iNACOL Midwestern Regional Professional Development Symposium
"Navigating Online Waters"
April 3-4, 2011
Wyndham Milwaukee Airport & Convention Center
iNACOL is hosting the Midwestern Regional Professional Development Symposium to provide professional development in the rapidly growing field of K-12 online education and blended learning. The professional development is targeted for K-12 administrators, teachers, boards of education, and policy leaders wanting access to the latest research, trends and solutions through online learning.
The iNACOL Midwestern Regional Professional Development Symposium offers important leadership development in the field of K-12 online learning; important networking opportunities; access to expertise and analysis, trends and research; and thought-provoking sessions for leaders looking to help shape the future of education. The theme is "Navigating Online Waters."
Please visit the conference wiki space here: http://mpds2011.wikispaces.com/.
Registration
iNACOL MEMBERS: $185 (Registration before April 1, 2011)
NON-MEMBERS: $225 (Registration before April 1, 2011)
SPEAKERS: $150 (Registration before April 1, 2011)
ON-SITE REGISTRATION: $300
Accommodations for Attendees with Disabilities
In keeping with the provisions and guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, iNACOL will make every effort to make reasonable accommodations for registrants with special needs. If you feel that you will require special accommodations, please contact us at 703-752-6216 or info@inacol.org at least 72 hours prior to the conference.
Content Strands and Sessions
Sunday Evening Networking Event
We will kick-off the Professional Development Symposium on Sunday, April 3 with an opening reception hosted by iNACOL. Come join us from 7:00pm - 9:00pm for dessert and wine. This will be a great opportunity to network with your colleagues in an informal setting.
General Sessions
- Keynote speaker: Susan Patrick, iNACOL President & CEO
- A Parent's Perspective: Rose Fernandez, Managing Director, National Parent Network for Online Learning (NPNOL)
- Students' Perspectives Panel: Your opportunity to hear directly from online students
Getting Started
Navigating iNACOL Programs and Services
iNACOL is more than just the Virtual School Symposium (VSS), publications, and webinars. In this session, learn about additional iNACOL services and opportunities provided to online schools and practitioners. Discover how you can request and conduct a needs assessment with iNACOL, join an iNACOL committee, partner with iNACOL to evaluate your program and/or course offerings using the iNACOL Standards of Quality for Online Courses or how iNACOL can help you get started in building your online program.
Panel Session: Online Learning Models
This panel will share information about some of the flagship programs that fall at various places along the spectrum of online learning programs, from providing the opportunity for students to take a single course, to being a full-time online student. The panelists will address how their program/school works, how they are meeting student needs, what outcomes they are experiencing along with their vision for the future of online learning.
Launching an Online Program
Starting an online program is a daunting task. While there is plenty of information available, knowing how to navigate all of the information and zero in on the issues that are most relevant to starting a program can be a significant challenge. Over the past year, iNACOL has developed a web site that is intended to be a wealth of resources for program administrators (the people that are either investigating the possibility of creating an online program or have already been assigned this task) and policy makers (state legislators, staff members at the state department of education, and district administrators who wish to establish a positive policy environment for online learning). This session will review the resources available on the website and get you started on your online program.
Panel Session: Student Services for Online Learning
Answering questions about online learning from parents and guardians can take significant staff resources. Making sure families are informed about how your online learning program works is important to the success of your program. Come and join our panel discussion led by experienced student services support staff who have faced these very issues. You'll receive answers to your questions related to accreditation, socialization, college and career counseling, special education services, and many more topics.
Online Teachers
Focus on the Learner: Planning and Probing for Learner
Engagement in Online Discussions
Based on action research, this presentation makes recommendations for online classroom discussions using a 5-Stage Model to identify learner behaviors. In short, this is a look at student responses to interactive learning and instructor interventions to increase online learner involvement.
Panel Session: Best Practices in Online Advanced Placement Instruction
Do you want to offer an online Advanced Placement (AP®) opportunity but have lots of questions such as, "Where do I start?" "What additional training, if any, do I need?" "What resources are available to prepare the syllabus for the College Board audit?" "How do I interpret the AP® exam scores to improve my online course and teaching?" "What is it like teaching AP® students online?" "What are the challenges and delights of teaching AP® courses?" If you are asking questions like this, then come hear from four experienced teachers who have taught AP® science, English, social studies, and math face-to-face in school districts and online as they share their experiences and answer your questions.
Panel Session: Credit Recovery and At-Risk Students
Are all credit recovery programs equally effective? Does serving at-risk students go beyond providing credit recovery courses? A panel of experienced online learning practitioners will share their opinion on those questions, discuss best practices and answer your questions.
Panel Session: Blended Learning Opportunities
Blended Learning? Hybrid Learning? Online Learning? What does it mean for schools? Online learning has proven to cost-effectively meet critical educational needs by providing additional educational opportunities for students, leveraging highly qualified teachers, and serving students with unique educational needs. Some programs are now blending the best of face-to-face instruction with the flexibility of individualizing every student. Panelists on this session will share promising practices based on their experiences in working with a variety of blended programs.
Administrators and School Board
NCAA Eligibility and Online Courses
This session provides an overview of the processes by which schools/programs register courses with the NCAA Eligibility Center and the process by which prospective student-athletes become eligible to participate in NCAA athletics. The session also covers current trends and risk points that affect virtual educators and administrators, as well as an overview of NCAA initial eligibility and the high school review process. Time is allotted for questions and answers.
Keeping Pace with Online Learning
Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, first published in 2004, is an annual publication that provides the latest information on online learning trends and developments in the United States, including state- by-state descriptions of current online learning policy and practice. This session will highlight key findings, policy developments in 2010 and the outlook for 2011. Attendees of this session will be encouraged to discuss advocacy efforts in states related to advancing policy for online learning.
Panel Session: Ensuring Quality Online Teachers
Student success begins with the hiring of highly qualified teachers who have been trained in the pedagogy and best practice strategies for the online learning environment. Once you have the teachers hired, how do you support and evaluate your online teachers? How do you do classroom visits? How do you know they are doing their job well when you may rarely if ever see them in person? This panel of administrators will share their experiences in hiring, supporting, and evaluating their online teachers. They will share what has worked well and potential pitfalls that you might want to avoid.
Panel Session: Professional Development for Online Teachers
Online teaching and learning is currently one of the fastest growing educational initiatives in the world. Online waters may be muddied and learning slowed if teachers are unprepared. Join experienced online educators as they discuss Professional Development (PD) Options and Issues, including PD models which propel online instruction in several Midwest states.
Emerging Trends
Filtering Online Course Content for Quality
Jennifer Kolar Burden from Illinois Virtual School will share insights from a professional development project that encompasses an internal review of online course content. For an external review process, Kelly Pochop invites you to see the first public demonstration of a Course Evaluation Tool designed by a group of Wisconsin school districts using iNACOL standards. This online database tool filters the content of virtual learning courses in four ways with global, granular, standards, and summary views.
Digital Learning Now
The Digital Learning Council was a groundbreaking initiative co-led by Governors Bush and Wise in the Fall of 2010. Comprised of over 100 national leaders representing six industries, the result of their work was the highly acclaimed "Digital Learning NOW!" (DLN) report released in December, 2010 which serves as the "constitution" for the digital revolution. Come and learn how the DLN is being used in multiple states to pave new paths for digital learning and how you can use the 10 principles contained in the report to re-shape your educational program by creating a 21st century learning experience for your students.
Educational Video Games, 3-D Printing, & Other Exciting Developments
The Education Research Challenge Area (ERCA) at the Morgridge Institute for Research, a non-profit biomedical research institute, is focusing on creating educational games around the research performed at Morgridge, the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and the UW-Madison. Dr. Nathan Patterson is a post- doctoral researcher and the lead designer with ERCA. He will be presenting information about the games under development at Morgridge, his work with a 3-D printing and rapid prototyping group at Morgridge, and the education outreach experiences available at the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building. Some participants will have the opportunity to try some of the new game prototypes on iPads.
Mobile Learning: The World in Your Hands
Web-enabled smart phones, iPods, iPads, and many other similar devices have helped to change the way we live our lives. Just as important, there are so many things we can do with mobile learning and hand-held technologies in the educational environment. Join us to learn more about these new technologies and become immersed in the possibilities.
Schedule
| Sunday, April 3, 2011 |
| Registration |
5:00pm - 9:00pm |
| Dessert and Wine Social |
7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| Monday, April 4, 2011 |
| Registration |
6:30am - 10:30am |
| Breakfast |
7:00am - 8:00am |
| Keynote (Susan Patrick) |
8:00am - 9:00am |
| Breakout Session #1 |
9:15am - 10:15am |
| Breakout Session #2 |
10:30am - 11:30am |
| Lunch |
11:30am - 1:00pm |
| Student Panel |
12:00pm - 1:00pm |
| Breakout Session #3 |
1:15pm - 2:15pm |
| Breakout Session #4 |
2:30pm - 3:30pm |
Hotel and Travel
Wyndham Milwaukee Airport and Conference Center
4747 South Howell Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Phone: 414-481-8000
A block of rooms has been set aside for the conference at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport and Convention Center. To make your reservation, call the hotel at 877-999-3223 or 414-481-8000 and mention that you are with the iNACOL Midwestern Conference to receive the special rate of $70 per night. The deadline for reservations is March 24, 2011.
The conference hotel is located seven miles from downtown Milwaukee and one-half mile from General International Airport. The hotel provides a free 24-hour shuttle between the airport and the hotel. Direct flights are available within the United States from American Airlines, AirTran, Continental, Delta, Frontier, Great Lakes Airlines, Southwest, United, and US Air.
