Teaching Tools conference designed to help educators

Teaching Tools conference designed to help educatorsOctober 05, 2001Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu

Central New York educators will have an opportunity to learn about innovative ways to use technology in the classroom at the 12th annual Teaching Tools conference, to be held Oct. 11 at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center.

The free event is presented by SU, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

The day will begin with a keynote address by Samuel Venneri, associate administrator of aerospace technology and chief technologist at NASA. Venneri’s address, “Pathway to Our Future Engineering Workforce,” will begin at 9 a.m. in the Sheraton Amphitheater.

“We are so fortunate to have Sam Venneri coming this year,” says David Tiedemann, director of SU’s Faculty Computing and Media Services. “He is going to give a multimedia presentation that should be incredible.”

Venneri will discuss some of the innovative technology that NASA is using to educate its future workforce. Venneri leads agency-level development of integrated, long-term innovative technology for aeronautics and space.

Following Venneri’s address, concurrent workshops will be offered at 10:45 a.m., noon and 1:15 p.m. The workshops will conclude with a plenary session in the Sheraton Amphitheater titled “Faculty, Publishers and New Media-Blazing New Roads.”

Workshop presenters will focus on a variety of topics, including the application of DVD technology, tomorrow’s textbooks, telemedicine as a teaching tool, distance and on-campus learning combinations and e-portfolios. The workshops will feature presenters from the three host institutions as well as Counterpoint Systems, Prentice-Hall and McGraw-Hill.

In addition to the workshops, faculty, staff and students from various institutions, along with numerous vendors, will demonstrate their projects and products throughout the day in the “Works in Progress” area in the Regency Ballroom.

“This conference is a great chance for educators from K-12 to higher education to get together and discuss what technology is helpful in their classroom and what isn’t working for them,” Tiedemann says. “We’re really just providing them a forum to express what they are working on and to help each other.”

Those interested in attending the conference are encouraged to register early. Registration materials and additional information on the conference are available on the Web at http://ttools.syr.edu.