NEMCC Schedules Mobile Learning Conference

BOONEVILLE, Miss. (Press Release) — Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Mobile Learning Conference turns six in June and with the celebration, one of Mississippi’s largest technology workshops will celebrate many firsts.

With the ever-increasing demand for the workshop, Northeast technology specialist/webmaster and founder of the Mobile Learning Conference is allowing the three-day conference to take its first steps away from its Booneville home.

Powell’s Mobile Learning Conference, which has been located on the Northeast Booneville campus during the first five years, will make the short walk to the Northeast at Corinth’s Larry McCollum Center on Harper Road in Corinth for its sixth birthday.

“With our success, we have basically outgrown Booneville. In Booneville, we would have had to use two to three different buildings,” Powell said. “At Corinth, it is all under one roof.”

Cost of the three-day workshop is $150 and participants qualify for 2.1 Continuing Education Units (CEU) after attending all three days. For more information, contact Powell at jdpowell@nemcc.edu or call 662-720-7585 or contact the Northeast Office of Continuing Education at 662-720-7296 or email continuinged@nemcc.edu

Online registration is available at http://tinyurl.com/ndyqx7m.

Set for June 9-11, Northeast’s Mobile Learning Conference will also celebrate one of the firsts for the Mississippi Apple Distinguished Educators – the first time, all have been under the same roof. Those Apple Distinguished Educators include Nikki Peel of the Tupelo School District, Kameron Ball of the Clinton School District, Jackson State University’s Robert Blaine, Director of the National Center for Technology Planning and author of “Leading Your Own Photo Safari” Dr. Larry Anderson and Powell.

With all five of Mississippi’s Apple Distinguished Educators and the addition of Mercer University’s Dr. Jabari Cain, the University of Central Arkansas’ Dr. Michael Mills, Dr. Chris Penny and Rebecca Stockley, Northeast’s Mobile Learning Conference is one of the largest gatherings of Apple Distinguished Educators east of the Mississippi River.

Penney and Stockley will serve as the keynote speakers for the conference but all nine Apple Distinguished Educators have presentation slots during the three-day workshop. Penny will speak on “The Mouse is Dead: Welcome to the Post-PC Era,” from his latest book, “Mobile Pedagogy and Perspectives on Teaching and Learning.”

Stockley, who is affectionately known as the Improv Lady, will help break the ice with her presentation. The co-founder of the BATS Improv in San Francisco, Stockley uses improvisational theatre principles to teach participants about collaboration, creativity, presentation and communication skills and how to entertain an audition. With her techniques, Stockley has had the honor to work for PIXAR Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Lucas Films along with Apple and Berkeley University.

Anderson is the Director of the National Center for Technology Planning and heads the Photo Safari which is scheduled to take place in historic downtown Corinth as members of the workshop learn to use the technology they have available to tell a captivating and interesting story of their experience.

Cain serves as an assistant professor at Mercer University’s Tift College of Education while Mills is an assistant professor of teaching and learning at the University of Central Arkansas.

Blaine is the special assistant to provost/professor, provost and vice-president for academic affairs while Ball serves as the Technology Director for the Clinton City Schools and Peel was just promoted to Information Technology Coordinator for the Tupelo School District.

In addition to the nine Apple Distinguished Educators, five Apple representatives are scheduled to present at the conference including Andre Vlajk, Apple’s higher education account representative; Neill Hitchcock, Apple’s K-12 account representative; Chris Dunbar, a senior systems engineer at Apple, Tim David, a solutions engineer with Apple and Apple Development Executive Lynnwood Belvin.

As with the previous five Mobile Learning Conferences, Powell has broken the conference into three different education tracks to help educators focus on specific needs. Higher education and technical make up two of the educational tracks while conference organizers have modified the K-12 track to incorporate specific common core topics for primary and secondary educators.

While many of the conference participants are from Mississippi, Powell does not want to limit the three-day event to just those from the Magnolia State and welcomes educators from Alabama and Tennessee to make the short trip to Corinth for the three-day workshop.

Participants already signed up for the conference include those coming in from as far away the Mississippi gulf coast, Wesson and the Mississippi delta region and with approximately 70 participants attending last year’s event, Powell is looking to break triple-digits in the conference’s sixth year.

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