TCEA Conference 2011: No Limits

Last week I had the privilege of attending and the TCEA No Limits conference in Austin.  There were approximately 12,000 teachers, administrators, and educational technologist in attendance.  This is where the power of the TCEA conference lies... THE PEOPLE.  There were hundreds of concurrent sessions presented by educators showing off what works in their district. These presentations cannot help but to spur on the imagination of the attendees on how these same ideas can make a difference in the lives of students all over Texas. 
Knowledge Bank from TCEA

Birdville ITS Twitter and Blog Posts
Birdville Conference Blog
Birdville ITS Tweets

Birdville ISD ITS Presentations:

• Cheryl McKnight:  iEngage iLearn
• Randy Rodgers:  Unleashing Creativity: Web 2.0 Tools for Creativity and Innovation
• Crysten Caviness, Karen Teeters, and Patrick Johnson:  Bring Your Own Device: Mobile Learning 2.0
• Jeff Samuelson:  SMART Boards:  What happens next?
• Teresa Lawson & Barbara Chapman:  Implementing the 4 C's Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking.
• Jason Wells:  Using Social Networking and Other Electronic Tools for Effective Communication
• Web 2.0 in Birdville ISD **** Great resource for ideas****

Twitter at TCEA:
Want to know more about what went on at TCEA.  Do a search on Twitter 
#tcea
#tcea2011

TxDla Wrap Up: Cool Sessions and Cool Ideas

Video Game that Teaches History:
Florida Virtual School is pioneering online education with the development of a series of complete digital game-based courses to teach American History. Go check out the game... Conspiracy Code Programmers worked at Electronic Arts before branching off to form 360ed.

Twitter Goes to School, Telling Stories Through Digital Threads:
Incredible presentation on piecing together history using twitter during the Iranian Elections
Here is the link to a prior presentation. Chris Bigenho's blog.

Web 2.0 Applications:
Great resource of Web 2.0 Apps for classroom use. Here is a link to Dr. Mark E. Workman's Wiki

Web 2.0 Applications: Alternatives to the Same, Old PowerPoint.
Not only did Randy Rodgers talk about Web 2.0 Apps he used them in his presentation. Incredible repository of Web 2.0 Apps and projects. Go check them out on his blog.

Evidence-based Instructional Design:
All their online instructions is based on these four "Brilliant Concepts"

• Build on a Concrete Concept...
  There is no way I can learn what you want me to learn if I don’t know what you’re talking about.
• Reflective Observation...
  If I can carry on a conversation with others about what you want me to know it helps all of us understand it better.
• If I can take what it is you want me to know from the classroom and convert it into ideas, plans, and actions for the "real-world,” I've got a pretty good handle on it.
• The best way I can show you that I learned something is to use it in a creative way. (This was my favorite point of the session)

Student-developed Video Projects-- You Can Too:

Tommy Beardon from ESC Region 14 showed project after project that students developed to teach other students across the United States. My personal favorite was the the Rattle Snake presentation. Here are the links he gave us to review..

• http://admin.esc14.net/webs/ctsvideo
  
• http://www.connect2texas.net/
  
• http://kc3.cilc.org/ (Contest for 6-12th grades)