Educational Technology at IU13

NearPod is a one stop shop for integrating mobile devices in the classroom.  NearPod provides both mobile and browser options for teachers to present materials, assess, and interact with students.  Once the teacher loads the app s/he "pushes out" the material to all the student devices and has the option of presenting via teacher control or student control.  If a student decides to minimize the App the teacher's dashboard receives an immediate notification of off task behavior. NearPod makes it possible for teachers to run quick formative assessments and check for understanding opportunities embedded throughout the lesson.  NearPod's free version has some exciting features, but of course, the premium version offers many more options especially report management and increased interactivity. 

We are very excited to announce that our IU 13 OverDrive "book shelf" has just gone live!  All IU 13 employees can log on using your IU 13 username and password information.  As we speak, a number of our districts have connected to our OverDrive account as well.  Throughout the next couple of weeks, the rest of our districts will connect to our shelf.

It is so hard to believe that we are already past the first week of May!  This Spring time is dashing away quickly as we look forward to the end of the school year.  There is still a lot to be done although it seems that May is on the fast track for everyone. As we bring this school year to a close, we have one more Tech Integrator/Media Specialists Mtg on the 20th, from 8:30-12:00 that you will not want to miss!

This Spring has been a very exciting time for our newly revised IMS 2.0.  Please make sure that you have read about our IMS 2.0 changes that we have been making for next year.  Here are a few highlights to keep in mind:

In case you missed our meeting this morning, we wanted to make sure that you could watch the announcements and experience the first session provided by our guest speaker, Richard Byrne. Richard walked us through a Celebration of Discovery, Discussion, and Demonstration. We were encouraged in our continual path of technology integration as well as challenged to continue carrying the torch helping to lead educational transformation one step at a time. We are pleased to announce that Richard Byrne will serve as our Keynote Speaker for our Elementary Technology Conference on Dec. 9, 2014.  Check out the meeting agenda for the day and the video below.