Educational Technology at IU13

Is it time to start preparing for our annual Elementary Technology Conference coming up this December 2014.  We are pleased to announce that our Keynote speaker is award winning author of Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne.  Click here for more information about Richard Byrne.  We are very excited to have Richard open our day's events with an encouraging and challenging keynote for elementary teachers.

We are going to make a few adjustments with our Tech Integrator / Media Specialists Meetings for next year starting with our name.  We are now going to call this group our Tech Media Integrators.  Please take a moment to check out the following datesaver for when our meetings are scheduled for the 2014-2015 school year:

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!