I love technology!

I recently participated in my first webinar courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  They are hosting an online homeschool conference called Schoolhouse Expo October 4th-8th.  The webinar that I participated in was part of their first preshow on August 24th and featured presentations by Jeannie Fulbright and Dr. Jay Wile. The next preshow is coming up September 21st and I can't wait for it!

Thanks to the wonders of technology I get to sit in my home in Newfoundland, Canada, and connect with other homeschoolers across the world and sit in on presentations by some veteran homeschoolers and experts in their fields.  I love it!

A few weeks back I listened to and enjoyed the interviews made available by Kerry Beck during her Homeschool SuperHeroes Week.  Every weekday, excluding weekends, from August 23 - September 3 she made available an audio recording of an interview with a homeschool superhero.  I missed the first day or two because I didn't find out about it until after then but I did manage to catch them all once I heard about them and I found them every inspirational and encouraging.  The recordings of the interviews are available for purchase and I was considering purchasing them to loan out to friends but when I asked if that was permitted I was told that they were really meant for single family use so I didn't get them because I had already listened to the interviews live and had notes taken from them.

I also participated in Kerry's Start School Year Right This Year webinar this week and once again I was inspired and took lots of notes.

Just this week I discovered something else exciting!  The Old Schoolhouse and HomeschoolBlogger.com have joined together and are offering a number of Free Classes!  There is a schedule of classes on the site and more are added to it from time to time. I participated in one this week and I'll tell you more about that in a bit.  I also discovered that you can check out classes they have done in the past on their Recorded Free Classes page!  This really is a great resource.  If you can't actually make the class during the actual presentation time you can always check it out later when the recording gets posted to this page.  I will definitely be checking out the classes that I missed.  Actually, I already did check out the "Level With Me About Math" - Can I really Teach It presentation and I loved it!

The Free Class I participated in this week was called Quizzy's World and Cram Stoppers.  The recording of the presentation isn't up on the Recorded Free Classes page at the time that I'm writing this but it will be there later and it is worth checking out.  During this presentation I learned all about Quizzy's World, Cram Stoppers, and Quiz Infinity.  The first two sites were created with the purpose of helping students learn how to study properly and to help them master their learning.  Quizzy's World is especially for grades pre k-8 and Cram Stoppers is for highschool and college students.  The idea is that students learn how to use material they are studying to make quizzes for themselves, thereby learning to master their material.  It really is a great concept.  Quiz Infinity is a site for teachers, including homeschoolers, and tutors.  There is a 30 day free trail to the first to sites but Quiz Infinity is free, at least at the present time.  It really is worth checking out, but you probably won't get to really understand it and appreciate how useful it could be until you see the presentation about it.  So watch for when that is available.

One advantage to participating in the Free Classes live is that they sometimes offer free giveaways during the live classes.  I actually won a lifetime free membership to Quizzy's World in the class I participated in.  :)

I just love technology!  That's what's on my mind tonight.  :)