Tag: vste

Dec 05 2016 December 5, 2016 January 24, 2017 NoComment by David

VSTE 2016 Conference

Posted in Staff Development

This year the VSTE Educator’s Technology Conference was held in Virginia Beach from December 4-6. My friend, Alfonso, and I presented a session called “EDM: Educator’s Doing Multimedia.” We shared how teachers and students can create videos, animations, and music using free online tools. We also shared several examples of student projects using multimedia (you can find many more examples on our blogs). Since Alfonso and I are DJ’s on the side, we included some of the other EDM (Electronic Dance Music) in our presentation. There was a disco ball, lasers, and glowsticks for the crowd. At the end we collected the attendees’ names using a Google form on our website and pasted them into a random name picker to choose a lucky winner for an iTunes gift card. The random name picker is a great tool to use in your class as well. We attended several other VSTE sessions yesterday and today, but my favorite was one about Google maps by Adam Seipel. I learned some cool tricks and features I didn’t know about and was inspired to redo my own session’s website using the new Google sites (in your Google Drive click New > More > Google sites). Tonight we DJ’d a special reception for the vendors (that’s where the photo in this post was taken). If you get the opportunity to attend VSTE or another educators’ technology conference in your state/country, I’d encourage you to go. It’s a wonderful way to expand your professional knowledge and network.


Tags:

Dec 04 2012 December 4, 2012 January 16, 2013 NoComment by David

VSTE Conference 2012

Posted in 5th Grade, Staff Development, Trekkers

Picture 8This weekend I attended the VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach. It was a great conference, and I learned lots of new ways to use technology in the classroom. I also presented a session with Alfonso Favale. The title of our presentation was “Make Meaningful Media with the Virginia Trekkers.” You can see our entire presentation here. The tool we used to create that website is actually one that you and your students could use too. It’s called Tackk and doesn’t require a login to use. It has lots of cool features like embedding videos and maps which I tried to include in our sample site. We started our presentation by sharing some of the latest updates to the Virginia Trekkers. This summer we traveled across the country thanks to a HEF grant. We went from Virginia to California, passing through seven other states along the way: Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. We added those videos to our USA Trekkers page to help 5th graders with their study of the United States regions. After telling about the updates, we wanted to show teachers how they could create videos with their students like the Trekkers do. So we gave them a variety of resources and web tools that you can find linked on our Tackk page. Try some of them out and let me know how I can help you. You might even consider entering one of your videos to our Video Contest. After our presentation, the Trekkers took a Polar Plunge into the ocean and we made a “pop-up video” using a cool web tool we learned about at VSTE called Popcorn Maker. Students can use it to add pop-ups to their videos including maps, twitter feeds, text, pictures and more. Check it out!


Tags:

Dec 06 2010 December 6, 2010 January 18, 2011 NoComment by David

VSTE Conference 2010

Posted in Staff Development, Trekkers

This Sunday Alfonso, Frank, and I presented a workshop at the VSTE Educational Technology Conference in Hampton, Virginia. It was called “Web Tools that Work in a Real Life Classroom.” You can see my website with all the links by clicking here. We basically shared many of the great web tools we’ve been using in your classrooms and which I’ve mentioned on this blog several times. One of the cool new things that we did during the presentation was use Today’s Meet. This site allows people to easily post questions during a presentation and have them displayed live so the presenters and audience members can respond instantly. It really encouraged participation and it might be a tool you’d like to try in your classroom. The Virginia Trekkers also presented Sunday and Monday and shared some of the new podcasts we’ve created this year: Frontier Culture Museum (people groups in Virginia VS.2d), McCormick’s Farm (technology and agriculture VS.9a), Richmond Slave Trail (with a special guest Trekker who traveled all the way to Africa VS.4a), Rock Quarry (the rock cycle 5.7), Ashland Bike Route (map skills), Monticello (Thomas Jefferson VS.5b), Richmond Squirrels Game Night (goods and services), Virginia Volcano (plate tectonics 5.7d), Pow Wow (Monacan Indians VS.2d), Appomattox (VS.7b and Veterans Day 3.11c), Museum of the Confederacy (Civil War VS.7), and Big Meadow in Shenandoah National Park (Blue Ridge Mountains VS.2, VS.10). Check out the all the latest podcasts and please consider submitting a class video to our Junior Trekkers Contest. It would be a great Henrico 21 project!


Tags:

Dec 01 2009 December 1, 2009 January 5, 2010 NoComment by David

VSTE 2009

Posted in Staff Development, Trekkers

I spent part of my Thanksgiving vacation at the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) Conference in Roanoke with my fellow ITRT, Alfonso. It was 2 days (11/30-12/1) of informative sessions learning about the latest research and trends in technology education. Two of the topics I focused on were using iPods in the classroom and Web 2.0 tools. I also attended a cool session on using Google forms. You can see all my notes and links to more information on this Google doc. While we were on the trip Alfonso and I also stopped by the Cyrus McCormick Farm and the Frontier Culture Museum to create a couple of virtual field trips for your students. I’m still editing those videos, but I will post the links on this blog when I finish with them.


Tags: