Reflections at ICE (General Conference) 2/25/10

Day 2 at ICE (for me) brought a renewed sense of creativity and interest in using our Smartboards and training our teachers on ways to effectively create lessons in Notebook. First, I saw a presentation on document cameras, and although this was my first time at ICE, it seemed like the Mega Center (Exhibitors Hall) was "mega" into DC's and SmartBoards. Every aisle had vendors hawking their own version of Smart Notebook and different cameras. At ETHS, we don't have too many document cameras out there, but I could see rolling a few out to departments and/or the Staff Tech Center. I would guess that teachers would find these a bit easier and more intuitive than a traditional scanner.

Later in the day, I attended "SMART 202", a very lively presentation given by Bret Gensburg. Engaging, humorous, and vivacious, Bret held the attention of a standing room audience for 45 minutes strong, and people were still cramming into the room at the end. Bret inspired me to focus more on developing some solid curriculum and training materials for our teachers on our SmartBoards, and he reinforced my current idea that teachers should just start with something simple and then build up to more complex lessons with the Smart Notebook software. And yes, that Gallery is addictive.