Technology Applications Conference

I was lucky enough to get to go to the Technology Applications Conference at Region 4 last week.  It was very exciting to go and see things that I have just been learning through the “23 Things”.  It was even more exciting to see things that were new to me. 

One of the things that I discovered as I sat listening to someone speak while using an interactive board was that even though I don’t have an interactive board in my class I do have a touch screen computer and I can use all of the Smart software (we have a site license for that).  Now if I can just get the tech people to give me access to the Smart software and the folder that has all of the games that will work with it. 

Some of the other things that I can’t wait to take a better look at are:

kidblog is a safe site for teachers and students.

Edmodo is another safe site that I was told looks a little like Facebook and teachers that are intimidated by blogs seem to be more comfortable with this site.

Abcya.com has many games and fun things for students.  I have seen this site somewhere in searching for my 23 things.

Voice Thread children can respond by voice, from what I remember it can be used like a blog where students respond but by voice not writing so it would be great for younger children.

Museum Box would be great for history!  Create your own box, or see boxes that have already been created.  Lets you put video, text into a box.

Capzules puts pictures and audio into a timeline effect.  Would be great for a history a presentation.

Voki is an Avatar that talks, very easy to make, easy to email but I’m still trying put it in this blog.

vuvox is a little like capsules, another tool that would be a great alternative to a power point presentation.

Google lit trips a way to teach literature with a road trip

Tween tribune articles that will cause controversy in the classroom

Tagul word tags, looks like wordle but words are linked to a URL.

Vodburner videos Skype.

I’m sure you can tell by my descriptions that I have not explored all of these fully.  Some I have looked at more than others, but from what I saw of them last week they look really useful, so I wanted to share them quickly!  I hope you see something here that you haven’t seen before and you learn something new also.  Next year's Technology Application Conference is already scheduled for November 27, 2011.  I hope I see you there!