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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

FETC - UPDATES

Final Sessions Video Diary (3 mins):



Saturday (final day) - Attending an excellent Google "forms" presentation. Google this guy now! Rushton Hurley. Later, now at final couple of presentations. Can't wait to bring this stuff back and present. Very exciting stuff. Apple's "curriculum evangelist" is talking now, but after Rushton it's kind of a letdown.
Friday video highlights (10 mins)



Friday - Aloha! Got here early to go visit exhibits but they weren't open yet so I went and got my free FETC mug and coffee and started work on today's video update which I will put online tonight. Sitting in now on Google Sky/Mars/Moon and all they do including embedded podcasting, whoa... After lunch now, am at an educational "gaming" multiuser, virtual presentation... Very futurist... Here is an example of educational gaming frenzy:


Find more videos like this on DimensionM


Thursday video highlights:




Thursday Afternoon - Problem I'm encountering quite a bit is too many people and not enough space at these sessions... problematic... Got seated way early for the next session, yippee! Wow, this presentation rocks! Check out her website here: Tammy Worcester

Wow! Tammy's resources are the best! Can't wait to stockpile and share with you!


Thursday Morning
- Well darnit I got here early to visit exhibition booths but they don't open until tonight. Met up with Merry who will be giving me an interview on what she's up to later today. Working on a short video that sums up the day. I will post it later this evening for the millions out there waiting! Right now I'm attending a session on using Social Networking Sites with Social Studies and English. Looks good so far.



Wednesday Afternoon - Learned that more Americans (22%) can name the 5 members of the Simpsons better than naming the 5 freedoms in the Bill of Rights (1%). Learned about using humor to make ideas stick. Learned that the eye goes towards images and color before it goes to black and white and text. Learned also that "laughter is the shortest distance between 2 people." Imagery and making ideas stick. PowerPoint images are "stacked in time" and linear. Putting images side by side instead of one after the other is far more powerful an imaging tool.

Wednesday Morning - I arrived blank and bleary eyed early this morning to attend the pre-conference workshops I had signed up for to discover that coffee wasn't flowing freely. I was already in a state of shock from the 32 degree weather (in Florida) and this put me into a stupor from which I wasn't sure to survive. The first workshop was entitled "Less is More..." which seemed kind of apt given the lack of temperature or coffee and it lived up its title by being one of the least entertaining or informative workshops I have ever attended. I won't go into the details but suffice it to say that it didn't wake me up. Poor guy, he really was well intentioned, but not a presenter. Maybe he should have attended my 2nd workshop entitled "Making Education Stick" which was all about how to make ideas stick with your students. I'll keep updating this post as things come up. More soon, I need to find some coffee...

5 comments:

Samholio said...

Ahhh...sunny Florida. What city are you in? Let me know if you come across any "hard" research on Interactive Whiteboard use/results in the classroom; of course along with any fun new gadgets :) Is there research on that "making imagery stick" stuff?

Anonymous said...

Hi Keith,

Let me know if you find anything about e books- Are there any educational publishers out there who are going that route and replacing textbooks with electronic books.

Enjoy the sunshine....

Dean

Unknown said...

Educational gaming sounds interesting. Can you get me a copy of Halo 4 in French?

Mark

Rushton said...

Thanks for the kudos! Resources on the way (still fighting my way through all the signups - a good thing, that). - Rushton

Keith said...

"Making the Imagery Stuff Stick" must work because she had my attention the whole time and I learned a lot of important things.

Sorry, no Halo 4 in French, they did have a Taiwanese version however...

Couldn't believe there were no eReaders or presenters of such at the conference. Shocking!