Bria Koch

2.e. : Promote and participate in local, national, and global learning communities that stimulate innovation, creativity, and digital-age collaboration.

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Artifact: 

• Peer-reviewed paper

• Conference presentation

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Description:

On March 26, 2018 I presented at eLmL 2018: The Tenth International Conference
on Mobile, Hybrid, and On-line Learning. This was the culmination of a months-long
process with lots of waiting and revisions involved. In September 2017 during GDIT
713: Computational Thinking, Dr. Joseph Kush presented us with an opportunity to
have a paper published in peer-reviewed journal and to present at an international

conference in Rome, Italy. I submitted my paper in October and anxiously waited to

hear from the committee members on whether I had been approved. In January, I

received word that I had been selected to attend and present. I made the necessary

revisions to the paper that I submitted, and I put together a presentation

based on my writing.

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Reflection:

Dr. Kush explained that we would be part of a special track in the conference on computational thinking. As a result, I chose to focus my writing and presentation on the free coding site, code.org. I did an overall introduction to the site and looked at it from the perspective of an elementary educator. Because code.org is a tool that I use frequently with my students, I was able to incorporate my curricular experiences to enhance my presentation. This led to many questions about personal experiences using code.org and enabled me to use this as a teaching tool with my colleagues at Seneca Valley. My ability to present my information both internationally and to the faculty at my school really encompasses the range from local to global in this particular standard.

 

Having never traveled overseas before, this was a brand new and exciting experience for me. It was an opportunity to visit a new place and interact with other educators on a global scale. This was actually the first conference that I ever attended and, as a result, the first at which I presented. Because I have used code.org for years and taught code.org to undergraduate students, I wasn’t too nervous about my presentation. This conference was great for a first-time presenter due to its size. Though there were hundreds of attendees in total, my presentation occurred during a break-out session. Because of this, the attendees were truly interested in the topic which led to greater discussion, higher levels of engagement, and increased communication with conference participants.