Even though I’ve only been here at NOVA for 4th months, I have learned so  many new  tech tools and I have been to so many awesome tech events. I am glad to be working with an wonderful team of Tech Educators who are excited about what they do. We decided to take this time to reflect back on our favorite tech event, tech conference, tech tool  and app.

We have presented at many Technology events  off and on campus. It was really hard to narrow it down to only one.  But I choose the IGNITE event held on the Annandale campus in October as my top Technology event.  At the IGNITE event, presenters were only given 5 minutes to speak about a topic that they were passionate about.  I was tuned into several of the presentations because it was like watching a newscast. You got the who, what, when, and why about a subject in 5 minutes. I learned a lot in a short period of time.

My choice for the top Technology Conference is  the VSTE conference in Virginia, Beach. I chose  VSTE because we had a large turnout for our presentation. Over 50 people came to hear us present several Educational apps and they all walked away from the workshop excited about what they have learned. Several said they plan  to go back to their schools and use the tools that they learned. Talk about feeling good about my job!  And even though it was too cold outside to  walk along the shore, I still love going to the beach any time of the year.

My choice for the top Technology tool is iMovie.  I have been using iMovie for several years now, but last month, I used the iMovie app for the ” Cellular Phone” movie contest as part of International Education Week. I worked with 4 students who had never created  a movie and who had never used iMovie.  They were so amazed at what they could create with their cell phones and with technology. I hope they will use iMove for other class presentations.

My choice for the top app of the year goes to Tellagami.  A Tellagami is app that let’s you create animated characters and movies.  The IS&D team has used “gamies”  in how to videos and presentations.  Everybody gets excited about Tellagami because it is fun and easy to create.

Those are my top choices for 2014.  Be sure to check back after the break for the latest  Educational Technology information. Happy holiday!