More From the Conference I Didn't Actually Attend

I guess it's not that surprising that I can use technology to enjoy a technology conference. As I posted before, I missed most of the MACUL Conference due to illness, but was able to use the awesome #macul14 hashtag on Twitter to keep up. Many fellow educators are still riding the high from this conference and posting about their favorite speakers and the ideas they brought back to their own classrooms.

So the inspiration continues. The Keynotes are online! I've only watched George Couros so far, but it's probably going to take me some time to digest all he had to say. Our theme at school this week is joy, and I used the "Be More Dog" video from his keynote with my 6th graders. I'm really looking forward to seeing Adam Bellow and Rushton Hurley. I found a few of the Lightning talks as well. Who doesn't want to be the teacher in Trevor Muir's "Hairline Crack"?

Twitter links have led me to amazing websites. One of them is called Two Guys and Some iPads. In addition to the posts and ideas on their site, the two guys do a web show. On the night before MACUL they interviewed Leslie Fisher, and she was as funny and enlightening as always.

Speaking of Leslie, I missed her new Augmented Reality session, but made it to Photo and Video Tips, Tricks, and Apps for Education. I went to the exact same pre-conference workshop last year, but knew that I would come away with familiar ideas reinforced and a head swimming with new information. Leslie did not disappoint. From small tips like placing your lighted phone underneath a drink to more complicated topics like megapixels and focus and HDR, she kept the room fascinated for three and a half hours. Even feeling ill I was sad to see the afternoon end.

There are still more websites to find, more ideas to try, more videos to watch, more edchats to enjoy. The anticipation for these opportunities sure helps when you're trying to "Be more dog."

#MACUL14

(I guess this blogging thing didn't work out for me at first. Trying again...)

I purposely used a hashtag in the title of this post because the main thing that allowed me to enjoy the 2014 MACUL conference was Twitter. Unfortunately I spent much of the conference at home, alone, sick as a dog, lying on my couch.

I did go to the pre-conference workshops on Wednesday, and they were awesome, but I was already getting sick at that point. By Thursday I had to go home. It was so disappointing because MACUL is one of the highlights of my year.

So I started reading the #macul14 posts on Twitter, partly because of the funny posts being put up by "MACUL E. Culkin", an anonymous and hilarious twitter poster. Pretty soon though, I began clicking on some of the links people were sharing. And, wow, it was like being at a mini MACUL conference in my living room.

I'd used Twitter halfheartedly for the past few years but never really understood its potential. The first thing I did was to watch a YouTube video put together by Erin Klein. Her website, Kleinspiration, contains a wealth of information too, but that's another discussion. Here's Erin's video. The beginning covers basic Twitter use, but I got some great ideas about setting up education lists and following inspirational people.

 

Some of the other twitter links I clicked on led me to great sites that I didn't even know existed. In addition to Kleinspiration, I found Edudemic, Teach Thought, and Newsela. I also read about some useful tools, like Emaze for creating presentions.

I learned about some great sounding educational Twitter live chats, saw fun pictures, read about iPad apps, found directions for doing all manner of technological tasks, and watched instructive and inspirational videos. One was this heartbreaking story.

Twitter. Who knew?