Happy Monday! I feel a little behind in the blogging world but last week I attended my first virtual conference (FETC)! There were some really great sessions. Adam Bellow founder of EduTecher had an awesome presentation called Wonders of the Web: Great Tools for Schools. He made such good points that I have to often remind myself of and I wanted to share with you all.
1. 42 million websites have cropped up in the last year. It is HARD to keep up.
2. Use your PLN to stay connected with educators and learn from each other (TED Talks, Fcebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.).
3. Don't do too much too quickly. Find one new thing to introduce.
4. Educational technology is about what you can do with the technology NOT what the technology can do for you.
5. Technology is not about the "stuff."
In addition to these tidbits of advice he also shared several great Web tools which can be found here. A few of the tools I have blogged about or used before but I also got a few new ones which I am excited to try.
Virtual FETC got me really excited for the real deal in Orlando which is less than 100 days away and I didn't even get to listen to all of the sessions. One great thing about the virtual aspect is that all of the sessions were recorded and can be accessed for the next three months. While attending Virtual FETC I made some awesome connections with educators across the country. I spent a lot of time chatting in the lounge and building my PLN (personal learning network). @PGeorge is one of the newest Twitter handles that I follow (look I am learning Twitter vocabulary).
On to my next point, Saturday morning while spending valuable time on my PLN I noticed that @PGeorge had tweeted about VirtConLive so I followed her link and was sucked into another virtual conference which was hosted by Discovery Education. Since I had plans for the day (Fall Festival at my school and a 1st Birthday Party) I was so bummed that I was going to miss out on the wealth of information (Yes, I know, I am a nerd with a capital N.). BUT just like Virtual FETC DENVirtCon was also recorded and can be viewed just like TiVo. I haven't had time to go back to either yet BUT I am certainly planning to soon. Without meeting Peggy at Virtual FETC I would have never know about DEN VirtConLive. I am so excited what expanding your PLN can do.
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