This is a blog created for discussion of the sessions at the Illinois Educational Technology Conference in Springfield, Nov. 20 and 21, 2008.
Friday, November 21, 2008
What did you learn at the IETC?
What did you learn at the Illinois Educational Technology Conference in Springfield? What was your favorite session? How do you plan on sharing your new knowledge with faculty, staff, and students?
I really enjoyed the conference this year, too. I went to a session on Podcasting using GarageBand that I know my eighth grade students will think that this new aspect of GarageBand will be awesome. One of the sessions I went to will help me teach Photoshop Elements better. The 7th and 8th graders like this application but with the extra features I learned they will be amazed at the things they can do. One of the other sessions I went to was on creating a Wiki. A wiki is a collaborative web space. To set one up you need to select a wiki location, there are several. Here are some: wikispaces (educational),pbwiki, wetpaint If you can't decide which to start with you can go to wikimatrix and decide which wiki to use. After deciding on the location you should initiate the space, decide on privacy parameters, and then enroll users. There are no set rules for what to use a wiki. The presenter suggested to start small and make sure that the wiki is authentic with the audience and has a purpose. I thought it might work with my classes on their essential questions. Going to this conference really keeps me up to date with all of the new technology that is available in our constantly changing world!
I'm really glad this was a good experience for you, Peggy. I think Friday's sessions and keynote were as interesting as Thursday's. In the last session on Friday, I set up a wiki on pbwiki.com for our technology department that teachers can use for support. The Technology Associates and Network Manager can contribute articles to the site. I also think it's very important for teachers to keep abreast of new technologies. It takes time for people to acclimate to new technologies and to start using them with students, but I think we're getting there.
I also enjoyed the conference this year. I sat in on many interesting sessions. Annette Lamb's presentation was awesome. I got a lot of great free websites from her. One site that she talked about was called Power Point Sidekicks. This is a way for children to do a review on a book or lesson. It's set up like a power point but it's only one slide. Research has shown how students write more when working on a computer. They feel that they have the tools right at their fingertips to help them in their writing. I have sent an email to my school about some great literacy websites. They are as follows: http://literactive.com/Home/index.asp http://internet4classroom.com/ http://www.spellingcity.com/index.php http://www.vocabulary.com/ I was pleased to go to the conference. I always learn so much at this conference. In our ever changing world which is at such a fast pace, I feel like I get to catch up with it during this conference.
I really enjoyed this conference also. I learned a lot of new ideas I hope to use in the classroom and pass onto other teachers. I started off by going to a session on digital storytelling. I think this is a great idea to share with the language arts teachers. The students can write a story or research a topic and then present it in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Another session I went to was Tips and Tricks for educators. This covered some some free downloads to use to restrict the users contol with the Contol Panel. I will be doing this on the computers in the lab. I also went to the session on Wikis. I will be looking into creating a private Wiki for my classes. The students can then use this to answer their essential questions for their module station. I also got some great web sites with lots of free tools. These would be great to share with all the teachers in our next Tech newsletter. I really enjoyed the conference and all the new ideas they presented. I cannot wait to start using them in my classroom.
I'm happy to see that the conference was a worthwhile event for all four of us! I'm looking forward to your reports at the next Technology Committee meeting on Dec. 11. I'd like to share a handout with everybody and also show them our blog and the wiki that I created. I think I'll set up a document in Google Docs and let's see if we can all add to it. I'll send the information to you soon. In the meantime, have fun with what you've learned and have a restful Thanksgiving!
5 comments:
I really enjoyed the conference this year, too.
I went to a session on Podcasting using GarageBand that I know my eighth grade students will think that this new aspect of GarageBand will be awesome.
One of the sessions I went to will help me teach Photoshop Elements better. The 7th and 8th graders like this application but with the extra features I learned they will be amazed at the things they can do.
One of the other sessions I went to was on creating a Wiki. A wiki is a collaborative web space. To set one up you need to select a wiki location, there are several. Here are some: wikispaces (educational),pbwiki, wetpaint If you can't decide which to start with you can go to wikimatrix and decide which wiki to use. After deciding on the location you should initiate the space, decide on privacy parameters, and then enroll users. There are no set rules for what to use a wiki. The presenter suggested to start small and make sure that the wiki is authentic with the audience and has a purpose. I thought it might work with my classes on their essential questions.
Going to this conference really keeps me up to date with all of the new technology that is available in our constantly changing world!
I'm really glad this was a good experience for you, Peggy. I think Friday's sessions and keynote were as interesting as Thursday's. In the last session on Friday, I set up a wiki on pbwiki.com for our technology department that teachers can use for support. The Technology Associates and Network Manager can contribute articles to the site. I also think it's very important for teachers to keep abreast of new technologies. It takes time for people to acclimate to new technologies and to start using them with students, but I think we're getting there.
I also enjoyed the conference this year. I sat in on many interesting sessions. Annette Lamb's presentation was awesome. I got a lot of great free websites from her. One site that she talked about was called Power Point Sidekicks. This is a way for children to do a review on a book or lesson. It's set up like a power point but it's only one slide. Research has shown how students write more when working on a computer. They feel that they have the tools right at their fingertips to help them in their writing.
I have sent an email to my school about some great literacy websites. They are as follows:
http://literactive.com/Home/index.asp
http://internet4classroom.com/
http://www.spellingcity.com/index.php
http://www.vocabulary.com/
I was pleased to go to the conference. I always learn so much at this conference. In our ever changing world which is at such a fast pace, I feel like I get to catch up with it during this conference.
I really enjoyed this conference also. I learned a lot of new ideas I hope to use in the classroom and pass onto other teachers. I started off by going to a session on digital storytelling. I think this is a great idea to share with the language arts teachers. The students can write a story or research a topic and then present it in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.
Another session I went to was Tips and Tricks for educators. This covered some some free downloads to use to restrict the users contol with the Contol Panel. I will be doing this on the computers in the lab.
I also went to the session on Wikis. I will be looking into creating a private Wiki for my classes. The students can then use this to answer their essential questions for their module station.
I also got some great web sites with lots of free tools. These would be great to share with all the teachers in our next Tech newsletter.
I really enjoyed the conference and all the new ideas they presented. I cannot wait to start using them in my classroom.
I'm happy to see that the conference was a worthwhile event for all four of us! I'm looking forward to your reports at the next Technology Committee meeting on Dec. 11. I'd like to share a handout with everybody and also show them our blog and the wiki that I created. I think I'll set up a document in Google Docs and let's see if we can all add to it. I'll send the information to you soon. In the meantime, have fun with what you've learned and have a restful Thanksgiving!
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