WV TIS-CTE

Hi, Abby
Sorry for the late post this morning! Now for today's information.
First session at 8AM-The TIS Revolution focused on how to make your county TIS more important. There were supposed to be six presenters, but I only heard from 2.

Second session started at 9 AM. Using the Edline class page and school page. The presenter was delightful and gave tons of new information. The most important of which was the online training that she pointed out. I can't wait to start using the new information at my new school.

This is Janetta Burdette for Steve. Pray for him to get home safely. It's raining so hard he can barely see. He will finish as soon as he can.

I finally made it home! Rain so bad that 25 mph was taking your life in your hand. Now, on with my post.

From 10:10 to 11:00. Using cell phones in the classroom. There are good reasons to use cellphones in a classroom setting, but overall, I do not think that the kids are mature enough to use them responsibly. While I think that phones can be a great learning tool, and can be used as virtual clickers, texting to the teacher, etc., there will always be a significant portion who will not use them correctly. I know that argument has been used many times in the past for new technology, but these phones can be used very discreetly. Until phones can be openly monitored, I fear phones will be taken advantage of.

The disappointment of the day came from my 11:00 session, Phantastic Photostory. I only downloaded the program last night, but I gleaned no new information from the presenters. In fact, there were a couple of things the presenters said that were incorrect. The program is very simple, but good for a beginning introduction to a different way to present information.

Lunch was great! But it was to long. Gwen and I took advantage of the long lunch to work on our digital project. With very little time to collaborate, we decided to forgo the first afternoon session and work on the project together. My last session of the day was learning about personal learning networks. This was mostly about using Twitter. I am hesitant to use it, but I can see a great potential. In fact, I signed up for a twitter account during class!

The day ended with a tour of the capital. I cut that short in order to take my daughter to band camp (which I am late for now!)

Later!

Steve