The 2017 Ohio Educational Technology Conference was held February 14-16, 2017, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.  Thousands of educators from Ohio and beyond gather each year to learn more about technology and the role it plays in supporting educational opportunities for all students.

The Greater Columbus Convention Center is undergoing some renovation, so there were a lot of extra walls in the hallways, and some of the traditionally-available spaces were closed off.  This made finding my way around a little more difficult this year than in years past, and it seemed to have other effects on the overall conference experience as well.

Still, the Ohio Educational Technology Conference plays to its strength of being a showcase, not just of shiny tech tools, but of innovative practices that engage learners and make it possible for them to do things they never could before.  That is when implementing educational technology has its most, and best, impact.  Here are my favorite take-aways from OETC17!

• Learning about coding an Arduino without actually having an Arduino!  Sparkfun.com – http://sparkfun.com/hourofcode – An “Arduino” is a small, programmable, open-source computer.  Through a simple programming language, anyone can learn about coding and electronics, and the associated skills of logical thinking and troubleshooting (a.k.a. “learning from failure”).
• Tech-infused project-based learning should not be an “extension” activity made available only to those students who are already exhibiting sufficient achievement in the existing curriculum.  Many students who blossom in such environments would never get the chance to participate if they had to “qualify” by testing high enough in a traditional classroom setting first.  And such opportunities and materials are available and affordable enough now that they do not have to be restricted to just a few students based on phony readiness criteria.  Fredi Lajvardi’s story (chronicled in the documentaries “Spare Parts” and “Underwater Dreams“) is one of high expectations and extraordinary accomplishment.  The untold rest of the story is equally heartbreaking.
• Open Educational Resources are there for anyone who wants them.  Only our own mindset regarding traditional approaches to curriculum acquisition and management is stopping us from tapping into a vast repository of materials.  Check out OER Commons to get started finding quality materials that you can use, reuse, and remix however you like!
• There were a lot of people I missed seeing and talking with.  Not having an official OETCx “unconference” was a bit disappointing, but it actually put the responsibility back on me to create and foster those experiences for myself.  I also learned about a couple of upcoming edCamps in my area.
• Instructional Strategy trumps Tech Infusion every time.  A well-crafted and well-delivered lesson that uses little technology is better than an ill-crafted and poorly-delivered lesson that is soaked in technology.  My goal as an Instructional Technology Specialist is to foster quality instruction first, and then tap into ways to use available technology to improve and reinforce that instruction.  The great confluence of these two concepts happens when we identify ways we would like to teach, but have never been able to before without the use of emerging technologies.
• Praising effort vs. praising intelligence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY

  Of course, you want to know some new (or “new-to-me”) tools that I saw at this year’s OETC, so here they are!

• Sparkfun.com/hourofcode – a completely online programming environment with a virtual Arduino!  Get comfortable with the Arduino programming language before you get your hands on an actual board.
• Mentimeter.com – Go beyond simple polls in your presentation slides.  Mentimeter allows you to dynamically generate word clouds and ask more evaluative questions of your audience, such as 2×2 grids and slider scales.
• InterventionCentral.org – When applied properly, Response to Intervention is a powerful framework for raising achievement for all students (not just those identified for special education).  Intervention Central contains a host of resources, strategies, and guides that any classroom teacher can use to make their classroom instruction as effective as possible, closing achievement gaps while maintaining high expectations for all.
• I also need to say a strong word of thanks to the great people at IPEVO.  For my “Free Google Tools to Support Access to the General Curriculum for All Learners” session, my employers at Forward Edge graciously provided a couple of IPEVO cameras as giveaways to some lucky attendees.  I use them to scan paper documents into Google Drive to execute OCR (optical character recognition).  The representative at the IPEVO booth gave me even more cameras to use as giveaways in my session, which made a few more of my attendees even happier!  If you’re looking for a good quality camera at a reasonable price to use as a document camera, or for taking advantage of the OCR capabilities in Google Drive, look into what IPEVO has to offer!

The Ohio Educational Technology Conference is not afraid to put forward ideas and approaches that challenge the way things have always been done (Case in point: Cable Green, Director of Open Education for Creative Commons touting the virtues of Open Educational Resources and how much it would reduce the cost of buying books, a couple hundred yards away from a vendor hall where publishers have paid for space to sell their textbooks).  I look forward to that energy continuing to inform the direction of OETC, and continuing to influence the choice of keynotes, breakout sessions, and incorporated events.