How I Spent My Winter Snow-cation

During the "first" Atlanta Snow Event (January 28 - 31), I was in Orlando, FL attending the amazing FETC conference learning about technology in education. It makes sense, then, that during this most recent Snow-cation (February 12 - 14) I would again spend time learning about and playing with technology in education!

1)  I participated in the first ever ISTE Virtual Conference where I attended one session online (with Jane Krauss and Suzie Boss about Project Based Learning) and heard the keynote address from Adam Bellow. During the online session, I participated in discussion and learned about new resources in the form of a Blog, books and online sites all dedicated to PBL! I learned about Inquiry by Design and core routines of Visible Thinking. Excellent stuff! ( I had a bad head cold and couldn't stay awake [darn Pacific Time!] for the last session.)

2)  I subscribed to five iTunes U courses:

• Classroom 2.0 Live!
• Google Tools
• iPad for Teachers 101
• iVCS Middle School
• Tech-Ed iPad Edition for Teachers

3) From these courses, I watched four videos about iPads and learned a few new tricks with:

• Basics
• Mail
• Safari
• iCloud

4) I watched a video on Classroom 2.0 Live! featuring Todd Nesloney about Project Based Learning.
I learned about a new online resource, Sophia, which is similar to Edmodo. I'll be exploring that this weekend!

5) I started reading some of the links from folks I follow on Twitter - amazing stuff - about flipped classrooms and iPad use and iPad Apps.

6) Most importantly, I changed my thinking about the oft heard phrase, "Just Google it." As a Teacher - Librarian (School Library Media Specialist), I have worked hard to teach students NOT to turn to Google as a research starting point. I am willing to modify my belief in regard to educators, based on a (paraphrased quote) from Todd Nesloney:

 "We live in a world of Google. If you are (an educator) and you are choosing NOT to use the brilliant technology available to you in the Information Age, then you are choosing to be defiant and ignorant. Don't know how to do something? Just google it! Google allows for professional development 24/7. If you don't know what a hashtag is, google What is a hashtag? and I guarantee you will find an answer."