Free-Tech Conference Part One

Last Thursday, February 17^th I attended Cleveland’s Free-Tech Conference in Independence, Ohio with my Educational Media class.  It was an early morning because our vans left promptly at 6:30 A.M.  SmartEd Services put on the conference so many of the sessions I attended focused on how to use the Smart Board in your classroom.  At 8:00 I attended “Rethink the Possible – Via This Comprehensive Website Through Technology and 21^st Century Skills”.  I learned about a great website for teachers called weschools.org.  The website is updated twice every day so all of the information is current.  At 9:00 I attended “Games Using SMART, Yes It Is Possible”.  In this session we learned about board games, crosswords, cards, dice, dominos, and sudoku that are provided with the SMART technology.  The games can be used for math and vocabulary concepts.  We were advised to use games sparingly as they can become too much if used too often.  At 10:00 I attended “VizZle:  21^st Century Learning in the Autism and Special Education Classroom”.  This was a good session to attend because I am minoring in Intervention Specialist.  It was interesting to see the technology that is out there for students with autism.  The instructor showed us what the VizZle software provides and how it reaches children with autism.  At 11:00 I attended my favorite session of the day, “SMART Magic!:  Hide and Reveal”.  In this session we learned how to hide and reveal objects using shapes, hidden text, and digital ink on the Smart Board.  The instructor was extremely entertaining.  He treated the presentation as a magic show.  The lights were turned off when he was performing “tricks”.  There was upbeat music that made the presentation much more interesting and I feel like I learned a lot from this session.  After the magic performance it was time for lunch with the other students in my class.