On April 24 & 25, 2003, the Nebraska Educational Technology Association was held in Omaha, NE. The conference was held at the Holiday Inn Express on 72nd St.   All education majors were expected to attend to aid them in their knowledge of technology in the years to come. 

    Unfortunately, I could not attend the keynote speakers either Thursday or Friday due to my classes during those times.  I heard they were informative and exciting to listen to though.  I started off by going to the vendors downstairs.  There were so many new technology items that I had never seen before.  I became more knowledgeable and was able to obtain quite a bit of free merchandise.  There were so many people there and everyone was very helpful and interested in technology.

    The first session I decided to attend was iMovie Enhances Curriculum and Your School's Technology Budget.  This session was about how movies made on the internet, with a program called iMovie, can aid as good visual teaching aids in the classroom.  Two students explained how the iMovies helped them learn and showed how they made them.  They showed examples of a science project that they could not capture in a photograph.  They made airplanes that could fly around the gym, so they took the video camera and zoomed in and made a little clip.  Then they put it on the web and incorporated music to fit the airplane flying.  It was very interesting but not really beneficial to me because the equipment was so costly. 

    The next session I attended was What's new from Apple? iLife:  Bring lessons to life.  This session was by far my favorite.  It was so interesting and made me want to buy an Apple laptop.  The presenter, Janet Hill, explained how iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, and iDVD  were all becoming more and more useful in everyday life.  And for only $39 one can get all this great software.  iTunes is a program that holds as many songs as needed.  iPhoto is a program that allows one to scan photos and even make a movie or a DVD with them, and then take the music from iTunes and put it in the movie.  I was just awestricken when I listen to this woman talk.  I felt like I had to have one and that I would benefit me greatly as a teacher. 

    I thought this conference was very good and I believe all educators and even students should have the opportunity to attend.  We were lucky enough to be able to get in for free but the price is not all that high to begin with.  If I had gone to this conference before I presented at SETA, I think I would have been more comfortable and confident to present my own topic.