Thoughts after ITEC

I went to ITEC in Iowa City and listened to a lot of tech people. Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher was the keynote, and our cohorts were able to have some face time with her. Most or all of the things she said resonated with me. Like how she showed a picture of the biggest stacked sandwich and said this is most school’s PG& D…..wow, she hit the nail right on the head….we are overwhelmed by so much as teachers, and yet those of us who want to continue to integrate technology, there is EVEN more work to do! It is not a bad thing, except all of what we choose to take on, requires time that we don’t have to begin with! She also talked about how we need 3 big things to try to do this year. We can only do what WE can do…She told us to “be a transformer.” My school is piloting a new project where we are using smartphones. It is an amazing thing to watch these kids when they are told to get out their “pocket pc’s” and watch them fly. The teachers told me the other day that IT has happened: the kids asked to stay in for recess to work on them…We allow for “playing in the sandbox" as Vicki Davis called it, 1 night a month for 4 hours after school. We pay the teachers to try out new Web 2.0 tools or find new Smart Board activities.

If we didn’t do that, I am not sure if the teachers would use the tech tools…this all takes TIME!! This is something all teachers have a shortage of. I came back from ITEC with a list of things I want to show teachers from the MANY excellent and informative sessions I attended in additon to Vicki Davis's session, but first, I must “play in the sandbox” myself with some of these new tools and decide how/which tools would "fit" best with what each class is studying. Below is a list of things I'm going to "play with." ToonDoo, Classtools.net, Wallwisher, BigHugeLabs, Titanpad, to name a few! WOW! An amazing, energizing time at ITEC, but also exausting thinking about all I need to do in order to present these to my teachers!