Conference+Highlights

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[[image:timthumb.jpg width="101" height="94"]] __**Tuesday's keynote speaker: Dr. Yong Zhao**__
//**Educational Reform in America**// Dr. Zhao's speech was very enlightening, controversial and for most of us in education, redemptive. His speech on education reform is in stark contrast to what we've been hearing from our leaders in Washington D.C. Dr. Zhao provided the audience with a lot of information and statistics on how China and other countries are at the top of the charts when comparing mathematics scores on international tests. America ranks near or at the bottom of many of these standards tests. Zhao makes a point that if we were to follow this line of thinking, America should not exist much less be where it is - the economic leader of the world. He notes that America is still the largest economy in the world followed by China. Why/how is this possible? Zhao continues by presenting a chart taken from his latest book: //World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students//. This chart shows how there is a negative correlation between high test scores and entrepreneurial growth within a country. While America may have the lowest scores globally, they rank the highest in creating entrepreneurs that create a strong economy. He remarks that China and many other asian countries are reforming their educational systems to copy the American model. He states that what we need to do in education is focus on cultivating the creativity of our students, creation of real world products (not just project-based learning but //real products//), and have our students connect to the world globally by understanding that other countries are not our competitors but our collaborators.

I think that Dr. Zhao's book would be a very interesting read. If the keynote video is posted I will try and post a link here. If you would like more information about Dr. Yong Zhao click here.

Exhibit Hall
Here are some of the booths that I visited during the conference. Please click on the picture to access the company website.


 * [[image:photo.JPG width="86" height="102" caption="brainpop.com - Games" link="@http://www.brainpop.com/games/"]] || **Brainpop**

Enjoyed meeting Moby! They were demonstrating their new games section to Brainpop. Not available for all subject areas but it looked fun! ||
 * [[image:web-desktop-large.png width="174" height="99" caption="spoon.net" link="@http://spoon.net/"]] || **Spoon**

This is a virtualization service that allows you to run your apps on other computers. ||
 * [[image:Social Express.jpg width="153" height="111" caption="TheSocialExpress.com" link="@http://thesocialexpress.com/what-is-the-social-express/"]] || **The Social Express**

A San Diego-based company that created an educational software program that is designed to help children and young adults with social learning challenges. ||
 * [[image:01822-86WebF.jpg width="90" height="90" caption="TeacherGeek.com" link="@http://www.teachergeek.com/"]] || **Teacher Geek**

The guys at Teacher Geek had a great booth that demonstrated a lot of hands-on products that teach core curriculum concepts and problem-solving skills. They have some very creative resources and projects. ||
 * [[image:poll.jpg width="167" height="105" caption="polleverywhere.com" link="@http://www.polleverywhere.com/how-it-works"]] || **Poll Everywhere**

A free service (up to 40 people) that allows you to send out polls for students to respond via text, web or Twitter. Possible uses for students who bring their own device (BYOD) to school and for polling audiences outside your classroom. ||
 * [[image:collaborate-img.png width="161" height="92" caption="displaynote.com" link="@http://www.displaynote.com/about.html"]] || **Display Note**

Allows the presenter/teacher to share, access and control apps across any device and any platform. Their demonstration included using Windows 7 OS on iPad. Many other features are described on website. ||
 * [[image:flipped.png width="150" height="69" caption="flippedlearning.org" link="@http://flippedlearning.org/"]] || **Flipped Learning Network**

The Flipped Learning Network provides educators with knowledge, skills and resource to implement flipped learning in your classroom. Click on the Resources tab for some good links! ||
 * [[image:buttonlogo.jpg width="91" height="91" caption="caronefitness.com" link="@http://www.caronefitness.com/index.html"]] || **Carone Fitness**

An online health & P.E. curriculum site. Focuses on extending the health and P.E. class beyond the classroom setting. There is an informational video on the home page of the site. ||
 * [[image:LiveCode.png width="152" height="59" caption="runrev.com" link="@http://www.runrev.com/education/k12.html"]] || **RunRev**

Primarily aimed at 14-18 year old students, uses LiveCode to teach programming to create apps for Android, iPad, iPhone and desktop computers. ||