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StuCon2012- A Technology Conference BY Students FOR Students
On March 16-17, 2012, 13 students from my Semester 2 Grade 10 Technology Skills for the 21st Century Learner class attended the first ever StuCon 2012 technology conference at Hong Kong International School. This was a conference where all participating students helped design, organize, plan, and run the various workshops. In essence, it was a technology-based conference by students for students.
Photos and Collage by Thomas Galvez
Nine international schools from East and Southeast Asia attended the conference, including schools from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Indonesia.
This event, organized as a non-stop 24-hour conference, was the first of its kind. Other student-centered technology conferences exist like Flat Classroom, which my school attended last year, but none have done the 24-hour model. The organizers qualified this non-stop 24-hour approach by saying, “…[The decision] was driven by awareness that productivity is often driven by pushing mental states out of their comfort zone…” They also stated that the 24-hour approach was one of the main themes of the event. The students weren’t expected to stay awake the whole time, however. The organizers created power nap times in the schedule and any student could grab a nap in a dedicated room whenever they felt the need.
The SIS Technology Skills students started preparing for the event as soon as they started the class after Chinese New Year in February. They divided themselves into three teams where they collaborated to design and deliver a four-hour workshop each that revolved around a technology skill, process, and/or idea. The students chose their workshop topic based off of pre-existing technology skills and interests or something on which they wanted to improve technology skill-wise.
One group, consisting of Andy K., Vaneson L, Lecy C., Luke W. and, Coco X., built their workshop around video making and editing. They titled their workshop “Movie Rookies.” Participants in their workshop recreated a scene from a movie, learning about the cinematographic and editing elements in the process. You can view the commercial they created for their workshop here.
Photos and Collage by Thomas Galvez
Another group, comprised of Joe R., Jason K., Jung Woo P., and Chris T., designed their workshop around photo editing on computer and mobile devices. Their workshop was called “Digital Plastic Surgery.” They helped students improve photo-editing skills while promoting the idea of a consistent and professional looking presence of one’s self across social media applications.
The final group, an all-girl cohort consisting of Helena K., Jamison F., Saige T-H, and Madyson H., created a workshop about making original music using an online music creation and editing tool. Based off of the name of the online tool (ROC by Aviary), they called their workshop “Be a ROCkstar.” Promoting the idea of creating original music for class projects instead of using a copyrighted song from a known artist (which is illegal in most instances), these girls showed their participants how to put together an original song depending on the mood of their video.
Along with facilitating their own workshops, the students attended other technology-based workshops developed by the other participating students. They also had opportunities to interact with “gurus” that were brought in by the organizers. Two gurus came from Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood and CNN Hong Kong, respectively, while another two were a professional video game developer and a theme park engineer. The greatest amount of excitement came from those students who went on the CNN studio tour with the guru from CNN. Two of the students tweeted to their followers on Twitter upon their return that the CNN tour “was amazing!”
Overall, the students enjoyed their StuCon experience despite the inevitable exhaustion that came with such little sleep over the 24-hour time period. The students will have the opportunity to hone their new skills in future class projects. Hopefully StuCon will continue for many years to come and hopefully SIS will continue to participate in this wonderful student-centered technology event. Student reflections about the conference can be read here.
Technology Skills for the 21st Century Learner- A Course at SIS
I developed a new course for my school’s 10th graders this year called Technology Skills for the 21st Century Learner. Being that technology is such an important part of our lives today and will certainly be in the future, as well, having a class that emphasizes effective use of technology in context of real world situations is an important part of the curriculum.
This course is different than your traditional computer class, however. In the past students may have learned step-by-step how to use certain applications, then were assessed on their knowledge and/or skills in using that application. With the fast pace of change with technology, this approach is outdated since a process learned in an application or even the application itself can change in a short period of time or even become irrelevant.
The “skills” involved in this class focus more on the approach and frame of mind in using technology in authentic contexts. The approaches/frames of mind are derived from the Information Literacy standards that look at how technology can be used to create, collaborate, communicate, think critically, and be responsible digital citizens. These are then set into real-world contexts. Yes, knowing the specific processes within a device or application are important in order to do something, but those specific processes can be learned “just in time” through the plethora of video tutorials available on the web, from more skilled friends, and, of course, the teacher. However, with all of these other sources of knowledge available, the teacher doesn’t have to be the application or device expert anymore- just a coach giving feedback and one-on-one assistance. Lastly, there may be more than one application that could be used in the context of the project, so to limit what application a student can use would not properly reflect what happens in the world outside of school.
In regards to assessment, students aren’t necessarily assessed on how well they execute a certain process within a specific device or application. Rather, they are assessed against the standards in how effectively they used the technology in the context the project provides. Some students may choose to develop their use of more advanced features of a technology because they are already an experienced user, while other beginner students may use more basic features. In either case, students can achieve Proficient or Exemplary levels based on how effectively the technology-based process and/or product accomplish the task.
SIS Student WordPress ePortfolio
For example, one of the class projects has the students using photo-editing software to build a header for their SIS ePortfolio. Students come into the class with varying levels of experience with photo-editing applications. The goal in this instance isn’t to get everyone using the application at the same technical level. The goal is: how can each student, as an individual, harness the application to design effectively and visually demonstrate who he or she is as a unique person and learner in context of their web-based portfolio of learning. Some students achieve this wonderfully using basic features of the application; others achieve it by using more advanced features of the application.
This portfolio header project and the development of the SIS portfolio is part of a larger theme called “Personal Branding” where students work to build their professional image on the web. Student learn to distinguish between the “Professional You” and the “Social You” and how we present both in the large online presence many of us maintain in today’s world. This is a critical understanding to have since our profiles and what we post in different online contexts are becoming scrutinized by possible university admission agents and prospective employers.
Included in this Personal Branding process is a video resume that students can use for university applications or internships for which they might apply in the future. They learn how to put together a video that effectively shows their unique qualities as a global citizen and what represents them as a learner. This will hopefully help them stand out above the sea of other applicants!
Students Facilitating Ethics & Internet Lesson
Students are also given the opportunity to help develop digital citizenship among the SIS Bayside community by delivering lessons to the middle and high school students. The theme of their lesson is “Ethics and the Internet.” Here they educate the students (and teachers!) about ethically using media like audio, video and images in their school work. They show how to find Creative Commons licensed photos along with how to create and license their own work that is published to the web.
In another project called “Presentation Transformation” students learn how to be more effective presenters by using the Presentation Zen approach. This has the students thinking about presentations with the mind of a designer and storyteller, using more image-based slides that are thoughtfully produced and including more “story” in the script rather than factual information only. The use of the visual support application actually becomes more simple rather than complex in this instance.
SIS Flat Classroom Participants
Other projects, like the Flat Classroom conference, will pop up as opportunities arise. The second semester students had the once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in this conference in Beijing where the students collaborated and created content with students from
Overall, Technology Skills for the 21st Century Learner is a fun and very useful class that the students seem to enjoy. As other opportunities arise and technology continues to evolve, so will the class.
