2012: My Year In Review

2012 : My Year In  Review

State of Now #140 conference 2012

Lisa Thumann at Edcamp Leadership NJPSA

Marc Seigel at Edcamp Philly 2012

This year has been a great year for my Professional Learning Network (PLN-#njed, #satchat, #teachercast), but difficult in other instances.  My year began with me presenting at the NJASA Techspo conference in January 2012 with the Sayreville Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Edward Aguiles (@eaguiles), on Using Available Technology Resources in Your School District. I have been a member of Twitter for years but did not participate but "lurked" to see what other were twitting in my social network. After the NJASA conference, I began to be more involved in my social network due to the contacts I had made from the previous year and at the conference. In February I had the honor of presenting at the PETE and C conference in Hershey, Pa. I  caught up with friends from the previous year's conference and hung out with friends and colleagues from PAECT. It is always an honor to represent NJAET at this conference, and the board members of PAECT are very much involved in the use of technology within education. This conference includes workshops, panel discussions and presentations on both infrastructure, coaching and curriculum aspects of technology within academia. After researching BYOD for over two years and proposing BYOD to the Sayreville School District, I presented at the NJECC 2012 Annual conference at Montclair State University my process. It was great to meet up with great education technologists, Lisa Thumann-@lthumann, Samatha Morra-@sammorra, Barry Haines-@barryhaines, Sue Sullivan, etc. at the conference. The contacts, presentations, etc. at the conference inspired me to continue with pushing forward, with what I believe, is cutting edge of technology in my own school district.

As year continued, I participated in Tabcamp, Edcamp Harrisburg, Edcamp Philly, #140 Conference in NY: The State of Now, Edcamp Leadership, the first West Essex Tech Symposium, Edscape 2012, and at NJASL 2012 Fall Conference. I also attended many webinars by edWeb.net on Ed Leadership 2.0: Essential Skills for Innovative Principals, BYOD, 1 to 1, Emerging Tech for School Librarians, etc. Each conference and community was innovative, inventive, inspiring, enthusiastic, and gave me a boost in my passion for technology. In the beginning of the year, I began doing my Ph.D. in Education Technology at Walden University but due to the demands of work and family, I stopped. Then I signed up for CIO certification done at Rutgers University and this opened my understanding on many of the technology infrastructure needs of the Sayreville School District and that without the infrastructure, many of the technologies used in the district would not function correctly or provide necessary advanced technology for the classroom.

My PLN has really grown over the year and the professionals I have meet and become friends with have really impacted my belief that technology will change how instruction and learning will be done now and in the future. K-12 education has to change and how students learn today is different from when I went to school. Being in the classroom observing teachers and students, I realize that using technology as a tool allows for all students to achieve their maximum ability and provide them the ability to be inventive and innovative.

The 2013 year is one of amazing/wonderful possibilities. I am looking forward the contacts, conversations, discussions, innovations and what will happen in the coming year.