Techapalooza 2016
Every August we host an elementary technology conference here in Henrico, Virginia. This year it was called Techapalooza, and it had a music festival theme. We had a full day of presentations by fantastic educators sharing how they use technology in their classrooms. There were also food trucks, great door prizes, and DJs spinning tunes. It was a great day all around! You can check out the conference blog here, and if you join the G+ community, you’ll find links to most of the presentations. I presented on two topics. First I shared examples of how teachers and students have created their own videos, animations, and music using free, easy-to-use webtools. It was called “EDM: Educators Doing Multimedia” (since EDM, Electronic Dance Music, is often heard at music festivals). My second presentation was about using student response webtools in the classroom. There are several sites that give you live feedback from assessments, and some of the sites provide practice with TEI (technology-enhanced item) questions, similar to those found on recent standardized tests. You can explore the tools I shared here: “PLUR: Processing Live Uploaded Responses” (since PLUR–peace, love, unity, respect–is the music festival mantra). If you couldn’t make it to our technology conference this year, come out next August!