For nearly 450 teachers throughout Illinois, Friday, July 12, marked the end of a frantic, intensive, and &quotbrain-frying&quot week of hands-on training in how to use computer hardware and software in their classrooms. The Moveable Feast, a program coordinated by the College of Education, was created to provide teachers with the knowledge, tools and the confidence to make computers and technology an integrated part of their daily teaching. Each year has seen a larger number of participants at more sites. And, talking to the participants, the experience, while at times exhausting, is invaluable.

Friday morning found a small group at the College of Education site taking a break before publicly presenting the projects they designed and created during the week. When asked about the week and their overall experiences, the word that kept coming up was, &quotfantastic.&quot

&quotPeople need to make the time to come to the Moveable Feast,&quot was how Jan Joop put it. Joop, a special education teacher in Fisher, Illinois, is back for her third year.

Donna Kirkwood, a first-grade teacher in Mahomet, Illinois agreed, saying &quotMy comment is simply, don't miss this workshop.&quot Kirkwood is another return student, having attended last year as well.

&quotAnd I'd like to come back next year, even though I'm retiring this May,&quot she adds.

Kirkwood and Joop both say that the repeat experience is extremely valuable, with each year giving them the opportunity to go into greater detail and to explore new ideas and projects.

And, as the six teachers sit around the table, what started out as an orderly, quiet interview spins quickly into a flurry of suggestions and ideas for new projects, or ways to use what they've learned over the past week. It's not that they're being rude, it's quite simply that these people are all genuinely excited about the possibilities that they've started to see over the last five days.

It's an enthusiasm that comes out of a new confidence in dealing with computers and the often complex software that runs them. Asked what the biggest thing they got out of the week, all of them echoed Joop, who said, &quotI'm far more confident about my ability to use these tools. I'm not afraid to try things on a computer now. I know I won't break it.&quot

Janet Rosenberger, an elementary Special Education teacher in Champaign and a first time Feast participant felt that, in addition to the confidence-building, the week served as a great reminder of how tough learning can be.

&quotIt put me in the situation of learning something new and really unfamiliar. This is exactly what we ask students to do all of the time. It's great for us to be reminded of just what that feels like.&quot

The Moveable Feast is over for this year. And, on Monday, the Office of Educational Technology staff, the people that put it all together, will sit down and start their planning to do it all again next summer. That's a good thing, at least as far as this group of teachers is concerned.

Ralph Dady, a Title I teacher in Urbana, summed it up by saying, &quotI wish everyone could have the opportunity to come to this.&quot

For more information about the Moveable Feast, visit their web site at http://feast.ed.uiuc.edu.