Page 27 - THE Journal, January/February 2018

New developments for CUE in profes- sional learning will soon include online, asynchronous learning that will be priced so that teachers can self-fund their own upskilling. We have Apple-, Google- and Microsoft-centric versions coming online this spring. What’s great about these online courses is that they will blend ed tech skills with excellent pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. Great teaching is way more than gadgetry.
As far as professional learning at CUE, we are excited to continue with our wildly popular ... CUE Rock Star Black Label Camps (cue.org/BlackLabel), where we are able to bring very high-quality professional learning events directly to districts, saving them any associated costs for hotels and mileage....
THE Journal: can you talk a little about the format of the asynchronous courses and the way you’ll be handling continuing education credits? Will these be open to all educators or just CUE members?
Corippo: We’ll be developing curricula that are very much hands-on and project-based (things folks will be able to use in class immediately). We’d love to have CEUs, but it’s not finalized yet. These will be open
to anyone — and CUE membership is free anyway....
THE Journal: What are some of the trends in education you see impacting your mem- bers now, and how will CUE be addressing those in its events and advocacy activities? Corippo: The big struggle we are seeing is that as more and more districts go 1-to-1, there is a real gap developing in how teach- ers are (or aren’t ) embracing the devices to actually teach differently. We are seeing the need for professional development towards SAMR and 4Cs type mindsets — the more devices, the bigger the problem is becoming. Districts are also wrestling with being able to continue refreshing almost everything, projectors and student devices especially. In California and Nevada, funding streams are drying up in the general budget, making ad- ditional professional learning more difficult
to fund at the same time as the needs in the classroom are dramatically increasing.
Another significant area of concern is the potential endangerment of E-rate and net neutrality for schools and educators. The CUE Legislative Advocacy Team recently scored a victory in this area, partnering with California State Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin to pass Assembly Joint Resolution 7 (AJR7) which states: “The new Chair of the FCC, Ajit Pai, has a history of opposing these programs while serving as a Commissioner and in his capacity as
Chair has indicated that he plans to either roll back or decline to enforce many of these consumer protection regulations.
It is my hope that members of Congress and other FCC Commissioners will
work to protect these critical programs and AJR 7 provides them with ample rationale for their decisions.”
CUE believes that ample bandwidth is critical for contemporary classrooms, and we’ll continue to mobilize our mem- bers and their associated CUE Learning Networks to help our legislators under- stand these critical educational needs.
SPRING CUE KEYNOTERS
Palm Springs is once again the site for
CUE’s bi-annual education technology
conference. CUE 2018 begins in the
evening on Wednesday, March 14, and
ends at lunch time on Saturday, March
17. Formerly known as “Computer-Using
Educators,” CUE is a nonprofit dedicated
to inspiring teachers and their learners with ed-tech innovation.
Each day attendees will have time to attend up to four hour-long sessions, participate in networking meetings and gain new perspectives in headliner presentations. Although the session schedule is still in development, the conference has announced its four keynoters:
Matt Miller, former teacher, current blogger and author, will be sharing the tenets of his philosophy (and the subject of his best-known book), Ditch That Textbook.
Meredith Walker, a television producer, will share her vision for helping young people “cultivate their authentic selves,” a theme she has developed alongside actress Amy Poehler through their website, Smart Girls.
Brothers Peter and Paul Reynolds will share their stories, Peter as
the author and illustrator of such books as Happy Dreamer, and Paul
as the CEO and co-founder of FableVision and its education tech arm, FableVision Learning. Both companies produce educational media, mobile games and apps “designed to move the world to a better place.”
Finally, educator and blogger Erin Klein will speak about the power of student voice, how the right kind of technology integration can enhance learning and how classroom design influences today’s learners.
Pre-registration is $359; on-site registration is $399. Full-day workshops on Google and iOS are an additional $225 each. — Di Schaffhauser
Learn more at spring.cue.org.
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