Rome City Schools Technology Hargett's Hints & Technology Tips: GaETC Conference Highlights

The Georgia Educational Technology Conference 2011 (GaETC) was bigger and better than ever this year. With approximately 2,700 people in attendance, over 250 different concurrent sessions, and a dozen different 3-hour workshops, it was one of the largest conferences. Of course, with that many "techies" in attendance, the wireless network was overwhelmed at times. Everywhere you looked peope were working on smartphones, iPads, or laptops, with quite of few of us carrying all three devices around.

My sessions started off with a 3-hour workshop on using the iPad in Education. One of the most common uses given for iPads in the school was as an administrative tool. A number of the technology people in the room indicated that their administrators carry iPads around as they do focused walks and observations. They have forms setup that collect the information as they check off the things they observe. They can take pictures and make notes on what they observe.

There was much discussion about using the BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) approach in the classroom. The leaning of the technology gurus seems to be in favor of letting students use their own iPods, iPads, Smartphones, etc. to extend the technology capabilites of the classroom. We'll have to see how that plays out.

We also discussed a number of APPS that I haven't really had a chance to try:

With the proper hookup wires, you can display the iPad through the projector. The camera tool can be used as a document camera.
iBoard - turns the iPad into a interactive whiteboard surface
Lab Timer - allows you to set up to 16 timers at once for timing individual students or lab groups
Office2 HD - allows you to create Office Documents
Print N Share - allows you to wirelessly print to a printer from the iPad
Join.Me - allows you to share your desktop with others for a meeting

The Keynote Speaker, Alan November, challenged us to ask ourselves the following 4 questions regarding our teaching:

Are your students producing a legacy?
Who works harder in the classroom?
Who OWNS the learning?
Are students publishing to a global audience?

The speaker was really in favor of letting students use the web to publish their creative works.

One of my favorite speakers is Tammy Worcester. You can find a WEALTH of materials at her website: TammyWorcester.com

Here are a number of other websites that you may find useful or interesting:

Flash-gear.com
Translate.Google.com
Wordle.net
Googleartproject.com
Remind101.com
Classdojo.com
Proust.com
Timetoast.com
batchgeo.com
Qwiki.com

Content-based Games/Activities

Sight Words Practice
http://www.bufordcityschools.org/bes/technology/sightwords.html

Scholastic Whiteboard Activities
http://teacher.scholastic.com/whiteboards/languagearts.htm
Sheppard Software
hundreds of games, activities, quizzes...
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com//
Little Fingers
Great interactives for young kids
http://www.littlefingers.com/games/games1.html
Science NetLinks
Dozens of interactive science activities
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/tool_index.php
EdHeads
Simple machines, virtual knee surgery and more!
http://www.edheads.org/
National Geographic Kids
Tons of social studies activities
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/
National Geographic Little Kids
Tons of social studies activities
http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/littlekids/
Scribble Maps
Easily add markers and info to a Google map!
http://scribblemaps.com/
Traveler IQ Challenge
FInd locations on a map as quickly as you can!
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq