OTEN Conference

I attended the OTEN Conference at Pacific University in Forest Grove on Saturday, September, 26th,2009. It was a wonderful eye-opener presenting a myriad of technological uses and options to be using in education today. It stressed the responsibility of the educators to know and use technology as a tool for teaching and learning. Computers and these technologies are almost a necessity for reaching and relating to the students in their own language of computer, if we as educators want them to even begin learning and caring about a subject.

Myself and my cohorts attended three sessions in the half day conference; The first session was presented to all and the other two other were our personal choice. Dr. Mike Charles was the presenter of the first session; " Technology and Learning: Putting Together the Total Package in your Classroom." The two other sessions I elected were; "Personal Learning Environments" presented by Anita Z. Boudreau, and the other session was "Social Networking and Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom" presented by Becky Tengs.

It was time worth spent and aside from feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the areas to assimilate, it is all so darn exciting! I am glad I had the opportunity to attend.