I spent quiet a while on the Online Conference site.  There were many interesting presentations.  This would be a valuable tool for professional development.  I will be able to go there to learn about the latest technologies and applications in the classroom. 

I found several presentations that were interesting, but over the head of my students.  The presentation by Tim Hart titled “Open Sim-Open Learning about Virtual Worlds” was extremely interesting, but a little too complicated for my 2nd graders.  I will go online and check to see if there are any age appropriate sites for my students.  I have a board game in my class that my Math students enjoy.  It is called “Pay Day.”  It is a game where players collect money for their labor and have expenditures according to choices they make during the game.  This is a great game, but it could be even better if it was online and more visual.

Sylvia Martinez presented a program called “Games in Education.”  This was interesting.  She talks about the games that we often have students play that are suppose to be educational, but in fact wind up being nothing more than pencil and paper multiple choice worksheets.  I do not totally agree with her, because  the games are still more interesting and engaging to students than pencil and paper.

She talked about the virtual games much like Hart did in his presentation.  The games that offer students options for decisions that they have to make, and then work through the consequences of those decisions make for higher level  learning.  It is true that students learn more when they have made choices and work through the problem. 

The presentation that I found most interesting and applicable in my classroom today was Darren Kuropatwa’s presentation titled “Free Tools for Universal Design.”  I have a student in my classroom who struggles with written assessments.  The text-to-speech programs she talked could help this student.  I will look into this application and try it with him.  He seems to know the material, but can’t seem to put it on paper when tested.