Grad students present in Ed Tech Summit

University of North Georgia (UNG) graduate students Kimberly Nelms, '13, and Heidi Carr presented at the inaugural Educational Technology Summit at UNG this summer. 

The pair are currently enrolled in Dr. Jennifer Sears' instructional models and strategies class, pursuing Master of Education in elementary education degrees.

"We presented branching minds, a tool focused on the multitiered systems of support (MTSS) framework. It allows you to log and track interventions and data points with those interventions for students," Nelms said.

Both educators have been able to use the tool in their classrooms and "really enjoy it."

Nelms, a first-time presenter, said that she had a positive experience.

"I was nervous, believe me, but it was nice presenting to other teachers. It was like an audience who would be following along and understand what we were talking about," Nelms said. "I liked how it was more on the intimate setting. I'm not comfortable in a room of people but prefer more of a bit more laidback atmosphere."

Overall, the teachers agreed the experience as presenters would enhance their teaching and public speaking skills. 

"As someone who presented and then attended other presentations, it helped me see how to be more real, more human during a presentation," Carr said. "It's helped me more with presenting to adults because usually we work with kids and we present for kids, not for our own age group. I feel like I've gained more knowledge through this experience to make my next presentation better."

Nelms said her involvement will improve her tenure as an MTSS coordinator.

"It's been beneficial and helpful. Part of my current role is being a coordinator for MTSS, so having the opportunity to speak on it and deepen my knowledge of it has been beneficial," Nelms said.

The summit was held in July with over 100 educators, technology specialists, researchers, and vendors from across the U.S. at the Cottrell Center for Business, Technology & Innovation at UNG's Dahlonega Campus. This was the first in-person version, with a Zoom version held in 2020.

Sears said the premise of the summit was to give educators an opportunity to learn more about technology in their classrooms.

"The teachers are learning how to use technology in the classroom in short segments instead of an eight-hour professional development session where they sit there all day and they leave, not knowing how to use anything they saw," Sears said. "This summit provides hands-on approaches to using technology in their classroom. We showed them how to use it, and we had them practice with it. Those are the things we don't get in professional development."

Carr had high regard for the message of the summit overall.

"It's something that is definitely coming up in education, and I feel like it needs to be talked about more and more," she said. "I'm getting more on board with technology helping and supporting the education of students. Technology is not going away. This is about how we can educate students to use it in a good way."