Post-modern kolonialisme?

Mijn bezoek in Suriname heeft soms een vreemde nasmaak of een gevoel van hedendaags kolonialisme, waarbij ik (de alwetende blanke) een vorm van ontwikkelingssamenwerking opstart, maar er nog weinig sprake is van SAMENwerking, omdat ik het niet afmaak. Via de president van SMART Technologies - Greg Estell - heb ik voor de lerarenopleiding in Suriname en in het bijzonder de faculteit geografie een interactive flatpanel van SMART Technologies geregeld (zie deze blogpost). Ik moet dan denken aan een geografisch begrip: dualisme, waarbij het gevoel meespeelt dat in een ontwikkelingsland als Suriname het onderwijs nooit de kwaliteit zou kunnen hebben als dat van Nederland, terwijl ze tegelijkertijd een mooi nieuw stukje technologie hebben. Uit ervaring weet ik al dat dit onzin is en het onderwijs net zo goed is (who am I to judge), maar het gaat om de beeldvorming. Die wil en moet ik bijstellen. Voor mezelf, maar vooral ook voor mijn eigen leerlingen. En ik snap ook dat ze er bijzonder blij mee zijn, maar het voelt ook een beetje als post-modern kolonialisme of betutteling. Dat gevoel krijg ik moeilijk weg.
Misschien moest ik maar snel weer teruggaan om het ook af te maken en de mensen er daar mee te leren werken en de kracht van een touch panel en SMART Notebook te laten ervaren en de toekomstige docenten een meer gevulde gereedschapskist mee te geven. Al was het maar om de buitenwereld makkelijker naar binnen te krijgen ... creating global learners. But then again, mag ik verwachten en ervan uit gaan dat daar behoefte aan is?

Het Instituut voor de Opleiding van Leraren op het Anton de Kom Universiteit-complex.

[28 februari 2016] Afstemming over de verzending van het interactive flatpanel tussen SMART Technologies en het IOL is spoedig verlopen en was binnen een week of twee afgehandeld in Calgary, Canada. Maar, zoals verwacht gaat de inklaring op z'n Surinaams. En dat is geen oordeel, maar een feit. Gebaseerd op ervaringen van m'n schoonouders, die er bijna drie jaar hebben gewoond, en van mezelf tijdens mijn eigen korte verblijf aldaar.
[30 maart 2016] Van het SMART Board is in Suriname nog niks vernomen, maar het vertrouwen is er bij het IOL iig wel dat het goed zal komen. :)
[29 april 2016] Het SMART Board is inmiddels in Suriname, maar nog niet gearriveerd bij het IOL. Het SMART Board was eerder aangeboden op naam van de Anton de Kom Universiteit ipv het instituut voor de Opleiding van Leraren en momenteel is de douane op zoek naar een import-export nummer van het IOL.
[7 mei 2016] Het SMART Board is gearriveerd op lokatie. Nu moet worden bepaald welk lokaal voor de faculteit geografie is en waar het nieuwe SMART Board dus komt te hangen. En moet men op zoek naar een deskundige om het interactive flat panel op te hangen. En is er ook nog geen stroomvoorziening in de lokalen. ;)

Wordt vervolgd ...

Naturally Accomplish

This day starts with the demoing from the outcome of the hackathon from last Tuesday. Each group needed to present their final thing and most of them were amazing! All was total NDA, so we cant' tweet, blog or post anything about it on the internet. We even couldn't take pictures of the new SMART ideas. My group didn't won the hackathon prize, but I think that it was still the coolest Notebook LAB thing ever. It was entitled 'Dino Team Quiz' and that's all I can share. ;)

After a few hours of presentations of possibly new stuff in Notebook, amp etc. we went back to SAIT Polytechnic for a presentation about Free The Children. An Educational partner in moving the world from “me to we”. Check out this site if you want to get involved. A program that I am really axious to include in my 'global citizenship' classes.

Tomorrow up for a ride in a big truck to the Canadian Rockies.

Naturally Celebrate

This day was at prior summits the last day, but fortunately we have one more day to go! I had the honor to do the ice-breaker activity and did prepare a SMART Response quiz and a Kahoot. The SMART Response Quiz was an app logo quiz with edtech apps and the Kahoot was flags of countries from people that were at this summit. I brought a few prizes with me such as pins, flash drives, a mug etc.

With Yahir

Today we needed to think about the start of a new global collaboration project with another SEE and of course the use of SMART amp, especially now we can share workspaces with others outside the domain. I hooked up with Yahir from Mexico who is teaching computer science to 7th graders and I want them to collaborate with my 7th or 8th graders. More to follow.

During the fireside chat we got the chance to ask Greg Estell and Warren Barkley questions concerning education, SMART Technologies, the roadmap etc. That was nice and one quote I can recall from Greg was "How old is the technology in your pocket compared to the technology you use in the class room?" and this sums up the gap between teachers reluctant to use that technology that is already in their students' pocket.

Then we had to head to SMART Technologies HQ again for something special. And of course the peer mentors already what that was about! The White Hat ceremony!! Yes! The entire staff of SMART cheered for us and the head of the board gave us a big thank you, whilst we needed to reach under our seat to grap a coupon with a little surprise! The Oprah Winfrey moment. LOL. Three special big prices were a SMART kapp, a SMART kapp iQ and a SMART Board. How cool is that! The small video shows the moment all SEEs entered the building and were cheered by SMART Technologies. Honorary Calgarian again! :)

SEE of white hats cheered at SMART Technologies HQ

Naturally Connect

Today started with a presentation about the brand SMART Technologies and branding. Branding is all about the perception of a product or service. SMART Technologies struggles with the fact that it’s not just an interactive white board company (anymore), but has much more to share and has shifted their core business to different kind of solutions for the classroom.

Of course SMART wants to get rid of the old SMART Boards, just as Apple wants all the old iPhones gone and exchanged for the newer versions, but Stephen Yao had a good story to tell. Although interactive flat panels are a more expensive than interactive white boards, you'll retrieve that with the far less energy costs. I was really surprised by the fact that (especially on a larger scale) moving from the interactive white board to the interactive flat panel could safe that amount of energy. Take a look at this document.

Did a presentation today with Kristin Straumann at the headquarters of SMART Technologies. We were asked to do so and share the things that we do in our school and classroom in front the entire SMART staff. Greg Estell was so nice to have us over and introduced us before we could share our story. I’m not nervous to speak in front of a large audience, especially not about this topic. But today I needed to share this with the company that provides me with the technology that I use and I needed to do my very best … and it all needed to be in English. We both Kristin and myself did a great job and presentation went very well. I also stated out that the classroom solutions are great, but being with all the SEEs and SMARTians feels like home and is epic! We got a very nice applause and staff members told us that we did a great job. Now that’s what I’ll be taking home with me … Oh wait, there’s more. Greg asked us about the one thing that we are missing at this moment in our classroom for our kids … we both were stunned and couldn’t directly come up with anything. And sort of asking for let’s say a SMART Board seems so greedy, wouldn’t you agree? Greg assured us that we could think about it whilst the offer would last throughout the week. Will keep you posted on this ...

After lunch I was up for the unconference about Changing School Culture with SEEs Rebecca, Holger and Lori. My question or discussion point was about How to deal with teachers that are reluctant in the use of technology'. And it was my first time that I did an unconference. We've shared a Google document which all teachers can use a resource.

And at the end I did a co-presentation with Lise Galuga and Charity Harbeck about Google Certifications and Google events, where we can share our experience with SMART amp.

Oh, and we even were very close to a tornado. How about that? Check this short time-lapse movie.

Naturally Innovate

This second day of the summit we spend all day at SMART Technologies HQ for three different activities and we started with the most awesome thing: the Hackathon. All SEEs were divided in smaller groups of 5-6 people with that same amount of software developers to start brainstorming on the next best thing for SMART Notebook, SMART LAB, SMART kapp, SMART kapp iQ and of course SMART amp. Brainstorming helped us getting further to an awesome plan within SMART LAB (activity builder), but is total NDA, due to avoid spoilers for new users. I really do hope that our idea will eventually really be added to SMART Notebook (LAB). We will find out more about that next Friday.

After spending a few hours with developers we were split into three large groups for a guided tour around SMART HQ:

• software testing lab: real nice visit and we could all share our complaints. Did you know that in this testing lab they have all different kinds of computers with minimal settings and operating systems to test every release of soft- and firmware on all kinds of SMART Boards and interactive flat panels. Nice!
• briefing center: Have been there before and was nothing new. Although the SMART Collaborative Classroom (showroom) is nice to be in.
• hardware testing lab: this was the best. So many cool things were shared with us, but most of that is of course total NDA. The camera-testing was cool. Did you know that each camera is unique and has to cover and correct the errors from the other three cameras from the SMARt Board. This makes every board unique! How about that!

At last we all went to a reflection group, that we've signed up for. I was in the SMART Response VE group and could speak with the developers and we could share our wishes and the way we all use SMART Response VE in the classroom. There will be a new version coming soon, so nothing can be shared ahead of that. All I can say is that it will be very good! And it was nice to see that some of my earlier comments through a feedback session by phone were already in there.

Broken Toyz is on the plan for tonight!

Naturally Inquire

After two days spending on the campus and downtown Calgary with Allen Brooks and others the Global SEE Summit was finally going to start and this day was going to be a very busy day full of new stuff. The opening keynote on Sunday night by Marc Prensky was nice and gave us the right mind set for the next couple of days (and hopefully the next couple of years whilst practising teaching in our classrooms). At first we were welcomed by Greg Estell - president SMART Technologies - sharing with us how great is was to have us around and that we could definitely learn from each other. Really? I think that I speak for all the 77 attendees from the 23 countries when saying that it was merely our honor to be there and that we were more than happy to share every thought we have about SMART Technologies and their soft- and hardware. The ones that attended the Global See summit last year were the mentors of this summit and did have special tasks like leading conversations, organizing ice breakers, timekeepers, social media experts and (technical) support for the day.

Sessions as the road ahead lead by SMARTians showed the roadmap of SMART Technologies of which a lot is not for sharing. What I can share is that SMART is well known for the SMART Board of course, but there's more that meets the eye. The brand name wants to get rid of the perspective that it's only known for the interactive white boards, but wants to be known as the company with mainly software solutions for education such as SMART Notebook, SMART amp™ and SMART kapp. Nowadays it shouldn't really matter which hardware one uses, yet the software that one uses does. Of course all the SEEs are already aware of that and it's like preaching to the choir, so we could join in on the how to discussion. We've shared our points of view on this matter via gold star challenges. Good.

Naturally SMART

And at last all three software solutions (Notebook, amp and kapp) passed by through the day and their role and possibilities in education and of course we all could give feedback. Very long day to start with ... Tomorrow heading to SMART Technologies HQ.

The one thing that I can share about a feature the new release of SMART Notebook 15.1 is that the popular add-on XC Collaboration will no longer be available, however its functionality will be available in the form of a new activity called “Shout it Out!” Shout it Out! will be a part of the Lesson Activity Builder in the SMART Notebook software, and will offer similar functions to XC Collaboration and more. We've used this one a couple of times and it's awesome! At first I was dissapointed with the fact that XC wasn't to be supported anymore, but this one is way cooler and better! Good job!

And the quote of the day was from Kristin Straumann, during the SMARTamp best practices session, she mentioned "I knew HOW to use it, I just didn't WHY to use it. UNTIL … I put my kids into a workspace" ... I LIKE THAT!

Global SEE Summit preparations

This week we all received the summit guide and the program looks just fantastic and I'm really looking forward. Instead of the regular four days, we will now have five full days of learning and professional development at the SEE Summit in Calgary, Alberta.

As a summit peer mentor there will be some sessions that I will do. On Tuesday I'm one of the reflection group leaders to point out what we've gained on that day. On Wednesday I will be leading with three other SEEs the unconference about Changing School Culture. A great topic and really where my school is at now. And I will do a session with Lise and Charity on presenting about SMARTamp at Google Apps for Education summits. And throughout this day I am the social media specialist with Sergio, so keep an eye on the #smartee hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. On Thursday I will do the ice braker activity and I've prepared a education apps logo quiz with SMART Response and also a secret quiz ... and I will bring some prices as well! Looking forward. Will keep you posted. Whoohoo! 

Ashram College - SMART amp Champs

Begin juni ben ik met Henk-Jan naar Madrid geweest om een training van de nieuwste software SMART amp™ te volgen samen met 10 andere geselecteerde docenten uit Europa. Op de twee-daagde scholing waren docenten uit Tsjechië, Spanje, Finland, Zweden, Engeland, België, Duitsland en Nederland aanwezig en de training werd verzorgd door de ontwikkelaars van SMART amp™ uit de VS en Canada.

In Madrid zijn veel ervaringen uitgewisseld tussen de docenten, die allen met een ander onderwijssysteem werken en zijn wensen vanuit de lespraktijk geventileerd met de software ontwikkelaars. Dit waren voor zowel de docenten als de ontwikkelaars van SMART amp™ hele vruchtbare dagen en gaat SMART amp™ nog leuker en beter worden!

SMART amp™ is online software waarin leerlingen erg makkelijk samen kunnen werken binnen eenzelfde project. Je kunt het zien als een digitale poster waarin leerlingen tekst, plaatjes, filmpjes en websites kunnen toevoegen. En met elkaar kunnen overleggen via de chat functie, die door de docent ook gevolgd kan worden.

Er zitten meerdere voordelen aan het werken met SMART amp™. Eén van de voordelen is dat leerlingen er aan kunnen werken wanneer ze willen. Het enige dat nodig is om gebruik te maken van deze software zijn inloggegevens en een apparaat met een internetverbinding. Groot voordeel voor de docent is dat er met een simpele muisklik is te achterhalen wat de bijdrage is geweest van elke individuele leerling.

Binnen SMART amp™ kan je als docent ook toetsen en quizzen klaarzetten. Voor de docent biedt het de kans om veel makkelijker contacten te leggen met andere scholen (eventueel ook in het buitenland). Leerlingen van beide scholen kunnen dan in hetzelfde document werken. Ondanks de afstand en een eventueel tijdsverschil.

Vooral voor de onderbouw leerlingen is SMART amp™ zeer geschikte software om PO’s in te maken. Met de tablet en een internetverbinding kunnen ze in de school maar ook thuis werken aan de opdracht wanneer het hen uitkomt.

SMART amp Champs expectations

As you could've read I'm going to the SMART amp Champ event in Madrid with other SEEs from Europe, such as Emil Waldhauser (CR), Sergio Gonzales (E), Tapani Raitanen (SF) and from the Netherlands and The SMART Showcase School I teach: Henk-Jan van Mierlo.

I do hope to gain a lot from the SMART Amp Champs workshops lead by Heather Lamb and Ainhoa Marcos. From the next school year on we will start at my school with a total of 6 classes that'll work with personal devices (Apple's iPad) and I've noticed in the past school year that SMART amp really helps and can take learning to a certain level that works perfectly with personal devices. My headmaster would love to see that more teachers will work with SMART amp, especially since we have a few power users in our school. In my opinion we could and should be an example of best practices with the use of SMART amp in classes that bring mobile devices such as iPads, Chromebooks and laptops.

In order to become an expert user I am looking forward to work with and learn from other SEEs that attend this SMART amp Champ Summit and hope to bring back a lot of new ideas, tips, tricks and tools on how to use this collaborative platform in my SMART Collaborative Classroom and throughout the school. I will keep you posted!

Global SEE Summit 2015

Yes!!!!!!!! I'm going to the best PD Summit that I know of ... again. This. Is. Epic.

A month ago I applied to be a peer-mentor at the next Global SEE Summit at head office of SMART Technologies in Calgary - Alberta, Canada. Yesterday the SEEs that applied were notified through a webinar, organized by the Global Advocacy Team of SMART Technologies, if they were invited to attend the Global SEE Summit during the summer 2015. And yes, I'm in and I am very happy!

I'm also very honored to be with a large group of teachers and learn with and from them in order to redefine the way the world (well, at least in my school) learns. I'm very excited and am going to the Summit with my colleague Henk-Jan van Mierlo from the SMART Showcase School - Ashram College we both teach.

SMART amp Champ!

I recently submitted a session about SMART amp to the Netherlands Google Apps for Education Summit, because I really wanted to attend this summit and I even liked the fact more that I could share my experience about this new platform, which engages students to really collaborate with each other. I've been using this for the past half year or so in a few of my classes in a self created domain, to gain access to Google Apps for Education. My students have gained a new e-mail address and access to SMART amp. In- and outside the classroom I can really see the power of SMART amp and I have even shared logins with schools from abroad to give them access to the workspaces my students are working in.

Workspace of my students and students from Orland Park Junior High (IL)

Now I have the privilege to share the how to and my best practices with SMART amp tomorrow at the gafe-summit. I'm really looking forward to it. My presentation is for sharing, the workspace the attendees will be working in tomorrow not.

And it's getting better, because next month I will be joining 12 other SMART Exemplary Educators from Europe to attend an exciting new program for SEEs called Amp Champs! As a member of this elite group, we will receive a two day advanced SMART amp training in Madrid, Spain and support. This is really awesome! I will meet and learn with and from the best SEEs from Europe such as Emil Waldhauser (Czech Republic) , Gonzalo Garcia (Spain), Serigio Cabezas (Spain), Tapani Raitanen (Finland) and our teacher and mentor Heather Lamb (Texas, US). Looking forward and will share my experience in Madrid on this blog ... 

BETT 2015

The fourth time that I visited the British Education Training and Technology show, better known as BETT. This time I was invited to come over and do a session about global collaboration in the Secondary Education Learn Live arena. I travelled with my dad (SMART Exemplary Educator as well) and joined other SEEs in the SMART Platinum Suite or and the main floor of the BETT show.

With Maria and Chris in the Platinum Suite

On day one I was just browsing on the main floor until my presentation was due. While walking and visiting a few stands it occurred to me that nothing new and/or innovative was there to see. A few things I really like is LearnPad and I do hope that working with iPads in my school will be quite successful instead of the warnings that Chris Klein (exhibitor LearnPad) gave me. I also liked the furniture of Space Oasis on which was comfortable, looked really nice and on which you could write with a dry eraser marker. And of course I liked the new solution by SMART Technologies: The SMARTkapp, the reinvented version of the dry-erase board AND the flip-over which is due to it's simplicity amazing. No nonsense, yet super hight-tech information sharing system which could be used in the classroom as well. I would really like to have won one at the BETT contest during the BETT days. I attended and even contributed to the session of the official release of SMARTkapp at BETT in the Platinum Suite by CTO Warren Barkley. And in the evening SMARTamp wins the BETT Award, which I can relate to for sure. SMARTamp is becoming more and more my favorite solution in (and outside) the classroom.

On day two I met my buddy SEE from Madrid, Spain: Sergio! Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend his presentation about Augmented Reality, because it was due on Saturday. Although I was able to attend to the presentation of Chris and Maria about their global collaboration project and the presentation about SOLE. Both in the Platinum Suite. After collecting a lot of pens and other goodies for my kids and students I returned home with a lot of new input that still needs processing ...

After the two days of attending BETT it became very clear to me that it's still the teacher that is key in developing education and his students, regardless of the use of technology (both hardware and software) furniture, books or whatever. As Chris Klein pointed out to me: "... a good teacher could use only a loaf of bread to provide a good lesson." 

With my dad in the SMART Platinum Suite

#ThrowbackThursday: How SMART changed my teaching

Since the first moment that I got in touch with the SMART Notebook software at a resellers store somewhere in the Netherlands I was immediately touched by it's simplicity which could be of great use in my classroom. This platform came across my path and I knew immediatly that this was I was looking for. I needed SMART Notebook. All the content that I had collected in the past years such as websites, newspaper cut outs, video and animation, photo's and pictires could now be in just on lesson created in SMART Notebook. This. Was. Epic.
It was SMART Notebook 9.7 at the time and there was no Lesson Activity Toolkit, no page grouping and none of the powerful features that it has now and still I thought it was amazing! I got a laptop computer from school to create Notebook lessons and a few months later Notebook 10 was released and I was invited to join the SMART International User Forum (precursor of the SEE Summit) in Sweden in 2008. A trip that I will never forget and where I met some great SMARTians and great educators whom I still consider as my friends today. I got hooked and from that moment on I was even more amazed by the innovative technology solutions for the classroom designed by SMART. During the SMART International User Forum we received a full license for SMART Ideas and I could only dream of having a SMART Senteo set in my classroom or full license of Synchron Eyes running in school. And now we have it all and many more in SMART Notebook 14. Heading to SMART Notebook 15? I'm game!

SMART Exemplary Educators Summit Tiger

The past few years I've had the honor and the pleasure to attend three different SMART Exemplary Educator Summits and if you count the precursor The International SMART Board forum along, than I've attended in total four professional development training camps organized by SMART Technologies in a foreign country.

My first official summit was in the summer of 2011 at the headquarters in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) and I was invited to come over and have a look at how the North-Americans did run a show like that, because together with 5 other SEEs from Europe we were going to be the peer mentors at the EMEA SEE Summit in Hamburg (or Paris) the next year. At this summit there were also about 50 SEEs from Canada and the US. This Summit was (perhaps due to the fact that it was way out of my time zone in the beautiful country of Canada) epic to me. I've learned so much and gained so many friends. My love for SMART gained a boost and was ready to adopt more technology in my classroom. This was also the start of my first global collaboration project with teachers from abroad.

Class of 2011

My second summit that I attended was in Hamburg at the local SMART office during the summer of 2012. There we're about 30 SEEs from EMEA and four from North-America (3 from the US and one from Canada) to learn from and share with each other. This Summit took only three days of professional development and I did two presentations. New friends were made and old friends were reunited again. New global collaboration projects started from here.

Class of 2012

My third summit was in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) again. The summit was a global one, therefore there were about 76 SEEs present. SEEs from Canada, the US, EMEA and Panama, Chile and Mexico. This was the one that was most epic. Different from the other ones, and I've made even more new friends and was (at last?) reunited with old friends as well. Whilst putting this words down, I'm still suffering from summit withdrawals. I'm missing my fellow SEEs and want to work even more with them. Global collaboration will be taken to a next level ...

Class of 2014

Besides the locations, amount of SEEs that attended and the latest software releases at the moment of the summits, there were some differences between them. I'll try to share my opinion on that. 

At first in my opinion we did less sharing at the latest summit, compared to the other two that I attended. All SEEs needed to prepare and bring their best lesson to the 2011 and 2012 summit and needed to show and share in smaller groups. That is definitely something I've missed during the global summit. The amount of technical details was merely the same, although was the focus on this summit of course on amp and less on Notebook. New were the hackathons and the sessions we did with the developers. That is a great benefit from the other summits I've attended. We could share our feature requests etc. directly with the developers and could actually see that a lot things were put right into action. We all loved that! Watch out for the new releases of amp and Notebook! This was also the first year that the Global SEE platform was a great part of it, which made people do and share things on that platform. As I already stated before ... after the last summit I'm suffering more from summit withdrawals, so I guess it's addictive and I need to be with my fellow SEEs more and more again. There!

EMEA and Global Summit compared

SEE of White Hats

This morning I created a Time-Lapse movie from the walk from Hotel Alma to SMART Technologies HQ and will add this to the #urban100 community, which embraces #GuerillaGeography to map the world in a slight different way. And I think that's a cool thing.

The hackathon teams presented the outcome of their ideas and they were in just one word amazing! If all this will be added to SMART Notebook and SMART amp we will truly be very happy with that. We (and certainly I) loved all the new things that actually will be added to the new NB and amp versions. It's a good thing to have teachers collaborating with the coders. Looking forward to the next release of NB (and the iPad version!).

Warren Barkley was ours for two hours during the Fireside Chat. About 15 people did get the chance to fire away the question that they really wanted to ask the CTO of SMART Technologies. Mine was a bit long, but was satisfied with the answer. The past few years (2012 till 9 months ago) SMART wasn't that good in my opinion and I was afraid that likewise to Apple, SMART Technologies didn't dare to experiment anymore and that future releases would be as predictable as the larger, better camera having, quicker and better OS etc. iPhoneX (don't get me wrong, I'm a fan). Well he explained that since 9 months SMART is back and all I can say and see after this week: He is totally true. My believes have returned too ...

On the Fireside Chat with Warren Barkley

After the lunch break we were divided in smaller groups and had the chance to discuss in smaller groups a few NDA stuff about both amp and Notebook. I was in a group that chatted further about the mobile version (yes, even smartphones) of amp and what and how teachers and students would want to see and control the content within the SMART amp platform. The teachers were quite unanimous about most things and the developers were very happy with our input.

When we got back from the small-group discussion sessions we were told to go upstairs and gather in the cafeteria of SMART Technologies. While entering the cafeteria we were applauded by the whole team of SMART and there were seats ready for us in a nice dressed up place with balloons etc. This was a huge surprise and it got even better. While the week was wrapped upon by a few very kind words to us by the chief of SMART we were told to check the little gift coupon in our chair (Oprah moment). Most of us gained a couple of thousand points for the Gold Star SEE Challenge (I got 2500) or a book and a few got some big surprises awaiting them. Lise won a new 600-series SMART Board and two others won a light raise interactive beamer. This was very nice! And on top of that we all received a one year license for SMART amp! Whoo-hoo!

Than we all had to do the White Hat ceremony and we were given a White Hat! This was so nice and the SMART staff kept applauding! We felt very special and there were people crying from joy. Lots of pictures were taken and then we had to get back to the Hotel to dress up for the 80's murder mystery dinner at Ford Calgary! This. Was. An. Awesome. Summit! Thank you SMART.

At the end of the day, before I left a few people from the technical department from SMART Technologies were so kind to have a look at my computer. Since the release of SMART Notebook 11, SMART Response Teacher Tools wasn't working on my MacBook, due to flash errors. With some coding added to the registry I am finally able to use the Teacher Tools again on my MacBook. So glad they could help me out! This has been buggering me ever since. So thanks again!

The whole group of Global SEE Summit SMART Exemplary Educators 2014

Broken Toyz

Allen pointed out this morning the following statement and I must say that I agreed on this one. "Who is crazy enough to present after a night out with Broken Toyz?" Well, it was my turn today so I guess I'm crazy enough. This morning wasn't going very well and I had little trouble with the mild headache and little sleep I had the past night. Anyway, I was up and was about to do two presentations today! One with Kate Seward (whom I met at the Summit in 2011 and I have been collaborating with the past school year) and one on my own about Global Collaboration. This was also the day that my eldest daughter Faye was about to turn eight and whilst following up on the news about the MH17 flight that was shot down from the sky above Ukraine last week, this day was a national day of mourning in the Netherlands because of that.

The topic of today was 'It takes a teacher to grow global understanding' and my presentation and how to set this up in your class room was due today. We started with an open discussion about SMART amp lead by Erica Arnoldin concerning our experience with amp after the SMART amp camp from yesterday. After that the whole group could ask questions to the developers team and loads of requests and feedback was released from the SEEs. I was kinda worried that a lot of requests were about the fact that powerful tools from Notebook should be added in amp, but in my opinion that's not a good thing. Notebook is mainly a teachers tools, where amp is a collaboration tool for students and they shouldn't be the ending up the same. That's all I can say about these NDA sessions.
After the lunch break and before my workshop about Global Collaboration, there were some small presentation of SEEs that have already done some Global Collaboration just to inspire the whole team of SEEs and prepare them for the workshop later this day.

Lise and I are getting a selfie with Neil!

Look what Rafranz gave me! A Sheldon flash drive!

The first presentation I did together with Kate while she was not present at SMART Technologies HQ, but called in from her home address using Bridgit. We'd created a Notebook-file together prior to the summit and showed and shared our experience with our colleague SEEs (present and the ones that joined in via Bridgit) just as Bob, Giovanna, Maria and Chris. We did a great job (well, mainly Kate, because I was still suffering from the Broken Toyz thing ...). And after this show the Global Collaboration 'how to' was on. I had about 90 minutes and the SEEs needed to work and collaborate with each other in small groups that were lead by an EMEA SEE, so there were 24 small groups. The outcome was a Global Collaboration lesson plan for the next school year and needed to be shared in the Gold Star SEE platform. There were some good things going on and I got a lot of positive feedback on my presentation. The SEEs were very happy to work in smaller groups on hands-on assignments. It turned out to be a good day after all.
During the day I interviewed a few SEEs that I have worked with the past year and asked them what was the main benefit from doing such a project. And did I use eXtreme Collaboration? Oh yes I did!

Yulia, Hamdy and Michelle giving their feedback on our projects.

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I have shared my presentation via Twitter and a SlideShare version is available here:

Learning Preferences

"There are no learning styles, but learning preferences” is what Heather Lamb pointed out and puts this whole learning thing in a new perspective and is certainly applicable to the way amp works, because since technology is more the way students learn today, than the latest gadget. And today we did a SMART amp camp and received a certificate afterwards as well. The SMART amp camp was lead by Heather Lamb during this day, while others were invited to join a hackathon and had an eight hour session with coders whom would build new features in both amp and notebook upon the input of the attending SEEs. The outcome of that would follow on the next day. 

For both groups this was a very intense day of training. Ainhoa pointed out that in the formerly know SMART Learning Space SEEs could do an online SMART amp collaboration training free of charge. I will do that before next school year starts.

"When there is a correct answer - exercise in creative thinking"

We were asked to respond to the question of what collaboration (with SMART amp) meant. These are a few of the responses that I especially liked:
- 1+1=3

- Personalised learning with AMP workspaces open to all learning preferences.

- Everyone working in the same direction, although the necessarily at the same speed or the same time.

The - according to Rafranz - stock image photo of me collaborating in amp with Lise and DeVane

During this day lots of SEEs created Kermit style video's about the Summit, SMART and education, due to a newly introduced Gold Star SEE Challenge and I interviewed Lise (CA) and deVane (US):

After dinner at the end of the day almost all SEEs attend the #smartee twitter chat! which I prepared with host Rafranz Davis (from TX, USA). We created the next questions which all SEEs could respond to during the twitter chat session.

1. How do you manage to escape from the standardised curriculum and add to your lessons?

2. In what ways do you add creativity to your lessons/content? 

3. How can we create lessons that better prepare kids to be globally prepared?

4. What do you think is most important to teach concerning world citizenship?

5. How do we maintain global awareness in learning

During the one hour Twitter Chat we did, the response was huge and the discussions were running. I respect the fact that Rafranz kept track of everything and guided the whole group through this session. It was great and the best part was yet to come. At the end Rafranz added a sixth question 'what would people want in their class room' and Linda Janssen was one of the people who responded and she asked for wifi in her classroom in South Africa, something they just don't have. Which Warren Barkley (CTO of SMART Technologies and present at the time) responded to that and said that SMART would take care of that. How awesome is that?! There we're tears all over the place.

The day ended with eighties hair metal cover band Broken Toyz at Morgens Pub. 

Receiving the SMART amp camp certificate from Heather Lamb

Amping up at SMART HQ

The first day at SMART Technologies HQ was a great success and still is while I'm writing this. We are with 76(!) SMART Exemplary Educators in one room with great SMARTians to enrich us and make sure than even after day one we will gain a lot which we will takje home and can use directly in our class room. That is my experience after almost one day spending with loads of inspiring people.

At first president of education Greg Estell welcomed us with his keynote about education and how important we as teachers are and can make a difference. He was very kind and made sure that we understood that we are more than welcome and that we matter. Good to know.

"A brand is no longer what a company tells the consumer it is. It's what consumers tell each other it is."

Jenna shared a lot information about the roadmap of the software and hardware of SMART Technologies, but since we signed an NDA we don't have permission to tweet, blog, etc. about it. All I can say is that it keeps on mind-blowing for me ...

Heather Lamb, Erica Arnoldin and others shared (new) features of SMART Notebook 2014 (eXtreme Collaboration, SMART Response VE, Geogebra etc.) and SMART amp during sessions for smaller groups. There's already a list of things that I will take home and will and can use in my SMART Collaborative Classroom.

Stop Motion (200 pics in 20 seconds)

I handed out some souvenirs from The Netherlands and Alphen aan den Rijn - the town I live - to SEEs that I and my students have been working with the past year and to make sure that we will collaborate more next school year. Michelle from Illinois, Mary from Florida, Hamdy from Saudi Arabia and Yulia from Russia are the SEEs present. SEEs that are not present like Emil from the Czech Republic and Kate from Philadelphia.

At the end of the day I was asked to do a TV interview. How awesome is that. I don't have any footage yet, but there's a picture of me at SMART HQ with the TV camera. Lunch was very good, snacks and drinks were provided. After all it was a good day! Looking forward to do more tomorrow!

P.S. check the hashtag #smartee on Twitter to follow in on what's happening at the Global SEE Summit.

With Sergio and Allen

Global SEE Summit

Oh YES!! I have been selected to attend the Global SEE Summit from July 20th-26th in Calgary, Canada!! I got the e-mail from EMEA SMART Education Specialist Ainhoa Marcos and the e-mail made me very happy! The e-mail stated that:

"You are a proven technology leader and an outstanding advocate for inspiring excellence in education through the use of technology. You are simply amazing and we are absolutely thrilled to invite you to attend this exclusive event."

I've been to a SEE summit in Calgary before in 2011, but this time it's going to be a global happening and there will be around 25 SEEs from EMEA as well. This is just awesome! No it's EPIC and I'm really looking forward to meet al the other amazing teachers from around the globe.

To be selected all the SMART Exemplary Educators in EMEA and NA had to create a short video and should be about there first, best experience with SMART Notebook software or other SMART product. I did create one, but wasn't too happy after I send that one in and did create another one. Both of them are for sharing ... (as I've stated before "Celebrate failure" and the first one is just not good enough).

Take one ...

Take two ...

This year there will be about 75 of the best SEEs invited for the Global Summit. And I'm very  happy to be one of them and collaborate with them, share with them the things I've learned and experienced the past few years and will learn a lot from them in order to take a lot home with me. Happy to meet inspiring SEEs like Charity and Danesa again and more than happy to meet Rafranz for the first time. 

And on top of this Deena asked me if would like to do a workshop about Global Collaboration. I've been doing quite a few of those collaboration projects with SEEs from Russia, Turkey, Saudi-Arabia, Czech Republic and the US the past year. And at the moment I'm involved in a long term collaboration project with teachers and schools from Surinam and Curacao through the Global Teenager Project. Awesome project whilst I will share at the Summit on Wednesday the 23rd of July ... I will keep you posted.

P.S. and many many thanks to the people that voted for me or any other SEE.

Presenting at BETT 2014

A few months ago I did a proposal to the organization of BETT to present at that trade show, just like I did last year. Unfortunately my proposal and proposed presentation about global collaboration at one one the live sessions on the main floor at BETT wasn't accepted.

Fortunately, due to the fact that my classroom has been transformed to a SMART Collaborative Classroom I was asked by SMART Technologies to share and present in the SMART Collaborative Classroom about teaching in a Collaborative Classroom and my experiences about global collaboration. That what I've been doing a lot for the past year with other SEEs from around the world. A little nervous I was to do my presentation in a foreign language in the SMART Collaborative Classroom, but was also very excited to do so and to share my experiences and get feedback from likewise teachers. 

With SEE Emil Waldhauser I was due to do my presentation on Wednesday - first thing thing in the morning - and on Friday in the afternoon. Because there weren't so many people present at the time my presentation was about to start we decided to wait a little while. A little later I did the presentation and fortunately Emil Waldhauser was present and did contribute whilst sharing his side of the story when we were collaborating with our classes using SMART Bridgit. It went well, just as on Friday. The attendants were enthusiastic and we shared even more ideas on how to use the Collaborative Classroom. 

On Saturday I was asked by SMART staff to do a stand-up presentation about the use of mobile devices combined with the SMART Board. I could and did share my experiences about the use of eXtreme Collaboration, SMART Response and the use of certain iPad apps that could share the desktop and even the combination with the Apple TV. SMART Exemplary Educator Gonzalo Garcia contributed to my presentation and shared his experience with the use of SMART amp, where the combination and opportunities with mobile devices is just epic. 

Looking forward to present or be present at BETT in 2015 as well.

With SEE Gonzalo