It was so much fun heading back to Florida this year for the FETC Conference in Orlando! I had the chance to connect with educators who are excited about using technology in their classroom to energize and enhance their instructional goals. One of my favorite parts of an event like this is taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about the work happening in schools across the country. I wanted to share some of my highlights from the FETC Conference as well as links to extra resources in case you’re interested in learning more about some of my favorite moments from this whirlwind week in Orlando.
5 Highlights from this Year’s FETC Conference
I was invited by the awesome folks at FETC to participate in their first ever Mega Mobile Share event. Led by Susan Wells (check out her work here), this event brought together educators excited about different topics in the field. The presentations at the Mega Mobile Share took place at tables spread out across a large conference room. Every 30 minutes attendees rotated from one table to another – giving them the chance to learn about different topics during the six rotations. I led a discussion on #FormativeTech using Nearpod. Nearpod was a great choice for leading this session since it helped me demonstrate best practices for formative assessment such as polling a group to gauge experience at the start of a lesson and embedding opportunities to respond to a prompt in the middle of a lesson. Learn more about Nearpod here.
One of my favorite parts of an EdTech conference is the Expo floor. The Expo at FETC was full of companies spreading the word about their products. I had the chance to join the team at bulb at their super cool booth. bulb is a digital portfolio tool and their booth showed off student portfolios on a wall full of screens. Not only was it a lot of fun meeting the bulb team and sharing digital portfolio examples with other educators, lots of people shared on social media how their booth caught their attention. Learn more about bulb here.
This year I’m trying to use more live videos to spread the word about topics I’m excited about in education. Fellow Apple Distinguished Educator Julie Wilcott and I sat down on the last day of the conference to share some of things we learned on Facebook Live. You can check out the video below to hear us share some of the things that caught our attention this week. If you like catching up with video make sure to “like” the ClassTechTips Facebook page for more updates.
At FETC this year I had the chance to connect with the EduTechGuys who were broadcasting live from the convention center. It was so much fun to sit down with them and share some of the things I’m excited about this year. We talked about formative assessment and digital portfolios, check out the recording here.
Like most conferences in education the hashtag for FETC helped attendees stay connected. When a conference has a hashtag (#FETC) participants at the event could check in on things happening around them, and educators who can’t attend an event can follow along with the learning. If you didn’t attend FETC but want to hear more about what everyone was talking about, check out the hashtag for the event here. New to Twitter? Check out this awesome book by my friends at Evolving Educator.
Did you make it to FETC this year? Share a highlight from your week in the comments below!
Check out my Events calendar to see what is happening next!
cross posted at classtechtips.com
Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.
