Teachers are always trying to find ways to make learning better for their students. Whether it is making it more fun, easier, or making resources more accessible. TRETC, or the Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference is held to help these teachers reimagine technology in learning, thus improving the quality. Technology is ever changing and advancing, just like the world. So why not bring schools into the new age and incorporate technology? Virtual learning is said to have five times more impact as regular learning would. Representatives from the Pittsburgh Technical Council, Allegheny Intermediate Unit, and teachers from all over Allegheny county were there to share ideas and be able to bring something back to the classroom.  

We sat in on a session led by Kate Harris about the Smithsonian Learning Lab. The lab is a digital toolkit through which students are able to discover new resources and make collections from the Smithsonian museums and research complex online. Users are able to gather resources from all ninteen museums. This is a great way to infuse real world experiences into learning. This has actually been implemented in Cornell classrooms already. Last year in Honors American Cultures II, students were able to take a virtual tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in order to learn and have a better understanding of the Great Depression in the 1930’s.

Later on, there was a student showcase where students were able to show off what they have been doing in the classroom. Cornell’s Advanced Science class was there presenting their second place winning entry from last year’s “Chain Reaction Contraption Contest” run through Westinghouse. The theme from last year was “Tell a Story,” so Cornell’s team came up with a contraption that brings the audience through the events of World War II using elements of a Rube Goldberg Machine. This year the team will be participating again in the same contest where the them will be “Lock and Unlock.” The class also brought a robot which they had programmed with sensors that caused it to stop when it came upon an obstacle.

From TRETC, to the teachers, to the classroom, technology is key to innovation and creativity in students.