Expo showcases students’ ‘Tech-Know’

Fifth-grade students at Wrights Mill Road Elementary School taught third- and fourth-graders how use around 20 different types of technology at the first “Tech-Know Expo” held at the school Monday.

Jennifer Dempsey, Wrights Mill Road Elementary media specialist, said she wanted students to showcase their technology knowledge.

“How excited the kids were,” she said. “You could just kind of feel it.”

Some of the technology presented included how to blog, how to make movies, how to use an iPod and how to convince parents to let students have cell phones.

Students taught on a purely volunteer basis.

“They know the material, they just don’t know how to teach it,” said Anne Libscomb, a media specialist at the school. “They had to take what’s in their head and put it into words.”

Over the Internet

Kendall Floyd and Ana Cyrino presented Skype, an Internet phone service that allows users to talk to anyone in the world for free, if they have an account. The service uses video, so talkers can see each other, and can be downloaded to a cell phone or PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Floyd said she enjoyed teaching as opposed to being a student for the day.

“You’re having fun but you’re learning,” she said. “You kind of get a feeling that you’re in charge.”

Cyrino was already familiar with the program.

“I knew about it before,” she said. “I usually use it to talk to my sister. She’s in Brazil.”

Making movies

Elizabeth Balch-Crystal presented Pinnacle, software used to make movies.

“It is kind of confusing,” she said. “We made a video about making a video.”

She showed students, in video form, how to put scenes together, use a green screen and put transitions between scenes.

“If you want it to look cool and funtabulous, you can pick one of the random ones,” she said, referring to screen transitions. Although some transitions merely moved one scene to another, some were fancier, using designs like swirls to move from one scene to another.

On blogging and cell phones

Ariel Sanders presented a session on blogging.

“We learned what a blog is and how in a blog you express your opinions,” she said.

Kyle Hensarling and Michael Bozeman presented a class on cell phone use and told third- and fourth- graders how to get their parents to let them have cell phones.

They said the first step is to find out why the parents will not allow the student to have a cell phone.

Both Hensarling and Bozeman said to explain to parents that if there were an emergency, a cell phone would be needed.

They also explained some cell phone etiquette.

“Some places won’t let you use a cell phone… like the braces office,” Hensarling said.

| 737-2525