TLI - Educator Provides Tips on Collaborating with Students

For instructors stumped on how to effectively integrate technology into their lessons, Richard Byrne's Feb. 13 presentation, "Making Learning Collaborative," was invaluable.

Mr. Byrne, best known for his award-winning blog, Free Technology for Teachers, which reaches approximately 49,000 educators on a daily basis, was speaking at the LHRIC's Feb. 13 Technology Leadership Institute held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

Seeking information on the Internet is perhaps one of the easiest tasks to get students to commit to, said Mr. Byrne, who taught high school social studies for eight years. While Google is by and large the most popular search engine in the world and the one that most students turn to, there are other alternatives for students to use, added Mr. Byrne, a Google Certified teacher.

One alternative is a site called InstaGrok, a discovery and learning engine that has been set up specifically for educational purposes. By using this tool, teachers can see what their students are bookmarking and clipping, and the product also has a neat evaluation tool that allows instructors to give a series of multiple-choice quizzes, many of them with thought-provoking, insightful questions.

Forget bookmarking websites on one's computer, Mr. Byrne said. Instead, participants were encouraged to use Diigo for bookmarking purposes. "We often think of collaborative projects as being this monster two-week activity," said Mr. Byrne. "With collaboration, we can accomplish more work and go deeper in a lesser amount of time, and Diigo is a great example of this."

Twitter, while wildly popular with teenagers these days, can be equally attractive in the classroom, especially when students and teachers want to search for topics. Instead of using the traditional RSS feed option to receive updates from news sites and other sources, Mr. Byrne said a better alternative is Feedly.com. Approximately 15 to 20 minutes per day is all that is needed to peruse one's favorite websites or blogs using this tool, he added.

Other useful classroom tools include m.socrative.com, a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational games and exercises, and padlet, an application that gives users a blank wall and asks them to create something out of it. In the past, teachers have used padlet to pose questions about a particular topic, receive answers from students and then provide feedback, all on the same page.

"Don't use technology to bore your students," said Mr. Byrne. "Let your kids do the making; it's not a threatening environment for them."

For more information on Mr. Byrne's work and to avail of his many resources, visit www.freetech4teachers.com. His other websites include: Android4school.com, Ipadapps4school.com, and Practicaledtech.com.

TLI – Acclaimed Writer Argues for Better Perspective on Education

If there's one thing that Marc Prensky would like to see schools doing, it's giving students the credit they deserve.

One of the world's leading experts on the connection between learning and technology, Mr. Prensky urged participants attending the LHRIC's Feb. 13 Technology Leadership Institute to move away from the old system of top down teaching and in its place embrace the idea of partnering with students and using the powerful capabilities of technology to help do it.

Mr. Prensky, the author of five books on the digital culture and education, talks frequently about designing better pedagogy and curriculum for today's generation of students and how educators can learn to thrive in this digital age.

"We have to prepare these kids while avoiding something else that we often slide into, which is what I call cellophane kids," said Mr. Prensky, during his presentation titled, "Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom," which is also the title of his latest book.

Despite what other experts say about the United States' education system trailing the schooling of other countries, Mr. Prensky, the founder and creative director of Spree Games and Games2train, believes the system is failing children worldwide. "The whole world is in this place and it is not a good place," said Mr. Prensky. "It's not just developing countries with problems; the world's education is in the toilet."

Educating to the wrong context

Much of the problem, explained Mr. Prensky, is that schools are teaching to a context that no longer exists. In a world with half its population under the age of 25, Mr. Prensky said educators need to come up with better solutions to engage students. 

The context we currently live in is described by Mr. Prensky as "VUCA," which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. It's a context that is perhaps the biggest challenge to educators and to the world in general, he added.

Mr. Prensky sees education through the eyes of those who were born in this century and not through the eyes of the ones providing it. Today's students, he said, are disillusioned with the system, many of them feeling their primary role as students is to follow directions. Not that young people have all the answers either, he noted, but that adults' educational needs are very different and focused primarily on raising grades and test scores.

To combat this, Mr. Prensky suggested that teachers listen more intently to students, but also focus on the verbs of teaching rather than the nouns, which in this case applies to the tools or technologies that assist teaching and learning.

Nouns that have become familiar in today's learning environment include PowerPoint, e-mail, Wikipedia and others, but additional tools are quickly taking their place. The verbs of learning, however, often remain the same, he said. They include presenting, communicating, persuading, collaborating and learning, to name a few.

"It's important for us to focus on what those verbs are, even as the nouns to do it with are changing all the time," noted Mr. Prensky, who holds master's degrees from Yale University, Middlebury College and The Harvard Business School. "The question to ask is this: what are the key verbs we want our students to learn?"

Like all new challenges in life, technology can be scary, said Mr. Prensky. "I don't tell people to change, but I do remind them that we all need to adapt to the world we live in, to this new 21^st century context."

Doing old things in new ways

While most schools simply recreate new ways of doing old things, Mr. Prensky believes that educators should be creating new ways to do what they couldn't do before. Websites, for example, even the best ones, are "trivial uses of technology," he said.

Activities such as Skyping with students and teachers around the world, using 3D printers, engaging in virtual worlds, playing complex games, creating robots and encouraging the use of the computational knowledge engine, WolframAlpha, which is not about giving students the answers to a problem but rather explaining how the result was obtained, are all worthwhile endeavors, he added.

Technology, however, can't provide students with all the answers. That should come from teachers who have empathy for them, which in turn will create a desire for learning and a passion to persist and do better, Mr. Prensky noted.

While educators over the years have been "bamboozled" with the idea of best practices, the notion of inventing has somewhat disappeared. "When something is moving as quickly as technology, there are no best practices," said Mr. Prensky. "There are only good practices and the need to continually invent better ones."

To enhance the practice of teaching, Mr. Prensky said teachers need to give students the credit they are worthy of. Not trusting them enough nor giving them the freedom they deserve is a frequent occurrence, he said. "The education of tomorrow has less to do with course, curriculum, degrees and exams," he added, and more to do with collaboration.

Mr. Prensky said schools have "gone off track," focusing more on high performance testing and deviating from the goal of creating better people. "What we should be doing is motivating our kids to figure out what they're passionate about, to think creatively, and to think critically and scientifically. I think kids would be more excited to be become better thinkers, actors and relaters."

For more information on Mr. Prensky's work or to order any of his books, go to www.marcprensky.com.  

TLI - Italian Preschool's Educational Practices Highlighted by Respected Educator

In the middle class city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, an educational concept that was created at the end of World War II has captured the minds and hearts of teachers everywhere.

It's an approach that puts preschool children at the center of their own learning, allowing them to learn naturally and to develop a close relationship with their environment as they touch, move, listen, see and hear using a variety of materials.

Educational consultant Gary Stager has seen the Reggio Emilia approach up close and spent an afternoon talking about it to local educators attending the LHRIC's Technology Leadership Institute event last month.

This unique learning approach takes place at the Loris Malaguzzi International Center in Reggio Emilia.

"Everything that's done in this city is done with children in mind," said Dr. Stager, referring to the mindset of city officials who refer to it as the "City of Children" and see the school as an important component of the entire community.

Starting with the assumption that children are already competent when they enter the school, Dr. Stager said it's not unusual to see preschoolers setting tables for the family-style lunch, complete with table cloth and real china instead of paper cups that most American children would be given.

Because parents are a vital component to the successful running of the school and are viewed as partners, collaborators and advocates for their children, there's no need to formalize the relationship between school and caregiver, added Dr. Stager.

Learning is never rushed. In fact, it's not uncommon for children to spend weeks or months on inquiry. "Kids are solving authentic problems that are rooted in their inquiry and so, for example, teachers won't teach writing until a child expresses an interest in it."

In many ways, explained Dr. Stager, educators at Reggio Emelia consider the classroom to be the "third teacher," with students learning in an environment that is considered "whimsical, nurturing and inspiring thought."  

Teachers often work on projects with small groups of children, while the rest engage in a wide variety of self-selected activities. The topic for much student work comes directly from the teacher observing spontaneous play and exploration, as opposed to following a designated theme or unit of learning.

Students' work is often on display in public buildings across the city, such as in the opera house where their colorful drawings were enlarged to decorate the theater curtain. Another large scale project included the "Amusement Park for Birds," an outdoor playground for birds that the children designed and built themselves. The park, located in their playground, includes fountains, waterwheels and a whole host of other equipment, some of which was donated by the city.

For Reggio Emelia teachers, the elements of a successful project include purpose, time, personal meaningfulness to the initiative, complexity and serendipity.  "They just look at kids' work in a different way," said Dr. Stager. "Teachers there are constantly reflecting and documenting the students' progress."

For more information on this unique initiative, Dr. Stager suggested that educators read "The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach, Advanced Reflections" or visit www.reggiochildren.it

TLI – International Speaker Lauds the Creative Use of Technology

Moving away from the "drill and practice" routine that encompasses technology instruction in many of today's schools and transitioning students to the "tinkering and making" of learning is a strategy that local educators were asked to consider as they create new ways to reinvigorate education.

The approach is the thinking of Gary Stager, a renowned international speaker, consultant and educator who spoke passionately about his beliefs at last month's Technology Leadership Institute conference held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor.

He delivered his keynote speech titled, "The Creative Technology Revolution You Can't Afford to Miss" during the event's morning session and later in the afternoon provided educators with more detailed examples of revolutionary educational practices at the preschool level in a talk titled, "Lessons for K-12 and Edtech from the Best Preschools in the World."

Dr. Stager, the executive director of The Constructivist Consortium, has helped learners of all ages embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression.  

His belief is that children are capable of doing extraordinary things, but that our current education system does not provide them with ways to learn in a "natural, more fluid way."

His primary body of work for the past few years has been centered on the constructivist use of technology, which borrows from the work of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, whose theories on knowledge and learning are widely respected in the field of education.

Believing that the years spent in school are the most valuable to helping children evolve into artists, physicists, philosophers and more is something Dr. Stager promotes as he delivers presentations to educators around the country and across the world. "The endless time-wasting is staggering," said Dr. Stager, referring to a system that he believes doesn't provide enough intensity and creative learning for children.

"We have a perfect storm that's swirling outside of our school buildings," he said. The fast-moving technological changes are certainly making an impact on society, he added, but it's not something that schools are taking advantage of. "This technology revolution has an added benefit of being great for kids and rejuvenating teachers and reinvigorating education. There's never been a cooler time to learn."

Reality TV: A "DIY Revolution"

While others decry the evolution of reality TV, Dr. Stager believes it's a positive trend. What it represents, he explained, is a form of "apprentice expertise," where one gets to see people in their natural surroundings, discover what drives them and see what it is they do. It's also an opportunity, he added, to energize young people and to give them a chance to shine as well as to receive a mentoring experience they might not get in real life.

Describing some of nation's youths as being "dead behind the eyes," Dr. Stager, who founded Constructing Modern Knowledge, a minds-on institute for educators committed to creativity, collaboration and computing, said that many of them do not have enough meaningful conversations with adults. "We can worry all we want about how Finland is doing on long division tests, but the generation of kids who don't know how to talk to adults is astounding," he added.

To combat this, Dr. Stager suggested that schools move away from the notion of "hiring a pro" to acknowledging the societal shifts, economic trends and increased mobility in technology and then introducing the idea of "tinkering/making" in the classroom.

In recent years, several magazines have been created to cater to this maker movement, a term that encapsulates the practice and habits of millions of people who are into self-producing everything from robots to handmade crafts.

Those publications include "Make Magazine," "Made By Hand," "50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Child Do and Why" and "Geek Dad." The "Maker Faire" is another example of experiential learning in action. The event, which last year attracted over one hundred thousand people in San Diego, includes a coming together of curious people who enjoy learning and sharing what they do.

"Generations of Americans have never fixed anything," Dr. Stager said. To solve that, schools can use the computer to "kick it up several notches," meaning that students can be taught to use technology creatively and at the same time develop their sense of perseverance, passion, choice, effort, purpose, mindfulness and so much more.

Becoming Their Own Problem Solvers

Engaging students in hands-on projects using computers ensures that students will make more interesting things, he noted. The increased use of 3D printers, for example, has made this even more exciting for students. In fact, Dr. Stager said he'd love to see such printers not just in an art room but in the physics lab and other places around the school where creativity is nurtured.

Dr. Stager, who has worked in schools around the world bringing rich mathematical and scientific thinking experiences to children and teachers, believes that students who are makers will have the ability to solve their own problems, forge their own path and be passionate about what they do.

For example, designing their own videos instead of merely consuming them would teach kids geometry, physics, motion, animation and a whole host of other things. Other interesting projects that have been made by children in the past include digital gingerbread houses, drum sets made out of bananas, a video controller made out of clay, digital origami and more.

"Most of what we are doing with computers in schools is incredibly disappointing," pointed out Dr. Stager. As a result, children have no chance to "get lost in something and to develop expertise." Providing students with rich opportunities for learning and a memorable education is most important, he added. "I think the highest, noblest calling of a teacher is to create memories."

For more information on Dr. Stager's groundbreaking work, visit http://stager.tv/blog/.

TLI - Technology Kickoff Highlights Flipped Learning, Web Tools for Educators

School district administrators and educators walked away from the LHRIC's TLI Technology Kickoff Dec. 4 with a deeper knowledge of flipped learning and an eagerness to try out some new web tools that promise to make teaching and learning more valuable for all.



Brandon Lutz speaks at the TLI Technology Kickoff Dec. 4



The daylong event, held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, featured Aaron Sams of the Flipped Learning Network and Brandon Lutz, a technology integration specialist for the School District of Philadelphia. Both speakers were available later in the afternoon to give more detailed talks to smaller groups looking for guidance and direction on how such ideas could be implemented in their schools.

Transition to Student-Centered Learning

A few years ago, Mr. Sams started experimenting with video as a conduit to learning, creating videos or "vodcasts" that students could view at home and then discuss in class the following day.

The flipped learning model, which was first coined by author and journalist Dan Pink, relies heavily on the use of Internet technology to leverage the learning so that instructors can interact with students instead of lecturing them.

Referring to the lecture-style teaching that has been prominent for over 100 years, Mr. Sams said, "There's got to be a better way than standing in front of a classroom and droning on about something. We know this is not the best way to teach, and we've known that for years, but it is still what we're doing."

While the flipped learning concept is gaining traction, Mr. Sams said there are still some "growing pains." Admitting that it can be a "painful process to transition," Mr. Sams conceded that many educators want to get on board, but have no idea how to do it. "This is a different way to approach teaching without losing the stuff of learning," he reassured them.

Taking the direct instruction model out of the group learning space and shifting it into the individual learning space is better for students, Mr. Sams contends. As a chemistry teacher, he would often ask his students to review his instructional videos on their iPods, encouraging them to discuss their findings with each other, but then shifting his focus to students who needed more one-on-one instruction.

Flipping "Bloom's Taxonomy"

Flipped learning can also be applied to a slightly different version of "Bloom's Taxonomy," the learning model created in 1956 by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, where students go from remembering and understanding information to creating something out of it.

When using a top to bottom inverted approach, as many flipped learning experts suggest teachers do, students can access the more creative aspects of learning and then tap down to the "understanding" component if need be.

Teachers, he said, are often so dependent on delivering content that they forget how important it is to encourage the practical hands-on aspects of learning. "When students want to learn how to do something, they go to YouTube," said Mr. Sams, referring to their proclivity for learning by seeing.

Using what he described as a "flipped mastery approach," Mr. Sams understands that students will access the necessary content when they need it, but he is more interested in giving them the chance to first "practice, apply, assess and then remediate."

"The kids who don't get it, they are the ones who get all my attention in class; that kind of approach is not going to happen when you stand in front of a class and lecture."

Mr. Sams said such strategies make for more independent learners and the differentiation in teaching gives students options that he believes are more valuable.

To learn more about the flipped learning concept, Mr. Sams encouraged participants to enroll in conferences, sign up for free webinars and visit The Flipped Learning Network's website at www.flippedclassroom.org.

Inspirational Web Tools

As a technology specialist for the Philadelphia Schools, Mr. Lutz likes to make teachers and other staff comfortable when it comes to using technology. "I believe in anytime, anywhere access to learning," said Mr. Lutz, referring to the slew of resources he shares with educators.

Those resources have been put together by Mr. Lutz into a fast-paced presentation titled, "60in60: 60 Web Tools in 60 Minutes," which Mr. Lutz shared during the afternoon kickoff session.

In it, Mr. Lutz offers fresh, timely resources that teachers can use to enhance learning in their classrooms. Some of them include the following:

Edmodo: This has a Facebook-like interface and is being widely used by educators. This safe environment is excellent for sharing between teachers and students.

Gooru Learning: Contains a slew of resources for students, including a lot of math/science-based material.

Kid Zui: This is a kid-friendly web browser, otherwise known as "the Internet for kids." It contains lot of games and age-appropriate videos for children.

iBooks Author: Lets users create their own virtual interactive textbooks with ease.

Math Train: Students can make math videos and podcast them to the world.

PresentMe: Presenters who can't appear live at a presentation can put an image of themselves or some other graphic in a split frame screen and use a webcam and microphone to record.

Prezi: Mr. Lutz uses this application, which is similar to PowerPoint, for all of his presentations. No software is needed.

Side Vibe: This site allows students to create web quests. Students can get involved in online discussions and other activities and it will still keep them focused.

To keep up-to-date on the latest tools available for educators, Lutz said he subscribes to a variety of social media sites. He points out, though, that teachers should not feel overwhelmed by the amount of tools available on the Internet.

"Web tools come and go," said Mr. Lutz. "However, it's important to create your own plan, create relationships, listen and try one tool at a time."

To find out more, visit http://60in60.wikispaces.com/

TLI - Tech Forum Showcases New Technology Trends

The idea of media branding for schools, innovative approaches to STEM education, flip learning, and the adaptability of iPads in the classroom were just some of the interesting topics discussed at this year's Tech Forum held Oct. 19 at the Westchester Marriott hotel in Tarrytown.

The annual forum, which is sponsored by Tech & Learning magazine and the TechLearning.com website, attracts many of the region's educators as well as an impressive lineup of technology company sponsors who use the forum as an opportunity to educate teachers and administrators about their latest products and innovations in the instructional technology industry.

Approximately 50 district TLI members from many of the school districts the LHRIC collaborates with on a regular basis were in attendance.

Similar Tech Forum events are held in other cities throughout the country, including Austin, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago.

In his opening keynote presentation, Patrick Higgins, supervisor of Instructional Services for Caldwell/West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey, suggested that schools might want to consider branding their institutions, similar to the kind of branding that is conducted in the business world. Mr. Higgins noted that by leveraging social media, school administrators could learn to grow their districts' brands.

Other noteworthy talks included the growing use of iPads in classrooms in our region. Rob Miller, the director of information for the New Canaan Schools, said there's been a lot of innovation throughout his Connecticut school district. Its benefits include enhanced learning, more self-sufficiency among students, closer alignment to the curriculum as well as reduced costs.

One area that is reaping the benefits of this technology is the special education classroom. Vicki Windman, a special education teacher in Clarkstown High School, has been using the iPad for two years. Her students, while technically of high school age, are developmentally between the ages of 4 and 7.

With over 67,000 educational apps available for download, Ms. Windman said the choices are endless. She subscribes to a site called Moms with Apps, which shares information each Friday on apps that are free to users. Ms. Windman said her students have adapted quickly to the apps she's introduced, and most importantly, all of them align to the state's Common Core standards. "My kids can't write, but if you put them on that iPad, they're masters on it," she said.

At Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, Patrick Fogarty, advisor of instructional technology, said the iPad has been transformative in raising student test scores and generally creating an environment where they have control over their own learning.

The school started using iPads in the classroom after examining the 1:1 iPad initiative at the Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland, the first educational institution to fully engage students with the Apple device.

Administrators at Xaverian got "all fired up about going one-to-one with iPads," said Mr. Fogarty, and in a short few months, the machines were deployed throughout the school. Mr. Fogarty said the device offers a much richer educational experience for the students, something the Whiteboard cannot provide. "We don't want them to cherry pick the knowledge; we want them to be active parts in that creation," he said.

The one-to-one iPad initiative works particularly well at the high school level, noted Mr. Fogarty, with students using it to search for information, do homework, and send and receive emails, among other tasks. According to the Fleischer Research Group at Princeton University, 82 percent of teachers said students do more in-depth research when using the device and 90 percent of students said the iPad has had a positive impact on their learning.

Despite the fact that some mistakes were made at the start of the project, Mr. Folgarty said schools should not be fearful of the transition to such an initiative. "When we went into this initiative, we purchased apps that we expected to use frequently, and we didn't use any of them. But in the end, we learned what does and doesn't work in a classroom environment."

"Our goal was to untether the classroom from the physical space, to create a cloud classroom and to move from teacher to facilitator," he added.

A number of roundtable discussions kept participants engaged throughout the afternoon, including information on using social media to flip faculty meetings, using the iPad for movie-making in the classroom, digital storytelling, creating iBooks and more. A number of industry spotlights and demos from various vendors were also scheduled during the day.

LHRIC Teams Up with NYSCATE to Host First Mobile Learning Summit

The much-anticipated Mobile Learning Summit held last month at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor was well received by many of the region's school district administrators, teachers and college faculty who are eager to implement the proper policies and support structures that will enable mobile learning to flourish in their schools.

The all-day event, co-sponsored by the LHRIC and NYSCATE, served as an opportunity for the K-20 education community to discuss, learn and share best practices in this growing area of technology, a niche that is quickly changing the face of education nationwide.

In his keynote presentation, "Designing Mobile Learning: Personal, Portable & Engaging," Richard Culatta, deputy director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, talked about the need for cautiousness and planning when creating a mobile learning plan for students. He also described the opportunities for enhanced teaching and learning as a result of it.

"It's extremely important to think it through," urged Mr. Culatta, who has worked in the K-12 community, higher education, corporate and government training environments as well as private consulting. "If you can't answer the question, 'why are we doing this?' then I think it's time to stop and think about what we're doing with mobile learning devices."

Some, said Mr. Culatta, believe mobile learning is all about switching to electronic textbooks. The reality is that schools need fewer textbooks and more mobile learning technologies. In fact, they are "way better" than the classroom learning that has prevailed for hundreds of years, he noted.

Mr. Culatta suggested that today's schools have a good chance at getting the mobile learning revolution right. "When we transition to mobile, we need to step back and redesign for that environment, and when we do that, phenomenal things happen."

To make this a reality, however, he suggested that schools capitalize on mobile learning's ability to engage students and to realize the advantages it offers because of its portable nature and its focus on personal learning.

Some strategies to follow include:

• having learners interact with experts in the form of real-time feedback
• allowing them to collaborate with peers, therefore instilling competitiveness in the learning process
• offering interesting content for them to learn from
• initiating a form of personal learning that means adapting to students' individual learning styles, offering differentiated instruction and leveraging their interests and experiences.

As these strategies develop, Mr. Culatta said schools will gather more tools that will help them enhance the kind of personalized learning that is needed in today's classrooms. Citing the Detroit Schools and the New York-based School of One as good examples, Mr. Culatta said those students are learning at their own pace and participating in projects designed around their interests and needs.

"As this happens in more schools nationwide, it will become easier to do the right things in teaching and learning," he added.

In the second keynote of the day, Travis Allen, president and CEO of iSchool Initiative, talked about his own experiences as a mobile learner. In his presentation, "Becoming a Mobile Learner," Mr. Allen described his foray into technology after getting an iPhone a couple of years ago. "I, like many others, enjoyed the endless list of applications on it and shortly after, I began looking into educational apps to help me in high school. I soon realized the amazing capabilities this device would have in education."

Mr. Allen, 21, wanted every student to realize the unlocked potential of the iPhone and shared his opinion on the topic by producing a video, titled "iSchool Initiative." The company is a student led non-profit dedicated to revolutionizing the nation's education system through innovative technology.

Participants also had the chance to explore a number of breakout sessions that took place throughout the morning and afternoon. They included information sessions on the use of mobile devices in the interactive classroom; the implementation of iPads for administrators, teachers and students; a step-by-step guide for administrators and instructors on how to use the iPad; using the Barnes and Noble Nook reader as a learning tool in the classroom; the advantages of using Prezi, a free software for educators and students; recording, composing and learning about music with iOS devices such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod, and much more.

A number of educational technology companies that partner with the RIC and with local school districts were also available to showcase their latest products and services.