Episode 142

How can I Participate in the #Skypeathon with my students? | @MicrosoftEDU

On November 29 and 30, educators from across the planet will be participating in the annual Skypeathon. Brought to you by Microsoft Education, the Skypeathon is a fantastic way of bringing together not only classrooms, but it's a great opportunity to invite industry experts into your class to share their passions about their professions.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with New Jersey educator and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, Steve Isaacs and TEDx Speaker and Middle School Educator Marialice Curran and discuss how the Skypeathon has impacted their classrooms.

If your class is looking to engage with amazing educators, I would highly recommend reaching out to Steve and Marialice. Steve not only is a fellow New Jersey Educator, he is one of just a handful of teachers worldwide who are MineCraft Education Experts willing to work with you and your students and share his passions for brick building. Follow Steve online at @Mr_Isaacs

Passionate about Digital Citizenship and Student Voice, I had the pleasure of meeting Marialice and her son and they are VERY inspiring. Follow Marialice on Twitter @MBFXC

About our Guests

Marialice Curran

Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran is the founder and CEO of the Digital Citizenship Institute. As a mother and a connected educator, she has served as an associate professor, middle school teacher, principal and library media specialist. As a pioneer in digital citizenship, she developed and created the first 3-credit digital citizenship course for teachers in the United States. She co-founded the digital citizenship chat on Twitter (2011) and the Digital Citizenship Summit (2015). She chairs the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) digital citizenship PLN and is a researcher, keynote, and TEDxYouth speaker.

Dr. Curran is committed to promoting social good through the use of social media and technology. She believes in a community-driven approach to educating and empowering digital citizens to solve problems in local, global and digital communities. Her mission is to turn negatives into positives and help to transform participants into designers, creative thinkers, global collaborators, problem solvers and justice-oriented digital citizens.

Find out more at the Digital Citizenship Institute and follow Marialice on Twitter at @mbfxc and @digcitinstitute.

Steve Isaacs

Steve Isaacs teaches Video Game Design and Development at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, NJ. In addition, he developed and teaches an online version of the Video Game Design and Development course for the VHS Collaborative.

Steve is a strong proponent of student choice and student voice. It is his mission to provide students with opportunities to pursue and nurture their passion.

Community building and connecting with other educators is one of Steve's passions. He is proud to be the co-founder of #EdTechBridge, a Twitter chat, and community working to build collaborative relationships with EdTech stakeholders to create better EdTech for our students. The chat meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7 pm EST.

On a personal note, Steve has been married for 21 years (consecutively, to the same person 🙂 ) and has two beautiful daughters. When Steve has ‘free' time, he loves to bike, hike, swim, snorkel, and ski, and play video games.

Please follow Steve's blog to find out more about his pursuits http://gamesandlearning1.blogspot.com and explore his showcase of student work at http://www.pinterest.com/stevei2071

Steve can be found on twitter as @mr_isaacs and is one of the Minecraft Mentors. You can set up a time to chat with Steve through the Minecraft Mentor community site http://education.miecrosoft.com/minecraftmentors.