With the Speak Up 2014 data release date approaching, now is the perfect time to learn how to view your Speak Up data before it’s released on February 4th! Visit our Speak Up Data page in order to sign up to receive a reminder when your data is available, learn how to receive your data, retrieve your password, or look up your organization’s primary contact. Click on the image above or visit our website in order to learn more.
Category Archives: Speak Up
Speak Up News, January 2015
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. This past survey period brought in record-breaking numbers, with a total of 521,861 surveys taken by 431,238 students, 44,299 teachers, 4,326 administrators, 35,342 parents, and 6,656 members of the community! Although Speak Up 2014 is over, we still have exciting news and events to look out for. Keep reading to learn more!
In this newsletter, you will find information regarding…
▪ Speak Up 2014 data release: Your survey results are in and will be released on February 4th! -The Project Tomorrow team |
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Speak Up 2014Data will be released on February 4th!Thank you to the 431,238 students, 44,299 teachers, 4,326 administrators, 35,342 parents, and 6,656 members of the community who participated in Speak Up 2014. We are thrilled to release the survey data on February 4th! Be on the lookout for more information closer to the release date. In the meantime, check out the preliminary data we pulled during Speak Up America week:
Preliminary dataLast month we pulled special snapshots of preliminary data for students, parents, teachers, librarians and principals. Each day during Speak Up America Week we released a special video infographic on new Speak Up findings. Check out each snapshot below:
Click here to view all the snapshots.
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Photo and video challenge winnersSpeak Up for America Photo Challenge Winners
▪ Hunters Creek Middle School from Onslow County, NC Speak Up for America Video Challenge Winners
▪ Saint John XXIII Catholic School from Scottsdale, AZ |
Conference registration winnersISTE 2015 Conference and Expo
TCEA 2015 Conference & Exposition
CUE 2015 Annual Conference
NETA 2015 Spring Conference
NCCE 2015 Conference
BbWorld 2015
2015 iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium
BrainPOP classroom certificate winners▪ Bradie M Shrum Elementary from Salem Community Schools, IN Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated in Speak Up America! Learn more about the week long event here.
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Making Learning MobileThe Making Learning Mobile 2.0 study, sponsored by Kajeet with funding fromQualcomm’s Wireless Reach Initiative and Project Tomorrow, takes an in-depth look at the impact of 1-to-1 tablet implementation, including Internet access outside the classroom, with students from Chicago Public Schools. For the past two years, Project Tomorrow has worked with Kajeet to assess the impact of mobile devices on teaching and learning, and the results are in!
Results from the Making Learning Mobile study▪ The school-issued tablet increased at-home Internet access for this cohort of students by 53%. This is especially significant given the persistence of the digital divide in home Internet access within our communities. Interested in learning more? Download the report, and don’t miss our webinar with Kajeet on Wednesday, February 18th at 4pm EST – click here to register.
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Speak Up On the Go!Upcoming presentations8 Essentials for Mobile Learning
District leadership workshop San Marcos, CA Friday, January 23rd Sneak Peek at Speak Up 2014 Findings
Marketing Boot Camp at TCEA Austin, TX Tuesday, February 3rd Webinar: Results from the Making Learning Mobile 2.0 Project in Chicago
Hosted by Kajeet Wednesday, February 18th Register here Workshop: Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Gender-Sensitive Mobile Learning Projects in Educational Settings
UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week Paris, France Monday, February 23rd |
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Thank you for your interest and continued support of Speak Up! Be sure to stay updated on all things Speak Up by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagramand our Blog.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact our Speak Up Operations Manager, Jenny Hostert, at jhostert@tomorrow.org or via phone at 949/609-4660 ext. 17.
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Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for the support of Speak Up 2014: Blackboard Inc., BrainPOP, Fuel Education, DreamBox Learning, Schoolwires, Qualcomm Wireless Reach, Rosetta Stone, American Association of School Administrators, Consortium for School Networking, Digital Learning Day, Digital Promise, edWeb, International Association for K-12 Online Learning, International Society for Technology in Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National School Boards Association, Secondary Education Teachers’ Association, and the Southern Regional Education Board.
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Speak Up permission request form
With the release of the Speak Up 2014 survey data next month and the release of our national reports in the spring, now is the time to start thinking about how you want to use your school or district data and the data found in our national reports. If you are interested in using data from our national reports for your own publications, be sure to fill out a permission request form and send it to speakup@tomorrow.org. Click here to download a copy of the permission request form, or click on the image above.
Digital games used to teach English-language arts
While books, poems, art, and even films have all been used to teach English-language arts to students, some teachers have taken a new route by incorporating digital games into their classrooms. Fullbright Company’s game, “Gone Home,” tells the story of Katie Greenbriar, who comes home to an empty house and missing family members after spending a year abroad. Unlike traditional video games, “Gone Home” focuses on the story rather than leveling up; critics have praised the game as a new way of storytelling, and it has made its way into classrooms as a substitute for traditional text due to its non-linear story that forces players to explore the game’s surroundings and create their own narrative and conclusions.
Toronto-based teacher Paul Darvasi began using “Gone Home” in his all-boys English class in 2013. He created objected for students around various subtopics, such as “1995 Archeology” in which students found objects from the year the game was set. The findings of each subtopic was then presented through PowerPoint, where students were assessed on their presentations. In order to individually assess the students, Darvasi required students to write game reviews and track subtopics via screen shots and notes from the game – all of which correlated to the Common Core State Standards. “In a sense, it played out similar to a typical literature unit,” Darvasi said. “Except that you are substituting written text with a game’s text.”
“Gone Home” has not only affected classrooms in the North America, but international classrooms as well. Alexander Husoy, an English teacher in Norway, came across Darvasi’s blog posts about the game and teamed up with Darvasi to co-deliver the unit in fall 2014. Students from both schools collaborate through blog posts, private Facebook groups, and even Google Hangout in order to create their final project assessments.
Last fall, the 2014 Speak Up survey asked students questions about digital games in the classroom, such as “What would be the benefits of having video, online, or digital games as a part of your regular schoolwork or classroom activities?” Find out the results from this question and more when we release our Speak Up 2014 data in early February – in the meantime, you can view past data and reports here.
Interested in learning more about “Gone Home” and its use in the classroom? Read the original article, “‘Gone Home’: A Video Game as a Tool for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills” by Ki Sung (MindShift), or visit the official “Gone Home” website.
Thank you for speaking up!
Thank you to the 431,212 students, 44,294 teachers, 4,325 administrators, 35,335 parents, and 6,656 community members who participated in Speak Up 2014! Data results will be released in early February – stay tuned for an official release date.
How did your state, school, and district do? Click on the above map or check out the information below:
Top 5 States based on Total Surveys:
Texas (85,000 surveys)
Indiana (76,000 surveys)
California (75,000 surveys)
North Carolina (64,000 surveys)
Alabama (30,000 surveys)
Top 5 states based on Student Participation as a % of NCES public school student enrollment by state (2011-2012):
Indiana
North Carolina
Alabama
Massachusetts
Nevada
Top 10 Districts Overall based on total surveys
Klein ISD, TX
Onslow County Schools, NC
Wake County Schools, NC
Anaheim City, CA
Hamilton Southeastern Schools, IN
Weslaco ISD, TX
Baltimore City Public School System, MD
Clark County School District, NV
Shelby County School District, AL
Brevard County School District, FL
Top 10 Schools Overall based on total surveys
Fishers High School, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, IN
North Carolina Virtual Public School, NC
Klein High School, Klein ISD, TX
Hamilton South Eastern High School, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, IN
Klein Collins High School, Klein ISD, TX
Klein Forest High School, Klein ISD, TX
San Elijo Middle School, San Marcos Unified School District, CA
Buhach Colony High, Merced Union High, CA
Weslaco East High School, Weslaco ISD, TX
Hawthorne High, Centinela Valley Union High School District, CA
Today is the last day to participate in Speak Up!
The last day of Speak Up is here!This year’s survey period has been amazing with over 520,000 surveys already submitted – a record breaking number! We still have a few hours left, so be sure to take the survey by midnight PT!
To keep that Speak Up momentum going for the last few hours of the survey, check out these exciting opportunities and announcements:
▪ Free BbWorld, iNACOL, NCCE and NETA Conference Registrations: Take the survey before midnight PT for a chance to win one of these free registrations! If you haven’t already please be sure to take the survey before midnight!
Click here to take the survey and pass it on. -The Project Tomorrow team |
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There is still time to win a free conference registration!Speak Up may be ending soon but there are still plenty of opportunities to win free conference registrations! In a special extension of our Speak Up America promotions, our good friends at Blackboard, iNACOL, NCCE, and NETAhave graciously offered free conference registrations to their respective events! All entries submitted today before midnight are eligible to be entered into a drawing to win a free registration!
Winning is as easy as speaking up! All you need to do is encourage your staff, students, their parents and the local community to take the survey before it closes at midnight. This is a great way to reach out to different audiences that may have a lower participation than you would like, for example to target your K-12 parents, teachers or local community members! The more surveys you get in, the more opportunities you have to win!
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Photo challengeThis year we had so many more #speakupsnapshot entries than we had ever envisioned submitted for our photo challenge! Check out our top 3 photos (above) and the winning schools:
▪ Hunters Creek Middle School from Onslow County, NC Thank you to everyone who submitted a #speakupsnapshot this year! Click here to view all the entries.
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Video challengeIn its first year, our #VoicesofSpeakUp video challenge received many wonderful entries, each answering the question, ““Why is using digital tools for learning important for your future?” Check out our 2 video challenge winners, and click on the links below to watch the winning videos:
▪ Saint John XXIII Catholic School from Scottsdale, AZ |
BrainPOP Classroom CertificatesOur friends at BrainPOP have offered not one, but two free classroom certificates this year! The winners of the free certificates are:
▪ Bradie M Shrum Elementary from Salem Community Schools, IN |
ISTE Conference RegistrationsThanks to our good friends at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), we are proud to announce the 2 districts who have won free 2015 ISTE conference registrations:
▪ Shelby County School District, AL |
TCEA Conference RegistrationThis year the wonderful folks at the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) offered a free TCEA 2015 Conference & Exposition registration to one lucky Texas school district. The winning district is Mission Consolidated Independent School District in Mission, TX. Congratulations!
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CUE Conference RegistrationCongratulations to Clark County Schools, NV andAnaheim City School District, CA on winning free registrations to the CUE 2015 Annual Conference! Thank you CUE for this amazing opportunity!
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in Speak Up America this year! Don’t forget – there is still time to participate in Speak Up and win more conference registrations!
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Exciting new Speak Up opportunities!
Speak Up America may be over, but we still have several exciting events and opportunities during the last week of Speak Up! Check them out below, and don’t forget to take the survey before it closes this Friday, December 19th.
Participate in Speak Up this week for a chance to win a free 2015 iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium registration!
Save the Date now for #BbWorld15 in Washington DC because here’s your chance to win one full conference badge!
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington districts turn up the volume and Speak Up!
Know an educator in one of these states? Please help spread the word, and pass along information about this great opportunity. Learn more about these great conference registrations below:
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
Photo and Video Challenge Extended through Wednesday, December 17th!
Photo and video challenge rules
Hashtag: #SpeakUpSnapshot
Winning a $225 grant has never been easier! All you need to do is take a picture with the Speak Up America 2014 Badge highlighting your Speak Up experience and upload the photo to one of our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or the photo challenge page. All pictures submitted through Wednesday, December 17th will be entered into a contest with up to four opportunities to win $225, so get your cameras out and shoot a photo showing you and your students Speaking Up!
Hashtag: #VoicesofSpeakUp
“Why is using digital tools for learning important for your future?”
“Why is using digital tools for learning important for your (students’) future?”
*All submissions already entered into the contest will be included in the extended contest.
Last minute Speak Up outreach ideas
The final week of Speak Up is here! Do you need help encouraging participation in your school or district? Try sending out these short emails before the survey closes this Friday, December 19th. Feel free to change the text to better fit your school or district’s needs.
Start learning about the aspirations of your district at http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2014/. Speak Up 2014 is open for input through Friday, December 19th, 2014, with survey data released in February 2015.
One week to go – Speak Up Closes Dec. 19th!
Thanks for Speaking Up America!Thank you to everyone that participated in Speak Up America 2014! Over 85,000 students, parents, educators and members of the community spoke up about digital learning this week, and the Speak Up community took on social media by storm with multiple Photo & Video challenge submissions and a Twitter chat with our fabulous CEO, Julie Evans on new and surprising preliminary data findings from this year’s surveys.
This year’s survey period has been amazing with over 421,000 surveys already submitted! We still have a week to go, so be sure to participate before the surveys close on Friday, December 19th.
To keep that Speak Up momentum going, we are excited to announce new Speak Up happenings and promotions taking place all next week:
▪ Free BbWorld Conference Registration: Learn how you can win a free BbWorld Conference Badge just by participating in Speak Up. If you haven’t already please be sure to take the survey before December 19th! Already taken the survey? Start spreading the word about the survey to your network of friends and family! Word of mouth is always the best promotion, help us expand our reach!
Click here to take the survey and pass it on.
-The Project Tomorrow team |
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Save the Date now for #BbWorld15 in Washington DC because here’s your chance to win one full conference badge!Speak Up America week may be over but the fun is just about to begin! In a special extension of our Speak Up America promotions, our good friends and wonderful sponsors of Speak Up, Blackboard has offered a free BbWorld 2015 conference badge to gift to one lucky Blackboard district during our final week of Speak Up!
Winning is as easy as speaking up! All you need to do is encourage your staff, students, their parents and the local community to participate in Speak Up during the final week of Speak Up. This is a great way to reach out to different audiences that may have a lower participation numbers than you would like, for example to target your K-12 parents, teachers or local community members! The more surveys you get in, the more opportunities you have to win!
In addition to your free BbWorld conference badge, the selected recipient attending the conference will also have the opportunity to join our CEO Julie Evans for dinner in Washington DC. Here’s your chance to pick our CEO Julie Evans’ brain on all things digital learning!
It’s never too early to start getting excited for next year, so go ahead and pencil BbWorld in for July 21-23, 2015 at Gaylord National in Washington, D.C. To learn more about #BbWorld15 and all the great happening from this year’s conference please visit: http://www.blackboard.com/sites/Bbworld14/
*Transportation and housing costs are not included. |
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Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington districts turn up the volume and Speak Up!As part of our Speak Up America campaign, our good friends at NCCE and NETA offered us free conference registrations to their upcoming 2015 conferences. With Speak Up America week coming to a close, we’ve received quite a few requests for an extension on these popular regional conference registration opportunities. To ensure everyone has a chance to Speak Up we will be extending this great promotion to all district’s in these states so that everyone has the same amazing opportunity to win.
So Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington get out there and SPEAK UP! Be sure to assign a primary contact to your school or district, otherwise we will have no way of contact you and more importantly we’ll have no way to send you your 2014 Speak Up data results come Feb. 2015!
Know an educator in one of these states? Please help spread the word, and pass along information about this great opportunity. Learn more about these great conference registrations below:
Nebraska Districts: Mark your calendars for April 23rd-24th and be “On the Move” for the 2015 NETA Spring Conference with an opportunity to win a free conference registration for one lucky member of your team ($125 value). Our friends at NETA have offered a free conference registration to one lucky district in the state, all you need to do is encourage your schools to participate in Speak Up during the final week of Speak Up! The more surveys you get in, the more chances to you have to win! Learn more about the NETA conference and all of its great offerings here.
*Transportation and housing costs are not included. Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington Districts: Our friends at the Northwest Council for Computer Education have graciously offered a free NCCE conference registration ($375 value) for their upcoming March 2015 conference in Portland, Oregon. Like our other free registration opportunities, all you need to do to enter is encourage your staff, students, parents, and the local community to participate in Speak Up. Each survey from your district acts as an entry into the contest – the more surveys taken in your district, the more chances you will have to win! Learn more about the conference and all its great offerings here. Also be sure to check out NCCE’s Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog at: http://blog.ncce.org/.
*Transportation and housing costs are not included. |
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Photo and Video Challenge Extended through Wednesday, December 17th!Thank you to all who have submitted their#SpeakUpsnapshot photos this week! On Monday we will be choosing one winner from this week’s photo challenge entries to receive a $250 classroom/school grant.
Due to multiple requests, we have decided to extend the photo and video challenge through Wednesday, December 17th. We understand that many of you plan on participating in Speak Up next week and we wanted to give everyone an equal opportunity to win. Therefore, all photo and video entries submitted next week through Wednesday, December 17th by 12PM ET will be entered into a separate contest with a total of four opportunities to win $225 in classroom or school grants! With more opportunities to win, receiving $225 in classroom or school grants has never been easier – so get your cameras ready and submit your photos and videos today!
Photo and video challenge rulesWinning a $225 grant has never been easier! All you need to do is take a picture with the Speak Up America 2014 Badge highlighting your Speak Up experience and upload the photo to one of our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or the photo challenge page. All pictures submitted through Wednesday, December 17th will be entered into a contest with up to four opportunities to win $225, so get your cameras out and shoot a photo showing you and your students Speaking Up!
Video challenge
Hashtag: #VoicesofSpeakUp “Why is using digital tools for learning important for your future?” We want to see you and your class “Speak Up” in action! In our social media video challenge, Project Tomorrow wants to know:
“Why is using digital tools for learning important for your (students’) future?” All you need to do is create a short 15-30 second video answering the question above. Use this opportunity to get your class involved by making this into a class project. Submissions can come in the form of videos, animations (PowToon), slideshows, voice snippets and more! The more creative the better!
All videos submitted next week will be entered into our special Speak Up challenge contest extension, with opportunities to win a $225 grant! With only three videos submitted so far, your chances of winning have never been higher!
*All submissions already entered into the contest will also be included in next week’s contest.
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Daily Speak Up 2014 Preliminary data snapshotsIn celebration of our Speak Up America, we pulled a special snapshot of preliminary data for students, parents, teachers, librarians and principals. Each day, during Speak Up America Week, we released a special video infographic on NEW Speak Up findings. Check out each snapshot below:
▪ Teachers Click here to view all the snapshots.
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With one week to go there is still plenty of time to get the word out about Speak Up. If you just registered your district or are looking for new ways to promote the survey how about trying one of these ideas:▪ Host a Speak Up Day: Pick a day in December to have your K-12 community complete the Speak Up Surveys! Participate in Speak Up and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning: bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Join the #edtech conversation and share your viewpoints on 21st century education with @SpeakUpEd: http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
23 questions + 15 minutes of your time = valuable research for the education community! Take the survey today @ http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Are you “Speaking Up” about digital learning this year? Make your voice heard participate in Speak Up 2014 at http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Participate in Speak Up and share your thoughts and views on the importance of education within your community http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
There’s still time to experience the value of #SpeakUp by collecting &using the data to garner support for your key technology initiatives! >>> Tweet This!
Reminder to fill out your @SpeakUpEd Survey 2014 by Dec. 19! Don’t miss your opportunity to Speak Up! http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
For more ideas, please check out our promo material pages website at:http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/promo.html
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Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for the support of Speak Up 2014: Blackboard Inc., BrainPOP, K12, DreamBox Learning, Schoolwires, SMART Technologies, Rosetta Stone, American Association of School Administrators, Consortium for School Networking, Digital Learning Day, Digital Promise, edWeb, International Association for K-12 Online Learning, International Society for Technology in Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National School Boards Association, Secondary Education Teachers’ Association, and the Southern Regional Education Board.
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Speak Up 2014 Snapshot for Principals