Steve Katz is ALL about teaching with technology, and specifically with video! He explains in his philosophy that “technology is a tool, not a subject and curriculum (& tools) are mastered when work is meaningful and engaging.” Steve also adds that “teachers must be comfortable with the tools before teaching them.” Watch this short interview to see what Steve says about his FETC presentation.

As much as we’ve been chatting out FETC and what a great time we had, I had the chance to experience something really unique. A tweet up. What’s a tweet up? Well, it’s an opportunity to meet up and hang out with our friends from Twitter.

First confession: I’ve been to a tweet up.
Second confession: It wasn’t anything to write home about.

It's been another busy which brings us to another Fabulous Friday!! And once again, here are some of my favorite EdTech posts!

Blog Posts:
Knowledge is Obsolete By John Mikulski

Engineering Design Tools for K12 By Howard Chan

As we all know, going to conferences is as much about learning at sessions as it is about meeting people and making connections.

Before I even stepped foot in the Orlando Convention Center for FETC, I had planned on attending Howie DiBlasi’s (@hdiblasi) spotlight session, “i-Create: Digital Projects for the 21st Century Classroom.”

Cindy Lane and Lee Kolbert held a very informative and fun session at FETC called The Biggest User! In this session, Cindy and Lee took web 2.0 tools that are used in the classroom to explain them further, and to vote on which one will be provided in their “Biggest User” wiki.

I have a confession to make in this blog post…

I often hear technology coordinators tell me “Lisa, my biggest problem with getting teachers to embrace technology in their classroom is their fear of the unknown.”

Here at SimpleK12, it’s our livelihood to help teachers overcome fears of new technologies and learn how to use these technologies in their classroom (ala our “Integrating Technology into the Classroom” online learning series).

Is it just me or did anyone else have an awesome time at FETC this year? There was something about the great sessions, the awesome, caring people, all the running around in my bunny slippers and I <3 EdTech t-shirt, the sharing, and the learning that leaves a smile on my face when I think of FETC. I put together a short little video about our great time at FETC, so check it out!

The winner in this edition of Freebie Man is... Oops! You'll have to watch the video to see who has won 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times.

If you didn't win this time, don't fret. We have lots of freebies, so keep an eye on the blog for the next contest announcement. In addition, we suggest that you subscribe to our blog (subscription link to the right -->) because we announce future Freebie Giveaways ahead of time to our blog subscribers.

Wow, what a week at FETC – one of the nation’s largest educational technology conferences.

If you attended the conference here in Orlando, you surely saw us walking around in our bunny slippers and I Heart Ed Tech T-shirts passing out buttons, t-shirts, and other fun prizes.

But we weren’t just there to get out of the office and give things away. We were there to learn new things – and learn we did!

I’ve been a teacher, writer, trainer, and publisher. But, for most of my life I’ve been a businessman wrapped around one or more of the preceding.

My business now, as it has been for the last couple of decades (I know… yikes!) is helping teachers integrate technology in the classroom.

But, this post has nothing to do with that.

In fact, this post is about a small piece of advice for teachers, and it’s this:

Get out of your comfort zone from time to time and learn from the masters in other fields.