Loo-a-vull!

Well, for that past 4 glorious days, I have been in Louisville, KY. I have to say that it was really nice to get out of Utah for awhile! It didn't take me long to realize that my western pronunciation of the city was, indeed, wrong. But once I got it, I got it!

Anyways, I was there for the annual International Technology Education Association conference. Basically, it's a conference for a bunch of educators, both elementary and secondary education as well as college. You pretty much just go to a bunch of workshops, see what products are new, meet new people, and, in my case, eat a ton of great food. I went to only 2 workshops over the course of 3 days, but I also had the opportunity to present some of the research I have been doing for the past year.

The presentation actually went better than I had thought. I got a really bad time. The last time slot on the last day of the conference. But, to my surprise, a lot of people showed up (20-25 people). The name of the presentation was "Technological Literacy: What does it really mean?" I presented some research findings and we had a great discussion. A bunch of people came up to me and wanted the powerpoint I used as well as a copy of the survey. So, as far as I know, my research will reach as far as Australia and the Netherlands, as well as Canada! Pretty cool.

Now the reason I went to only 2 workshops is because during the conference, there are also competitions between then different attending schools. I was on the "communications" team, which means we made a video. It was supposed to be about the watercraft of the Ohio River. Only problem, this is the one time a year where there are practically no boats on the Ohio. So that meant it was a lame topic. Anyways, we had fun with it and the following is what we came up with:



Needless to say, our video didn't even place in the top 4. Here's why. All the people who judged the video were also those who competed in other events. The TECA presidency. None of them have any background in video production so none of them know what a good video looks like. Also, the paper work (in this case, the storyboards) are weighted almost 3 times heavier than the actual video itself. Some of the schools had binders full of essays and color drawings and photos of ALL their ideas. We just submitted the required storyboard. I told everyone at the beginning of the competition that if we didn't win, it's not because ours wasn't the best. And let me tell you, ours kicked the crap outta ever video there. I'm not just saying that because its ours. After all the awards were handed out, 4 or 5 different schools got mad that ours didn't win. So yeah, there needs to be a lot of changes in the judging.

Moving on, there isn't that much to really talk about. There's not really that much to do in Louisville this time of year. We did go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory which was interesting. I got to hold some of the bats they were making for some pro baseball players. The picture below is the worlds largest bat. We did eat at some good places. I got a freakin' good bratwurst from a guy on the side of the street. We ate at a Thai place that was amazing. Other than that, everything was pretty chill.



So yeah, that's about it. It was a good few days. It was a vacation that was much needed and looked forward to, although it would have been better if Jen was there.