eTech Conference

February 2nd and 3rd I attended the Ohio eTech Technology Conference in Columbus. This anual conference draws over 9,000 teachers, tech coordinators, librarians, and administrators. I have attended this conference the last five years because it always gives me some new ideas to use in my  classroom and also to share with other teachers.

One new idea I will be exploring thanks to the conference is a server technology called Moodle. This new software suite allows teachers to create new ways to works with their students. Moodle is a web interface thatcombines a teacher's homepage for their classes with an array of web tools that interact with students. This includes a gradebook, a web quest template, a forum maker, a wiki maker, an online test generator, and an easy method for share files with students. And this is just a sampling of what this system can offer to teachers. I like the fact that it is all organized with one place.

I also discover a number of new web sites that I can use in the classroom. Weebly.com is one new site I have discovered. Students can create their own web pages through this site. It is very user friendly. I have added several new titles to books I want to read that deal with technology. These titles include The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman.