you can easily find and share articles, videos, printable handouts, ready-made presentations, and more in your classroom, on your school's website or social feed, or at your next parent night.

4. Common Sense Education Recognition Program
Get recognized for leading digital teaching and citizenship in today’s classroom.
Join us to learn more about the criteria to become a recognized educator, school or district to demonstrate to your community a commitment to responsible, effective technology use. Participants will have time to complete the application if all criteria has been met.

Have you ever had trouble getting folks on board to new ideas and initiatives? We will share how we get learner buy in through fun experiences! Learn how we integrate playful learning experiences and games in the PD we bring to educators. Get ready to have some fun!

As individuals who deliver PD, we advocate for differentiation for adult learners. Not only should PD not be a one size fits all experience for educators, but it should be learner driven. We focus on inclusivity by regularly polling our learners and creating meaningful experiences that are relevant to everyone.

In this interactive session, learners will be immersed in hands on learning experiences. These experiences have been designed to apply teaching strategies teachers use with their students, but this time, for adult learners. Professional learning must be differentiated and learner driven. One of the goals in this session is to help model principles of adult learning that promote inquiry and risk taking. Another component of this session is to cultivate a culture of engagers. Learning should be fun regardless of your age or agenda. We will provide learners with the tools necessary to step outside of their comfort zones and explore some new ways to implement some of their all time favorite games. Finally, these learning experiences are designed to be relevant and authentic. Not only do we align the activities to content areas, but we also explore how to layer in Webbs Depth of Knowledge, the ISTE standards and district wide initiatives like Social Emotional Learning. We do this to maximize active and rigorous learning.

Today, educators must prepare learners for an unknowable future. Across the grade span, educators help students internalize a set of robust practices essential for a lifetime of learning. These include: asking questions, evaluating and analyzing evidence, collaborating creatively to solve problems, communicating information and ideas in socially responsible ways, and reflecting on the social and cultural consequences of actions.

In this hands-on, minds-on digital literacy program, you'll discover the power of advancing learner-centered inquiry learning by ""creating to learn,"" using transdisciplinary practices that apply to all content areas. Support the intellectual curiosity of all learners by exploring digital mind maps, curation activities, digital storytelling, simple video production, podcasting, meme-making, and other inquiry learning practices that deepen authentic mastery of content and prepare learners for a lifetime of learning. Make connections between classroom and culture using media literacy core concepts that build critical thinking. We discuss the implications of such practices for classroom management, assessment of student learning, and more. You’ll have time to plan how to bring inquiry learning pedagogies back to your classroom by creating media that supports the needs of your learners.

Get ready for a fun hands-on workshop where you’ll learn about Invention Literacy, Making, and Design Thinking using the award winning Makey Makey invention kit used by educators in all 50 states and around the world and featured in TED talks. Makey Makey believes that the Maker Movement is more than just robots, 3D printing, or STEM, or even building things. It allows students to become hardware engineers and solve real-world design challenges by providing a landscape that fosters curiosity and creates vibrant learners. This workshop is intended to help educators who work with students in grades K-12 explore Inventing, Design Thinking, and Making using the Makey Makey.

This hands-on, create to connect and doodle to learn workshop will have you connecting with your inner doodler, tapping into the power of visual thinking and learning ways to combine what you already do in your classroom with meaningful visual and doodle filled experiences that are sure to enhance your teaching and improve learning tomorrow. Come discover all the ways some new thinking, a pencil and some paper can improve comprehension, retention, attention, recall and so much more, all while bringing out the best in your teaching and in student’s learning.

Play isn’t a forbidden word in the classroom. Join us as we explore how play and learning are inexorably linked and how to create meaningful, engaging, and lasting moments through playful and game-based learning. Participants will gain firsthand experience with playful and game-based learning and begin creating their own experiences to start using in the classroom immediately.