Learn how popular two-way web tools can be used to create interactivemultimedia content for your students, parents, and community!Understand the benefits and drawbacks of popular tools such as blogs,wikis, and Google Docs - and understand when to use each one. Manyexamples and educational models will be shared. This session alsoaddresses the pedago…

Many educators are exploring revolutionary new online tools with theirstudents: blogs, wikis, podcasts, and more - including social toolslike ning and twitter. But it is more important for educators andstudents to become part of an online learning network than to masterany of these specific tools. Participants will hear how oneteacher-turned-educat…

Explore Google's latest tools in a fun, faced-paced session that answers the question: is Google really improving access to the world's information? As consumers and instructional leaders, the Internet is a major source of information for educators. Google is the primary entry point for most people into the vast resources available on the Internet,…

This fast-paced, high-energy presentation explores the implications forliving, teaching, and learning in a world of infinite knowledge - wheretoday's tools support learning everywhere and all the time. Theproliferation of high-speed Internet access, the near ubiquity ofmobile communication devices, and the efficiency of today'scollaborative tools h…

Matt sits down to talk to us and gives us an overview of his three McREL sessions from the conference, talks about open source software, putting your district money towards bandwidth, and remembers the good old days of the movie filmstrip in the classroom. During our conversation Matt mentions Stellarium. Find out more about it at www.stellarium.or…

Classroom Observation Techniques & Software Get more from your classroom observations You know that to be an effective instructional leader, you should conduct regular classroom observations. But what should you look for when observing teachers? How should you track progress and use your observations to coach teachers? How can you determine if your…

Research that says that professional development is most effective when it aims to create professional learning communities — places where teachers learn and work together to apply research to improving student achievement. By providing ongoing professional development and support for teachers, McREL can help you create professional learning comm…

Matt Kuhn focuses on six major research findings from McREL’s meta- and factor-analyses on principal leadership. It also includes an introduction to the concept of shared leadership, balanced leadership, and the Balanced Leadership Frameworkâ„¢ in the context of leading educational technology initiatives. This session will help participants devel…

Steve Hargadon discusses the safe and educational uses of social networking and the new tools that make it easy to establish collaborative learning communities. Useful links from the presentation OpenOffice.org Knoppix Curriki MIT Open Course School 2.0 Ning - create your own social network www.stevehargadon.com…

Dr. Thornburg gives his keynote presentation, Forget About the Future, It's the Present That Concerns Me, at the TCA 2008 conference. For many years the presenter has shared visions of the future with educators around the world in the hope that this would influence educational practice. This was a mistake. We don't need to prepare students just for…