MACUL was Magical!

Three days.
I got to spend three full days with my "peeps" at Macul.
It was pretty awesome.

Spending day one, Wednesday, immersed in Virtual and Augmented Reality with Leslie Fisher kicked off quite the week.  I am super excited about all the possibilities of using Merge Cube in the classroom.  And my next venture is definitely going to be diving into CoSpacesEDU.  Oh, and Google Tour Creator.  Two places to begin my VR/AR adventures!  Add to that the fact that we were able to send seven teachers to the Wednesday workshops?  It made for a very happy me!

Thursday was a medley of sessions and vendors and the student showcase.  Got some GREAT ideas for taking our Stop Motion explorations to the next level.  Spent some time learning about Digital Badging, which is something I hope to give a go at some point in the near future!  Also spent a bit more time with Leslie Fisher learning about the Social Media Apps that kids are using but we probably aren't.  A lot more to explore on that topic down the road.  Presented on Osmo after that, and despite some tech fails, it wasn't too bad of a session!

Friday kicked off with Kasey Bell.  More specifically, Stranger Google with Kasey Bell.  Imagine a mash-up of Stranger Things and Google Tools.  Entertaining and educational!  One of the highlights of that session has to be Semi-Conductor or Body Synth.  Both are musical, yes, and both would make for some great brain breaks!

To be honest, the rest of Friday is a bit of a blur.  Popped into a few sessions, spent some more time in the vendor hall, visited a few poster sessions.  Presented a session on Google tricks and tools.... I was definitely fried.

However.

The conference ended with Gerry Brooks.  He is funnier in person than he is on his YouTube channel!  It was a great way to wrap a truly great conference!  Seriously.  I had a really hard time picking sessions this year.  More than in years past.  Already counting down to next year's Macul in Grand Rapids!

Major MERGE-r at MACUL!

I got to spend my morning with the great Leslie Fisher.  What. A. Morning.

Photo taken this morning while in session.

Last year at MACUL, Leslie's introduction of the Merge Cube created what has been dubbed "Merge Madness" causing hundreds of educators to flood local Walmart stores in search of a little foam cube.  See, Walmart was clearancing the little foam cube for $1.  Hence the flood of educators purchasing dozens of little foam cubes that looked cool, but that they had no idea what they could do with it.  Yet.

A year later?  WOW.

Dozens of apps.  Hundreds of lesson plans.  Hours upon hours of engagement.

Two that stand out at this moment?

HoloGLOBE.  Talk about virtual reality.  Seriously.  You get to watch weather patterns, cloud cover, any wildfires burning... there are NASA observations to make, drought risks to observe, temperature patterns.... all in the palm of your hand!  Literally!  You're holding a globe in your hand, turning it, and selecting different elements to explore.  Mind.  Blown.

The other app that stands out is one that I haven't actually played with yet, but will hopefully be downloading soon.  (It has a nominal cost.)  It's called 57 North.  Imagine a choose-your-own adventure, where you're moving through the adventure by turning the cube different directions.  It. Is. So. Cool.

All this from the first two hours at MACUL?  Bring on the rest!

It's Almost Here! MACUL 2019!

It's almost here!  My favorite conference of the year!  I love being surrounded by all my tech-peeps for two full days of engaging, exciting, and yes, even entertaining technological learning!  This year is gonna be even better, because two days is turning into three!  That's right - I get to spend three glorious days basking in the MACUL magic!  (MACUL = Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning)

The line up this year is another doozy.  So many sessions I want to attend.  So many speakers I want to hear.   The keynotes are always inspiring, and I'm excited to hear Gerry Brooks.  You gotta check out his YouTube channel for some good laughs and inspiration.

The rest of the featured speakers are part of what is making my MACUL session list so overwhelming!  Kasey Bell is a Google Superstar.  I get a ton of email newsletters, but Richard Byrne's are one of the few I read daily.  Joe Sanfelippo, Adam Bellow, Rushton Hurley, and of course Leslie Fisher, round out the speakers I know.  The rest?  Can't wait to hear from them!

You can imagine how excited I am that I'm going to get a bonus day Wednesday, and will be spending 7 hours soaking up even more MACUL magic!

I'm excited to present again this year, too! A brand new session on one of my favorite tech tools - Osmo.  You won't want to miss that one - you will even have a chance to win an Osmo base for yourself!  The other session I'm doing this year is on Google.  Last year it was standing room only,  this year it's gonna be even better!

Not too late to register, by the way... hence this post!

FanGirl Friday: Leslie Fisher

I am a geek and proud of it.  No, not a Star Wars geek or anything like that (though to those who are, you go!)  I am a tech geek.  More precisely, an EdTech geek.  And sometimes it reaches fangirl status.

If you are in the educational technology world, and you don't know Leslie Fisher, you are missing out.  Seriously.  Check out her website.  And if you can't make it to a conference or workshop where Leslie is presenting, sometimes she does these fantastic webinars.  If you can't find a webinar, follow her on twitter.  It will be well worth it!  From gadgets to Google.  From Adobe to Augmented Reality.  Learn with Leslie and you'll have tools you can use the next day!

Macul 2016

The first time I met Leslie was at the MACUL 2016.  It was the end of a long day, and I was walking by a ballroom where she was presenting to a standing-room only audience.  The room kept dissolving into oohs and aahhs every few minutes and I was curious.  I poked my head in, found a little piece of wall to claim, and listened.

And ooohed.  And aahhed.  And became intrigued.  And became a Twitter follower.  And lo and behold, became a fangirl.

Every year since then, I intentionally plan my MACUL schedule so that I can attend at least one of Leslie's sessions.  This year I'm totally stoked because I am going to a pre-conference session with her, where I'll get to spend three glorious hours soaking up Leslie's wisdom and learning about the Merge Cube (more on that another post!)

I. Can't. Wait!