At the conference in Portland, Oregon I got to catch up with some great people and spend some time listening and learning from them.

First was Dan Meyer. If you are a math teacher he’s a must follow in your RSS reader and if you ever get a change to go to one of his sessions it’s a must as well. Here are the resources from his sessions (that he allowed me to share with you). Would love to talk with some Math teachers who are implementing some of his strategies of using Media in the Math classroom.

Next up was Diana Laufenberg an amazing high school social studies teacher who takes project based learning in a networked world to the next level. Her keynote struck me as she sees her job as “helping students to build network, connected systems that allow them to learn” her latest challenge to her students is to find a country that is having an election before May, find a high school student in that country and have them take a picture of the election process. That’s it….no help, no how too, the kids need to find a way to connect with others through whatever networks they have.

Lastly was the closing keynote. S. Craig Watkins a professor/researcher from Austin, Texas who works with the MacArthur foundation. He spent a good part of his talk speaking about Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out. The PDF you read in course 1. They are doing a new study based on the findings of this one that will be out in a couple years.

He talked about YouMedia Chicago a library that used the findings in Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out to redesign their library. Fascinating video and website at the link above. How can you use these findings to redesign your classroom or learning space? How to you bring these ideas into your lessons?

That’s my boarding call…..a lot of reflecting to do on the plane…….

The new site design also includes new colors the purple and green are colors of community and education and the circle itself represents the community of learners we hope this site represents.

The idea behind the site was to promote as much as possible the community of learners. The most resent blog posts, the user profile pics, the groups, the forums…everything about the front page is about promoting the community and making it easy for you to connect to each other.

If you find any mistakes, or something doesn’t look right please let me know. It’s a website which means it’s in constant tweaking mode. If there is something you see that can be improved let me know as well.

We’re also running the latest version of WordPress 3.3.1. So if you can’t find a link or something has moved that’s what to search for on Google or YouTube to find your answer.

I’m excited we’ve got the new site launched. We’ve been working on it since November so it’s great to see it go live and hopefully make in impact on your COETAIL experience.

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Ready or not a new school year is upon us and here on the CoETaIL site we’re looking forward to another great year as the CoETaIL program continues to expand. This will be the second year of CoETaIL under this site and structure and the expansion of the program to international schools continues to grow. Here’s a list of schools and cohorts and where they are in the program.

Taipei American School Cohort: Beginning course 4: Course 4: Technology: A Catalyst for Learning

BKK Cohort: Beginning Course 2: 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues

EARCOS Cohort: Beginning Course 3:Visual Literacy: Effective Communicators and Creators

We’re also excited to see three new cohorts get started this Fall.

Yokohama International School

American Embassy School: Beginning Course 1 Sept 14th

Zurich International School

All together that’s about 150 active CoETaILers to start the school year with the potential for other cohorts to come online throughout the year.

Get Connected:

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Throughout the CoETaIL program we talk about being connected, creating your personal learning network and using the educators connected around the world to learn from. As CoETaILers you have a unique opportunity to connect with and learn from each other. There are many different ways to do this.

Twitter:

In your Google Docs you’ll find a Google Spreadsheet where you can add your Twitter URL. Once you do that you’ll be added to the CoETaIL twitter list where you can follow all the CoETaILers that are on Twitter. Here’s the link:

http://twitter.com/#!/jutecht/lists/coetail-asia

Simply click on the link and follow then click follow on the list. You’ll then be able to follow all the CoETaILers, learn from them, bounce ideas off them, and have them be part of your learning network.

Groups and Forums on the Site:

Right here on the CoETaIL site we’ve given you ways to communicate and connect with others as well. There are many different groups that you can join as well as forums that might have answers to some of your most pressing of questions about this site, the program, or ideas to use in your own classroom.

Get involved:

At the end of the day it’s about being engaged in the conversation and being involved in the community. What you get out of this course and how it changes your life, your teaching, your perspective is up to you. You’ll get out of this program what you put into it. Start creating new habits around how you learn, who you connect with, and how you engage in your personal learning network. Making a conscious effort to start the year off right will help and keep you motivated all year long.

Learn your way around the site:

The CoETaIL site is running the latest WordPress Multi-User installation with the Buddypress plugin which makes it a very robust social network. There are other great features of this social-network like the ability to friend someone, send private messages and even update your status much like Facebook. Take some time in these beginning weeks to click and find your way around the site. Some updates:

- New Themes have been added

- New Plugins have been added…including a Google+ plugin!

Take some time to set up your blog and get it looking great for the new year.

We’re here to help:

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Kim and I are excited to be adding Dana Watts as an administrator running the American Embassy School Cohort. Kim and I worked with Dana at ISB and she was a graduate of the first CoETaIL cohort two years ago. Since then she’s left ISB to join AES in the role of Middle School Technology Facilitator where she’s spearheading a lot of new initiatives at the school including running their CoETaIL program.

Know that we are here to help, yes the technology can be frustrating at times, and yes it doesn’t always work the way it should, but that’s what we’re here for. You can e-mail us, ask a question in the forum or catch us online and we’ll do the best we can to help you out. The CoETaIL community is very supportive so I highly recommend asking a question in the forums or to a group. An e-mail to use is just one set of eyes on the problem. By posting to the forum you’ll get many more people thinking and helping you out.

We’ll see you online!

I for one am looking forward to a great year of learning from all of you. What I love about teaching these courses is that I learn way more from all of you and the great stuff you’re doing in your classrooms then I could ever imagine. This is a great community to belong to and I’m looking forward to learning along with you.

So over the next couple of days if the site is down from time to time please bear with us. When the transition is done I’ll let you know. Things will be faster, backed-up, and one less thing for me to stress about. :0

Thanks,

Jeff

Local Cohorts

Local cohorts are a community of educators that meet part time in a face to face setting as well as take advantage of the technology as they learn it to complete the CoETaIL courses. The advantage of a local cohort is that a school can bring together educators and build common understanding and technology capacity within their organization. Schools that have used this approach have seen great gains in appropriate and authentic technology use in the classroom to enhance the learning of students. International School Bangkok and Taipei American School have both used this model with great success.

The down side to this model is that a school needs to find an instructor to run the course. Whether it be someone internal or contracting out to a SUNY adjunct professors such as Kim Cofino and Jeff Utecht (co-founders of this program), finding an instructor who is knowledgeable with technology, pedagogy and the future of learning is critical to making this certificate program work.

Online Cohort

Our first online cohort will begin March, 2011 as we partner with EARCOS and SUNY-Buffalo State to make available this program to all educators in the Asia region. The online cohort will meet together face to face for the first course at the EARCOS Teachers Conference in March 2011 (Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia) and again for the fifth course at EARCOS Teachers Conference in March 2012 (Bangkok, Thailand).

Courses 2,3,4 will be done online utilizing the Internet and the tools that we set up in the first course when we meet together face-to-face.

The online cohort allows educators who live in Asia in remote areas, or in schools not large enough to sponsor a local cohort the ability to still take part in this great learning opportunity. Although not a full online certificate program we are hoping to move that way in the future. If you are interesting in taking part in the Online Cohort registration is now open and you can sign up on the Online Cohort site.

The full certificate program consists of  5 class (15 credit) accredited and ran through Buffalo State, SUNY. Participants can also carry there 15 credits forward in completing a Master’s Degree through Buffalo State, SUNY if they wish.

The Courses:
Course 1: Information Literacy and Ourselves as Learners
(SUNY: Adult Learning in the Workplace ADE 634)

A foundation course, introducing learners to the methods of information literacy in the 21st century. Independent learning requires that students and teachers are able to evaluate the authenticity, relevance and bias of information that inundates us. Tools and strategies
for teachers and students for accessing, filtering, evaluating and applying information will be addressed. This course will address meta-cognition and an awareness of how we learn in a digital landscape. Students will be provided with strategies for reflective practice and using prior knowledge to build understanding and deal with new technology.

Course 2: 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues
(SUNY: EDC 601 Instructional Technologies)
The 21st Century learner had been bombarded with new technology, access to wide ranging global communication, and a plethora of information. Accompanying this new world of learning are ethical, moral, social, and emotional considerations that are changing the way in which our students are interacting with the world. This course will explore current issues inherent in our technological world.

Course 3:Visual Literacy: Effective Communicators and Creators
(SUNY: EDC 6054 Authoring for Educators)

The curriculum of design and attention to aesthetic has always been the property of the visual arts, however as so much our media is now consumed and created electronically a new set of visual literacies have emerged. Awareness of how an audience interacts with that medium and how to take advantage of this to strengthen their message or purpose for communication will be addressed.

Course 4: Technology: A Catalyst for Learning
(SUNY: EDC 672 The Microcomputer in the Instructional Program)

Research based best practice for the embedded use of technology for learning will be shared and practiced. The focus will be on the habits that provide students with the ability to use technology for its greatest learning advantage. The best use of laptop computers, Smart boards, etc will be addressed as embedded tools to foster optimum learning of the curriculum. The optimal use of communication tools such as pod casts, blogs, nings, wikis, and voice threads will be addressed with tips for management and strategies to promote maximum learning in classrooms.

Course 5: Alive in the Classroom: Applied Web 2.0 Technology for Learning
(SUNY: EDC 594 Emerging Technologies to Support Teaching and Learning)
The course will be about the classroom application, and reflection on the use of web 2.0 technology in the classroom. Participants will be asked to create a plan for the embedded use of technology to foster learning, share with the group and offer feedback on their cohorts’ embedded use of technology for learning. Did the use of technology lead to deeper learning?