Using technology & social media to Teach the Hudson Valley
July 26-28, 2011
FDR Home & Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY
Students -- and growing numbers of teachers and site staff -- are digital natives. iPods, wikis, online collections and collaborations, PDAs, virtual tours, and more, are second nature to them.
At this year's institute we'll uncover ways to use this proliferating assortment of tools to build community and teach about special places.* And, if you're nervous about trying some of this out in your classroom or museum, you'll be surrounded by colleagues eager to help.
REGISTER NOW!
(and scroll down to see our new highlight video!)
Dina Strasser will jump start our thinking about technology and place-based education by asking, "Would the Lorax or FDR Tweet?"
Here's how she describes her talk.
"Place. There's plenty of definitions to go around for this concept -- the watershed, the largest local natural landmark, a 50-mile radius, the boundaries of a community.
"In the past 20 years, however, the revolutions of technology have been testing the limits of these definitions as never before.
"Where do we go from here? How do technologies deepen our student's knowledge of place? How can they detract from that same knowledge?
"Together we'll discuss the ramifications of technology on research, neuroscience, and sensory knowledge of the world, developing a critical approach to technology in place-based learning."
Dina, who lived within a stone's throw of the Hudson for all of her childhood, is shown above with her daughter. Her son, she says, is off-camera picking apples with his toy robot arm. An 11-year veteran of ESL and ELA classrooms, Dina is a NYS Master Teacher and former Fulbright Scholar. She currently teaches middle school outside Rochester.
Her blog, The Line, was named one of the top ten education blogs of 2010 by the Washington Post. Dina has also written for the New York Times, London Times Online, and the Association for Supervision and Curricular Development.
THV's three-day schedule offers participants a variety of sessions including hands-on workshops, discussions, and field experiences. Facilitators and speakers span all disciplines and include professors, teachers, authors, library/media specialists, scientists, and more.
* A good place to start digging into this year's topic is Best Practice: Think Globally--or Locally an exchange between middle school teachers Dina Strasser and Bill Ferriter from Teacher Magazine.
Here's a taste of the creativity and passionate learning you can expect at the Institute:
Students -- and growing numbers of teachers and site staff -- are digital natives. iPods, wikis, online collections and collaborations, PDAs, virtual tours, and more, are second nature to them.