TECHSPO Recap

TECHSPO has come and gone and I thought it would be appropriate to give a short recap of the days events.

We started the day with our keynote speaker, Kim Ross. Below is a short bio.

Kim’s experiences in education include serving as math teacher, district computer coordinator, principal and superintendent, all in MN schools. He first began utilizing computer-based instruction in 1999 at Houston’s Summit Learning Center. In 2002, he began the Minnesota Virtual Academy, and in 2003, the Minnesota Center of Online Learning. Both programs serve Minnesota students in grades K-12. These programs have delivered approximately 70,000 online classes to students since their inception.

Kim served on the Commissioner of Educations Online learning Advisory council, the Governors math standards committee and broadband task force. Clayton Christenson noted Kim’s efforts in online education in his book, ‘Disrupting Class,’ and last December, Kim received national recognition when he was named one of eSchool News’ Top 10 Tech Savvy Superintendents.

Kim’s  presentation was titled ‘trends, technology and Teachers’ trends and technology with a little ‘t’, Teachers with a big “T”.

He spoke in detail of the future of the modern classroom and how teachers will need to focus on building relationships with their students in an online environment more and more.

Click Here for Kim’s presentation

After the keynote the day got started with the session I classes. We had a wide variety of classes from SMART Board Level I to rSchool Today Web Page Tips and Tricks to Go Paperless! Strategies for running a class without printouts! I sat in on some of the classes and learned of some great websites I had never heard of before.

Session IIwas a continuation of some of the SMART Board classes and we again had great turnout for these classes. Using the same format our CompView partners put on a great presentation with a hands on portion of the classes in which participants were able to break off into smaller groups and work on their own SMART Boards. These SMART sessions had 5 or 6 SMART boards available for use during the sessions.

Lunch in my opinion was one of better lunches I’ve had at a conference, and I do realize I was one of the TECHSPO planners so I’m partial, but the taco bar put on by the Stewartville Food Service was excellent. It was a great time to converse with your colleagues from other districts.

Session III didn’t disappoint with Web 2.0 and the Global Classroom, Podcasting & using free Audacity Recording Software, more rSchoolToday and SMART training. I wasn’t able to sit in on any of these sessions as I was doing my own session but after speaking to some attendees they indicated the classes were definitely what they were looking for.

After session IV we had everyone back in the cafeteria for the long-awaited door prize drawings. Even without the vendor fair we were happy to be able to give away some great prizes. In all we gave away over $2,500 worth of door prizes ranging from the CompView and SMART prizes of a SMART Response (Senteo) and a SMART Document Camera, to a flat panel display, gift cards and the most sought after black Nintendo Wii.

Overall the day went very well. As a TECHSPO planner I felt the event was very well attended with over 100 attendees and everyone I spoke to indicated it was a great event and they were very glad to have attended. If you attended and would like to attend again next year make sure you visit our website at http://www.rschooltoday.com/rsc and watch for news of next years TECHSPO 2011. We’re excited to see you in 2011. Tell your colleagues and friends if you enjoyed the day so they too can come and experience TECHSPO.

We would again like to thank our TECHSPO partners