Students get to teach the teachers at technology conference

Teachers from eight area schools spent Wednesday learning and playing with technology, with some of the sessions taught by their own elementary students. 

At the first annual Leading and Learning Conference, sponsored by DeKalb and Hooks Independent School Districts, along with the Texas Computer Education Association, instructors attended more than 75 technology education sessions across the DeKalb campus.

Melissa Motes, the director of instructional technology at DeKalb, said they had been working since January to put bring area educators together to learn and have fun while doing it.

"We always talk about giving kids choices in the classroom, and we really wanted to have a day where teachers had some choices about what they wanted to learn," she said. "We're all leaders, and we need to all be lifelong learners, so that's kind of our mission statement."

Schools included in the conference included DeKalb, Hooks, Simms, Leary, Malta, Avery, Hubbard and Texarkana College.

The day began with a motivational, hands-on presentation by keynote speaker Carl Hooker, who's been a part of the educational shift to use more technology in the classroom. Hooker is the director of innovation and digital learning at Eanes ISD, has worked to put iPads in the hands of all 8,000 students in his district, and is set to publish a book series to support mobile learning in schools.

"We were just focusing on using technology in the classroom. It's like Carl Hooker said this morning, it's not that you should have technology day, you should have learning day and technology is the tool, like a pencil is," Motes said. "Technology's just a tool that you need to focus on learning. We always say it's not about the technology, it's about the learning."

With sessions demonstrating the various uses of Google, including slides, docs, drawing and Chrome, teachers were in education technology heaven. Most were hands-on, including Tech Playground, demonstrated by 10-year-old Cole Triplett, who will be a fourth grader this year at DeKalb Elementary.

He explained in great detail the abilities and features of the Ozobot, a small, dome-shaped robot that changes speed due to which color it senses on a special track. He also explained how to put together pieces of a circuit board with metal connectors to power small motors for different functions.

DeKalb's Librarian, Stephanie Bailey, said the young man's explanations of the technology, including the Osmo platform for iPads, were fun to learn and play with.

When asked what she had learned in Tech Playground, Bailey said, "A lot. I was not familiar with any of this stuff before this morning. Mr. Cole had to show me quite a few things."

Cole said teaching the grown-ups technology wasn't a difficult task for him at all.

"We've told them about how the circuits work and just letting them build the circuits," he said. "They have instructional booklets. It's really easy. It's not rocket science."

Eight-year-old Walker Matteson also helped demonstrate the technology, along with Chloe Smith and Lizeth Martinez, who will both be in fifth grade this year.

Together, the girls created a television show on an iPad with the Greenscreen app, and had a green curtain hung in the library where they presented their live newscast.

During the day, the girls said teachers enjoyed learning how to do the newscast, but they were really taken with Osmo, which uses technology to help their students learn to read.

"The kindergarten teachers enjoyed that one a lot because it showed letters and they want to show their kids more stuff they can learn," Lizeth said. "Words, letters, where they can get the knowledge."

Motes said they definitely plan to hold the conference again next year, and that they had lots of positive feedback from attendees.

"It took a lot to put it together but I think it's worth it," she said. "The end result is students are going to get to learn from this."

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