Feb
4
TCEA 2009 – Day 2 Summary
February 4, 2009 | Tagged Camtasia Studio 6, podcasts, professional development, screencasts, staff development, TCEA 2009, vodcasts | Leave a Comment
On Day 1 I attended sessions that were geared more for teachers and technology integration in the classroom, however I choose to use Day 2 to attend some sessions that were geared a little more for technology administrators, coordinators, specialists, etc. Most of the sessions I attended today dealt with Professional Development, Staff Development, Online Technology Training, and Creating Online Content. Most of the items that were presented and discussed in these sessions informed me a little on how other school districts provide training to their faculty, staff and administrators. I am always looking for new and innovative ways to do anything and everything.
One of the sessions I attended was called “Hungry for Tech-Knowledgy? Order from the Menu!” presented by Anthony Doris and others from the Midlothian ISD. This group consisted of the Instructional Technology Director, two district technology trainers, library media specialists (librarians), and campus technology liaisons. All of them took turns presenting their presentation which covered how they are conquering the struggle to get all teachers up to speed with technology and technology integration in the classroom. They talked about training at all campuses, not only at a central location, technology teams on each campus, and a collaboration between the Technology Department, Library Media Services Department, Curriculum Department and Instructional Technology Department to achieve one goal; create technology savvy teachers! This was a great demonstration of TEAMWORK among all of them throughout the district, really awesome to see!
Another session I attended also dealt with professional development as well as providing technology training on a 24/7 basis to a certain extent. Patrick Crispen of California State University, Long Beach presented the “Creating Podcasts, Vodcasts, and Screencasts” session. He discussed that by using the new Camtasia Studio 6 software (about $120) you can create podcasts, vodcasts and screencasts that will allow you to inform and teach on a 24/7 level. I have worked with Camtasia Studio 5 in the past and really love the software because you can do so much with it.
I will look to upgrade to version 6 of the software and try some of the tips and tricks that Patrick Crispen provided so that I can begin creating some informational and instructional videos for our district.
Also, I did run into Frank Hammen, the Technology Applications teachers from Shepard Middle School, right before lunch. Mr. Hammen attended sessions in the morning and we had a chance to discuss some of them over lunch. He was excited about Wii controllers and the explosion of Web 2.0 tools (Mr. Hammen’s blog on the TCEA 2009 Ning website); tools that I believe are the wave of the future both in and out of the classroom. Hopefully tomorrow I will run into Mrs. Perez from Hutchins Elementary and she can share some of her experiences at the TCEA Conference as well.
