OTEN conference

On September 24 I attended the OTEN conference as part of the Willamette MAT requirements. At first, because it was at 8am on a Saturday, myself and my classmates were grumbly and not too excited about attending. When we arrived, I quickly decided that the information was interesting and useful and I am glad that I attended.
I attempted to do a YODIO (an online podcast)about my OTEN experience; however, YODIO did not appear to be working. I will begin with a written blog and find a way to do a podcast soon.

The key note speaker was Joe Morelock, who works for the Canby School District as a technology director. I was very engaged in his lecture and he brought alot of great information. I was really interested to hear about the specific statistics from the Canby School District since they have implemented alot of their technology strategies. I think that listening to Mr. Morelock and his experiences with emerging technology motivated alot of us to think about how we can use technology in our upcoming classrooms.

The first presentation I attended was by Jennifer Roberts, a professor at Willamette University. Professor Roberts presentation was extremely helpful in finding specific online programs available to teachers and students. She had a large list of many opportunities that are available for free or a small charge online. This means, as a teacher or student, we could access these things from any computer, anywhere, which is extremely useful. I have used a few of the programs that Professor Roberts demonstrated. I have used Yodio to do free online podcasts. I have used Prezi, which is a program like powerpoint but much more user friendly with many more layout options. Finally, I have used Dropbox (which we also learned about in Ed technology class). With Dropbox, I have 2G of free memory to store my school items (or personal items). This allows me to be able to access these items anywhere on any computer instead of carrying my laptop around, worrying about my computer crashing, or even losing my flashdrive.

For easy access, check out the direct links to my favorite tools from Prof Roberts presentation:
Dropbox
Prezi!
Yodio

The next presentation I went to was about classroom Podcasts for elementary students by Machelle Childers, who teaches 3rd grade in Forest Grove. I loved how enthusiastic Mrs. Childers was about her Podcast practice in her classroom. She showed many ways that a teacher can facilitate podcasts for his/her students in order to make sure they are engaged and having fun learning.She also has a classroom website in which all of the podcasts from this year and in the past are displayed for the students and parents to see. This is also a great resource for future teachers to see examples. Mrs. Childers had many specific examples of how the students were very excited and engaged when being able to use the iPods, iPads, and computers to make their podcasts instead of just writing a book report, etc. The greatest benefit I found from her presentation and doing podcasts in an elementary classroom is that in encompasses all forms of literacy, writing, reading, speaking, etc.
Check out Machelle's classroom website, she provides TONS of great examples!

Mrs. Childers classroom

Overall I found great benefit in attending the OTEN conference and am excited to start implementing the many technological benefits in my future classroom.

For more info on the annual OTEN conference:
Oregon Technology in Education Network