Scheduled for June 6, it is part of a week-long series of technology training events taking place at Cleveland State this summer.
Quickly emerging as one of the largest professional development technology conferences in the state, the 2012 version of the P-16 Summer Summit offers more than 50 Hawaiian-shirt-wearing presenters conducting close to 100 technology-related sessions.
“The P-16 Summer Summit has been approved by the State Department of Education for professional development credit for Tennessee K-12 teachers,” stated Dr. Ron Paige, P-16 Summer Summit coordinator.
“Some school directors have pointed out, ‘We can’t buy professional development training of this quality at this price.”’
The conference opens at 7 a.m. for registration in the foyer of the Cleveland State gymnasium, with the 8 a.m. keynote presentation kicking off the day’s events.
This year’s keynoter, Dr. Robbie Melton, associate vice-chancellor of eLearning for the Tennessee Board of Regents, is known throughout the state for her dynamic and enthusiastic style of presenting. Dr. Melton's very contemporary topic is "Turn Off Your Cell Phone and Turn on Your Teaching & Learning Tool."
Paige said, “Last year, Dr. Melton’s breakout session was so popular that extra seating had to be found to accommodate the more than 80 people who were trying to squeeze into her session.”
The Quentin Lane Gymnasium also serves as the Exhibition Area for product and service demonstrations from multiple state and national sponsors including Atomic Learning, Camcor, Cengage, Cleveland State Service-Learning, CompView, Dell, Desire2Learn, Epson, SmartThinking, SP Controls, Tennessee Small Business Development Center, TriStar Digital Connections, the Tennessee Board of Regents, etc.
A new feature of this year’s event is the Southern-style luau luncheon.
Tony Bartolo, director of marketing and public information, said, “We are not certain what a Southern luau is, but we’re going to have one.”
Paige stated, “This food-filled, fun-filled break in the middle of the day provides attendees an opportunity to share what they have been seeing and learning about. The Southern style luau luncheon — whatever it is — is destined to become a mainstay of future Summer Summit conferences.”
Also new this year, is the post-conference Google Apps for Education training session for pre-qualifying as a Google Certified Apps for Ed trainer. This hard-to-find qualifier training is scheduled for June 7 and 8.
The two-day session both introduces the free Google Apps for Education and continues toward certification as Google Apps Trainer. Seating is very limited, but still available.
According to Paige, who has been through the training, “This is no walk in the park training, but a very rigorous introduction to the most useful Google applications including email, calendar, docs, sites, and more — it is extremely useful information.”
For more information about the 3rd annual P-16 Summer Summit on Teaching with Technology, contact Dr. Ron Paige at Cleveland State at (423) 478-6216.
Attendance is open to anyone, but the focus is on teaching and learning with technology.
The registration form is located on the Cleveland State webpage or by using the URL link: mycs.cc/p16.
There is a separate registration form available for the Google training on the Cleveland State website.
