What it is: Recently I received a free year long pass to the EdTech UNconference from Simple K12 to review. Not only did they offer me a free pass, they offered me a free pass to give away to a lucky reader, very generous! After spending a few days learning and playing around in the EdTech UNconference, I am impressed! The EdTech UN conference is a year long, 100% online all-inclusive resource to help educators learn about and use technology in an “UNintimidating” way. It is professional development that works the way you need it to. Teachers are some of the busiest people I know. We constantly work, think about our students, and strive to make ourselves and our classrooms better. The problem: because we are so busy, professional development can be an after thought or put off all together. It isn’t convenient to leave your family and travel across the country for a 4 day conference…not to mention the expense. The EdTech UNConference has a low admission fee $199.99 (or free for a lucky iLearn Technology reader), lasts 365 days, has a recording of ALL sessions, is online and on demand which means no travel, no sub plans, and no rearranging your schedule. In addition to the great sessions, EdTech UnConference will send regular email updates, twitter updates, offers a private social networking site, 500+ hours of learning programs, and online support. That is a lot of professional development for your school $$. Learn about Internet safety, technology integration through podcasting, wikis, interactive whiteboards, Microsoft Office (for both Mac and Windows), iMovie, monthly live edtech sessions, live follow-up Q&A, ongoing collaboration with other educators from around the world, your own blog (so easy it is already set up!), 2 min. edtech talks (professional development in those spare 2 min!), and printable reports of training time that you can share with your supervisor. And that is just the beginning 🙂 Presentations come from some of the best in education including Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Richard Byrne, Shervette Miller, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, Kim Munoz, Steven Katz and more! If some of those names seem familiar, they probably are, a few are members of the iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance. The kickoff session for the conference starts today, October 1. Online Professional development is amazing, it is there when you need it, available any time, and in a manner that works for your schedule. What can you learn in 365 days?
How to integrate EdTech UNconference into your classroom: The EdTech UNconference is sure to launch your classroom into the 21st century with practical professional development that you can implement into your classroom right away. One of the difficulties of a regular conference, is hearing a new idea, getting excited about it, only to have it fizzle out when you try to implement it because there is no one to talk to, no ongoing support when you hit a roadblock. Not so with the EdTech UNconference. This is professional development that you can really use. The recorded sessions mean that you can review a topic as many times as you need to. Still need some help, head over to the forum and get on demand help from other educators from around the world. How cool is that?!
How to register to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference pass: There are two ways to enter to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference year-long pass. 1. Tweet about why you need free professional development using the hash tag #iltUNcon or 2. Leave a comment below about how much you would love some free professional development. You have until Oct. 4, 2010. On Monday, I will put all of the entries into a Google Doc and use a random number generator to choose the winner. Good luck!
Please leave a comment to enter the EdTech UNconference contest!
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