Tech Showcase Review

Tech showcase was on January 28th and it was an interesting experience. This is the first time I saw workshops filled with really eager and excited individuals and it's for a good reason.

The first workshop I took part in was a Gaming Workshop. This workshop showed us a handful of history and civics games that can be used in the classroom (they can be found here) and how they apply to curriculum. My reason for selecting this workshop was obvious: I am a gamer and I want to see intelligent ways to bring gaming into the classroom which won't be shunned by administrators. Students are obviously playing games and to ignore or shun this medium when it can be turned around and taught to teach would be simply absurd. Gaming was a part of my youth and I learned a lot of literacy skills, science skills and history skills from certain games I played as a kid. Education and learning was made much more fun with games involved. Disappointingly, this workshop didn't disclose that the workshop was geared for more senior and intermediate grades which, being a primary/junior pre-service teacher, would have been useful information. The majority of the workshop was spent browsing the links we were given and what grades would benefit from them. Sadly, this was of no use to me, but I do like seeing workshops promoting gaming in classrooms.

The second workshop I took part in was the Hyperstudio workshop. I took this workshop because I read that we'd be getting a copy of the product and learn how to use it, hands on; the copy was a trial and we didn't get any hands-on trial at all. In my opinion, this was the least beneficial of the three workshops I took. Hyperstudio is simply an animation creating program that children can use to make art projects, moving pictures based on stories being read or projects in social studies, etc. The entire presentation involved the two presenters clicking tools and using them in the program. I, personally, find it impossible to learn a program by watching someone do it in a 1.5 hr session but by getting my hands dirty and experiencing it first hand. You can't learn a program like Hyperstudio by watching them use it; there is no way someone can memorize what to click and when to click it. I can see the benefit of a program like this in getting students to create interactive images and projects, but I don't know that Hyperstudio, in particular, is necessary for this task. I am sure there are plenty of other programs that do a similar thing.

My third workshop was Epson BrightLink workshop. I took this workshop because I had researched the product and had some interest in it. Also, the other workshops that were available was nothing I haven't already had experience with. The Epson Brightlink is advertised as being "new technology" (while the 1991 Smartboard is rather old). The Epson doesn't require a special board; cast it onto any surface and it can be used. I really recommend looking up videos of the product as I don't think I'll be able to describe it well, but it is pretty impressive. One thing I really liked about the Epson Brightlink is the ability to select and add widgets. The widgets appear at the bottom of the screen and by selecting them, they immediately add themselves to the project. The widgets can include interactive maps, interactive graphs where you can add data, time widgets, etc. Another bonus to this product is that you can search directly in the program for multimedia additions and they add themselves to the display immediately as well. And while this is something people don't often think of, the projection uses rear project which means that the product does not cause shadows of the presenters to be cast and there is never a bright light shining in the teacher's eyes. Overall, the product is definitely a useful tool for classrooms, a different experience from the outdated Smartboards, but nothing too innovative and life changing. @MindShareLearn also concluded this presentation discussing technology in classrooms and innovative teaching and I had a photo taken with him:

Ignite Presentation:
I had the pleasure of getting an invitation to present at the IGNITE presentation that @zbpipe decided to start. My topic was "Where it all started (and where it's taking me)" which was a 5 minute presentation about when I first got into all things nerd and where I'm at today. I also spoke about where it will take me in teaching and what kinds of things I can bring to the classroom with these "nerd skills". Despite having insulted Apple users in front of ~100 people, the crowd giggled and seemed receptive. I am happy with how it went. Everyone's Ignite presentation was engaging and fun to listen to!

Tech Showcase was definitely the best Professional Development day I've attended, and if this much tech was incorporated into our other PD days as well as having such passionate and engaging presenters, I imagine students would be much more excited to attend Brock's Professional Development Days.