Chanatown

It is hard to believe that it's been over one week since my five days of non-stop edtech goodness in the city of brotherly love. Although my walking shoes have been thanking me for taking a break, I have had some time to reflect with satisfaction on another year of learning new information, tips, and tricks as well as setting job related goals for the upcoming school year.

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a conference workshop presented at ISTE 2011 titled "Primed for Success: Orienting Instructors and Students to Teaching and Learning Online" The session took place on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 from 11:45-12:45 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=203bc094d8" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Primed for Success</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a conference session presented at ISTE 2011 titled "Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry" The session took place on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 from 10:15-11:15 am (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Live @ ISTE 2011 - Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "The All-Inclusive Classroom Website: How to Stop Collecting Paper Forever" The session took place on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 from 8:30-9:30 am (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=c9408b9dc4" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - The All-Inclusive Classroom Website</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Move Beyond the Book" The session took place on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 from 3:45-4:45 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=30a12eb186" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Move Beyond the Book (Discovery Education)</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Using VoiceThread for Interactive Projects" The session took place on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=131373ce25" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Using VoiceThread for Interactive Projects</a></p></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Tablets: The Smart Medicine for Learning and Teaching" The session took place on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 from 12:15-1:15 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=e365072996" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Tablets: The Smart Medicine for Learning and Teaching</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Climbing the Interactive Whiteboard Mountain" given by Bret Gensburg . The session took place on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 from 10:30-11:30 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=eea0d87e28" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Climbing the Interactive Whiteboard Mountain</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Creativity Unleashed: Tablet PCs and the Power of Digital Ink" The session took place on Monday, June 27, 2011 from 12:45-1:45 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=494a592e03" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Creativity Unleashed: Tablet PCs and the Power of DIgital Ink</a></p></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Technology for Improving Staff Morale." The sessions took place on Monday, June 27, 2011 from 11:00-12:00 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=84b0041fa8" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Technology for Improving Staff Morale</a></p></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a presentation at ISTE 2011 titled "Dr. Z's Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication." The sessions took place on Monday, June 27, 2011 from 8:30-9:30 am (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ee6ce8e3bc" >Live @ ISTE 2011 -Dr. Z's Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication</a></p> For more thoughts on Teaching and Learning Technology,  please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or through email .

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a session presented during ISTE 2011 titled "Implementing VoiceThread in a School or District" and "Mobile VoiceThread." The sessions took place on Sunday, June 26, 2011 from 3:30-5:30 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Courtyard Marriott. <p><p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ec71cb1698" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Implementing VoiceThread and VoiceThread Mobile</a></p></p&a...

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a pre-conference workshop presented at ISTE 2011 titled "Took the Plunge, Now What? Resurface by Maximizing Whiteboard Use" The session took place on Sunday, June 26, 2011 from 12:30-3:30 pm (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=63d9d09ff8" >Live @ ISTE 2011 - Took the Plunge, Now What? Resurface by Maximizing Whiteboard Use</a></p></p...

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a pre-conference workshop presented at ISTE 2011 titled "Technology Time-Savers for Teachers" The session took place on Sunday, June 26, 2011 from 8:30-11:30 am (EST) at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><p><p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=aac181fef9" &...

The following is the live feed (or if you're reading this after the event - the archived feed) of a workshop presented at ISTE 2011 titled "Toward Transformation: Nothing but NETS (*T)!" The session took place on Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 12:30-3:30 pm at the Philadelphia Convention Center. <p><p><p><p><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=ca7a455b38" >Nothing But NETS - ISTE 2011&am...

Chanatown’s seen some tumbleweed roll through and the single post in June is really starting to gather some dust. Well, the end of the school year brought joy and relief to many teachers, but for this Technology Integration Specialist, it meant a whirlwind of responsibility from working with classrooms on final projects to setting up summer school teachers with technology tools. The pinnacle of activity came in the form of a four-day series of technology training workshops that we offered to our teachers. With the exception of a SMART Board training led by our partner at COTG, and an assistive technology workshop led by another specialist, each 2-hour session was organized and facilitated by yours truly. They included:

I used the morning before my ticketed workshop to peruse the expansive Exhibit Hall.  Although I didn't have enough time to sit in on many product demonstrations, I did manage to make the rounds of the entire hall, ensuring that I checked in with our current vendors and ask any questions that I had.  One big problem we were having was with Discovery Education's MediaShare product  We couldn't consistently get View/Embed options on materials that we were uploading.  A visit to the DES booth, and I discovered (ha!) that we needed to classify the material as either audio or video in order to enable the option.  If memory serves correctly, I believe that we were coding them as activities or other classifications, so I'm excited to test this out when I return on Thursday.

Day 2 started with a ticketed workshop on SMARTBoard Tips and Techniques with Harvey Almarode .  For a full 2.5 hours (after a brief 10 minute intro on brain theory), Harvey engaged us with tips and tricks galore.  The workshop was well structured and I’d definitely recommend Harvey as a trainer to schools (I believe he specializes in K-8).  I’m confident that everyone (author included) picked up something new and exciting to use in the classroom.  Perhaps, the most important technique I learned was how to effectively use the screen capture button.  You can really manipulate more of the objects, formatting, and placement when you take screen shots and can then treat the images as objects. Another valuable thing to remember is to use the “My Content” feature to make sure that you save your image creations (e.g. the hula hooping cow) so that they are more easily accessible.

What a great way to finish my first year as a Technology Staff Developer - a trip to Denver for the mother of all ed-tech conferences, ISTE (formerly NECC).  I'm excited to absorb, learn, network, and take lots of notes for the folks back home at Evanston Township High School.