#NETAInstaWalk15: MOVIN’ and GROOVIN’ —> Another Year of Connecting Through Levity

Nebraska’s premier educational technology conference, #NETA15 starts NEXT THURSDAY!

Can I get a w00t (with zeroes, not o’s)?!

The witty, and wonderful Cynthia Stogdill (@CynthiaStogdill) and I have teamed up to present the second annual NETA InstaWalk. We wanted to tie in to the overall #NETA15 theme of “On the Move,” but we wanted to get a little bit funky with it, so our theme is “Movin’ and Groovin'” because we want you to get down with yo’ bad selves.

Some of you might be thinking, “HUZZAHHHHHH! I can’t wait to get funky!” and others might be thinking, “HUH?”

For those of you huzahhhing, I salute you. For those of you scratching your heads, I invite you to listen up: The InstaWalk is the more casual part of the conference. It’s the lair of levity. The fountain of friendship. The axis of ahas! …

To be more specific, it’s a photo challenge of sorts, in which we … Cynthia and I … challenge YOU … all attendees of the #NETA15 conference … to have a little fun with your camera whilst learning and networking and growing as a professional.

There are FIVE separate challenges, and I reveal them to you below, along with the attractive digital badges you can earn by completing the challenges. We also have a SIXTH badge that you can earn, if you complete all FIVE challenges. You will have the rights to proudly display your badges on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or your own personal blog. That’s how prestigious these badges are. (Most importantly, it is fun to earn them. Yeeehaw!)

General Instructions:

1. Download the Instagram app onto your smartphone or tablet.

2. Give Instagram permission to use your photos.

3. Capture a photo you want to share.

4. Upload it to Instagram.

5. Caption it with any info you want to share + #NetaInstaWalk15 + the hashtags that correspond with the badge you are attempting to earn.

While going about your conferencing business, be on the lookout for things that might fall into the following five categories: 1. things that enlightened you 2. old friends and new friends (and by “old” we are in no way implying anything about you or your friends’ ages, we are only referencing longevity of friendship) 3. your fashion and other people’s fashion. #edufashion, if you will 4. food! glorius! food! food you ate and food you saw and wish you could eat and 5. magic moments. (We’ll let you decide what that means.)

Since Cynthia and I were feeling so groovy when we were dreaming up ideas, we chose some hits from the 60’s and 70’s that made us feel like dancing … So move with us … groove with us …

If you do that, you will win this beaut:

For your cultural edification, here is the song that we are referencing:

CHALLENGE TWO: #WithALittleHelpFromMyFriends #TheBeatles

To earn the #WithALittleHelpFromMyFriends award, post a picture of your and your friends. This is selfie time USA. Don’t hold back. If you have a selfie stick, I hope you brought it. Be sure to include the following hashtags to get full credit for this challenge:

#NetaInstaWalk15 #WithALittleHelpFromMyFriends #TheBeatles

If you do that, you will win this badge:

And here’s the song:

CHALLENGE THREE: #EduFashion #Beautiful #Youngbloods

To earn the #Beautiful award, post a picture of your favorite #NETA15 fashion. It might be YOUR own fashion. It might be the fashion of one of your friends. It might be the fashion of a complete stranger who will become your friend after you tell her/him how much you love her/his fashion. Be sure to include the following hashtags to get full credit for this challenge:

#NetaInstaWalk15 #WithALittleHelpFromMyFriends #TheBeatles

If you do that, you will win this badge:

And here’s the song:

CHALLENGE FOUR: #Foodie #AmericanPie #DonMcLean

To earn the #AmericanPie award, post some pics of your breakfast, coffee break, or your lunch. You know teachers love to eat, especially when they have more than 20 minutes to do so! Relish in it, but don’t forget to take a pic. (This is Instagram we’re talking about after all.)

#NetaInstaWalk15 #Foodie #AmericanPie #DonMcLean

If you do that, you will win this badge:

And here’s the song:

CHALLENGE FIVE: #ThisMagicMoment #TheDrifters #JayAndTheAmericans

To earn the #ThisMagicMoment award do your best to capture what you consider to be a magical #NETA15 moment (or something that represents it since you can’t really predict when magic moments might occur).

#NetaInstaWalk15 #ThisMagicMoment #TheDrifters OR #JayAndTheAmericans

If you do that, you will win this badge:

And here’s the song:

If you just so happen to be one of those camera-happy, instagrammy, or super-competitive types and you earn ALL FIVE of the aforementioned badges, then you will earn the most valuable badge of all badges:

THE KODACHROME BADGE

If you think you have earned all five badges, be sure to post a picture of ANYONE or ANYTHING from the conference and in the caption, please use the following hashtags:

#NetaInstaWalk15 #Kodachrome #PaulSimon #IAmAMovinGroovinMachine

Here is the Mother of All #NetaInstaWalk15 badges:

A couple of things to keep in mind:

If you have a PRIVATE Instagram account, we won’t be able to see your pics, even if you hashtag them. I’m not pressuring you to lift your privacy settings. I just want to make sure you know that it will be difficult to participate, unless you friend either Cynthia or me, which is an option that will allow you to keep your settings high(er) but still get credit.

If you do not have a private Instagram account and you use these hashtags, there is a chance we will re-gram you on #NETA’s Instgram account or on one of our accounts.

There is also a chance that your photo may end up in the slide show at the end of Day 1 or during Day 2 at some point.

We are totes excited to move and groove with you. The main thing is: HAVE FUN with this. The NETA conference is already fun (unless you hate learning) but this will be the icing on the cake. If you have questions, feel free to email Jodie at morgetron@gmail.com or tweet me @morgetron.

Here are some #nebedchat/#nebedu peops you may consider following. (If I have left you off, it was either accidentally, OR we don’t follow each other and so I don’t know about you YET!) If you’d like to be added to this roster, please let me know.

NETA: @nebedtech

Beth Still: @bethstill

Craig Badura: @mrbadura

Cynthia’s Stogdill: @cynstogdill

Eliu Paopao: @epaopao

Jason Everett: @jason_everett

Josh Allen: @j_allen

Keegan Korf: @opsmrskorf

Kristina Peters: @mrskmpeters

Laura Kroll: @laurakroll_mandery

Lisa Eichinger: @lisa.ike

Michelle Baldwin: @michellek107

Stephen Sautter: @coach_sautter

and little ol’ ME: @morgetron (personal account) @mizmorgetron (classroom account)

If you want to know more about the #NetaInstaWalk14, <– you can click on that hashtag <– and it will take you to a link about the first annual InstaWalk.

SEE YOU ON THE DANCE FLOOR.

For Cynthia’s take on #NetaInstaWalk15, read her post HERE –> Tangled Librarian.

Posted on April 17, 2015April 19, 2015 by morgetron | Leave a comment

#NETA14InstaWalk … or InstaParty?

If you’re looking for THE #NETA14InstaWalk Tasks & Badges, CLICK HERE–> This Mission Is Possible!
You are cordially invited to our party, our #NETA14InstaWalk party, that is.

Later this week, educators from all over the region will be flocking to the the La Vista Convention Center for the premier Midwestern educational technology convention–> #NETA14 and this year, Eliu PaoPao and I will be hosting the first ever InstaWalk. We want YOU to join us.

What is an InstaWalk? you might be asking. An Instawalk is a photo scavenger hunt of sorts designed to infuse #NETA14 with an element of fun and whimsy, whilst offering yet another brilliant opportunity for attendees to network. Also, we’ve decided to gamify it by offering badges to those of you who carry out the given tasks.

To participate, follow these steps.

1. If you don’t have the Instagram app on your mobile device, download it from the app store and establish an account.

2. We will post the scavenger tasks in a couple of places: here on my blog, on Paopao’s blog and on NETA’s Instagram. Either check back here, or follow the NETA Instagram to see the prompts.

3. Fulfill the scavenger tasks throughout your NETA14 experience. Snap; share; search; interact.

4. Make sure to add #NETA14InstaWalk to all of your photo captions. This will send your photo to an Instagram backchannel that will allow everyone to see our photos in one place. Some of these photos will be regrammed on the NETA Instagram account. (Please note that if you have a PRIVATE Instagram account, you photos will not show up in the backchannel for everyone to see. They will only appear to those users who follow you. There are pros and cons to private accounts.)

5. This is for fun, so don’t let it stress you out! If you can’t fulfill one of the prompts, NBD. It’s not a contest; it’s strictly to make our conference experience more fun, so we hope you enjoy it! Everyone who plays is a winner, and even those who don’t play can enjoy the fruits of our labor.

6. If you’re more of a lurker, you can also watch the fun unfold by searching for the #NETA14 hashtag on Instagram (via the EXPLORE function) or clicking on the tag when it appears in the caption of a photo. However, I want to encourage you to pop your comfy lurking bubble and at least try one of the tasks. This will be a very supportive environment to test the waters of social media, if you haven’t done so before.

In addition to posting your photos, we also encourage you to comment on and “LIKE” others’ photos as well. Interaction is the goal here! You can also share your photos via Twitter or Facebook. Josh Allen has set up an IFTTT recipe to share these photos via the NETA Facebook page and Twitter and Elui and I will share some of them via our personal Twitter feeds also (@epaopao & @morgetron).

Paopao and I will be keeping our eyes on the #NETA14InstaWalk backchannel, and we will be delivering badges to everyone who earns them via shared Google Drive Folder! If you earn a badge, we will tag you on the badge post on Instagram and then, eventually contact you to download your very own copy of the badge to display wherever you want to display it. Remember EVERYONE who plays, wins.

Posted on April 22, 2014January 8, 2015 by morgetron | Leave a comment

#NETA14InstaWalk: Another Dynamite Opportunity to Network at This Year’s Conference

The NETA convention always presents plenty of opportunities for educators from all over Nebraska and nearby states to connect on a personal level, from Tweet ups to a Twitter hashtag (#NETA14 this year!) to surrounding oneself with like-minded learners and educational movers and shakers–in the flesh. Recently, NETA Board Member, soon-to-be President-Elect and Bald and Bearded Wonder, Josh Allen approached me about hosting NETA’s first ever InstaWalk. Of course, being the social media-obsessed lady that I am, I totally geeked out about the prospect and so here we are.

We’ll be modeling ourselves after the ASCD Instawalk, but we will be putting our own Midwestern twist on it.

Essentially, the NETA14 InstaWalk will be a photo scavenger hunt for all conference attendees. We will share our photos via Instagram, using the #NETA14 hashtag and then we will regram some of the tagged photos on NETA’s very own (and very new) Instagram account (@nebedtech). I will also share some here on my blog. Naturally, I will be participating too because I do love me some Instagram. I have three accounts–> one personal one (@morgetron), one for my classroom (@mizmorgetron) and one for a special project that my Contemporary Literature students undertook this semester (@dollyfamilyrules). This will be yet another way to network with other attendees (and presenters), but will serve also as a virtual tour for anyone who can’t make it to the event this year.

To participate, follow these steps.

1. If you don’t have the Instagram app on your mobile device, download it from the app store and establish an account.

2. On both Thursday and Friday of the conference, we will post the daily scavenger hunts in a couple of places … here on my blog and on NETA’s Instagram. Either check back here, or follow the NETA Instagram to see the prompts.

3. Fulfill the scavenger tasks throughout your NETA14 experience. Snap, share, search, interact.

4. Make sure to add #NETA14InstaWalk to all of your photo captions. This will send your photo to an Instagram backchannel that will allow everyone to see our photos in one place. Some of these photos will be regrammed on the NETA Instagram account. (Please note that if you have a PRIVATE Instagram account, you photos will not show up in the backchannel for everyone. They will only appear to those users who follow you. There are pros and cons to private accounts.)

Krissy Venosdale hosted ASCD’s InstaWalk this year, and, thanks to Twitter, I will be picking her brain for pro-tips! Josh also suggested I reach out to Eliu Uati Paopao as a co-host and we will be putting our heads together this Wednesday for a brainstorming session via Google Hangout.

In addition to posting your photos, we also encourage you to comment on and “LIKE” others’ photos as well. Interaction is the goal here! You can also share your photos via Twitter or Facebook. Josh will be helping me to set up an IFTTT recipe to share these photos via the NETA Facebook page and Elui and I will share some of them via our personal Twitter feeds also (@epaopao & @morgetron).

We’ll be offering a Scavenger Hunt Preview sometime soon, so stay tuned for updates and make sure to follow us on Instagram –>

@nebedtech!

Posted on March 25, 2014January 8, 2015 by morgetron | Leave a comment

Curious Classroom

☆ always learning ☆

InstaWalk

#NETAInstaWalk15: MOVIN’ and GROOVIN’ —> Another Year of Connecting Through Levity

#NETA14InstaWalk … or InstaParty?