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CHARLOTTE--In today's world, there are innovative tools for teachers, at every turn.

But for 20-year veteran Lisa Maples, that can be intimidating.

"We are digital immigrants, whereas the children growing up in this culture are digital natives," said Maples, a fourth grade teacher at Elon Elementary.

Through a summer technology conference, teachers became empowered and learning new ways to keep up.

Maples said it's all about continuously integrating technology in to her lesson plans, and this summer, she said she's learning how.

"Yesterday I learned of an application called 'Fakebook,” in which teachers can for instance, pull up Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and they have a persona that comes up sort of like Facebook," said Maples.

"The goal is to engage kids, so any way we can do that. technology is a tool but not the be all end all. So my hope is that teachers are going to learn how to use this to make teaching better," said principal Ray Giovanelli.

The conference theme was "create, remix and sync," and teachers said not only will that concept engage their students, but they're excited to bring the ideas to the classroom themselves.