I am staggered. In less than 24 hours, the 102 people that have signed up to volunteer at the conference have filled up over 85% of the 126 different volunteer time slots that we have asked them for! I’m positive that we will have the rest of those slots filled very soon.
When you see someone wearing a volunteer t-shirt at the conference, please give them a high-five for me!
Our volunteers really do make this conference work, and work well, for the almost 1,500 registered conference participants. They are so important to what we do, and we can’t thank these great people enough for their willingness to help. THANK YOU!
Are YOUcet? We are so excited for our upcoming UCET Conference March 22-23 at the University of Utah, but really need your help to pull it off. Be a critical part of making the conference a success by becoming an official UCET Volunteer! Please share this with any other educators that you know will be attending the conference as well.
A wonderful T-shirt you can sport around your school and neighborhood!
Your name in a volunteers-only drawing for a fantastic prize!
A special thank you gift!
The warm and fuzzy feeling you will get knowing you helped out a great organization!
A chance to network with some amazing people!
Our undying gratitude
Learn more about what areas of the conference we need help with on the UCET Volunteer page. Closer to the conference, we will send you another form to choose your day and time slot.
Do you know an outstanding educator or school leader who deserves recognition? Nominations for all #UCET18 awards are open from now until Friday, February 23, 2018. Award winners will be announced Thursday, March 22, 2018, at the opening session of #UCET18.
UCET Outstanding Teacher of the Year – This award recognizes and honors a teacher who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education. (PK-12 classroom teacher). $500 cash and plaque.
UCET Outstanding Leader of the Year – This award recognizes and honors a leader who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education. The nominee can be a principal, superintendent, school or district technology staff, regional technology trainer, etc. The one stipulation is that the nominee is not a PK-12 classroom teacher. They may have a teaching certificate, however their current position is not as a classroom teacher. $500 cash and plaque.
UCET Outstanding Young Educator of the Year – This award will be presented to an outstanding young educator (under the age of 35) who demonstrates vision, innovation, action, and transformation using technology to improve teaching and learning. $250 cash and plaque.
ISTE Award
Making IT Happen Award – Making IT Happen is an internationally recognized awards program administered by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). This program honors educational technology educators and leaders for their commitment and innovation. ISTE sponsors the award, the jacket, and a press release about the award recipient. UCET sponsors a $500 cash award for the Making IT Happen recipient. Read more about this award here.
UCET must submit the Making IT Happen Award winner’s name and other information to ISTE well in advance to ensure that the Making IT Happen Award winner receives the coveted black (for men) or pink (for ladies) jacket.
On 12 December 2017, I received a very disheartening email from a great online tool. Storify was shutting down! Storify was a great tool that allowed you to archive social media posts via a hashtag and allow you to look back at the events of that hashtag or event. Below is the email in full, but be careful to not start weeping as I did. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Here at UCET, we have used Storify quite a bit for everything from archiving weekly #UTedChat chats to keeping track of social posts made during our annual UCET Conferences and #EdcampUT events. While this isn’t the end of the world for social media usage, it does make for a little sticky situation. How will we now archive our social posts during our events we as an organization put on and during the weekly #UTedChat events? But even more than that, is there actually a need for archiving of these events at all? Those are two questions I don’t know how to answer yet, especially that last one about the actual “need” for archiving the events anyways. As a bit of a digital packrat (and maybe even a little physical as well) I like to know we have an archive of these events because I find it useful to go back over the events afterward as a sort of “review your notes” kind of thing. But I know not everyone feels the same way. With that being said, if any of you come across a good replacement for Storify, please pass it along so I can continue to archive and then review the awesome things shared at UCET hosted and sponsored events going forward.
For those of you haven’t heard this awful news yet here’s the email I received complete with the timeline for closure.
Dear Storify Customer,
Thank you for contributing your stories to the Storify community. Unfortunately, Storify.com will no longer be available after May 16, 2018. While product end-of-life is a part of the overall product life cycle, we understand that this could impact you and are committed to making the transition as smooth as possible.
Here are important dates to be aware of. We will provide ongoing reminders of upcoming milestones over the coming months.
December 12, 2017
• No new accounts can be created on Storify.com
May 1, 2018
• No new stories can be created
May 16, 2018, 5pm PST
• Last opportunity to export content using the export functionality on Storify.com
• All site functionality will be removed
• Customer support will be discontinued
YOU Make a Difference! Thank you for being the teacher behind the technology.
You may have seen the above image floating around Twitter recently and may have wondered what it was all about. Well, it’s a way to show appreciation for the amazing teachers here in the state who are using technology effectively to help their students learn and grow, it’s about showing appreciation for the amazing teachers behind the technology in our schools! But it’s more than just a way to show appreciation for these teachers, it’s a way to help enter them for a chance to win a FREE registration for UCET 2108 at the University of Utah, happening on March 22-23. Plus, you also get registered for a chance to win a FREE registration for you too! Want to learn more, keep reading below!
What?
A contest to Give Away Free Registrations to #UCET18
How?
Give a shout out to a teacher who is doing a great job! They don’t cost anything, if you see someone doing something awesome, let them know!
** See the actual specific steps below.
When?
Anytime between now and the conference.
Why?
Because this year’s conference theme is YOUcet and we want to focus on the teacher’s who make the awesome things happen.
How (specific steps)?
Save the “You Make a Difference” image (it’s the one at the top of this post or floating around on Twitter)
Tweet out how the person you’ve chosen is making a positive impact on education here in Utah
Make sure you use the person’s twitter handle (this is pretty important so we know who they are!)
Be specific with your praise!
You and the person you tag will both be entered for a free UCET registration, we’ll draw one each month leading up to the conference. And remember, pass the goodness on! If you get one, give one! #PassItOn
