The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Mark Krueger, North Junior High School (St. Cloud) Media Specialist

 The TIES Conference 2012 was an excellent conference.  There were many great sessions to take part in.  It seemed like the focus was mostly on mobile devices and less on interactive whiteboards.  In past years interactive whiteboards were a major focus and drive of education.  Such devices that were discussed in many sessions were iPods and iPads.  One main session that I went to was Tips and Tricks of Mac OS and iOS for iPads.  There were many tools that were discussed, such as using Preview as an interactive tool.  They also discussed mini tips on ease of use of both operating systems. 

 I also went to a session called How to Use iPods in ELL Classrooms.  This was informative because it allowed me to see what other schools with large ELL populations are doing with mobile devices.  Some schools are using iPods as tools for reading fluency by using specific apps that record student’s voices as they read, and then the student can play the recording to hear their own reading of the passage. Teachers use these recordings to modify their teaching and will have students read the passages again later to see their progress.  Teachers also have used the iPods and the recording feature to make a slideshow with students narrating the text for the pictures to create a story.  These were just a couple of the ways that iPods were used with the ELL students.

 Overall, I thought TIES 2012 was worth the trip.  It is always a good experience to meet with other professionals in the area of education and technology.  It is also a great time to talk with vendors about individual school needs.  For example, I talked with numerous vendors for multiple hours about what they have that could contribute to my school’s success.  Such tools include projectors, document cameras, and iPad carts.  I would recommend the TIES conference in the future for any teacher or media specialist interested in technology and education.