My First technology Conference..so why so much paper?

All The Cool People Were There.....

I was very fortunate to attend a 2 day Educational Technology Conference earlier this week.  It was my first ever!  Boy was I excited!  It was held at Centennial College in Scarborough, Ontario.  I was expecting to be surrounded by fellow learners with smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.  There were quite a few but what baffled me was the number of people taking notes with a pen and notebook.  These were professors!  In education!  Writing things down???  What year are we in???

The keynote speaker was beyond incredible.  You might know him...his name is Rob Power and he is an Ed Doctor.  His presentation was incredible..motivating, exciting, all the elements necessary to get you ready to experiment with using technology in your classes.

The summit had options for different breakout sessions but the one I enjoyed the most was given by Rick Overeem, the head of Con-Ed at Lambton College in Sarnia, Ontario.  (Sorry Rob...your workshop was fantastic, but you showed us HP Reveal last semester so I  already had the opportunity to be wowed).  Rick Overeem outlined many educational technological tools, some of which I was already aware but many were new and exciting.  I'm going to introduce you to the ones I didn't know about.  They're pretty cool!

The first one of interest is called "Chatzy".  It is a backchannel chat which happens in the background of the class session.  It is an opportunity to ask the professor questions without disruptions or to speak with classmates.  It is similar to the chat box we use in our adobe connect sessions.

What if it is presentation day in your classroom and no one wants to go first?  Let the wheel decide for you!  It's a website (wheeldecide.com).  It allows you to input the names of your students and the giant wheel will spin (with sound) and land on the name of a student.  You can input anything into the wheel, such as daily schedule, activities, etc.  It builds excitement!

Most of us know about Kahoot! but how many of you know about quizizz?  No I did not spell that incorrectly!  It's a website (quizizz.com).   It is similar to Kahoot! but it's nice to change it up, don't you think?

How many of you use Seesaw in your classroom?  It's an amazing digital portfolio tool for the students and a great way for teachers to check in!

Do you take polls in your class?  Try the app PollEverywhere!  It's a great way to check for understanding and lets you increase engagement by using an interactive tool!

I have never used Nearpod but the workshop leader was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC! It does everything; quizes, videos, drawing-boards, polls, images, presentations, etc.

The last one I'll introduce is Socrative (I don't want to overstimulate you)!  Use for assessment...it's a formative tool!

I got all of these from one breakout!  He discussed others but I already knew about them...What was amazing was that the people who were there knew NONE OF THEM!  Good for them for coming to the sessions...I hope they take at least one tool and try to implement it into their practice.

You should have come to the summit...it was pretty cool!



References
Chatzy (n.d.).  Retrieved May 18, 2018, from http://www.chatzy.com/

Have you gone PRO? (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://www.socrative.com/

Live interactive audience participation. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://www.polleverywhere.com/

Tools for the most important job in the world. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://nearpod.com/

Quizizz: Free quizzes for every student. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://www.quizizz.com

Student Driven Digital Portfolios. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from https://web.seesaw.me/

Wheel Decide. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2018, from http://wheeldecide.com/