NECC Remote

The NECC conversations are going on in San Antonio, Texas this week. I was unable to make the trip, but through the magic of the Internet I've been able to attend in a virtual sense.

How Do I Find Out What's Going On?
There are a number of different websites online that were set up in advance to help both those people on-site and those online to keep up with the information flow. The first site that has helped me is the NECClive wiki's Live Information page. There are a number of people who are using Ustream to show video streams of presentation that they are attending. They must have permission in advance.

The Full Sessions I've Attended
I have been able to listen in on and chat at Konrad Glogowski's session on Blogging. He spoke very clearly on the lessons he has learned in blogging with his students. I stumbled upon Derrall Garrison streaming a speed demo this afternoon. I was at the entire session at EduBloggerCon held by several folks called the Web 2.0 Smackdown. If you follow the link you can view the pre-recorded Ustream.

The Ustream Collection
I now have several Ustreams that I can wander through to see if anything is streaming. They include:
Will Richardson's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/weblogg-ed-tv
Derrall Garrison's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-force-teacher-feed
Jeff Utecht's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/u-tech-tv

There are now several more listed on the NECClive wiki. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention EdStreamTV. This is where I initially found some video from EduBloggerCon.

The Live Blogs
I had the opportunity to live blog when I attended the conference in Princeton a while back. This past weekend, I spent some time with Alice Barr's Live Blog at the Web 2.0 Smackdown. Today I read Kristen Hokanson's Live Blog after the fact from a presentation she attended given by David Jakes and Dean Shareski about making PowerPoint more visual with students. It was titled The Power of PowerPoint. Her writing was a quick read with many useful tips.

The NECC Ning, Chatterous, Mogulus
I have not gone to the Ning, too much, but it is out there with photos, forums, and a whole lot more. There was a humongous chat going on in a Chatterous room Saturday courtesy of Bud the Teacher. He was also streaming at http://www.mogulus.com/budtheteacher. That's been pretty quiet today, too.

Do I Feel Like I'm Participating
I do. At both the Web 2.0 Smackdown and the speed demo, I was tagging the sites being described in delicious. If you'd like to see all the sites from the Smackdown - go to http://del.icio.us/njtechteacher/web2_smackdown. I only stumbled upon the speed demo, but for those links, go to http://del.icio.us/njtechteacher/speed_demo.

Do I Feel Like I'm Missing Out
Nothing will replace the camaraderie of meeting people in person, but I'm not missing out. I've spent a lot of time with my two sons playing Life and Monopoly. I've had a nice walk with my husband. I've taken care of some clean-up in my classroom. I'm enjoying the summer pace of life. Next year, NECC is in Washington, DC. I'll be there and I'm looking forward to it! So for now whether I Twitter, Plurk, use Ustream, Chatterous, or Mogolus I'm participating and enjoying the conference in my own way. This post is a useful way to keep track of all that I've found so far.

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Glogowski, Konrad. "the teachandlearn retreat is ready for NECC!" teachandlearn's photostream. 23 June 2008. 30 June 2008.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2606229622_bd2585653d.jpg?v=0

K12 Online Conference 2008

The countdown has begun to the K12 Online Conference 2008. If you have never seen the offerings, jump on over to the K12 Online Conference 2007 schedule or the 2006 schedule.

It is a set of audio and/or video presentations on various topics relevant to Kindergarten through grade twelve educators created by educators. It is free. The materials continue to be archived and hosted so you can take advantage of the programs now.

Been There ... Done That
It might be time to consider writing a proposal for a prevention of your own. Think back over the course of the year. What do you have to share with the world? The theme is Amplifying Possibilities with four strands: Getting Started, Kicking It Up a Notch, Prove It, and Leading the Change.

The Deadline
The deadline has been extended to July 11, 2008 at midnight GMT. If you were thinking about submitting a proposal, but you thought the deadline had passed, you have another opportunity.

The Way I Learned Has Changed

This week, I received an HP Tablet PC. I was just thinking about the difference between how I learned to use a Mac six years ago and what I've been doing this week.

Some Things Never Change
I have to put my hands on the tools. I'm trying to think about why I am good at what I do. At the same time, I wonder why some people find it more difficult. Part of the equation is that I like to play. When I learned that I was going to be teaching using Macs, my first question was: when can I bring one home to play? I am excited about using the tablet. When it arrived on Wednesday, the first thing I wanted to do was open it and find out how it works.

My Use of the Web Has Changed
Six years ago, I knew enough that there had to be training, tutorials, and articles online about using Macs to teach K-8 students. I don't know why - maybe the lack of a laptop and wireless Internet - but I printed reams of paper. I felt really guilty about throwing the paper out, too. I had a binder for each group of students I'd be teaching.

Now I have my social bookingmarking sites: delicious and Diigo. Now I don't have to worry about forgetting a useful site and I have a backup of my links at two different locations. I use Diigo to be a part of groups of educators. I use delicious for its simplicity. I believe I am learning along the way that a delicious account makes very little sense unless it is your own. I have now taught four different groups of adults about integrating technology in education. I'm not too sure about how intuitive either system is unless you create, tag, and maintain your own site. Does anyone have any feelings about this either way?

My Connections With Others Has Changed
The best I could do with the Mac was speak with the previous two teachers at the school. The other day, I asked my Twitter network for suggestions on open source software to put on the tablets and received a great set of ideas. Some I use all the time on the Mac and they would have been natural additions. Some were Windows applications. Even though we have two Windows desktops at home, I use games and Quicken on them for the most part. I am also being exposed to other people's bookmarks and have been saving blogs, podcasts, and other items related to tablets. I am receiving so many ideas.

Leading the Charge
I'm looking forward to my reflections here in a year. It's going to be an undeniable opportunity having a wireless lab full of 20 tablet PCs in the building. I am fully focused on gathering momentum in the school for the technology to spread out of the computer lab and past simple Internet research, Word documents and printouts.

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Image Citation:
A photo of my lab back in November from my Flickr account.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2192/1989094839_c75c192a5d.jpg?v=0

Handout Wordle

I've been seeing the Wordle website being thrown back and forth on Twitter and in blogs recently. Now that it is the end of school, I've decided to check it out with a handout I gave to teachers at a training session this past Friday.I think I stressed what I intended: web connections and moving through Bloom's levels in projects.

Intro to the Read/Write Web
The class was based on the information I provided to some New Jersey teachers who are working toward their teacher certification. The gentleman who runs the alternate route course was very specific in saying that I should assume a certain comfort level with technology from those folks.

The teachers in my school have a different levels of comfort. They all have computers in the class, but our preschool classrooms do not yet have Internet access. The preschool classes also use older, donated machines.

Much as I did back in February, I did manage to have everyone take a survey. Before starting, I showed them the Middle Ages Tech Support video to remind them that all technology was new and scary at some point. Everyone used a wiki to brainstorm ideas for using technology. They took a look at the Wikis in Plain English video as a big picture of why people use wikis.

Again, similar to February, I took the teachers on a tour of the K12 Online Conference. I spoke again about Liz Kolb's Cell Phones as Classroom Tools presentation, Silvia Tolisano's Travel Through Space and Time, and Brian Crosby's Obstacles to Opportunities presentation. I really choked up talking about Brian's presentation. My sister didn't survive leukemia, and would have really loved to have attended class virtually. His story makes my heart full.

I followed this with Darren Draper's Pay Attention video. It appears that no one had seen it before. I asked them to talk with each other about it during the video, if it struck them to do so. I had them do a Think-Pair-Share afterwards. I need to become more adept at getting people talking afterward. No one seemed to want to volunteer comments afterwards.

Moving Up Through Bloom's Taxonomy
This is where I stepped away from February's class pattern. I would have liked to moved on to showing them other new tools, but instead spoke with them about how I use technology in the classroom to move the students up Bloom's Taxonomy.

I spotlighted several projects and tried to demonstrate how I attempted to engage students in reflection, analysis, and creation. I showed them the Monster Project, the Math Discussion Mental Math and Weight Voicethreads, and the Sixth Grade Population Density movie.

When They Left...
They took home a double-sided two-page handout, a del.icio.us account with all the links plus more, and the knowledge that we have agreed to take time after 1/2-day meetings for technology training. I know they felt like they were hit with a tidal wave of information. For those who choose, they are armed with enough information to begin their own exploration of teacher connections online.

Professional Development Meme

I was tagged by Andrea over at the EdTech Workshop blog for this Summer Professional Development meme. Started by Clif at Clif's Notes, I've given myself some time to think about three goals for the summer. His original directions are below.

The Goals
1. Learn to search EBSCO for current information on the Presidential election in preparation for introducing the concept to, at least, grades six to eight.
2. Learn to use the HP Tablet PC that I will be receiving some time next week and determine the software that I will use on the tablet.
3. Learn to use Discovery streaming Plus in anticipating of having it available in the school next year.

The Commitment
I am planning on writing about my progress throughout the summer, but no later than mid-September.

The Tag
Eight is a lot of people to tag in a meme. I will do my best. If meme tags are not your thing, just pass on it. If you were already tagged, just smile. I'll get back to all your blogs and see what your plans are for the summer.

Patti at A Second Grade Teacher's Blog
Nadine at Life Long Learning Blog
Linda at Nitsche Notes Blog
Dan at geek.teacher Blog
Anne at Tech Savvy Teacher Blog
Diane at Nexus Blog
Kimberly at Mrs. Vance Goes To School Blog
Caroline at Ed Tech Trek Blog

Now I have to go get busy!

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

1. Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
3. Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
6. Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and "develop professionally."
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

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Image Citation
Torres, Marco Antonio. "BLC07_037." torres21's photostream. 2007 Jul 17. 2008 Jun 14.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/842400349_09bedf0cd1.jpg?v=0