TCC 5-1 Ed Tech 2014 SUPER HERO

The fall issue of the Tech Cadre Corner always includes a “what I learned “ at Ed Tech article… This year’s conference was full of new things and new ideas. I usually don’t talk about the exhibits very much, but this year they were a boon to our needs. First we found answers which could be solved at local Barnes & Noble for Nook issues at the Nook booth, then at Promethean’s bus we not only renewed acquaintances, but also learned about their new board which is backlit and touch activated and new online ClassFlow. This is the newest iteration of Activsoft-ware...plus it’s online.
I went to sessions on:

•  games developed for adding action to reviews which were provided as well as links to money skills and math practice games to enhance your teaching at UNCW.edu, and content generators and links at blog on reasons for games in education; 
• animations to engage students featured tools for teachers and was submitted by the same presenter; (A Livebinder was offered, but I am substituting another since that one wasn’t found. Animation Palooza is the name of the original); 
• Leron Rahynes used tools for flipping classrooms in a 1-to-1 situation which are available for free to create videos with personality to engage his students in history;
•  and behavior management systems were featured in the session by Jennifer Spann who mainly looked at Class Dojo which works well when the teacher has mobile devices for rewarding incentives. (This site also includes a timer and a parent reporting system which enhances its effectiveness.)
• BO Haynes’ (CPCC) Power Point was an eye-opener. He used learning theory to build the perfect presentation with very little verbiage...but pictures and repetition to trick our memories. 
• Online teaching tools, apps and resources were shared by Corey Lee (CCU) who always packs in far more than you can take in. He gave fully functional templates for Weebly and Edmodo advice while adding other advice on setting up an online class. Another tip from him was to use Dropbox links to documents which are involved in your class so that when chang-es are made they are synced in one place.
• Mendy Ingiaimo (USC) was last on the schedule but powerful. She had hands-on activities using online tools to create activities. Class progressed in difficulty. She introduced podcasting, Voicethread, voice-over Power Points using Audacity, self learning modules, concept maps like Bubble.us and interactive crossword puzzles from Puzzled modeling how she would use them in class. 
• SC Future Minds was a surprise...it is a different look at funding. This is discussed in its own post.
• Office 365 is Microsoft’s answer to Google Drive. Another view of cloud storage and standards from another favorite presenter, Beth Goff from Clover School District, 
• Joe Woodbury and Marcel Marina from Florence 3 also presented two views of green screen photos/videos and using 3-D printers for projects.