I presented two sessions: “Models for Integrating Technology” and “Translating Portfolios Into New Technologies”

In the “Models for Integrating Technology” session, I collaborated with two other cohort members. Our aim was to identify the issues surrounding technology in education, define various scenarios of technology availability within school settings, and present possibilities for integrating technology successfully in light of these “obstacles” to help students and schools meet learning goals. 

 

As an international teacher in a technologically rich overseas school, I am very fortunate to have access to laptop computers, internet, the most current softwares, and a staff of technology integration specialists who offer regular professional development to learn how to implement these tools successfully into the classroom. I realize that in most schools in North America where teachers attending the conference were from, this is not the case. We wanted attendees to walk away from our session with new ideas and new ways of thinking about how they can integrate technology into their own classrooms and school settings. All of the resources from our session, including the presentation itself were made available to the attendees on google through google docs. During the presentation, we invited attendees to participate in our presentation using a live “Audience Participation” tool in Google Docs. The live participation comment feed was projected alongside our presentation. This engaged the audience and encouraged collaboration of ideas…and it was just plain fun breaking down the wall between presenters and audience.

In the “Translating Portfolio’s into New Technologies” session, I also collaborated with two members of my cohort. This session was a presentation workshop. Our goal was to define different types of portfolios, show examples of digital portfolios used in the classroom, provide a framework for getting started, and then teach a workshop to get attendees started.

For the workshop, we differentiated our instruction by polling the audience to assess their interests and experience with digital portfolios. I then taught a group how to create a website to house portfolio work in Google Page Creator. One of my fellow presenters taught attendees how to set up an account and use Voicethread. The other fellow presenter worked with a 3rd group who were already using digital portfolios in their classrooms with a variety of online tools.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop format for this session. As an attendee to many conferences myself, I get the most of out sessions that provide something you take right back to your classroom. While time was limited, each attendee left with knowledge of a new online tool and how they could use it with their students.

I also led a job alike session with other members of my cohort. This allowed conference attendees to share what they had learned and provide presenters with feedback. We divided into groups by Elementary, Secondary, and Admin/Other Professionals. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. This was the first time the MSU MAET program had included the planning and presenting of a full conference as part of the curriculum and I do believe we set the bar quite high.

Please view the conference website for information about all of the sessions, presenters, keynote, and planning. Please view the conference program which I designed using Adobe InDesign and the conference commercial which I created with two other cohort members on the home page.