iT Summit 2009

Man, did I have a hectic week last week. Two days of Summit, one day of teaching and madly trying to figure out where the students were at so I could prep for the next two days (plus throw interviews in that day as well) and then 3 days of drama festival. Coming back on Monday was another fun-filled day of playing catch up also.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted. I knew it had been quite a while but wow. Summit was very enlightening. I think the most meaningful session was David Warlick's keynote session Tuesday morning. To have a speaker stand up at an iT conference and tell us to stop integrating technology was, to say the least, interesting. To look at technology as a way to continue to integrate literacy in our everyday teaching will, in the long run, be an easier way for me to "sell" the technology to some of my staff.

Another session that I enjoyed was Rob's Google Docs as I picked up a few tips which made me play with docs even more (I like that upload option - although it does lose some of the formatting). Even though I have been experiencing some frustration with Google Docs - trouble with kids not being able to log in and/or documents not being available, the research assignement I have been doing with a Google spreadsheet as the organizer for student info has been good. I just explained a little more about the rest of the docs to my 5/6 class today.

The Smartboard session had some technical difficulties but once all was working well, it was good. This was really my first chance to see a Smartboard in action as I am eagerly awaiting the installation of mine. I really liked the Senteo system - an interesting way to keep the kids more actively involved and a quick way to gauge understanding. I don't even want to know how much that would add to the bill. It was also nice to find out that I don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel and will be able to find lessons online.

I also checked out the ROVER session and it was great to see how in the next year or so we may have direct access to streaming video rather than having to order videos and hope they come in time and that they are actually what we need.

All in all a great first Summit.