Spring Break!

I’ve had some fun with educational technology over spring break.  No heavy lifting . . . . straight fun!

For instance, some of the students and staff at Mercy have been exploring the iWizards’ iPad Tips and Tricks on Schoology. Consequently they have been earning our animated GIF badges which I have been more than happy to award.  Some like Mrs. Kline-Kator have earned all thirteen so they have home pages that light up like Christmas trees:

Over the past couple of months I have been scouting talent for 2016 Tech Talk. I keep a stockpile of interesting potential presenters in Evernote.  Over the break, I have been rating them on a set of criteria such as interest to Mercy staff, topic variety, expertise, proximity.  I have LAO been looking up contact info and following on Twitter when possible.  Folks like Jillian Johnson who rated an A+, don't know yet I'm "stalking" them.  But I hope that they will come to Tech Talk when I contact them next school year!

For Wednesday's webcast of Preview ISTE 2015 I had the good fortune of being teamed up with Kristen Swanson for the hour segment on professional development. She was a hard act to follow. Kristen is edcamp co-founder and delivered a terrific 20 minute presentation on the movement.  For those who don't know, here are the general features of these "unconferences":

*free

*non-commercial and conducted with a vendor-free presence

*made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event by the participants

*events where anyone who attends can facilitate a session

*reliant on the “law of two feet” that encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs

Typical of ISTE events, I took away more than I contributed.

Oh yes, there was one other ed techie thing that I did over break.  As you can see, I blogged!