Thursday, 9:45 am -10:45 am
Session#: 91 Title: Learn Online - On Your Own Time: Professional Development Solutions
Presented By: Trish Bobst - Course Technology/Thomson
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 40 Location: Room 106 Strand: Admin. Secon.
In such a dynamic and changing learning environment, you want to make sure you are keeping up with the skills necessary to help guide your students into the future. Your time is limited, and you need a flexible and accessible way to learn while earning valuable Continuing Education credits. Learn about flexible, low-cost online courses: Internet, Web Page Design, Web Graphics and Multimedia, Web Programming, Basic Computer Literacy, Computer Applications, Desktop Publishing and Imaging, Computer Troubleshooting and Networking, Certification Prep and more. In addition, courses in classroom discipline, leadership, and grant writing are available.
Session#: 92 Title: The Information Highway - Map Your Own Route!Presented By: Lydia Patrick - Coweta County Schools, Debbie Millican - Coweta County Schools
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 40 Location: Room 107 Strand: ALL
With the continued expansion of Coweta County Schools and facilities, an ongoing need for immediate access to information became apparent. Forms, instructions, policies and procedures, databases, templates, links, handouts, and administrative documents all needed to be stored in a central location that could be accessed on demand by parents and staff. After much discussion and planning, the data information center decided to use both Internet and intranet access for Coweta County Schools as a way to manage and share all of the information within the county. Internet pages were designed to facilitate community access to general school information and links. A separate intranet site was set up with a variety of user permissions and logins to keep in-house information locked and available only to users with the correct authorization. While parents can access all Internet pages, only administrators can go to the intranet for an observation/evaluation form. Only teachers can access benchmark indicators. Human resource forms can be accessed with staff logins but special education information can only be accessed by special education teachers. Both sites were refined as needed. Supporting Coweta County parents and educators both at school and at home is now within our reach.
Session#: 93 Title: The BRIDGE (Building Resources: Induction and Development for Georgia)Presented By: Julie Moore - The University of Georgia, Boyoung Chae - The University of Georgia
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 40 Location: Room 303 Strand: ALL
The BRIDGE is a web-based induction tool developed to support teaching. The goal is to create an environment where pre-service and veteran teachers collaborate to build an authentic learning community and an extensive online resource system. Teachers will benefit tremendously from using the BRIDGE system. The system contains peer-reviewed, teacher-generated, and readily usable resources which reflect the needs of the classroom teacher. The BRIDGE online resource database is highly credible and was developed by educators from various universities, school districts, and state agencies. All resources in the system are reviewed by at least two reviewers and one editor based on quality assurance criteria. Finally, collaboration, mentoring, and communication through the system will reduce teachers' feelings of isolation and make teachers a part of a learning community. Professional exchanges with committed teachers provide excellent learning and practice opportunities for new and aspiring teachers. This BRIDGE system is maintained by continuous participation from teachers across the state. The evolving system is poised to be the key to professional growth among teachers, leading to enhanced learning among the next generation.
Session#: 94 Title: Improving Education through Experiential Learning: Join the WWILD Team
Presented By: Lloyd Rieber - The University of Georgia
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 230 Location: Room 306 Strand: ALL
The WWILD Team imagines the entire world as one big team dedicated to designing and evaluating the best interactive learning experiences for all people. WWILD Team members can search and contribute to a database of links to interactive software on the Internet. Members can also evaluate software in the database and share their reviews for other members to read and consider. The WWILD Team looks for self-contained, short, interactive software that is relevant to school-based learning. The Internet is full of them, ranging from small simulations to games to drills. The difficulty is finding the best ones and letting others know about them. The WWILD Team database is designed to do just that. It is a place for members to let others know what they have found by organizing the modules by type, content area, intended audience, and lots more. WWILD Team members can also contribute to the definition of 'quality' by sharing their evaluations, or even just stories, of their experiences using the modules. The WWILD Team web site is offered free of charge to the educational community. It is sponsored and hosted by the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia.
Session#: 95 Title: Go the Distance: Professional Learning OnlinePresented By: Kathi Vanderbilt - Cobb County School District, Kathleen Lyons - Cobb County School District
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 120 Location: Room 308 Strand: ALL
Designing, developing, and implementing an e-course on information literacy skills requires unique collaborative efforts of the classroom teacher and the media specialist. Learn how the collaborative process worked in one metro Atlanta high school. From the principal to the media specialist and classroom teacher, the process began as an idea and a concern and blossomed into a fully developed course to guide teachers in learning best practices for implementing information literacy skills across the curriculum. Increased information literacy enhances all aspects of learning in this technological age when so much information is readily available. Students need to be able to discern information quality and select the best information for accomplishing the assigned task.
Session#: 96 Title: 21st Century Classrooms: Digital Learning EnvironmentsPresented By: Becky Hitch - South Forsyth Middle School, Lou Dewberry - Matt Elementary
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 110 Location: Room 309 Strand: ALL
This session will first examine the misuse of video in the classroom in the past. It will then explore the possibilities for the use of video-on-demand as a powerful teaching tool and will look at various integration strategies. For students, the use of digital video fosters self-paced learning and encourages creativity with the creation of multimedia projects and video editing. Research indicates people process visual information 60,000 times faster than text and visual aids, and can improve learning by 400% if used properly.
Session#: 97 Title: So you have to do a Morning News Show!Presented By: Mary Tidrick - Cobb County Schools
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 50 Location: Room 310 Strand: Elem. Media
This session offers support for media specialists and teachers who must produce news show at their school. Generally, little training, if any, is given for this task. This session will review how to get organized, what equipment is necessary, how many students are needed, and what positions are helpful. There will be time set aside for a discussion and question and answer session to help dispel fears and address concerns.
Session#: 98 Title: Creating Online Courses: "Less is More"
Presented By: Nancy Howell - Cobb County School District
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 50 Location: Room 312 Strand: ALL
Online course delivery provides a wealth of options. What works best when creating and delivering courses online? This presentation offers a detailed formula for creating and delivering successful online courses. By making smart choices in building courses for maximum effect, you will create courses that users enjoy!
Session#: 99 Title: Flash and Web Design Made EasyPresented By: Adam Martingano - The University of Tampa / MatchWare Inc.
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 55 Location: Room 313 Strand: ALL
Attendees will be trained to use Mediator 7 to construct a personalized multimedia presentation. Presentations will be exported as a Flash or HTML website, uploaded to the web, or saved as an interactive auto-run CD-ROM. Each attendee will gain a firm understanding of the structure and functionality of the program's features as well as its export formats. They will have the satisfaction of creating a cutting edge multimedia presentation in a matter of minutes.
Session#: 100 Title: Getting 'ACTIVe' with the Past!Presented By: Rhonda Gulley - Thomaston- Upson County School System, Julie English - Thomaston-Upson County School System
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 55 Location: Room 324 Strand: ALL
Getting ACTIVe with the Past is a multimedia presentation that includes a number of social studies activities that enhance teaching the Civil War and Reconstruction to elementary school students using the ACTIVboard, the ACTIVote and the ACTIVslate and other forms of media. Students will be mesmerized as they trace Sherman's March through Georgia, view sites from the Civil War, and hear Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Maps and other resources that are available in ACTIVstudio 2 will be used as well as resources from the Internet and other Microsoft documents. These are real activities that are currently used in a fifth-grade classroom.
Session#: 101 Title: Online Tools for Literacy - RepeatPresented By: Gail Lovely - Featured Speaker
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 230 Location: Ballroom A Strand: ALL
Explore the wealth of resources online to help you teach, and your students learn, in many areas of literacy. Resources for phoneme awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and more will be shared. There will be a good mix of resources and tools for teachers as well as those to be used by students.
Session#: 102 Title: The 21st Century Teacher: Technology Staff Development Opportunities for Teachers Who Already Know How to Word ProcessPresented By: Doug Johnson - Featured Speaker
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 230 Location: Ballroom B Strand: ALL
Are the new skills needed by teachers to use technology effectively "technology" skills or "teaching" skills? This session looks at the implications of emerging technologies on the teaching profession, describes seven challenges now facing teachers, and describes ten teaching competencies that can be developed through carefully planned staff development efforts that go beyond hands-on classes.
Session#: 103 Title: Teaching Math with Technology (Grades K-6)
Presented By: Tammy Worcester - Featured Speaker
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 230 Location: Ballroom C Strand: Elem.
Math lessons and learning can be enlivened, enhanced, and updated through the integration of resources and tools found on the Internet and on the classroom computer. Explore some fascinating ideas and resources that will inspire both teachers and students.
Session#: 104 Title: Title II-D, Math Grant Update and FeedbackPresented By: Pete Knopf - GA DOE
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 130 Location: Ballroom D/E Strand: ALL
After a short presentation updating the developments in the Title II, Part D 04 Competitive Math Grant program, the presenter will have a conversation with participants about 'What's Working/What's Not.'
Session#: 105 Title: Where Is That Technical Support Person When I NeedPresented By: Monika Davis - DeKalb County Schools - MIS
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 75 Location: Suite A Strand: ALL
The objective of this session is to provide educators with basic computer technology troubleshooting techniques and resources. The goal is to help educators maximize instructional uses of computer technology. Research shows that there is a correlation between technology proficiency and technology integration into the curriculum. Educators who have a basic knowledge of computer technology and troubleshooting skills have more successful technology connected lessons. Although many school systems do have technical support structures in place, there are some basic technical skills that will assist educators when technical support cannot. This session will focus on basic computer operation and some common problems educators face when trying to integrate technology into the curriculum. The importance of the LoTi Framework and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Standard 1 (Teachers) are briefly discussed to reaffirm the need for technology proficiency. During the majority of the session, the presenter will identify and demonstrate troubleshooting skills and address methods of submitting productive technology requests. Upon completion of this session, the participants will gain more technical knowledge and resources. More importantly, the participants will expand their confidence in working with technology.
Session#: 106 Title: Inform Instruction with Assessment Tools and Mobile LabsPresented By: Jody Ward - AlphaSmart
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 75 Location: Suite B Strand: ALL
Literacy specialist, Dr. Marie Clay, states that the most powerful reason for assessment is to inform instruction. It stands to reason then that informed instruction depends on timely access to assessment results. While standardized assessment measures offer documentation of previous practice, they cannot easily provide means to inform instruction. Informal assessment tools, such as teacher observation and teacher-made tests, offer the best opportunity to inform instruction. The time to create, print, distribute and grade these assessment tools may limit the time teachers have to analyze results and design informed instruction. Educators using assessment as a means to inform instruction require systems that collect and analyze data in real time. In this way, teachers spot student strengths, areas for immediate instruction, and trends across student populations. In this session, participants examine AlphaQuiz, an assessment tool that works with Neo and the older AlphaSmart 3000. With these tools, teachers learn to collect assessments from their students, analyze results, and plan for instruction.
Session#: 107 Title: Cheap Thrills: Science and Technology
Presented By: Brian Felker - Clarke County Schools
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 75 Location: Suite C Strand: Elem. Secon. Special Media
Technology integration in the science classroom can take many forms; the cheapest is the use of the Internet. There are literally thousands of sites that science teachers can use to improve the use of technology in their classroom. This session has information on exciting, little known web sites that not only provide content, but delivers it in a manner that is interactive and exciting. Topics include the invisible web, conversion tools, NASA, interactive and virtual field trips, virtual museums, and animations in earth, physical, and life science.
Session#: 108 Title: Home Computer Security and Privacy: Firewalls and Exploit ManagementPresented By: Patrick Crispen - Featured Speaker
Time: Thurs. 9:45 am - 10:45 Seats: 800 Location: Monument Strand: ALL
When you connect your home computer to the Internet, the Internet connects to your home computer. And with that comes a whole bunch of nasty stuff like viruses, exploits, and crackers. In this first of two presentations taken directly from the pages of the Internet Tourbus, you will be introduced to the concept of home computer security and privacy, teaching you everything you need to know about exploit management and even showing you, in English, why your home computer needs both a hardware AND a software firewall.