Garcia celebrates his win at TCEA last Thursday with Qwizdom's Gretchen Herzog.

Austin High School teacher, Gil Garcia, (@giltron on Twitter) won over $2,000 in education technology for his multimedia film-making classroom. Garcia and his 11th and 12th grade students were “in the field” at the Texas Computer Education Association Conference, shooting their own news segments, when he found out he had won. As the first educator to correctly answer a trivia question posted to Twitter, Garcia and his budding reporters headed back to school (just down the road) with a full suite of classroom technology.

Garcia’s winnings include 24 electronic student response remotes (known as Q2s), which students use to respond to questions. The teacher presents questions on a screen, verbally, or by using paper-based activities, while the students respond via their remotes. The teacher‘s computer instantly receives the responses and records the results, thus allowing the educator to gauge students’ overall comprehension or to zero in on a struggling pupil.

In addition to the remotes, Garcia received a Qwizdom Q7 presenter tablet for interactive whiteboard control and instant question creation anywhere in the classroom. Customizable WizTeach tools for teachers and Connect Software are also part of the prize package. Connect Software tracks student progress by recording which state standards a student has mastered, as well as gathering data on pacing, performance analysis, predictors of success or failure and early identification of academically at-risk students.

Garcia, already a tech-savvy teacher with a multimedia classroom, told us he uses an iPhone application to control his presentations in class, so he’s looking forward to taking the Q7 presenter tablet for a spin.

“The other awesome thing about Qwizdom is that I can get to the silent help-seekers who never raise their hand, but need the extra attention,” Garcia says. “I want to put a response system in the hand of every student in my class so that during my lectures I can check in throughout to be sure everyone is understanding along the way.

“Now, I will be able to see, ‘Did I miss something here?’”

For more information on Gil Garcia, visit his Austin High School media arts blog.