Kim Niles and Jennifer Fry prepare to present to a group of Ohio Educators at the state’s annual OETC conference.
The Ohio Educational Technology Conference, held at the Columbus Convention Center from January 26-29, hosted more than 5,000 educators from across the state. Westerville City Schools’ Elementary Technology Integration Specialists Jennifer Fry, Kim Niles and Daphne Irby had two proposals accepted for presentation at the conference this year. Fry and Niles presented to more than 100 educators in the two sessions, which were based on the daily work they all do with elementary schools in Westerville.
Integrating Digital Devices into the New Ohio English Language Arts (ELA) Learning Standards demonstrated some simple apps for integrating iPads or other mobile devices into the ELA Curriculum. Some of the apps include Doodle Buddy, Educreations, Sonicpics, and PuppetPals2. Utilizing BYOD, participants explored the apps and boosted their comfort level for utilizing the mobile technologies in their classroom. The session included a short introduction to each app, followed by a discussion of how the app can be integrated into the ELA curriculum and then hands-on time for exploration. All the apps were easily integrated to meet the new Ohio ELA Learning Standards.
Seven Tech Tools to Teach the New Ohio Learning Standards showcased seven technology tools to engage students, while helping educators teach all new learning standards. Technology tools included: Google Boolify Advanced Search, Study Blue, Google Docs, Forms and Other Apps, Creately, Gliffy, YouTube.com/Teachers and Symbaloo EDU. As each tech tool was presented, participants visited the online tool and left the session with useful tech tools to help them teach the new Ohio Learning Standards and engage students.
In addition to the speakers, OETC 2014 had more than 300 sessions featuring subjects such as gaming, mobile learning, new classroom technologies, digital learning models, and Ohio education initiatives such as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers ( PARCC) and Common Core curriculum.