Registration ends March 19th or when all 300 slots are filled, so get your registration in soon!

Greetings from Mobile Learning Experience 2011 and the Arizona K12 Center!

We are excited about your participation in the first-ever Mobile Learning Experience in Phoenix, Arizona. Please visit the Mobile Learning Experience 2011 registration desk in the Regency Foyer at the Hyatt Regency Downtown to pick up your badge and bag between noon and 1pm April 6. The schedule is online and we suggest looking it over before the conference. You do not need to pre-register for the breakout sessions. Seating in breakout sessions will be first-come, first-serve and based on availability of chairs.

Getting to the Hyatt
The Hyatt Regency Downtown is located at 122 North Second Street and four miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The hotel does not have its own airport shuttle. They do have a flat discounted rate of $18 with Yellow Cab. Taxis are available outside of the airport’s baggage claim. Alternatively, you can take the Valley METRO Light Rail for $1.75. Call the Hyatt at 1-602-252-1234 for Light Rail instructions.

Parking
If you drive to the hotel, you need to park in the Regency Garage located on the corner of 2nd Street and Adams. Overnight self-parking is available at the discounted rate of $14.25 per day and the daily self-parking rate is $12 per day. Upon checking in at the Hyatt please let the Front Desk know that you have a vehicle parked in the Regency Garage and you will be provided with a voucher to put in your vehicle that will need to be given to the gate upon exiting the garage. The discounted parking rate will be included in your folio at check-out as long as you park in the Regency Garage.

Meals and Accommodations
Your registration includes morning and afternoon snacks and beverages, dinner April 6, and breakfast and lunch buffets April 7 and 8. If you have any special dietary requirements, please email cheryl@azk12.org. You have private accommodations at the Hyatt Regency Downtown for the nights of April 6 and 7 and these accommodations have been booked for you. Official check-in time is 3pm. When you arrive you may leave your bags with the Bell Desk until your guestroom is available. Early check-in will be based on availability. You must check out by noon April 8 unless you have extended your stay with the Hyatt.

Internet Access
You will be provided with complimentary wireless access in your guestroom, the public areas of the hotel and in the meeting spaces. There are two separate networks for the wireless access. For the guestroom access you will need to agree to a daily charge when logging on and the fee will be waived from your room folio at check-out. The guestroom Internet will also work in the public areas of the hotel including the areas outside of the meeting spaces. The meeting space access will be used for when you are inside the meeting rooms and will require a code each day. The code and access directions will be provided on-site at the Mobile Learning Experience 2011 registration desk.

Restaurants and Points of Interest
The Hyatt is located in the heart of downtown and within close proximity to many points of interest. There are links to many of these, along with tips on where to eat and things to do in Phoenix at mobile2011.org/location. And, of course, there are also apps designed to help you find nearby restaurants and attractions. Check out Apple’s list of Apps for Going Out.

Welcome Reception
LanSchool is generously sponsoring a beer and wine reception from 5:30pm-6:00pm April 6 in the Regency Foyer. Dinner and Keynote by Graham Brown-Martin take place afterwards in the Regency Ballroom.

What to Bring
Arizona is known for being hot and sunny. Please bring along sunscreen, especially if you plan to participate in the scavenger hunt. Please dress in layers because meeting room temperatures are often difficult to regulate and you may find yourself in a chilly room. Be sure to bring your fully charged mobile device(s). Pack your power adapters and cords and make friends by bringing a power strip. If you are an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad user, please know your Apple ID and password so you can download apps.

Apps
We suggest loading the Bump app to your Apple or Android handheld or phone and prepare contact information you’d like to share with others at the conference, including your Twitter, Facebook, and blog URLs. We also suggest loading a QR Code reader. i-nigma is a popular reader for iOS and you can get it free from the App Store. Android users can try QR Droid.

Meet with an App Developer
Do you have an idea for your own app but don’t know where to take it? You can have the opportunity to sit down with an app developer and and explore the possibility of a shared revenue venture.  If this interests you email katherine.burdick@mac.com today as space for this opportunity is very limited.

Partners
Thank you to Mobile Learning Experience 2011’s partners. The Arizona K12 Center offers quality professional development for educators and has handled registration, logistics, and funding for the event. LanSchool is sponsoring the cocktail reception. BrainPOP sponsored a blogging contest, and they will bring a variety of the newest mobile tools and set up a “sandbox” table for you to explore. Not only can you check out the latest devices, you can download apps to preview on BrainPOP’s dime. Learning A-Z has helped financially. They offer downloadable, projectable, and eBook resources through the Web and iTunes that foster reading, writing, and science skill acquisition.

News, Twitter, and Facebook
Please visit mobile2011.org’s News section for updates on the event. Also, follow Mobile Learning Experience on Twitter and Facebook.

We look forward to seeing you at Mobile Learning Experience 2011!

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There are eight sharing sessions scheduled at Mobile Learning Experience 2011. Topics for these sessions will be crowdsourced, meaning that those attending the conference can submit and vote on topics. The breakout rooms for sharing sessions will have a projector and document camera, allowing for any participant to share apps, ideas, examples, student work, etc. mobile2011 will seek volunteers to facilitate each sharing session. Please email tony@learninginhand.com if you are interested in facilitating a session.

Like mobile2011′s other breakout sessions, sharing sessions are 60 minutes in length. Look over mobile2011′s agenda to get an idea of the topics already offered. Sharing sessions can be a great way to fill in topics missing from the main program and for those who aren’t part of an official session to share, present, discuss, and contribute.

If you are attending Mobile Learning Experience 2011, please use the Google Moderator series to submit your suggestions for sharing sessions and to vote on those already submitted. You will need to log in with your Google Account.

Possible topics include high school math, Android apps, favorite podcasts, web-based tool sharing, fostering collaboration, English language learners, etc.

Please submit suggestions and votes before March 30th. The eight sessions will be announced shortly afterwards and added to the schedule.

The deadline for submissions is March 7, 2011. Read all the details about the giveaway at BrainPOP Educators Blog.

It’s 2011, yet we’re still talking about mobile learning as if there is any other kind of learning. There is nothing mystical about the 21st century to a 10 year old child, it is the only century they have ever known. It is a century for them where mobile communications, social media, video games, online collaboration, virtual worlds, intelligent toys, gesture & speech recognition are not technology. If technology is something that happens after you’re born then to this generation it is simply a part of their everyday landscape.

In the U.S. and Europe society has changed. We have moved from the push economy of the last century characterized by mass-production and career choices based around manufacturing or office skills to a pull economy characterised by seemingly infinite choice and transparency where traditional manufacturing and office-based careers are rapidly disappearing. This is the century where China owns manufacturing and where Africa and the Middle-East owns the majority of the natural resources.

Rapid technological change is driving unpredictable disruptions across everything we thought we knew and this presents educators with an unprecedented challenge to determine how we prepare young people for a world we can not possibly predict.

One solution is to do nothing and leave market forces to take their toll, risking the future of a generation of learners and national well-being. Despite the disruptions that are affecting almost every facet of society, the education sector has stood resolute against change like King Canute ordering back the sea.

The education sector is not immune to disruption. It’s already been happening whilst many weren’t looking. Todays children are blogging, using social media, collaborating, creating and communicating in their digital domain. This informal learning is taking them beyond the formal learning gained in the classroom or university and may well be more relevant to their future.

A reboot of our education systems is not enough. We need an entirely new operating system that understands, embraces and tracks the world in which our learners are living and expected to contribute.

Mobile technologies are now a fact. Those who do not incorporate them willingly and pro-actively with their practice are opting themselves, and more importantly their students, out of this century.

Graham Brown-Martin is the founder of Learning Without Frontiers (LWF), a disruptive think tank focused on new ideas for learning and teaching practice leading to improvements of a transformational nature. LWF hosts online communities, international conferences, and publishes content for international thought leaders, innovators, and practitioners in the education, technology and entertainment sectors. LWF also operates a number of programmes to identify and celebrate innovative talent.

Prior to LWF Graham has enjoyed a career spanning the educational technology and entertainment software industries, having built a number of creatively and technologically innovative enterprises that were sold to larger corporations including Philips Electronics and Virgin Interactive. Graham has also worked in several developing nations.

Aside from his work and entrepreneurship in technology, Graham has also directed music videos for The Fall, Malcolm McLaren, Salt Tank and Future Sound of London amongst others and with artist, Buggy G Riphead, he designed the ship’s computer for the feature film, “Lost in Space”.

Graham has also appeared in numerous publications and media including The Times Educational Supplement, Libération, The Assignment, Trace, Transculturalism, BBC Money Programme, The Guardian, Management Today, and The Times.

Graham has four children and lives in a leafy enclave in South-East London, UK. You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and at Mobile Learning Experience 2011.

The iSchool Initiative was formed by Travis Allen in 2009 when he received an iPhone for Christmas. He began to use his iPhone in class as a learning tool and was told by his teachers that it was not an educational device. Travis believed there was tremendous potential in the device as a educational tool and formed a concept around mobile learning. Upon beginning Kennesaw State University, Travis discovered SIFE, a student organization that would help him turn his idea into a full blown non-profit organization. Travis is currently a sophomore at Kennesaw State University and has a team 25 students dedicated to strengthening and spreading the iSchool Initiative.

Lynne Goodhand has been at Culbreth for eight of her ten years as a school administrator. She has planned, developed, and implemented the program at Culbreth where students carry and use mobile computers throughout the school day. Her experience with iPod touches has helped her introduce iPads to the school’s staff where they are focusing their use in literature circles.

Culbreth’s Instructional Technology Specialist is Val Brown. She lives and breathes iPod touches and iPads as she’s managing a total of 800 devices for students and staff. She has more experience than almost anyone else on the planet with Apple handhelds. Her expertise includes managing Bretford carts, iTunes U, the App Store, and the school’s Cisco wireless network and website. Val is about to finish a Masters degree in School Administration and Instructional Technology.

Lynne and Val, along with their principal Susan Wells, have much to offer teachers, administrators, and technology specialists who are interested in large-scale deployment of mobile devices for learning. Connect with them at Mobile Learning Experience 2011 in April!

Mobile Movie Making
Presented by Tony Vincent, AZ

See how an iPod touch can be used to film, edit, enhance, and publish short videos. Tony shares apps and techniques for making excellent educational videos. Learn about tips and tricks for helping students memorize lines, improving sound quality, changing camera angles, and much more. Best of all, be inspired to guide students to make movies that are so well done that you’ll want to publish them as a podcast so the world can enjoy the masterpieces!

Putting Mobile Back in Mobile Learning
Presented by Mark van ‘t Hooft, OH

Recent critics of mobile learning have argued that the mLearning revolution has merely provided “mobile learning in the classroom” (Nash, 2009), which is an oxymoron at best. While mobile tools provide 1:1 access to digital tools in formal classroom settings that is relatively cheap and affordable, it is their mobility that creates the most powerful opportunities for learning. This presentation will discuss the importance of “mobile” in mobile learning, illustrated with examples from a variety of projects.

iPad iTouch, iPhone Therefore iLearn
Presented by Katherine Burdick, AZ

Katherine will review over 30 apps for the elementary classroom looking at those for math, language arts, science, social studies, and for making presentations. Strengths and weaknesses as well as tips and strategies for use are highlighted.

1:1 Netbooks: Then, Now, and in the Future
Presented by George Lieux, AR

Over the past three years, Fort Smith Public Schools District in Fort Smith, Arkansas, has purchased over 4,000 netbooks for K-12 classrooms and trained 224 teachers to use them in their classrooms. The coordinator of the program will discuss all aspects of the program in this session. Topics include educational gains, netbook and other equipment used and their costs, selection of teachers, initial and ongoing training of teachers, evaluating the program, and tech support.

iPod touch School-wide Users Panel
Panel Includes Jennifer Wivagg, TX, Phil Hardin, NC, Susan Wells, NC, David Hogan, TX, and Suren Ramasubbu, CA

iPod Touch is increasingly being adopted as a mobile learning device by schools. The ecosystem of applications, device management, and wireless connectivity is making the deployment of these devices in the classroom possible while enforcing school policies. At Rowan-Salisbury, every student in participating 21st century classrooms carries a school-issued iPod touch. Teachers have found inventive ways of utilizing these devices to support educational needs. At Comal ISD, English language learners have been issued an iPod touch pre-loaded with specific applications and tasks designed to align with individual learning objectives. At Culbreth Middle, students use the iPod touches for a variety of project-based learning tasks. In this discussion, the panel will talk about the challenges faced from different perspectives – leadership, technology, budget, policy, deployment challenges, device management, classroom use, and results.

Is there a Magical Device for School?
Presented by Scott Meech, IL

iPod, iPad, notebook, netbook, smartbook: these are just some of the gadgets schools can choose from today. Is there an “ideal” device for student or teacher use? Do we set a school standard or let users choose their own? Join this team of experienced education leaders as they look at the positives and negatives of the different options, examine how to match hardware purchases with instructional and professional development needs, and describe how their schools are using the mobile devices they’ve chosen.

Mobile Microblogging
Presented by Jason Rhode, IL

Mobile microblogging involves users easily sharing text, photos, recorded audio, and even video using a single mobile app. During this hands-on session we’ll explore several free microblogging tools, including Posterous and Tumblr, and we’ll use their free accompanying mobile apps that make it possible to easily post text, photos, video, and even voice notes to these microblogging platforms from any mobile device.  We’ll also discuss pedagogical possibilities of integrating mobile microblogging in the classroom and share sample learning activity ideas.  Prior to the session, please sign-up for free accounts on Posterous at posterous.com and Tumblr at tumblr.com and download the free apps for both of these services on your mobile device from your device’s mobile app store.

iAuthor an iBook!
Presented by Meg Wilson, CT

Learn how to become an author in minutes by using an ePub template to create an iBook that can be viewed on an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad in the iBooks app. Discover how to embed audio, photos, video, and web links to make a personalized multi-modal iBook. iBooks are great for both students and educators to assist in the creation of books, reports, papers, lesson unit outlines, or other classroom reading materials.

Learning Differently Using Mobile Devices
Presented by Derek Keenan, Alberta, Canada

Explore critical thinking and authentic learning with mobile devices.  This session will feature a description of the ways that we can enable students to think differently about course materials, and modify traditional learning structures to match new ways students want to interact with materials.  This session will show the value that many modern teachers see in mobile learning, but may not be able to yet articulate or implement.

10 Apps You Can’t Graduate Without
Presented by Travis Allen, GA

The iSchool Initiative shows educators and students practical ways to use devices like the iPad and iPod touch in the classroom. They will go over some of their favorite apps and ways they as students all use this technology in their college courses. The focus is on the student perspective: What do they as students think of this technology and how do they feel it can better their education.

Web 2.0 and Technology Standards
Presented by George Lieux, AR

This session will align numerous free, online tools with ISTE’s Technology Standards. Suggestions for teacher and student use will be given for each of the tools.

Mobilize for Productivity
Presented by Tony Vincent, AZ

As a busy school leader, you receive dozens of emails a day, deal with scheduling meetings, and have an endless to do list. Never fear! There are tools, apps, and strategies to help you keep your head above water by keeping organized and connected. Productivity is described by guru David Allen as “advanced common sense” and by applying some simple strategies, you can unclutter your inbox, browse the web more efficiently, keep a centralized to do list, manage voicemails, and much more, all while being mobile.

Special Education App Development
Presented by Lisa Brandolo Johnson and Jeffrey Johnson

After developing iOS apps for two years, Lisa and Jeffrey have a unique perspective on app development and special education. In this session, they will outline what they’ve learned from this experience, give tips and tricks for your iOS devices, and give an intro to some of their products – iCommunicate, iReward, and My Pictures Talk. Come prepared to ask any questions about app development, differences between devices, or how to use any features of iPads, iPhones, or iPod Touches.

Appsolutely Changing Special Education: Leading the iPad Revolution
Presented by David Ligon, AZ

The iPad is fundamentally changing the way we need to look at funding, organizing, and deploying technology, as well as how this device can exponentially improve special education. The presentation will focus on the possibilities, management from a school perspective for teachers and tech staff, and successful implementations of the iPad. The discussion will cover an overview of iPads as Assistive Technology (AT) and a case study of iPads currently being used to service special needs students in PreK-12 schools. The session also includes a question and answer session about iPads as Assistive Technology and the Volume Purchase Program.

Making History Local, Digital, and Relevant: The GeoHistorian Project
Presented by Mark van ‘t Hooft, OH

The GeoHistorian Project is an initiative from Kent State University’s Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET), aimed at educating K-12 students to become local historians, reducing the barriers between schools and community resources, giving students opportunities to create mobile digital content for their community, and investigating the potential of mobile tools for learning in informal settings. Currently in its first year, the project provides teachers with interdisciplinary curriculum and associated professional development. Student-created digital, and local historical content will be available online and freely accessible by way of QR codes (2-dimensional bar codes) that will be placed in relevant community locations and can be scanned with wireless mobile devices. This session will provide an overview of the GeoHistorian Project, including curriculum examples and some preliminary student-produced digital content.

Mobile Motivation: Using the iPod Touch in the Foreign Language Classroom
by Cori Araza, AZ

The iPod Touch is a great tech tool, with loads of potential in the classroom. Explore apps designed for foreign language teachers (mainly Spanish and ESL) and learn how to focus student attention on the app “at hand.”   View lesson plans that use iPod touch and find out how to manage a mobile learning environment. See what these 21st century skills can do for student motivation and target language fluency.

Evolution & Evaluation: Planning & Implementing a Statewide mLearning Initiative for Workforce Development
Presented by Michael M. Grant, TN

In June 2010, the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) launched a plan to explore mobile teaching and learning in Tennessee. Inviting postsecondary faculty from over 25 workforce development centers across the state, exploration about the impacts of mobile teaching and learning with iPads to workforce development was the goal. This session will present the evolution and evaluation of this ambitious project. We’ll consider the planning, professional development, implementation, feedback, and data we have collected to date, as well as the lessons learned from the scope of this program.

Hey, Don’t Forget About Me: Mobile Learning for Special Education Students
Presented by Mary Keeney, AZ

For most students, technology can make things EASIER. For students with disabilities, technology can make things POSSIBLE! This session will highlight a number of device and apps that can be used to support special education students in the classroom and at home. Supports for reading, writing, math, organization and communication will be included. Attendees will also examine the features of popular devices and apps and learn to critically analyze them as they relate to the characteristics of students with special education needs. Learner characteristics may include impairments in fine motor skills, vision, hearing, cognition and language. There will be opportunities for hands-on exploration at the end of this fast-paced session. General education teachers will find that many of these resources may be used with “typical” students or as part of Response to Intervention.

For updates about the Mobile Learning Experience 2011, follow @mobile2011 and search for the #mobile2011 hashtag on Twitter.

Scott’s favorite pastime is studying the impact technology is making on education. Scott’s work can be found at smeech.net and smeech-presos.wikispaces.com. Additionally, Scott has started an educational community that is focused on mobile devices and their educational value called I Education Apps Review. IEAR currently has dozens of app reviews by teachers and for teachers. The collaborative site also features management tips and helps app developers connect with educators.

Scott hosts a podcast as part of IEAR. He has great guests and is one of the few places online where you can listen to other mobile-minded educators talk about iPod touch, iPad, and Android devices.

Scott’s presentations at the Mobile Learning Experience 2011 will focus on the IEAR community, what the community has learned and taught each other, and how these devices can be managed and used effectively in the classroom. You don’t have to wait for mobile2011 to see what IEAR.org is all about. Stop by and join the online community anytime.

Follow Scott Meech on Twitter and come to mobile2011 to connect with him.