Langwitches Podcast 20- Reflections FETC 09
Paige McGee, Jane Cassette, Kathy Balek and I spent 3 days at FETC in Orlando, FL.
On the way back to Jacksonville we stopped to have dinner and recorded the following reflection of our experience at FETC.
Be a little fly on the wall and listen in on us talking about:
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- Impressions of Twitter of a Newbie
- Power of Twitter Network
- Some uses of Twitter
- Following a conversation, finding tweets about an event -Summize
- Documenting
- Sharing
- Not as “scary” as blogging
- Dean Shareski’s Session
- not being proprietary with anything- go ahead and share
- Tom Barrett’s “Usage of Flip Camera in Classroom“
- RT- Re-Tweeting- for spreading the word across people’s networks and different timezones
- Around The World with 80 Schools Project
- A new President, a new Congress Session
- “Teaching content, not teaching students”
- “How do you use technology in a school district, that does not allow any students’ work on the internet?”
- Why do we go to presentation sessions?
- Dean Shareski’s Session
“Not subscribing to magazines, but subscribing to people” - Michelle Bourgeois‘s Session- Build a PLN with Web 2.0 Tools
- So much is out there, you can get overwhelmed. Break it down into appetizers, main course, dessert
- Making a difference: Taking a laptop to sessions to be able to immediately take notes, click through to links, tools mentioned in the session immediately. Look at it as the presenters are talking about it.
- Is it rude to have your laptop open, texting on iPhone while in a session? Is it rude or paying homage to the presenter?
- Learning how to multi-task
- Administrators seemed to use less laptops in sessions than other attendees. They seem to have more paper & pencil note takers.
from edtechworkshop on Twitter
- Technology to teach, Technology to assess.
- Technology as a teaching tool, as a learning tool
Silvia:
I didn’t know you were at FETC. I was there again this year. Wish I had known and we could have gotten together for lunch or something. I’m looking forward to the 80 school project!
Danita
Danita,
I am sorry I missed you too at FETC. It was a whirlwind as always. Looking forward to connecting with you too through Around the World with 80 Schools.
I belatedly saw your tweet asking how presenters felt about people using laptops and phones during presentations. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but I have had teachers using laptops during my presentations where it was very clear that they were just doing something else, not using it to take notes, share things or engage deeper into the information by checking out related links.
I did bring my laptop to FETC and used it to tweet sessions and take notes (some right in my blog–I learned that from you!). I am a notetaker. It helps me learn. But, at times, I do find the computer distracting, more so than using a paper/pencil to write notes. I actually think that being able to pay attention to multiple things is a 21st century skill. While I am trying to get better at that skill, I see the benefit of closing the computer and just paying attention, being fully in the room, and maybe reflecting later on the notes that any good presenter these days shares online. I know that I do not let my students (the young ones who actually listen to me) do other things while I am teaching. I am a real stickler about having them listen and act like they are paying attention by making eye contact, not whispering to the person next to them, etc. I find that you must really learn the skill of paying attention before you can learn the skill of attending to multiple things.
Andrea,
Your last sentence,
is the one that resonates with me Andrea. I agree, that in elementary school, there is a need to teach concentration, but we do need to recognize (some of ) our students are already wired differently too. As always, one method (either/ or)will not be sufficient. We have to find a balance in allowing/showing/teaching/valuing multi-tasking in our students as well as one task concentration.
I was using Point Server. BTW, I love the CheeseCake Factory. Great summary, nicely done.