Edutech Smackdown Open Mic

Last night, 12/3/12, I was excited to attend the Edutech Smackdown hosted by Joyce Valenza (@joycevalenza)!  Moderators were The Daring Librarian (Gwyneth Jones @gwynethjones), Mighty Little Librarian (Tiffany Whitehead @librarian_tiff), with special guest The Nerdy Teacher (Nicholas Provenzano...@thenerdyteacher)!  What a great time.  I'm not going to lie, I was sitting there in my Buffy "We Can Slay It" t-shirt, jumping up and down because I would be learning and communicating with some of the school library superstars that I have been following for years.  Yep, I may just be a librarian groupie (the non-creepy kind).  I logged in early (yep, 7:30 is my way to be on time for 8) and I sat in eager anticipation.  I even put down Finnikin of the Rock (although I was almost done with it and so deep into the world of Lumatere that it took me a while to shake it off).  

Blackboard Collaborate was a great interface for this to be done in.  The slideshow was viewed as the moderators chatted.  The open mic aspect of the presentation was great!  Not only did I hear from some of the great bloggers that I follow every day, I got to hear from people in the same situation (and not) as me.  

First of all, I cannot wait for next year's open mic (a whole year?!?) but also, I am so excited to be kickstarted into the world of webinars and virtual discussions.  This is the first of many that I am excited for!  

Takeaways from the night...(i.e. my notes, not yet put into tech integrationist/principal friendly format)

• Presentation Document in Google Drive

• Infographics...Analyze, Deconstruct, Reconstruct
• Deconstruct infographics as credibility checks
• http://www.thinglink.com/

• Smore...interactive posters, easily changed and updated, easy to use. 

• MentorMob (p.s. I'm in love)...interactive, sequential playlist!  What a great tool for flipping the classroom!

• MOOC (how is this new to me?)  Recorded lectures, informal learning opportunities, badges (!), real assessment...

• Transcripts from the news?  TVNews My social studies teachers would love this! 

• Holocaust testimonies... (through the USC Shoah Foundation)

• Pinterest...enough said.  
• Here is my Library board...http://pinterest.com/meagantowle/libraries-are-amazing/

• Picmonkey looks so good!  From the creators of Picnik (love and miss).

• KeepVid (can also convert vid to Prezi-friendly format)

• Schoology (Like Edmodo, but not).

• Common Sense Media...really well written lessons
• Digital Citizenship curriculum for K-12
• Any school going 1:1 should have something like this in place.
• I also use to look up books, videos, etc reviews.

• Class Dojo...classroom management online

• Educational search engine, web portal, crowd-sourcing for educational multimedia.

• Custom posters

• Geek Squad...how much do I think that Gilb and I should start a Geek Squad and a Library Club.  Techies and bookies unite!

• Classtools.net
• Have them help set up stuff...
• Keeps Library in the forefront as a tech resource.

• Keep Calm-O-Matic...YAY!  
•   with my personal motto included ---------->

• Notability and Puppet Pals via lmdsuarez
• Upcoming Library Science course in iTunes U (yay!)

• Nearpod

• Glogster

• Evernote 
• I use Evernote all the time.  Take pics and sounds and put them right into your notes.  Have them available on all of your devices all the time. 

• Subtext app
• collaborative reading (students, teachers) with ePub books.  

• Formative Assessment

• Admit/Exit Tickets sticky notes...
• linoit, stixy, etc.
• Graphic Organizing
• Popplet
• Tools4Students
• Polls and Surveys
• Socrative (web 2.0 and app)
• Google Forms
• Poll Everywhere
• Individual Whiteboards

• Jot
• Educreations
• Show Me
• Observation
• Reflection ($14.99)
• Doceri

I'm very excited about this stuff.  Let's see how we can start using it in the classrooms!