Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Thoughts from Hershey's Pete & C Conference

Mel and I have spent the past 4 days in Hershey overloading our brains with all kinds of technology tips and tools for the classroom and networking with other teachers, coaches, librarians, network administrators, technology directors, etc about how to integrate technology in the classroom.

Words that have not been a part of the English language for more than a couple of years were tossed around like they were nothing... ning, twitter, blabberize, gaggle (and not a bunch of geese), moonk and many others. There seemed to be thousands of people there (and probably were) and everyone was excited to learn about these new trends and the latest in technology. My head was spinning.

As I was sitting through the keynotes and the breakout sessions, I began to think of a few things... mainly about how these ideas and resources could be used in Chi's classrooms and which teachers I could use as guinea pigs to try some of this cool stuff with. tee hee!!

The sessions I went to include the following: Google Earth (6 hours), 2 keynote sessions in the mornings, What in the Heck is Web 2.0?, Using Wikis for Classroom Connections, Streaming with the STARS (10 best online resources for educators), DEN workshop (Discovery Educators' Network--awesome stuff!), Director's Cut (editing digital media), Virtual Field Trips, Teaching Using Simulations, and Student Creativity & Innovation in schools.

It was a lot of "stuff" to process, but I am excited about the possibilities that can happen here at Chi!!