WEMTA PLN Ning

WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association)PLN is a new Ning network created by well renown, Naomi Harm. This network is designed for the upcoming tech/media conference being held in Madison WI. However, there is a lot of beneficial information for teachers and techs alike that it doesn't really matter if you are going to attend the conference or don't live in WI.

That being said this is a new network w/ lots of information still to come such as Video, articles, resources etc etc.

For those that are interested in strengthening their technology literacy I highly recommend joining this Ning network and start sharing your expertise, by clicking here!!

WEMTA Thoughts

I just wanted to do a quick post on what has been one of the biggest highlights of my professional career, and that was attending and presenting at this years WEMTA (Wisconsin Education Media Technology Association) conference.

First, I can't thank Naomi Harm enough for encouraging me to attend and present there. I had the great honor of presenting w/ her which I never could've imagined in my wildest dreams. She is truly a rare gem in the educational technology field and I owe her so much.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who attended my presentation as well as all the people I met. There are so many names that I can't even big to list them (of course I forgot almost all of them) but the few that stand out are Tami Brass and Chad Kafka. These two super nice people are really pioneers in their field and a great resource for people to follow.

I learned so many things that I've only seen talked about but never really used such as:

• back channel chats (http://www.chatzy.com/advanced.htm), a great tool for teachers and those presenting a large crowd of people
• polling in real-time (http://www.polleverywhere.com/), imagine using phones/mobile devices to text your answer (a la American Idol)

Finally a few blogs that you can't do w/out:

• http://blog.innovativeeducator.us/
• http://www.chadkafka.com/
• http://tech4teaching.org/wpblog/

Cutting Edge Technology

• Course Wiki - http://cutting-edge-technology.wikispaces.com/
  
• Collaborative Web 2.0 list - http://web20-21stcentury-tools.wikispaces.com/