How to (virtually) attend NECC 2006 (and make a difference)

Here I sit poised at my computer waiting for NECC to begin. I do not believe in whining or being upset about what I cannot do (attend NECC this year) but instead will view it as an opportunity!

While others are in meetings, I will be allowed to read and glean off of their blog posts and conference entries to LEARN! Boy, am I excited!

If you want to follow the conference virtually, here are some ways:

1) Go to David Warlick's hitchhikr conference site. It has feeds from Flickr, Technorati and other sources. You can read there. (The Technorati feed for it went down, but perhaps it is back up now.)

2) Use the feed David created and subscribe it to your bloglines account or other RSS Reader. (Just click on the link and then use your subscribe button.)

3) The official list of bloggers and podcasters is posted on the NECC website. Look for your favorites. So many of them are great, but I've seen several bloggers "that I know" including: Lucy Gray, Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Herman Wood. I was quite bothered the list is so short, but hopefully that is because everyone has not registered on there.

4) Some of the major sessions are being webcast.

What should you do with this:

Read, synthesize, and summarize.

Looking at the glass half full, those not attending can provide a valuable service for those who are. We have the opportunity to do what we try to teach our students. Those at NECC are in the middle of a hubub and may not relate their views to that of others for weeks.

We, however, can read everything that is going on and make sense of it from an objective standpoint. (I remember at a recent computer show, the most widely read blog was from a person WHO WAS NOT THERE.)

Tag your post: virtualNECC2006

Use this feed to subscribe to the virtual NECC conference comments. That way, we, and others will know this is from people not attending in person but online!

I look forward to sharing with you what I learn.

Four NECC items to look at this morning are:


1 - The Environment and Natural Disasters–Youth Making a Difference -
This podcast was recorded
last night at the NECC 2006 Opening Reception. It features Kurt Larsen, poster session co-chair, interviewing Anne Lambert, Media Specialist at John Muir High School in San Diego
, Harry Tettah from Ghana, and Katherine Law, teacher at Orca Elementary in Seattle. They are sharing the results of the participation in environment and natural disaster collaborative projects.

2 - As soon as the Explore, Dream Discover Webcast is available, I will be watching that. (It is supposed to be available by 3:30 today.)

3 - I will also listen to the podcast of Pamela Redmond, poster session co-chair, interviewing Julie Duffield of WestEd, the manager of a project that focuses on:

"How technology already in the classroom or school can support good instruction and research-based strategies that work. It explores how technology can support differentiation and research-based strategies such as those identified in the work of Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001)."
4 - The Savvy Technologist - I will be spending some time on the links for Tim Wilson's workshop.

That's all for now from the virtual NECC world. You can expect a little more frequent postings from me over the next few days.

No Excuses.

A good teacher never makes excuses. A good teacher always makes the best of a situation. A good teacher pursues excellence. I will be excellent as I learn from NECC.

The same teachers and technology administrators who learn from NECC virtually are probably also the same ones that teach incredible things on older technology. "Excuse" is not in our vocabulary. "Do it," is.

So get out there edubloggers and virtually attend NECC. Make no excuses. Seize the day!


Popular Posts