North Central hosts third annual Technologies in Education Conference for education majors

Education students at North Central College participated in the Technologies in Education Conference (TIEC) Jan. 23 to learn how to use the latest technologies in the classroom.
 
Hosted on campus by North Central’s education department, the conference was designed to engage alumni teachers and administrators with current students about using technology in both elementary and secondary education. The alumni presenters showed students how to make technology more efficient, productive and meaningful for the classroom. Some 200 North Central students, alumni and faculty were involved in the half-day event.
 
“The conference was born out of a conversation three years ago to meet new Illinois Professional Teaching Standards,” said Mary Beth Ressler, assistant professor of education and TIEC Steering Committee Chair. “We thought about adding assignments or creating modules. But we found a more authentic way for students to learn what technologies were relevant was to create an interactive platform for students to learn about and work with these technologies.”
 
After a keynote address by Indian Prairie School District 204 Director of Instructional Technology Allan Davenport, North Central students participated in three breakout sessions. During the sessions, they learned how to engage their students and their parents using apps on iPads and tablets, design assessments online with the help of Google Forms, teach basic composition skills via GarageBand and more. The day concluded with a panel of presenters fielding questions using Twitter.
 
“The goal of the conference was to help prepare current [North Central] students for their field experiences, student teaching, and future classrooms by attending individual presentations and participating in panel discussions,” said Rachel Bednarcik ’17, English literature and secondary education major and student liaison committee member for TIEC.
 
In addition to the keynote speaker, some 17 alumni teachers and administrators were involved in the event. They work in school districts outside the Naperville area including, but not limited to, Oswego East High School, Downers Grove North High School, Emerson Elementary School, Martino Junior High and The Avery Coonley School.
 
To promote the use of technology, North Central students took to Twitter during the conference presentations to post questions, quotes and ideas for the alumni presenters and their peers. Some of the Tweets included:

•    What do you do if your students don’t have access to technology? #NCCTech2016
•    In correspondence to the SAMR model, what is the best example of Redefinition you have seen within your school or district? #NCCTech2016
•    Thank you to Mrs. Meyer for showing how to navigate NGSS Practices through interactive, inquiry based technology! #NCCTech2016 @NCCTechCon
 
For more information about TIEC, contact Ressler at mressler@noctrl.edu.
 
By Stephanie Snyder ’15/M ’17