ProfessorTOSA Blog

The CUE was a few weeks ago, and I would call it a moderate success.  My district, in one way or another, gathered 30 or so educators and administrators to attend the conference and attend we did.  Most of those who attended, did so until the last day, and of those, the majority left very excited about at least one tech possibility to integrate into their work. For me, well, I knew that unlike the last time I attended, this time I would have more of a knowledge base, I knew what I didn’t know, and I was able to specifically target what I wanted to know.  So, while I wasn’t blown away like last year, I did learn a tremendous amount and I return to my work pleased with the direction of my efforts and amazed with my distirct’s “spot on” support of technology.

And so what was successful, what was moderate, and what were my disappointments?  Well, I thought that the largest success was the number of attendies that came from my district.  Rather than simply sending those who deal only with technology, sending teams of teachers was a huge step, and a great gesture of support by those who manage the funds.  Second to my group were some of the tools and resources I picked up at random sessions.  All of my notes (and those by a few others) can be found on the conference wiki that was created but a few in particular are worth mentioning here.  One group of resources was offered in the Web 2.0 Applications for Education session.  This session was a flurry of open-source ware and it was brilliant in the way it delivered way too much information but included all the right locations for further research.  Below are a few great tools:

• Zoho- An online word processing program! Work at home, pick it up at school.
• Box.net- An online version of a flash drive
  • One gig is free.
  • Students can use box.net as a class drop box.  Now kids can work on work at home and pick it up from any computer!
• Quizlet- Create your own quizzes/flashcards.  Shareable.
• ipaper- The YouTube of documents
• mango – Instruction in foreign language.  Mango is designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start. Whether you’re learning how to order a pizza or ask when the game starts, Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses.
• zamzar – Online program that will convert files to other formats. YOUTUBE TO QUICKTIME!!!!!!!!!!!

Another great resource was from the session on copyright and Fair Use.  The session was by Barry Britt of Soundzabound, which sells subscriptions to royalty free music, but Barry was not selling his music. Rather, Barry has a great history in the music industry and gave a straight forward explanation of what teachers need to be aware of, how to operate safely and legally in “syncing” music into projects and why teachers need to be savvy.  On the wiki there are more resources, however, it’s worth stating here that I found that kids really need to be utilizing Garageband and never using copyrighted music.  By subscribing to a company like Barry’s you can share and even sell projects, but caution must be taken when teachers take on projects where music is used, even if the music is in the background.
Lastly, I think the conference did well to offer teachers the insight into the Web 2.0 world in a manner that worked for them.  If I were a sensitive man I might be frustrated that items I covered in prof dev sessions were greeted with more enthusiasm in a city 100 miles away, but I’m not fragile, rather, I’m so pleased that social bookmarking, wikis and blogs are finding themselves in conversations,  I’m stoked that video conferencing is becoming a possiblity, and I am relieved that interactive whiteboards have created a stir within one of my schools.  Really, when students benefit, who wants to quibble over the genesis of the excitement!

And so, I suppose that although this conference didn’t challenge the success of CUE in Monterey, I found value in the success felt by others.  Is this the reality for someone in my position from here on out? Will conferences be celebrated with minor successes and with knowledge gleaned only after careful planning? I’d like to think that I don’t know so much as to be unavailable for surprise, but I look at some of the presenters and leaders in educational technology and I imagine its a now a matter of keeping up, keeping mentally fit, and staying connected rather than a dizzying amount of “a-ha’s.” Next year I plan to present.  Maybe this will offer new windows to “a-ha’s.”