On Friday my fellow teaching interns and myself attended the MACUL(Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference in Grand Rapids. At the conference we got the opportunity to attend 3 different session and to explore the vendor area. While I was initially not looking forward to the drive to Grand Rapids I found that it was a GREAT use of my time. I loved learning from the presenters not only more about their chosen topic, but also more about presentations in general.
One of the presentations that I was really looking forward to was the presentation about Pinterest in education because Pinterest is a site that I already use on an everyday basis. Unfortunately I ended up being disappointed by this presentation because it focused too much on the how-to of Pinterest and not enough on the application in education. Also while knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the website, I thought that the technical difficulties that the presenter often ran into with Prezi and with the site itself detracted from the presentation. Also because the presenter was a Kindergarten teacher the presentation was geared toward Kindergarten examples.
On the whole, the Pinterest presentation only solidified my understanding for how to use the website, but it did not further my understanding to new ideas about how to use Pinterest in the classroom.
My favorite presentation was the Lightning Talks that I attended last in the day. Not only was it inspiring as a teacher to hear stories about connecting to colleagues and inspiring our youth, but it inspired me to have my students use a variety of different presentation styles. I could challenge them to explain a concept in 30 seconds or less, they would have to script it out to ensure that they did not go over time. Not only would it be a good way to change things up for my students but it would make presentations more engaging and increase the likelihood that my students are actually listening to each others presentations.
The most surprising aspect of the conference for me was the vendor area. It was really informative to go around and see what the upcoming trends are related to education and technology. Not only was I able to see what the vendors were trying to sell, but I was also able to get the contact information for companies that hire teachers to teach online.
All in all this conference was well worth my time and driving and I would love to attend more conference like this one. This was a field trip that should be kept in the 504 calendar for MAC’ers to come.
Glad you had fun Lauren, though I didn't see nearly enough of you! :) I considered going to the Pinterest session, but it sounds like I made a good decision - I would have liked to hear about its educational applications too, not just the how to (although I am no expert - maybe you can teach me!).
ReplyDeleteI love your idea springing from the lightning session. It would certainly be a challenge for your students to have to be brief and precise when they speak. I'm going to put that one in my back pocket as an idea for the future - thanks!
It's nice to hear about your experience. I wish that I had chosen to go to the lightening talks, when I saw it on the schedule I thought that I wouldn't be able to gain a true understanding of the concepts and that the talks would be superficial. I'm glad you figured out a way to incorporate it into your class. I'm wondering what some of the concepts from that session were.
ReplyDeleteI also went to vendor area and was surprisingly underwhelmed. It seemed like it focused on tools and technology for entire schools rather than things and individual teacher could use. Such is a vendor area though! A lot of the tools and technology were interesting to see. I didn't ask any of the vendors about prices though, that might have been interesting…
Thanks for sharing!
I also heard from a couple of our classmates that the Pinterest presentation was disappointing...bummer! I am not a Pinterest user, and I've been told by several secondary educators that the lesson plans and activity ideas are a lot more useful for elementary educators, as they aren't particularly rich in conceptual knowledge. I still might check it out when I'm teaching full time, and I'd love to hear of things that you have found to be useful so far!
ReplyDeleteHow neat that you were able to come away with ideas for different styles of student presentations from the lightning session! I think that the 30 seconds or less approach could be very effective in a math classroom. I've been stressing with my students that they need to be able to communicate clearly, concisely, and efficiently in a mathematics community, and this would be a great way for them to build those skills. Like Anne, I'm putting that in my back pocket!
As for your time in the vendor area, were there any particular technology trends or tools that sparked an idea for your teaching practice? I'd be interested to hear what's up-and-coming and how you might apply it!
Since I wasn't able to attend, Lauren, would you mind very much talking more about the vendor area? I'd like to hear about the sort of things you saw, and what the emerging trends are. I am surprised that your Pinterest session was a "how-to" sort of thing; I would have thought that presentations would be focused on bringing new ideas, even with established platforms for education like that one.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the lightning talk: that does seem like a good way to get students to focus, both on their topics and on each other. Summary is often hard for my students; they have trouble discerning the themes or big ideas in literature, and a low-stakes setting for them to efficiently explore ideas seems very useful.
First of all, I will say that a drive to Grand Rapids, my hometown, is always worth it. Secondly, I found the same thing about the session I went to on Google Glass. The presentation was really well done, but it was more of a how-to, and it didn't talk about ideas for how to use the tool in a classroom at all. Honestly, though, I preferred that kind of presentation. I like to figure out how to use some tech tool in my classroom myself, so a simple how-to presentation to show me how to get the tool going is better for me. I mean, since you already know how to use Pinterest so well, I think the ways you already use it would probably be more advanced than something you could learn from a presentation like that.
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of lightning talks for classroom use, but I shudder to think about how to implement it in my 6th grade class room. I think there would just be too much organization required to do an activity like that, but it does sound like something to think about.
And I think you forgot to mention the best part about the vendor area: all the free stuff! :)
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteWell, you learned a valuable lesson: sometimes you know more than the presenters!
Glad to know you got something out of the conference though. I'm curious, how are/will/would you use Pinterest with your students. Seems like there is a lot of potential there, but I wouldn't know, off hand, how to implement it in science.