Kristin+Bennett

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 * Monday **


 * Big Idea:** Innovative ways to use assistive technology in the classroom
 * [|Assistive Technology State Standards, Assistive Technology Implementation, and Student Performance]
 * [|You Can Do It! Effortless Assistive Technology in the Classroom]
 * http://www.etiwanda.k12.ca.us>


 * Tuesday **


 * Big Idea:** Multisensory educational techniques
 * [|Multimedia in Schools: A Study of Web-based Animation Effectiveness]
 * [|Classrooms for the Future: Development of 21st-Century Skills]
 * @http://cff.psu.edu/public/Home.html


 * Wednesday **


 * Big Idea:** New technology to teach new skills
 * [|Math-4-Keeps: Web 2.0 Comes to Math Class]
 * [|Technology Tools for Visual Learning in Mathematics]
 * @http://tblr.asu.edu/tabs.php?tab=49


 * Keynote and other Special Sessions **


 * Big Idea: Exploring ways to teach students who have grown up with technology**

**Today's Global Learners = Tomorrow's Global Leaders**

 * Implications for your Classroom **

Technology can play such an important role in the education of students and especially those with disabilities that affect their processing and retention. This conference gave me new tools and techniques to use in the classroom like google maps, digital storytelling and different forms of assistive technology.

My students are ages 14-21 and are in need of important transitions skills for their lives after high school. This conference gave me some great ideas on how to present new information to the students that is accessible and interesting. Using google maps we are able to map their neighborhood in order to find resources nearest their homes like laundry facilities, grocery stores, banks, and the library. This is now my favorite activity to do for my Vocations class. We also use the map to identify possible places of employment and bus routes to get to each place. Digital storytelling has also been an invaluable new asset in the classroom. I will go and find pictures on the internet of the theme of the lesson for example, having a successful job interview. I will then have the pictures posted on the Promethean board and the students will come up and put them in order or pick the pictures that don't fit with the story. We also use this technique to practice our problem solving skills. I will put a story on the board that suggests that the character is going to be late for work and some possible solutions. Then, the students will have to identify the appropriate way to handle that situation.

I really enjoyed the conference and am still enjoying and experimenting with the new ideas that I came home with.