AETA Fall Symposium

Last week I attended the Alabama Educational Technology Association's Fall Symposium in Orange Beach, AL., and got a lot of information from the ALSDE regarding some new initiatives they are putting in place.  In addition to the Global Scholar and Alabama Insight programs, they also announced a new portal that will allow a single sign-in so you do not have to have a dozen passwords to get to the different protected sites on the ALSDE website.  Hopefully, they will have that up and running within the next year.

In addition to some excellent sessions, I was also able to visit the vendor area where I was able to look at the new Lenovo wireless slate.  Similar to an Ipad, it will be loaded with Windows 8 so we will be able to join it to our protected network.  It is also pen-enabled and comes with its own pen, plus it has a USB port, two slots for memory cards, and a connector that will allow it to be placed on a docking station and used as a desktop.  A lot of capabilities that are not available on the Ipads today.

Lenovo is also coming out with a new mini-desktop that is as fully capable as a regular desktop except it is about 1/4 the size.  Great idea as it will take up less room on the tables and can even be mounted underneath the table if you wanted.

I also spoke with Ryan Keag with Gaggle and they have a great product that I think our district should look at.  Along with a hosted student email program, they also have an online digital storage site where students could post their work and access it from anywhere they have Internet access.  I like their student email program because the schools are able to manage the access and monitor student use.

It was a great conference and it was good to visit with my fellow tech coordinators from around the state.  I think we get as much out of our dinner conversations as we do in the sessions.