Nancy+Lagerberg

// “Increasingly, those who use technology in ways that expand their global connections are more likely to advance, while those who do not will find themselves on the sidelines.” //// ~ // 2009 Horizon Report Wow!! ISTE is huge and exciting; according to [|The Denver Post] there were 18,000 attendees and 400 vendors. There were classes, seminars, round tables, keynotes, poster displays and more. I have attended many conferences and this was definitely the largest. All focused on how and why we need technology in education; including all the newest software and gadgets. With so very much to see I am going to focus on my top five cool things I learned there. As you may notice, my interest is in research, information literacy, digital media, and net safety.
 * ** Commonsense Media **[|**//Digital Citizenship//**] - The first presentation I went to was my favorite. This is an entire middle school curriculum centered on being a responsible online citizen. It covers [|Digital Life], [|Privacy and Digital Footprints] , [|Connected Culture] , [|Self-Expression and Identity] , [|Respecting Creative Work] . The best part—IT’S FREE. Every handout, video and lesson plan. There is enough for a multi week class or you can pick and choose. Look it over.  If that is not enough, the [|educator section] offers more topics including research and information literacy.  How can all this be free? [|Common Sense Media] provides book and movie review side that is used by many including IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) and this commercial endeavor pays for the free educational materials.  Have fun, and if you would like to know more email me.


 * ** Library of Congress ** – I love the [|LOC] website, it is a rich source of information, although not always the easiest to navigate. This session was a hands-on look at how to find and use [|primary sources] . There is a vast [|teacher] section with lesson plans correlated to state standards, visuals, primary source sets, professional development, and other resources.  This session was led by a teacher/media specialist who in now working for the Library of Congress to develop educational materials. This is a goldmine of information, look around then if you would like more email me. This is worth your time.

> Yolink also sponsors a safe search site for schools. Check out “ [|Sweet Search] ” there are several links there for teachers, students, media specialists and research help.
 * ** Yolink ** – [|Yolink] was a fun little find in the exhibition hall. It is a “search refiner”. Puzzled? Have you ever tried to look up something on Google or Yahoo and had millions of results? This secondary search will search the contents of the hits and find your exact word or phrase. A great tool for research and projects. And it is free.


 * ** iCollaborate: Collaborative Projects for the 21st Century Classroom ** – This is bit much for a paragraph, there was three hours of good solid resources to put technology to use in your classroom. Ms. Morrow is a teacher in a small rural district, and she brings her students to the world with technology. She has assembled a wealth of resources and ideas into her website; [|iCollaborate: Collaborative Projects for the 21st Century Classroom] . The resource tab takes you to a list of the resources referred to in the presentation.   My favorite part was a new idea to me, “ [|Challenged Based Learning] ”. This is the step beyond project base learning; the students work to actually solve a real world problem. Talk about getting ready for the future.


 * ** Safari Montage ** – imagine being able to have instant access to an entire library of digital media. That is [|Safari Montage], a provider of an entire library of movies, TV, documentaries. You can show an entire movie or just a clip. You can voice over, add background music, add clips to a presentation, and add your own content. They offer a sweet product, sadly NOT FREE.

A few more I saw and loved: A Twitter a Day w/ Kathy Shrock, Empathy: A 21st Century Skill w/Alan November, the preview of Microsoft Office 2010 and the online free versions of the applications and even more…...