ACTEM!

Last Friday, I attended the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine (ACTEM) conference. I had been preparing for this conference for almost a month, so I went into it confident in my work and expecting a positive experience. (After I finally woke up, having left campus before six in the morning). As expected, I came out of the conference with new ideas and resources for my unit and for teaching in general.

I received many recommendations for tech, many of which I will be looking into for future unit planning, and a couple I may use in the unit I am currently building. These are things I might never have even thought to look for without these recommendations. I'm looking forward to integrating some of the resources, especially the add-ons to Google Suite apps, which I think will prove to be effective formative assessment tools. The sharing of resources is one of the most practically beneficial aspects of collaboration and I was glad to have been introduced to a wide range of resources to explore. 

While I was presenting, I was equally excited to share the resources I had found while creating my unit. I had an awesome exchange with two educators about my unit, Unsplash, Google Sites, and applying these resources to projects they are currently working on with their students. While I would be using Sites for a class archive of sorts, they wanted to know how it would work for students to make senior portfolios. Because I have spent a number of hours navigating the platform to create the mock class website, I was able to answer almost all of their questions. More than this, I had fun. Web design is a real interest of mine, so I enjoyed showing them how they might use it with their students. 

I was also left with some things to think about from the people I presented to. The last man who came to my table was a tech integrator, and he questioned the technical aspect of having all of the students post to the same website. Although his approach felt a bit interrogative at points, his questions made me think about logistical things I hadn't yet thought about. 

This conference, perhaps unsurprisingly, reinforced to me the importance of collaboration. I found the most meaningful collaboration came when everybody had something to bring to the table. As a pre-service teacher, much of what I brought to the table was about the technology itself, while more experienced teachers brought their knowledge of working in a classroom.

I'm not sure the collaboration within my own presentation would have been as powerful had I not been very invested in my unit. I enjoy young adult literature and I strongly believe that the critical thinking skills we apply to media in our free time are the same skills vital to understanding literature, and I believe that this unit reflects that. My unit is also a reflection of my interest in web design. When looking at it, it is impossible to not see how my interests have influenced that. The power of collaboration is that different people with varying interests can come together to make something that is ultimately stronger.