Some random thoughts and reflections on session from Day 1 at NECC in San Antonio. All in all, it was a good one. Lots of things to see; lots of people to meet.
It started with just getting out to Travis Street at the end of the hotel for the shuttle. It is so hot that you’re perspiring just waiting for the bus! But, it’s also good in that it gives you something in common with the others waiting. Met people from all over the US. Everyone is impressed that they met someone “INTERNATIONAL” as it says on my name tag.
I’m confused as to how rooms are allocated for the event. There are some which I would have thought would be huge and yet they are in smaller rooms and vice versa. The first session that I attended was Konrad Glogowski’s session about Blogging Communities. So, here we were were packed in like sardines. You just had to know that this was going to be a popular session. Missed it? It was captured on Ustream.
http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/konrad-glogowskis-blogging-session-at-necc/
One take away for me for this session was http://pps.org. This is a site designed to help communities build for public spaces. Konrad made the tie in from physical public spaces to the type of spaces that we need to create for students to successfully blog.
Then, there was a long break to visit the vendors. Oh, the vendors. Notably missing on the vendor floor was Apple. Instead, they’ve opted for hands-on training areas. I was hoping to hit the booth and see an air or an iPhone in action. Oh well. Lots of interesting things from the vendors. Lots of banners claiming that their product is good for the “21st Century Student”. Ironically, if you’ve been around for a while, these are the same products that have been available for quite some time! Lessons in marketing here. I couldn’t find the Media-X booth. I wanted to say hi to Steve and the gang. I did run into Deb and Val at their new gigs at MacKiev. Great to renew friendships.
So, the next session was off to see David Jakes. He was talking about 10 ways to have students make Powerpoint presentations better. He did a masterful job, swapping in and out with co-presenter Dean Shareski. I’m going to buy “The Back of the Napkin” and read all about that area. Sounds interesting. What I thought would have been cool would be to mention that nothing that was covered actually required Powerpoint. The session would be equally as powerful with OpenOffice or SMART’s Notebook or… I learned some neat new tips and can’t wait to incorporate them. David has the presentation online at: http://jakes.editme.com
Another very popular session with lots of floor sitters.
Then, it was off to the theatre to hear David Warlick. David asked that those that blogged about the session include the words flat classroom and warlick so I just did. Handouts for all of David’s sessions at at: http://handouts.davidwarlick.com
David’s session was very well crafted and the one thing that makes him a favourite of mine is that he speaks from the heart. Unless you’ve given presentations like this and know the tonnes of work that goes into preparation, he delivers it as if he just happened to have some of this stuff on the ol’ hard drive and just stands on the stage and pours out his emotion and passion for the topic. This time, he talked about Our Kids, Our World and I don’t think that you could challenge anything that he talked about. Classroom teachers just need the time and he challenged everyone to answer the question “What does it really mean to be literate?” That’s a deep question and those who complain that kids are working to get around the content filter need to answer that to know why. I also really liked this quote when attached to teaching “We want our students to be the students we want to teach”. Isn’t that the truth?
Next, I wanted to hear Wesley Fryer. So, first you have to figure out that it’s in the other building. I got over there and up floors to get to the session only to find that it’s full. Sigh. Head back to another nameless session where they were having difficulties setting up so off to my third choice which really didn’t engage so it was back to the vendors. Met at really nice lady from the PBS station in Boston who explained their partnership generating web resources, particularly in the area of science at http://nsdl.org.
This started me on a tour of the vendors looking at vendors who were selling web resources that I knew had free Web 2.0 alternatives. Are we on the cusp of bad things for them?
Finally, I finished the day by going to a gang presentation with Will Richardson, David Jakes, Ewan MacIntosh, and Steve Dembo. Right up front, we were told that the session may or may not have direct application to education although I could see all kinds of ideas. A tour of Ustream and related technologies like Qik was really interesting. Amazing demo of how easy it is to stream via a cell phone. I really enjoyed this session. It was cutting edge and nobody had answers yet but you know that it’s going to have a big impact somewhere along the line.
I’m amazed at the number of people blogging and twittering. It’s interesting to stand at the back of the room and watch the activity. In so many ways, teachers are worse than kids who are off all over the place learning while the class is happening!
One final observation — spent some time at both the Second Life Lounge and the Blogger’s Cafe. The Bloggers are all chit chatting and the place is incredibly loud. Second Life? you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was focussed on their other life and not interacting in this one!
Had a good chat with Bill and Ron — who pointed out that there was another type of blogger…
Just some observations to keep around for a while. On to day two.
Tags: NECC, Professional Development
RSS - Posts
