NECC 2009 and DC Capitol Hill Visits

If you are going to NECC this year I strongly suggest going onto the NECC 2009 site and registering for any of the activities you want to go to.  I went on this weekend and things are filling up fast!  I really want to do the DC Capitol Hill Visits (only $25) but have a SIGILT meeting at the same time – going to see if I can do both.  The DC Capitol Hill Visits sound awesome and I would encourage everyone to think strongly about doing them!  Here is the blurb:

Join your NECC colleagues and Make Your Voice Heard on Capitol Hill! ISTE is taking advantage of NECC being in the nation's capital by providing you with the opportunity to go to the Hill and share your ideas and success stories with your Senators and Congressional Members.

A "Hill Visit" package includes:

• Scheduled appointments to meet with congressional staff from your state. ISTE will arrange scheduled meetings for you to meet with staff for your congressional representative and senators. The number of appointments will depend on staff and space availability—a minimum of one and maximum of three appointments will be made for you.
• "Boot Camp"—on-site NECC sessions that will prepare you for your congressional meetings to ensure that you are armed with talking points and are confident for your meetings.
• Bus transportation to and from Capitol Hill (some walking will be required from the capitol bus stop to the congressional offices).
• A ticket to the VIP Congressional Reception to be held the same evening at the Library of Congress.
  FUN and a T-Shirt! Hill Visits are a lot of fun and a great way to meet colleagues. Each registrant will receive a T-Shirt to wear to their meetings to show ISTE's strength on the hill.

Hill Visit coordinators will contact you just prior to NECC with specific information about the exact time and location of your meetings.

Anyone else out there considering doing this?

Image Attribution
Image: 'United States Capitol'
www.flickr.com/photos/69567805@N00/3018986888

Technorati Tags: NECC,Capitol,Hill,DC,planning,education,technology

<-- Cross posted from http://katiechristo.edublogs.org -->

The Tipping Point

I’ve been on break and then getting back in the swing of things last week.  One of the great things about school breaks is the ability to get a lot of reading done!  I just finished The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and it was wonderful.  If you haven’t read it yet I seriously suggest it, especially if you are going to NECC this year as he is the Keynote speaker!  I’m going to try and read Blink and Outliers before NECC.  I can’t wait to hear him speak at NECC! 

Technorati Tags: Malcolm,Gladwell,Tipping,Point,NECC

NECC2008 Ning Community

I'm up this morning and gleening resources from the NECC2008 Ning Community. I have joined the groups: del.icio.us and Diigo bookmark sharing at NECC2008, Virtual NECCers, and Digital Storytellers.

The Digital Storytellers have shared several sites in the discussion already. I've now got to take the time to investigate those. I am looking forward to watching their digital storytelling wiki to see what develops.

I have found lots of people to add to my del.icio.us and Diigo networks and follow. I've added feeds to this blog for del.icio.us bookmarks tagged digitalstorytelling and NECC08.

The Ning community has been a great place to start my virtual attendance at the conference. I can tell already that I will be in overload soon and need to figure out how to manage, evaluate and utilize all the information (but that is always the case).

Now I"m "headed" to see what the EduBloggerCon has to offer virtually.

Huuummmm...I must remember that I'm Eastern time and San Antonio is Central (Thanks Donna for the reminder)

Virtual Attendee at NECC08

I'm multi-tasking again. Mainly trying to figure out ways to effectively attend NECC 2008 virtually.
Here are just a few ways I've found.
1. Summize - and search the tag NECC to search Twitter for twit posts on NECC. You can also get an RSS feed for the search.
2. Join the Ning NECC Network and join a group or groups that interest you. Be a part on the online community.
3. Check out ISTE Island in Second Life - events here http://secondlife.iste.wikispaces.net/
4. Do a Google Blogs search for these tags - necc, necc08, necc2008.
5. Do a TwitterScan for necc, necco8, necc2008
6. Check out NECClive wiki
7. Check out EdStreamTV wiki "Your TV Guide for NECC 2008"
8. ISTE has the sessions and events that will be available as Podcasts and you can follow Apple's official NECC podcast channel.
9. ISTE also has video-on-demand sessions and events.

Not as good as being there but.....

Some of the cool stuff we saw/learned about!

Higher Ground Gear

Very, very cool laptop bags!




Ed Tech Action Network




Apple Learning Interchange


ESRI GIS Education Community



Nova 5000










DLite Microscope





Lulu.com



These are just some of the neat things we saw in the exhibit area!

School 2.0- Wes Fryer

A few quotes and some of my thoughts from the Wes Fryer presentation on School 2.0- what is it and how do we support it?

It is remarkably easy to teach and lead poorly.

How true, how true. Getting to know the students, their interests, their strengths, their needs- this is a difficult task at best. And as a leader, the same is true with getting to know the educators you lead. I think this comes down to the question, "What is your vision?" Am I here to teach and learn? If so, this requires me to learn about my students in such a way that all my decisions revolve around what I know about them.

The technology did not make the educator fundamentally different. It amplifies good teaching just as it amplifies bad teaching.

In my role as an instructional technology specialist at the elementary schools, I have to stay focused on the goal, the vision, the mission. And I have to remind myself that encouraging teachers to use technology essentially for the sake of technology itself is far from my vision. It is easy to fall into that situation, because my passion is exploring the ways technology can be infused in learning environments. But, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY. It's about learning. Period. So, technology in the hands of a bad teacher (or a bad leader) is terrifying, because it really will amplify all the wrong things (and encourage those not involved in "the conversations" to continue questioning the benefit of technology in education).

Become a reflective practitioner.

Last night, back at the hotel, Katie and I discussed our role, our philosophy, our vision. I think the two of us challenge each other to think outside of our comfort zone and continually evaluate what we do and why we do it. It isn't always easy, but we try to purposefully reflect on what we believe and what we should do to help students and teachers.

Our students deserve better. Our future requires better.

I often say that we are doing a disservice to our children when they walk in our door, unplug, disconnect, and stop talking. When four walls define the learning environment, we limit the possibilities. Our students do deserve better and I have been reminded at the conference that I need to spend some time talking with and listening to the students. I know they have a lot to say.

Great session to keep me thinking about school 2.0, what it means, and what my role really is. It was a great springboard to some thoughtful conversations.

Finding Voice

The School 2.0, Classroom 2.0 and Web 2.0 visions bring incredible possibilities, problems to be solved and open-ended discussions to be had. We are attempting to envision and embrace an open-ended future. We continue to talk about helping kids find their voices and authentic audiences, how that empowers and engages them. Learning to speak and converse with competency, confidence and appropriately using new and powerful tools is exciting, interesting. It will look very different from what we see now.
First steps in this direction require all of us to find our own voices and become actively engaged in conversations, to encourage and support teachers and administrators to recognize and participate in fundamental transformations and risk taking. Experiencing the community and converstation is essential to seeing, understanding and shaping the vision. Unless we ourselves are willing to be transformed, take risks and reach for an open-ended future we cannot expect to truly impact our students and the environment in which they learn.

School 2.0, Web 2.0, Creativity and Innovation

The themes for me today seemed to be:

• School 2.0/Web 2.0
  
• Creativity and Innovation

School 2.0/Web 2.0
Ok, so I just renamed this from just School 2.0 to School 2.0 and Web 2.0. I think in our district we really need to work on both. We are really moving forward with our use of Web 2.0 applications, but does that mean that we are really moving towards School 2.0? I don't think it does.

One of the most thought producing things from the School 2.0 sessions I went to was that we are using technology in our district mainly to make School 1.0 flashy. I really think that this is something we need to look at in our district. What does School 2.0 mean? Where do we want to go? I also truly believe that we need to involve all stakeholders in the conversation (students, teachers, admins, CO).

Creativity and Innovation

I was so impressed with the emphasis in the sessions and keynote today on using technology to enable us and our students to be more creative and innovative! I believe that this is SO important - this is what we need to be focusing in on. Our students need us to focus on this!

I loved also that maybe our role should be to INSPIRE! And to look for our Cathedrals. And also and maybe most importantly to be willing to FAIL!

I'm willing to fall down in my attempt to inspire!

Special thanks to Wesley Fryer for the great notes he took on his blog!

The ITM Flip Videoed Us!

Sorry the movie is green it just happened that way - all the videos from the Blogger's Cafe are turning out that way! See more of the videos from today here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ncitsgirl/TuesdayNECCVideo

Conversation with Jeff Utecht

Jeff, the author of the blog The Thinking Stick, talked with us today about his school in Shanghai, China. His school does not focus on restricting sites or content from their students. Instead, they embrace the interests of the students, letting them check out a TV show they missed the night before on YouTube when they get to school. They have a school YouTube and Flickr account, posting pictures and student work online for families and others to see. Some things are posted as private, and parents and families can join the group to be able to view student work/pictures online. The focus is on the content, not about keeping kids away. Teachers have blogs, including group blogs to collaborate and share ideas. The focus isn't on fear, it is on learning. The biggest struggle they have is with China's internet restrictions. But learning is happening, and the tools are being embraced.

Video Clips of the Music before the Keynote and an iPod Case!!

The music playing before the keynote today was just absolutely beautiful! WOW!
Another cool thing today was the iPod case we saw on the exhibit floor.
Check out a short video clip of each of these here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ncitsgirl/TuesdayNECCVideo

Life at NECC

I feel like I'm just beginning to get the feel of NECC, like my newness is wearing off and my comfort level is increasing. The panel this morning was fabulous and the conversation often had me nodding as I agreed with so much of the statements they shared. (I hope that discussion is online somewhere, as I really want to listen again.)

I wish I was more willing to take the risk of stepping out there and starting conversations with others. I see folks pass by here in the Blogger's Cafe and I recognize names on nametags as bloggers I read...and I sit and say nothing. Sometimes, the veil of an online presence brings a comfortable anonymity that allows me to be more... well, "me". The opportunity to have a F2F conversation is passing me by!

So, is there a lesson in there somewhere? Our students may be more willing to collaborate and communicate, share and expand their learning with the use of online tools. Some students may find comfort (as I have) in an online presence that may encourage a feeling of safety/anonymity for sharing thoughts and ideas.

As I look around and listen to the conversations going on all around me here at the conference, I realize even more the advantages of F2F. But I love the fact that I can also sit here and become a virtual voice as well. A nice harmony.

I survived day 1 of NECC!

I have had such a great time today at the conference - I am so tired! I felt totally wiped but what an experience! I also felt so much better once I noticed that almost everyone else had the same glazed look! YEAH it isn't just me!

I think some of the greatest things I saw today in sessions was all the great free open source software and also Doodle which is a great way to do polls!

But, maybe the neatest part of this has been collaborating and talking to everyone else who is here! I just needed to get even braver tomorrow and talk to even more people! So signing off for now - someone (Donna) took my flip video so more movies will be posted tomorrow!

Connecting at the Blogger's Cafe

I had a wonderful conversation with Jeff Whipple http://edutrails.edublogs.org/ about Instructional Technology and some of the incredible things he is doing in his district and with his schools. I loved the blogging idea of having the students collaborating with a local author on a blog! What a great idea! He also showed me the Site Meter that I added to our blog - I'm very excited about seeing exactly where people are viewing our blog from - so keep on visiting us! Thanks Jeff - It was wonderful talking to you!

Open Source Software in Education Session

This was a great session - I saw some new open source software I had never seen before - I have links to some of them on my wiki here.
Great session and lots of fun!

At the Blogger's Cafe - Sunday afternoon

We have landed at the Blogger's Cafe and Katie is tormenting us by posting videos of us. She has this nifty Flip Video camera and is enjoying taking quick videos, editing, taking clips and posting with the idea that this will be great tools for the classroom.
I, on the other hand, keep taking pictures with my "old" digital camera and getting blurry pics. My hands are either shaking quite a bit OR the camera is about to die. Maybe it WILL die and I can get a new one.
Most of today has been spent getting here, checking into the hotel, registering for the conference, trying to get oriented, and making sure all our techie gear works. We are still spinning in circles about what sessions, etc. we will attend....although it is getting a little clearer...I think.

We are here!!!!!

Here are some pictures from the movies:

See some of the movie clips here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ncitsgirl/NECC2007Sunday/photo#s5079712360320666850

Just "wow"

Small town girl in the big city. Wow. I'm in awe at the size of this conference, at the idea of planning such an event. You can walk down the sidewalk, through the convention center and hear the conversations. Techie vocabulary, educational words.
I feel out of my league, not sure where I fit in. But I look forward to listening and learning.
Mostly, to absorb all I can.

We Are Off to NECC 2007

We are off to NECC 2007 in Atlanta! We leave for Atlanta tomorrow morning. There are several of us from our district who are fortunate enough to be able to attend. We met Wednesday to go over sessions, events, etc. We are all headed in a hundred different directions and are excited! My conference planner still has about 30 things scheduled for Monday alone. Lots of yellow conflict icons. I just can't decide. What a great opportunity!

We have spent this past year refocusing on educational technology, after supporting our district through 3 years of transitioning to a new on-line student information system. While we have continued to "do" instructional technology through this time, much effort and energy has necessarily been spent on the transition. This year we have begun to return to our true passions, the kids, the teachers, learning and technology. We ended our school year with our first ever technology conference for the district (See Katie's post: Summer Technology Conference) and from that high.....We are off to NECC 2007