The first seminar I went to was called Simple Digital Tools to Support Reading Instruction. (I like simple!) conducted by David Davis, who works for FDLRS.
As usual with Special Ed. presentations, he had a lot more to say about what the problems are than what to do about them, but he did have a few nifty ideas that I had not heard before. For instance, he explained the MS Word Tools feature, Auto Summarize. What this button does is simply amazing. It highlights the main points in a passage! How it knows what it is reading is beyond me, but it seemed very accurate. You can set it to highlight 10% or 50% or whatever you want from the original. David suggeste using this feature with students who have trouble picking out the main idea and important details when reading. The only catch is that you have to get the text into MS Word in the first place, which would be a bit tricky if you were starting with a text book in the classroom, but not impossible.
He also suggested using Google images to begin Web searches with students rather than the text search. This makes it easier to get a visual grip on whether your search is going in the right direction. Another idea was to click on the word "cached" at the end of the Google hit, rather than on the main link. This highlights all the keywords you used in the ensuing Web link, again giving you an idea if you are on the right track or not.
Finally, he advised teachers to look out for PDF downloads that allow you to add comments after downloading. If you have Adobe software already, this is not a problem of course, but if you don't, you may sometimes that find these options left on the document enabling you to highlight, underline, and add notes before giving the document to students to work on.
These and other ideas and links can be found at http://www.fdlrstech.com/readingideas
My next stop was The Man Behind the Curtain (Really Simple) Dazzling Copy-and-Paste Code for Non-Wizards by Hall Davidson of the Discovery Educator Network. (I really like Really Simple!)
Most of his presentation was devoted to "harnessing the power" of the iPod in the classroom. In other words, locking it so that it could only be used for the intended lesson, and not abused by tech-savvy students who only want to listen to music or (gasp!) watch videos! So he went in to how you can access the programming on the iPod while it is plugged in to your computer and change the menu so that it only shows your assignments. It was very interesting, but unfortunately not very useful to me in my current job in the prison.
He also talked about how to recognize sections of code and copy and paste them onto your own sites or links such as Google. He went very quickly, and although I followed what he was doing, it would take me a long while to be able to do it myself. Fortunately, all his notes and slides are available at www.DENCommunity.com/Presentations for free! Click on his name, then Concurrent Sessions, and look for The iPod as MegaVCR.
Next I had to work. The ladies in my semina, Teaching Effectively with Re-usable Digital Content, were extremely friendly and grateful for my presence, although I didn't have to do much. They mostly talked about their work on The Orange Grove Digital Repository project. It is an on-line repository for teachers to post and download actual lesson plans and programs of instruction for other teachers to use. Their goal is to provide teachers with a single searchable site for all their needs. They are trying to keep components separate and tagged so that they can be used interchangably when creating new lessons. Their belief is that many teachers have good stuff hidden away in their classrooms that they would be willing to share if only there was a way to do it. It's a grand idea, but still in its infancy from what I saw. My own experience of all that hidden "good stuff" is that it is mostly from way back in the days when cut-and-paste literally meant scissors and glue, and teachers mostly believed they had a God-given right to ignore copyright laws. Whether enough educators will get on board to make this project sink or swim remains to be seen. If you would like to check it out yourself, the site address is http://www.theorangegrove.org/ or contact CAlfano@distancelearn.org for a free membership or more information.
Next up, I had some fun at the Tabula Digita display trying my hand at the Dimension M math game. I didn't win, but I scored a not-too-shabby 2700 points, especially considering I don't remember ever trying to plot a line of best fit when I was at school. (This math is way beyond the requirements for the GED, also, you might be interested to know!)
Finally, I picked up a few freebies in the exhibition hall. As I walked around looking at so many people listening to sales pitches at the various booths, I wondered how on earth they were able to concentrate on anything they were hearing or seeing! I'm afraid my ADD kicked in almost immediately, and I gave up trying to find anything specific and just enjoyed the crowds. I left at about 5:30, after 10 hours of non-stop activity. It was exhausting, but thoroughly enjoyable, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
