Technology Medley

Earlier this week, I attended the annual VSTE (Virginia Society for Technology in Education) conference at Hotel Roanoke. Some of you occasionally ask me how I stay up-to-date on emerging technologies for classroom use.  Conferences such as this provide staff development for me and other ITRTs throughout the state.I attended 5 sessions presented by Tammy Worcester, an education technologist from Kansas who specializes in activities that are simple to use in the classroom while teaching vital computer skills to young children. I will be sharing her numerous ideas with you as time allows, but if you’d like to go ahead and check out her website, you’ll find a wealth of resources already posted and ready to adapt into your curriculum.

Another favorite of mine was a presentation showing how to incorporate Marzano’s strategies from Classroom Instruction That Works using Kidspiration, PowerPoint, and other readily available software in our schools. Here is a link to lots of templates that are ready for you to use. Many thanks to Sherri Miller with Gloucester County Schools!

We’ve talked quite a bit recently about internet safety, and I would like to remind you to discuss with your students the importance of not sharing personal information online. In one of the sessions I attended, the ITRTs from Hanover County generously shared several activities that they had created for elementary students. Check them out!

There were numerous other wonderful sessions. You can click here if you’re interested in exploring more of what folks are saying about the VSTE conference this year.

Have you ever wanted to attend conference sessions from the comfort of your own home or classroom? Well, now you can! The K12 Online Conference begins with a pre-conference keynote on October 8th. The sessions begin October 15th and end October 27th. Most days there are 4 sessions scheduled. You can see the schedule here. Here’s a description from their website:

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.

Most of the sessions will be stored as either podcasts or videos so you can watch them at your leisure. In fact, last year’s sessions are still online too, and you might find something there that you would like to explore further.