Tooele Techtoberfest 2017
It seems like a long drive to Tooele. It is about 34 miles and 40 minutes along I-80 from Salt Lake City to Tooele. Techtoberfest, held at Stansbury High School on Friday, October 6, was well worth the trip.
Derek Larson, a St. George native, gave an inspiring keynote that included an homage to his friends and others who were in Las Vegas on the day of the tragic mass shooting.
Derek Larson is the Educational Technology Director for the Southwest Educational Development Center. Formerly a 4th grade teacher, he encouraged all of us to take time out to unplug from our technology and our hectic lives and plug INTO nature and most importantly our families, books, hobbies and other things we love in order to relax and recharge.
Derek did not fail to put in a plug for #utedchat every Wednesday night at 9:00 P.M. It’s great fun AND informative if you can stay up that late.
The first session I attended was Derek’s Breakout Box session. That was exciting! A Breakout Kit is a unique set of resettable locks, boxes, and items that can be used to play many games. The best part of the game, (the one we played was the Never-ending Faculty Meeting – OH THE HORROR!) was the debriefing afterward that included discussing how each clue was found and decoded. BreakoutEDU
Tooele School District has come up with a great method for combating phishing in their district and they are willing to share. After including all the people who support learning; district bus drives, secretaries, teachers, administrators, custodians and kitchen staff, in a training involving this short video, they noted a BIG decrease in the number of computer viral infections and a BIG increase in the number of phishing scams reported. Link to their FINE PHISHING VIDEO.
Other sessions included Smart Board, Near Pod, Blended Learning, Student Data Protection, Canvas, Plickers, Sway, Gamification, and Virtual Reality. There was something for everyone!
Thanks to the clever, hard-working people who planned and implemented Techtoberfest; Jim Langston, Thane St. Clair, Nicole St. Clair, Katy Challis, Curriculum Staff, Deb Bushek, Chantet Cowan, Patricia Baldwin, Hal Strain and the Tooele School District IT Department.
