AIMS TECH RETREAT 2014

Each May AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) hosts their annual Technology Retreat. "Designed to rejuvenate and inspire, the retreat provides a rich learning environment with opportunities to collaborate, network, and even experience a handful of hands-on technology activities." (aimsmmdc.org)

This year, Joy Foust Colburn and I had the honor of presenting. Our session, Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus, was geared towards helping teachers, librarians and technology coordinators design effective blended learning lessons.

Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus

Presenters: Mary Dobroth, Holton-Arms School; Joy Foust Colburn, Bullis School

Learn how you can use blended learning at your school or confer with colleagues to make existing program more effective. Discuss how blended learning can be implemented at different educational levels and for professional development. Explore the spectrum between fully online and offline classroom instruction.
Build a resource for your classes to use outside of the school day. Draw on student knowledge and build an online community. Make it possible for students to learn asynchronously wherever and whenever.
Audience: General Interest, Library, Technology 
Division: Lower School, Middle School, Upper School

We knew right away we did not want to be the type of presenters that stand in front of the room and talk at our participants for an hour. I am always amazed at the number of presentations I have gone to where I am lectured on not lecturing students. We wanted to model blended learning as much as we could to exchange information and provide an opportunity for hands-on learning.

Because our schools use two different learning management systems, Joy and I decided to use Google Sites to house the information we planned to share as well as provide a space for participants to begin crafting their own lessons. This method of presentation proved to be very successful. The participants in our session did not have to worry about taking notes because they knew they had immediate access to everything we were sharing, and because we had shared the information we didn't feel like we had to spend time covering every single thing. This allowed us to focus more on the hands on application of the material. Our goal was for participants to have time to look at examples and start applying some of the ideas to their own classes. Click here to check it out: Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus

As I prepare for my next conference presentation this summer, this experience has made me start to think...
What do most participants hope to gain from conference sessions?
What are the most useful methods of presenting a large amount of information?
Would having access to an entire site of information and resources be helpful or overwhelming to me if I was the participant?
What makes for a memorable and meaningful session?

What do you think?