This is my third year at PETE&C, and it still remains one of my favorite edtech conferences. It’s four days of fantastic presentations, vendors of everything edtech, and lots and lots of networking. There are hundreds of sessions to chose from on almost any topic imaginable – it can be hard to choose just one to sit in on. Thankfully, there’s also a lively Twitter backchannel where people share ideas and resources from sessions they are in. (#petec13)
Today is the second full day of the conference, and I have so much information to process. I sat in on a great session about IWB apps that had a fabulous presentation about Nearpod. I’ve seen the app in action before, but this presentation really opened my eyes to the possibilities of that app. I also have a head spinning with ideas from the session on creating textboooks with iBooks Author. What really got me thinking in that session was the various ways suggested for using iBooks for more than just textbooks. A professional or student portfolio. A class or school yearbook. A policy manual. A school handbook. There are so many possibilities!
Yesterday I attended a presentation on creating your own Brainpop-type videos. My students love Brainpop, and I love the idea of having them play Tim and Moby as they create a teaching video on subjects they are learning. We watched some sample videos, and it was clear that the kids were both having fun and showing off what they had learned. What a creative way to have students show their understanding of a subject. Imagine creating a school video library on every subject!
I also attended a session on digital portfolios – not so much for students (although they did briefly talk about those) but more in terms of professional teaching portfolios. These are a great way to showcase your abilities and resources whether you are a pre-service teacher or a veteran. They shared some sites geared specifically towards portfolio creation as well as some build-it-yourself type sites.
It’s amazing how excited I am about all of the new stuff I am learning. The networking among attendees here is also fantastic. I’ve had conversations with pre-service teachers, veteran teachers, principals, IT folks, and everyone in between.
A perfect example of why I love this conference: As I sit here in my hotel room writing this post and tinkering with some of the apps I learned about today, a link to LearnZillion – a site full of common core aligned lessons – popped up on my PETE&C Twitter feed! And now, back to more learning!
