OETC 2017 Recap: Day 1
Day 1 is in the books for OETC 2017 and it was a great kick-off with some valuable resources! Day 1 of OETC is traditionally a day of workshops, with a 3-hour session available in the morning, and another one in the afternoon.
I started my morning in a session about finding valuable resources online, particularly in reference to finding digital curricular content. One particular area of discussion was the growing movement of Open Educational Resources, or OER. Open Educational Resources are curricular materials (lesson plans, activities, videos, simlulations, etc.) that have been shared online and are free to use for any teacher. A few great sites to check out for OER’s are OER Commons, cK-12, and Open Ed. These do sometimes feature some paid/premium content, but a large portion is generally free to use and can be a great substitute for some of the traditional textbook/publisher-based content!
My afternoon session focused more on specific tools that can make a big impact in the classroom. These tools offered a variety of opportunities to create interactive activities, generate/deliver live quizzes and formative checks, and manage the flow of class seamlessly. This session was presented by one of our keynote speakers this year, Leslie Fisher. I have compiled a quick list of some of her “Tools You Can Use Tomorrow” here, along with a quick description of each and the URL for each site/tool. I will try to update and add details, as possible.
One great thing about OETC is that presenters, in the general “beg, borrow, and steal” ethos of education, freely share their presentation resources with all attendees. If you would like to take a look at their presentations, here are links to each.
AM: Anthony Luscre- Too Many Resources, Too Little Time
(Note: There was a lot here, and not everything ended up being covered. If you have some time to dig through Anthony’s site, he has connections to a lot of resources. His “Free eBooks & More” page, in particular, has an embedded spreadsheet with tons of free resources for podcasts, videos, and more. If time is a bit more sensitive, I would recommend sticking to the OER resources listed above, in addition to icurio (built into Schoology) for curated content that has been reviewed, vetted, and aligned to standards.)