ACTEM 2019 Reflections

ACTEM is the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine. I had the pleasure of attending their fall conference this year and it was a blast.

Maine is doing some great things with technology, with state support and the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)...

In 2002, Maine became the first state to provide a personal portable computer device to each 7th and 8th grade student and teacher, along with the software, wireless networks, technical support, and professional development needed to effectively use the technology for teaching and learning.  Read more about the groundbreaking MLTI program on the History page.

The program has changed somewhat over the years, but the goal remains the same:  to provide State support for access to technology-enhanced educational experiences for all students. In the 2018-19 school year, the State will be helping over 300 schools obtain educational technology and the professional learning necessary to take advantages of all that technology offers.

The conference had the usual slate of featured keynotes and breakout sessions. What I found so valuable was for the relative small size of the conference (a few hundred attendees) the quality of the presentations, and skill/knowledge of the presenters, was amazing.

Comic Books: Thinking Outside the Presentation Box

For this year's LHRIC Tech Expo I presented some of our work around comics books and graphic novel style projects using Google Slides and Google Drawing.

Comic Books with Google Slides

Last year I posted about the 3rd grade Cultural Tour comic books project I did. It was a first attempt and it went well. But as with anything there is always room to improve.

This year I created a tutorial for my students and colleagues to follow to allow them more time to work independently.

The below Slides presentation is the comic book I made for colleagues as part of a professional development series we call ST@C.

There are also links to various examples of student work. Google Slides is an awesome tool, not just for traditional presentations but for pushing the bounds of possibilities.

Hope this helps other teachers and students get started creating comics with Slides...

Cultural Comics with Google Slides: a 3rd grade experiment

It was the beginning of June and my colleague Ms. Conklin and I met to talk about a final project. A project the students could have a lot of fun with through the last month, but also a project that would also incorporate their cultural universal unit of study.

We decided to take their research on a location and turn it into a comic book style travel guide. A comic book they create from the ground up and build collaboratively.

We decided to use Google Drawing and Google Slides to make comic books...