Mass Digital Publication Conference (MADPC)

It's been a while since I have posted to this blog.  I have been busy with the end of school year, graduation planning and implementation as part of the graduation team at my school, the grad class I am taking as well as the online Scratch workshop I have been trying to keep up with.  But on my vacation this week, I attended the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaboration conference in Burlington, MA.  (#MADPC on Twitter).

It was a very well organized conference led by the technology team from Burlington Public School department.  About 100 people (my estimate) attended the first day of the three day conference, and the numbers dwindled a bit by the third day.   I heard that they had over 500 people attend the first year, but this year (the third year it has run) many teachers in the area were still in school, due to make up days for snow days last winter.  The major goal of the conference was to get teachers together to collaborate and curate digital content for curriculum purposes.  But there were also workshops and lectures given by the technology specialists at BPS and a limited number of invited vendors.  

It was a productive conference, for me.  I learned a few things and got some ideas for doing a technology professional development event at my school.   I also met teachers from some of the surrounding towns who attended the conference and got ideas from them.  The presentations were great.  I saw a great presentation on elementary and kindergarten presentations using the iPad, by Dan Callahan, the technology integrator for the Pine Meadow Elementary School.  Also a few new information points for Google Apps for Education from Andy Marcinek, at the high school level. 

The technology program at BPS is phenomenal.  As you may know, they implemented a 1-1 iPad program a little over a year ago in the high school.  They really live and breathe technology in education and have a lot of ideas for implementation and integration of technology in the educational process.  Some members of the BHS student run help desk were there as well, set up at their own kiosk in the library, available to answer any questions attendees had about their iPads.

All in all, it was a great presentation.  The facility and the technical infrastructure was very impressive.  Thanks to Dennis Villano and Andy Marcinek and everyone else for a great conference, and it was free!  I hope they do it again next year.