• NECC Live Webcasts -- Julie and I are on this show which will be published at some point on this page, meanwhile, one webcast is already up.
  
• Official NECC Podcasts - Adam Frey and I spent some time talking about Wikis but there are some other great podcasts that are already available here. Ours will be posted here as well.
  

Labels: NECC2007

I am packing, tweaking my presentations for tomorrow at noon and 1:30, IMing with John Pederson and figuring out how I'm going to check out at 7 and be at a breakfast meeting at 7.

Wifi was nonexistent in the morning keynote, but I took these notes and what to share them with you. It was phenomenal!

A lot of discussion of going global and the need for creativity and innovation. Outstanding teacher and leader awards. They are recognizing Carole Colburn - Howell public schools in Howell, Michigan. Does a lot of community service with her students -- project skill (they do the "thank you speeches" on video -- they are edited and very good -- this a great idea.)

What it would be like to be a senior citizen in today's world. Culminating event was to have local senior citizens into the classroom. Her students serve as their mentors. (Great idea -- have the grandparents organization -- teach the grandparents!)

Charlene Chausis

2007 Outstanding Leader -- Job is professional development -- to lead faculty and staff in technology -- she gets them there. Work with teachers in summer school -- live from Ancient greece -- podcasts as if they were recording from 1756 BC -- showcased if it was good enough -- they wanted to work and do it so much -- get kids so excited about that sort of project. Wrote scripts to start with -- but when they knew that they had an audience and that it was authentic they got very excited.

ISTE has info need if you are trying to build the technology plan at your school. They are using the New NETS for students.

These two women are amazing.

Great idea --- lifelong learning - senior citizens come in and the students mentor them.

Need to book Charlene and Carole for W"OW2

Keynote - Futurist Andrew Zolli - Lead discussions about the emerging creative class and what they demand of schools - what they offer society. How education and cultivate creativity and innovation worldwide.

If you put your e-mail in front of educators they will e-mail you during your presentation. Great images.

Electronic bath duck -- funny. One use only.

What it takes to unlock the creative potential that lies within all of us.

Great group of people - educator on edge, analyst, creative director - new innovative ideas, artist and choreographer reinventing modern dance. Each one make a 2-3 minute thought starter for all of us. Who they are and what their backgrounds are.

Mary Cullinane - Philadelphia School of the Future Project - a lot of research on what it take sto build

Dr. Francis Pedro - how countries do competitively around the world in the realm of education. Onling research in relation to learning.

Michael McCaulie- creative solutions for organizations, Oprah, Target

Elizabeth Streb - choreographer -- won McCarthur genius award in 1997. Ongoing passion for science and physics only choreographer physicist in the world.

Mary Cullinane

Past 4 years -- what if a company like microsoft wanted to create the school of the future, what would it look like. Experts to help think about that question. Sept 2006 was the attempt, not an answer -- fundamentally questioning the norm. How can we create an environment that can have "artists of learning"

1. Learning First, technology later (not even 2nd)
2. Really focus on the concept and power of language. The ways we can use language to create a creative environment -- are we modeling and doing that. The principal is called the chief learner not the principal.
3. Be comfortable not knowing

These are the three principles that guide the school of the future. The opportunity for creativity in the age of accountability. How can they exist together?

Dr. Francis Pedro

From France

Main questions asking the innovation potential for countries.

• How innovative are countries? (The 30 richest countries in the world.)
• Can we compare the innovation potential.
• Use of educational technology as a window of opportunity.
• Two dots for each coutnrie -- blue dot the % of 15 year old that use a computer connected to the Internet on a regular basis at their home -- In the US it above 80% but Canada -- 90%
• Percentage of the same people who use the computer connected to the Internet while at high school -- Only just above 25% for kids who use computers at school frequently -- do not use educational technology at school is very low for 15 year olds.
• Does it really matter to use a computer
• Every 3 years to study competities math, science -- found it is extremely important to have access to a computer. Green bars show the percentage of scores that people who have a computer at home have over those who do not have access to a computer.
• How much is associated with having a computer in the school. It is highly correlated -- 70 percentage points -- US -- you will see that we are in the top list -- in our case -- having a computer at school really pays a lot -- 70 points -- computer in high school pays a lot.
• What is more important?
• School or home?
• If we compare -- math scores -- the more computers used in schools math doesn't mean they are getting better.
• Home use is highly correlated with math scored. Why?
• Francesc.Pedro@oecd.org

Michael McCaulie (sp of name?)

Seek out your cathedrals. You have the potential to have a very positive impact on the public. So, always think of that higher purpose. You can have a positive impact. It becomes much more important then. You are having a positive impact. Higher purpose.

Intangiables that we have to sell and produce --have to have a deep faith in the concept in the technology and the team.

Elizabeth Streb

Pay attention to what you notice and what you are interested in -- action and movement -- how make and put her life around movement. Humans could fly -- believed in an impossible silly thing -- how long do you have to stay in the air -- she could fly and that we could if we wanted to. -- Invented a place in New York called Slam -- Where to peple want to go to . Alchemy that allows them to go there.

We find our place in the jumping joyous jumping of life.

Invited a bunch of contraptions -- draw and script out what might be possible. Embrace failure and not knowing -- if you link up with the right structural engineer you can fily -

Ask seeminly unanswerable questions -- break the rules -- get two bodies to occupy the same space at the same time - name a move you are unilling to do -- move so fast you stand still. What is space what is time/ I'm going to fall up -- spend four days to figure out how to do that. Overhead view -- Cement blogs swinging over head. On some level it was a true story.

Richoche -- such cool things -- link to the video -- what is methodology and how can we learn. How can we agree to not know. Discovery is a process of having a good clean question an d

www.strebusa.org - So cool!

The questions -- from Andrew Zotti

The nature of place.

Mary - create a place in which failure was an option -- kids and educators feel safe to fail -- that was one of the hardest things to create because all of the pressures we have for that word not to be uttered.

2nd element - the concept of ad hoc gathering places -- we need to create spaces -- God forbid kids gather -- we want to create places that kids can gather -- focused a lot in the building where kids can gather and socialize -- they are really not there for algebra -- they are there to be with one another.

Elizabeth - physical place -- Question the difference between public and private - chose a space -- chose a big garage -- all great genres like chemistry explosions and rock roll invented -- people who do things who mess stuff up. Extreme movement gathers people together and has the potential for transformative change. Work at the same time -- circus people - flying trapese -- dancers -- 200 kids a week -- mix up in the most perfect thing you could imagine. Popcorn and cotton candy important.

Michael - Applied arts can be a very dirty business, you have to get your hands dirty and fall down. Conference rooms aren't so creative -- garage is a wonderful metaphor for the creative process.

To get people creative in business -- you can be anywhere and the flow state happens -- take people out, bring outsiders in, bring in a singer. Mix it up a little bit. I will take people up and bring new people in. Fall down, act stupid, make mistakes to get them comfortable -- eVERY DAY IS DIFFERENT.

Elizabeth -- Allow complete sovereignty -- they can do whatever they want. When kids come together - scream and play as they want and then class begins. She doesn't have a petri dish like we have.

Francis - Fundamentals of creativity -

Innovation in different sectors including education - health, science, biotech -- theory -- the theory of the four ?

Result of the action 4 pumps for educational innovation

1. Our ability to include doers and users in the process of germinating innovation. We should enlarge our concept of users of educational innovation and include learners in that process.
2. Our ability to network
3. Modularity -- Being part of the system but acting autonomously.
4. Technology - Something that is unique -- we miss the connection between educaitonal technology, science, and research. Teachers see themselves as artisans. What is the place we assign to research?

We have the ability to act autonomously and allow innovation (which doesn't describe education.)

Zotti -- Everyone is talking about risk and empowerment of the individual and courage.

Mary - Challenge that they saw -- could you imagine our public schools if innovation was swimming downstream how much faster we could go. Except in our schools, these types of thinking we are constantly swimming upstream -- when you do you get very very tired. Create an environment where lessened some of the bureaucratic requirements but still do in a framework where others feel that they could do that too. Microsoft didn't give money but gave human capital and gave people. Trying to live within the constraints but push the edge.

Michael - Big brands and big corporations thirsting for innovation -- if schools would adopt that mindset.

Type of the project that -- F2F marketing -- new trend -- traditional ad spending goes down -- interface with the public. National tour with target stores -- rennovating their pharmacies -- health and wellness centers.

Mile 20 -- Rocky Theme blaring from his car and finished the race -- a concert experience at mile 20 for every marathon runner at mile 20 in every country a long tunnel that blares motivational music -- the rocky theme that marathon runners run through-- most motivational experience staged it in LA -- 22,000 runners -- When staged it -- it became a heroes welcome -- most of all the paraplegics -- weren't prepared for it -- it was joyful -- Amazing -- targeting paraplegic runners -- he had no legs -- pumped is way through 26 miles on a skateboard. Everyone is spellbound - the most inspirational thing -- amazing inspiration -- Rocky Them -- amazing -- experiencing -- have a profound impact. You're not doing a promotion you are making a mark on someone's life. WE have that opportunity every single DAY -- So amazing -- put it everywhere in marathons.

Francis - Understanding of the brain

We think learning is mostly about educating our brains but it isn't -- a series of reports - invites us to read -- demystify some of the myths that we have. When do you start learning foreign languages. Should be elemetary education -- research that foreign languages as soon as possible. Need to start very young! As many languages as possible.

The idea that some educational systems especially new ones people are seeing the need to separate girls from boys think that brains work differently. No evidence based on research on that -- we have to research a bit more if we are going to separate things -- that is not a difference in brain.

Zotti - Cognitive neuroscience -- His graduate work in that. Phenomenal experiment that was done -- babies don't know where they are born and the myriad of languages that we speak have different structures and different sounds and not all languages - English b and p -- small differences -- Thai -- have 5 letters between b and p - microphones on babies -- babies cannot tell you that they can hear the differences. Exposed to new sounds their heart rates go up and they relax -- babies can hear the differences. Besides the time the research subjects 7 years lost 80% of the ability to hear the difference. And by 12 lost all of the difference. Decided to call this ability to respond the "hyper sensitive sucking reflex" - scientific data supports that children should hear it at a young age.

Mary - Microsoft

Individuals are self critical and it is expected. How can I get better?

Had time to think. Encouraged to think -- got their own office, had gathering spaces. Thinking and doing something were the same thing -- it is not that way in education.

Elizabeth Asked -- were they private or open source offices? Mary Said - definitely not. Laughed hilariously and gave a high five.

Mary - "bills office is just like mine except there was smarter stuff going on in it" -- they all have the same type of office.

A resource -- book tool that you wish everyone know-

Michael - whole new Mind by Daniel Pink, Dream Society. Excellent.

Francis - Go to www.oecd.org - Next week report understanding the Brain -- new insights what science says about emotions, language, and learning

tag: necc, n07s755, Charlene Chausis, Carole Colburn, Andrew Zolli, Mary Cullinane, Francis Pedro, Michale McCauley, Elizabeth Streb

Labels: NECC2007

• Integrated program elements
• Aligned components
• High quality and continous improvement, professional development, evaluation
• Tied to high standards
• Innovation
• Coordination

• Program ties to local needs
• Buy in

The three issues from the roundtable discussion at the International Leadership :

1) Redefinition of the team

a. Researchers need to have active teachers on their team

b. Teachers need to be able to find something and say “hey” come over here.

c. Researchers can publish to a wiki (only the approved researchers can edit) – but teachers and others are allowed to submit on discussion tabs.

2) It is not about creation it is about finding

a. We need to move away from islands of effort into continents of cooperation

b. We need tagging standards

i. NETS needs tags for every standard and teachers taught how to use them.

ii. For everything we do.

iii. We need standards for: content, age level, language AND format (movie, audio,widget, lesson plan, research paper, 3d {tag in SL})

iv. It needs to be part of being an educator to tag and contribute.

v. We need an ISTE Delicious network with tagging standards to share information

3) WE need to improve the coefficient of participation with what we do.

a. Research Papers – posted to wiki, allow teacher discussion (or student feedback)

i. Example, Students providing feedback for the Horizon 2007 report that will affect the future of that research – http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com

ii. Link up researcher’s citation database software in some way to aggregate links and share information – i.e. End Note

b. Software

i. Help should be two way

1. Support Wikis

2. Help one another

3. Share lesson plans/ reviews

ii. Feature request wikis so users can edit and share

iii. Give teachers money and let them select what software/ technology they want to integrate – start with a vendor presentation but then from then on have teachers present what they did – get teacher’s more involved in the purchase – let them pool money if they choose.

iv. Teachers need to be made the customer – they are not – principals and IT administrators are.

c. Teacher Lesson Plans

i. Student feedback to teachers – what they liked what they didn’t (i.e. this plan made me want to be an engineer!)

ii. Researcher feedback to teachers

4) Need to work on support for teachers

a. It doesn’t need to be tied to the term “computer” but rather any kind of technology that gives access (handheld science collectors, pdas, cell phones with Internet access.)

b. Equal access should be device agnostic (to quote Mark) it should be access-centric

c. Teachers cannot do it alone – support is the single greatest

d. No teacher left behind!

This was a phenomenal session. Edubloggercon was great but very homogeneous - this was great because it was industry, teachers, educational researchers, education organizational leaders, and administrators and was focusing on what to do to get practical research disseminated down to the classroom level. We need to intentionally bring together diverse stakeholders in education to work towards solution.

This session was incredibly run -- it was beyond unbelievable. Dr. Robert McLaughlin needs to be continually involved in this sort of things in many organizations, he is incredible! I cannot say enough about this man, A+++ researcher/ pragmatist/ advocate for change.

• generate revenue
• to carve out a nice for one's dissertation or tenure and promotion
• to create novel tools and methods for student learning and engagement

• Too much info from too many sources.
• Information from sources not known or trusted by recipient
• Topics I don't care about.
• Uses terminology I don't understand so I don't know I care about it (abstruse vocabulary - research-ese) - We're too smart, we can do better.
• It looks interesting but i don't see how I can use it. We're being driven by tenure and promotion and counting the frisbees that we fling out into the field and not caring if the frisbees are caught.
• Before the standards based performance movement was invaded by "body snatchers" -- assessment industry owns conversations that educators started -- like the math standards -- we don't own our conversation anymore. We've been complicit. We should be having educators talking with educators about what excellence looks like and how it needs to be fostered. We need to be cataloging best practices in learning technology. Our terms as professional educators to catalog our content. It is not hard, it just isn't happening.

• Topics determined by what dissemination knows
• Not by what educators tell us they most need to know.

• Driven by educators' most pressing needs and demands to improve their practice and their students' learning.
  
• Educators aren't asking for everything they need because they don't know things and it is OK to have some supply driven however to ignore teacher needs is wrong.
• We've done it for our kids let's do it for ourselves -- let's start with what we want to learn about. Then the people who think technology is irrelevant might sit up and take notice.
  
• R&D, foundation levels -- corporate sector -- go back to those who are spending most of the dollars and say -- we need to look at "these priorities"
• Focuses on creating, field testing and validating learning technologies keyed to these priorities -- teachers say "I don't have time for this" -- "I don't see the relevance of it." We will see better adoption if we focus on the relevance of it.

• Keyed to educators prority concerns for improving practice and student learning.
• Uses jargon-free vocabulary and terms familiar to educators
• Is research-based, yet practical.
• So much great research is hidden in journals in arcane language. I want to share it with educators but there is a lot of translating that we need to do.
• We need to be non-territorial about dissemination -- go through professional organizations that have professional relationships with their organizations. Trust it and will listen to it.
• Comes through sources (eg. association publications) that are known and trusted. It will be likely to be used.
• Is organized using familiar frameworks and categories. Use the 12 standards for staff development -- like "learning communities" - they want tools that create effective learning communities.
  

• I believe that every NECC and every state technology conference should have an Edubloggercon of sorts
  
  -- perhaps bloggercon is a misnomer because we had podcasters and others there. However, the need for informal discussions and tackling of projects with those who have a certain knowledge base is something that should be harnessed and directed.



• I believe that educational organizations and lobbies should advocate mandatory digital citizenship courses for all early middle school students.
  
  We had discussions at the early morning session facilitated by Will Richardson and Chris Lehman about this. Please read the notes!!
  
  My dad was very active in another very misunderstood profession -- I believe more misunderstood and less respected than teachers -- farming. And he always said that when the farm bill came out that it was better for farmers to "pick their poison" than to have it picked for them.
  
  Internet safety requirements for schools is an inevitable fact -- the reason DOPA emerged is because educators have not proactively advocated an alternative. We discussed it, though and digital citizenship is much more than safety although safety is a component. It is something that all students need.
  
  And one way to get nothing from politicians is to go with a "laundry list" -- too many things -- pick one thing, get behind it, advocate it, and support it. It is time for some cooperation.



• "If you're not willing to lose your job, you're not going to be able to do your job. -- Chris Lehman
  
  What a sad state we are in -- Chris says that in his circles this is the quote in the "gotcha" one slip up and you're gone environment. I seem to recall that dictators like Stalin and Hitler were some of the few who got away with shooting a person for one slip up. Even in baseball you get three strikes. In football you get four downs. ONe strike and you're out? That type of mentality is a recipe for disaster because the whole process of teaching is about trial and error in the first place. This mentality needs to be pointed out and talked about because it is harming education and the ability of educators to innovate and make progress. If Thomas Edison can try 2000 ways to make the light bulb, I think we can let administrators and teachers make mistakes and learn from them.
  
  This was from the session on the future of schools and David Warlick did a beautiful job facilitating.
  



• There is a lot of interest in multicultural collaboration
  
  It was exciting to see the vision that others have for what needs to happen. The desire is there, the willingness is there and there are some organizations that are doing it. We need to be looking at multicultural components as standard parts of all courses as appropriate. What opportunities we have with this one but it is going to need to be much wider scale than it is now. Julie and I are talking about standards for international projects and the group gave us some great feedback on this.
  
  After watching some of the other unconference masters, I think we'll run our session differently next time if we get an opportunity, but it was still a good one.
  



• Tagging Standards by Strand and Grade Level
  
  This is a must-do, folks. We have got to standardize tagging so that we can find things, catalog things, share things, much more efficaciously than we do. We don't need to build new things, let's use what we have and simplify things for all of us in education. Let's teach teachers in education programs to use the standards in college and then continue them as part of being an educator. We can then aggregate, mashup and do things we can only imagine now! -- the world will become our database.



• Beauty in diversity
  
  It is beautiful that edubloggers, podcasters, photographers, educators can collaborate and work together -- it is also wonderful that such a diverse group of people can be allowed to have different opinions. It is great to converse and rejoice in our non-homogeneity because there was a bit of diversity in the discussions -- although there could always be more.
  
  It was great meeting the amazing people who shape my life and my classroom. To ask them questions and learn. To soak in the goodness of being a part of people who have a passion for the same things... at least for one day. A happy place it was, but the other great thing was the people who were skyping in questions and following via twitter and blogging as we wrote. That was great. It was great that the second life group had others who weren't there who were there in second life. It was great that podcasts were recorded (they will be published somewhere and I'll let you know.)
  
  But most of all it was nice to laugh and be human and realize that we're all here and want to do a good job, enjoy our family, and make a difference while we have a lease on life. We're not so different in that we want these things. And to laugh when David Warlick misread his watch (he got the hands mixed up) or Terry Freedman told us about his nickname in college (I'm not telling) or we told funny stories about typos on student papers or hilarious stories out of the random past or when I skyped Jeff Utecht, Julie Lindsay, and Steve Dembo when they were sitting beside me (just to show myself that I really was connecting with them.)-- we connected with others and realized that, although they may be hours away and even in a whole other date and time (literally) that we can have common passions to push forward this thing we love called education to pursue excellence in teaching and understanding.
  
  
• So many cool people, guys! I felt like I was amongst some really amazing folks -- Chris Sessums is really cool, so is Chris Craft, Brian Crosby, Anne Davis, Darren Draper, Christin Frodella, Brian Grenier, Kristin Hokanson, Dana Huff, David Jakes, Doug Johnson (he is brilliant), Tim Lauer, Scott Merrick,Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Cheryl Oakes, John Pederson (so cool), Sharon Peters, Danita Russell, Kathy Shields, Gwen Solomon, Tim Stahmer, Alfred Thompson, Joyce Valenza, Mark van 't Hooft, Vinnie Vrotny, Mark Wagner, Chris Fitzgerald Walsh, Tom Woodward,
  our uber-organizer Steve Hargadon, the folks I've mentioned elsewhere in this post, and all of the other amazing attendees.
  
  It was enjoyable. But do not think that we solved the worlds problems, we didn't. But when you build relationships you work better together for the future.
  
  OK, goodnight for now (I've got to take some notes now for the curriculum proposal I'm working on for a class in the fall - David Warlick gave me some more great ideas for my classroom -- Yahoo! You'll be hearing about those in the future.)
  
  So, I'll share more tomorrow, for now, I'm pole vaulting into my bunk bed, tucking in under my covers, saying a quick prayer that I won't fall off and that I'll get all my presentations done and heading off to lala land! Goodnight!
  
  tag: edubloggercon07, ebc07cr20, ec07blogs, ebc07fs, ebc07gcfc, NECC2007

Labels: NECC2007

1. We need a database for links and database for matching common curricular needs/ time frames.
2. We need tagging standards by grade level and subject area (content level). See http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com/Tagging+to+help+Teachers
3. We need a volunteer group to volunteer to tag resources in delicious. We will investigate the possibility of having a network and pull the RSS feeds for the standard tags from just that delicious network. (if it is possible)
4. It needs to be simple and have video tutorials or other information to help people get up to speed.

Session with Will Richardson and Chris Lehman --

• Contextualize the change. -
• Active Boards - Brian Crosby -- the use of active boards is changing his society.
• Turn lose in a car - we have a national cause.
• When you go to DC -- have one pitch. -- National Internet training.
• Importance of having one thing with a politician. Not a laundry list -- looking at it.
• How politicians are embracing web 2 - David Jakes -- they are beginning to see the power of blogging and educators -- we need to take advantage of their growing awareness -- Obama, John Edwards. Understand first hand the power of a tool.
• Chris Sessums - Dave Warlick -- when you talk about technology you scare half the room -- when you talk about literacy -- that is something that politicians understand -- literacy -- reading and writing.
• Will Richardson -- what is the definition of literacy. Should we redefine it.
• Chris Lehman - creating the 21st century workforce. I don't teach in a trade school. 21st century citizen. Digital citizenship. Saw a great term -- prosumer. Critical consumers of information. Seth Godin - prosumer. The nature of the way we deal with information is changing. Means -- necessary of understanding the computer.
• Walkthrough on literacy -- in faculty meeting - definition of literacy -- whole notion of literacy is begin able to participate in society and government.
• Knowledge doubling every 24 months -- knowledge doubling every 48 hours -- knowledge isn't doubling -- information is.
• Teach wisdom -- making sense -- Chris Lehman. It is the job of teachers. Wisdom.
• Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach -- look at teacher competencies -- what do they need to be?
• David Jakes -- 2.0 environment - politicians -- our energies are taken in stopping bad bills. Get over the fear factor.
• Is it because we haven't submitted a positive bill?
• Alfred thompson - Not understood as a two way communication -- only a way to get a message out -- not to get it in? Boston -- citiwide internet safety education program.
• David -- how scared are we that students aren't going to have the skills?
• Connect to deeply held values -- held to deeply held forces.
• *** Person across - truly scary stories -- 1% of a percent. Know the other side, we'll be more able to provide our "own poison" -- We cannot candy coat it.
• Literacy/ Safety -- National Internet Literacy -- Chris - should we call it Literacy or Safety.
• What is the worst consequence to your best idea.
• Responsible, ethical, safe use. Digital citizenship.
• Chris is quoting Paul Allison -- these are the tools that kids have to use. We are doing a disservice not teaching them how to use them responsibly and well. If schools don't adapt to deal with it.
• Digital citizenship not safety.
• Intellectual freedom. Librarians are the only ones who have fought for intellectual freedom for children. Technologists should take up. ISTE -- Children have rights to a diverse opinion.
• Steve -- blocking. School policies.
• Parent piece.
• Chris -- so many policies are creating gotcha moments -- negative environment for school systems -- everyone is capable of being fired If you're not ready to lose your job, you're not ready to do your job. Cannot let fear of what can go wrong stop us from doing what is right. We are living in this moment -- spin it as negatively as possible and put it on the local tabloid.
• Policy issues -- cell phones, ipods. Positive uses of ipods -- ISTE Board. Give kids a voice.
• Chris - media.

Labels: NECC2007

• Join and post your photos to the NECC2007 Group set up by the Yahoo Educators folks.
  
• I had to set up another flickr separate from the one I use for school.
  
• I had to relearn how to use notes. Each photo you upload has a button that says Add note -- you can see my room at NECC and workdesk-- see the boxes, those are notes.
  
  
• Photos of NECC you'll want to see:
• I was inspired by Tim Wilson's podcave, although his room could fit about 5 of mine in it!
  
  
• David Warlick got a view of things before they start.
  
  
• David's photo of the announcement for the edublogger conference, seems like yesterday, Steve Hargadon was asking if it was a possibility.
  
• The organizers of NECC have been busy stuffing our bags.
  
  
• If you Flickr, just make sure to tag it NECC2007.

• Following David Warlick's Hitchhikr for NECC 2007 is a must, particularly if you're attending virtually. (I'm not sure why I'm having trouble opening up the posts, I've been having to go to the pages listed manually.)
  
• Will Richardson is pondering his mentor, Lawrence Lessig's career move and reflecting on his desire to help define the literacies and competencies that kids need. He has questions -- I do too!
  
• My good friend Sharon Peters is pondering her recent career move out of the classroom. She will be making a difference for many students in her new role.
• Jennifer is just ready to get here! I was too.
  
• David Warlick gives some tips for coming down here to the south.
• Don't forget Steve Hargadon's session tags and feeds that he has set up. How useful!
• More people are posting their schedules.
• Lots of us are excited about edubloggercon.

Sunday, June 24
2:00-4:00pm	Refreshing NETS for Teachers: A Catalyst for Digital Age Teaching Standards [Other Program Events] Location: OMNI Grand E
Monday, June 25
7:30am-12:30pm 1:40 - 2:00	International Leadership Summit: Learning Technology Development, Research, and Dissemination [Other Program Events] (Presenting at the Poster Session with Julie Lindsay from 10:00 - 11:00) Location: GWCC B203 Presenting at the Elluminate Booth
Tuesday, June 26
11:00 - 11:20 am 1:00-3:00pm 9:00 - 10:00 pm	Presenting at the Elluminate booth Flat Classroom Project: Online Learning with a Web 2.0 Spin [Poster] * (Vicki Davis With Julie Lindsay) Location: GWCC Galleria (Posters) Tune in to edtechtalk.com for our LIVE NECC Supershow. Whether you're attending or not, come and share your WOW's and what you've learned.
Wednesday, June 27
12:00-1:00pm	Using Wikis in the Classroom [Session] * Location: GWCC B308 (I will present with Adam Frey and Julie Lindsay)
1:30-2:30pm	Women of Web 2.0: Collaborative Content Coaching [Session] * Location: GWCC Murphy 4 (With all the ladies of Women of Web 2 -Jennifer, Cheryl, Sharon, and I!)

I jumped backwards into the river's flotsam.
I was immersed in bubbles and foam and water.
The roar was summarily silenced when the water covered my eardrums.
It was taking me.

Down into its silent cacophonous party of mimes
where water covered water in an endless race to somewhere else.
But I was here, now, and they were too.
I stifled the laugh of pure pleasure that would drown me and then -
popped up on the other side of the waterfall.

"Yahoo!"

I yelled as I swam for shore -
exhilarated, glistening, and cold -
adrenaline and blood
racing through my veins
in an endless race to somewhere else.
This is life.

To wish the danger and uncertainty were over would also be
to wish the end of life itself
for life is about the rocks, rush, and immersion in something bigger than yourself --
and somewhere amidst the bubbles
as we humans tumble over each other
on our way to somewhere else
is the essence of life.

"Yahoo!"

I yell -- not ready to head for shore yet.

"the only way to do it is to jump backwards as far as you can and let the current take you."

You have been doing a great job taking a lot of different posts and putting them together under one theme. I am here in San Diego and you are getting a lot of stuff that I didn't have the time or ability to go to. Thanks! :)

"Recently, I've been working with a student called Casey, who is writing a chapter for the forthcoming second edition of "Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web" based on her experience as a project manager on the Horizon Project. Casey comes from the southern states, and so tends to address people as "Sir" or "Ma'am". Unfortunately, we are so not used to that in England that when she addressed me as "Sir" for the first time, I thought she was being sarcastic."

1. He talked about how a static Web 1.0 webquest on immigration was taking into Second Life with a test group of adults with amazing results.
2. He talked about how he is already toying with creating a widget to allow searching of webquests from the new iphone, which he is waiting to get.
3. He talked about how webquests are platform independent and he expects the major growth of webquests to occur in the video format with the creation of videos and posting them to sites like youtube.

• From Design to Meaning: A Whole New Way of Presenting
• Read about the rule of thirds and images in this post
• I also like - why do we need our logo on every slide? Amusing use of video. This post should also be listed as a good way to blog and demonstrate examples.
• All of his presentation tips are here if you need them -- the PowerPoint tips are a must read.
  

"Now, I may be a monkey but I surely don’t consider the likes of Stephen Downes, Chris Long, Christopher Sessums, Vicki Davis or Scott McLeod to be monkeys. They are very educated and knowledgeable people whose ideas and thoughts are not just bangings on a keyboard."

“Today’s technology hooks all those monkeys up with all those typewriters,” argues Andrew Keen, who believes that “web 2.0” is killing our culture, assaulting our economy and destroying time-honoured codes of conduct.

At a working breakfast in 2004 Keen was alarmed to be told the new democratic internet would overthrow the “dictatorship of expertise”. And that’s happening already. Wikipedia, with its millions of amateur editors and unreliable content, is the 17th most trafficked site on the net. Britannica.com, a subscription-based service with 100 Nobel prize-winning contributors and more than 4,000 other experts is ranked 5,128. As a result, Britannica has had to make painful cuts in staffing and editorial.

He is not against technology: he just wants to see a bit more control. We must choose between sites such as Wikipedia, where the cult of the anonymous amateur prevails, and the newer alternative Citizendium, which aims to improve on Wikipedia’s model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names.

I’ve seen so much of this type of thinking on TV lately. I heard one man call the Internet “the Niagara of crap” — such people have obviously 1) Never seriously moved into the blogosphere and 2) it is doubtful whether they have tried blogging themselves.

I think that they are writing something that some people want to hear and unfortunately, many people are listening. It is a dangerous message but one that is welcome in a free society. What is unwelcome is the lack of exchange, reading, and discussion, and blogging is very, well, democratic.

Blogging has connected Julie Lindsay and I and allowed my predominantly Anglo Christian classroom to connect with her predominantly Arab Muslim classroom and let the kids see– “Hey, we like each other — the NEWS MEDIA IS WRONG.”

And guess what, many of us in the blogosphere - (eg. Dan Rather, Trent Lott) are finding that the news media is getting it wrong.

The news media is aghast and setting up blogs as quickly as possible — I think with some of their own out to pasture, that neither the media nor the politicians like the power wielded by this new blogosphere.

So, let us continue to act wisely and blog well. The arguments set forth by the author is that of transparency and most of us are very transparent.

The villains in Keen’s narrative are a “pyjama army” of mostly anonymous writers who spread gossip and scandal, “intellectual kleptomaniacs,” who search Google to copy others’ work and the “digital thieves” of media content in the post-Napster era.

"The dangerously metaphysical Second Lifers have it the wrong way around. The future is not a spiritual immersion into a fake world, but the immersion of the personal computer in our real world."

tag: Andrew Keen, blogging, Web2, blogs, blogosphere, Wikipedia, wiki

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothin'
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
In a moment they can choose to walk away
Love 'em anyway

You can pour your soul out singing
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yea - sing it anyway

• It is the right thing to do to connect classrooms across the world because the news media does nothing but divide us.
• It is the right thing to do to teach kids how to think and to show them that learning can be fun, challenging, and hard work all at the same time.
• It is the right thing to encourage people to live right and bring ethics into the new age of the Internet and teach that sometimes just because you can doesn't mean that you should.
• It is the right thing to share.
• It is the right thing to hope.
• It is the right thing to push forward.
• It is the right thing to speak out.
• It is the right thing to be authentic and to know that we are not cookie cutter, carbon copies of one another and that is OK, in fact, thank goodness we're different!
  
• It is right to speak out with kindness, professionalism and truth.
  

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy
It's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

The state and the defense now possess additional forensic evidence concerning the history of the computer's use both before and after the alleged incident. Had that information been available to the state at the time of the trial, the state ... would not have urged the jury to reach certain inaccurate conclusions regarding ... the alleged purposeful access to offensive Web sites. In the interests of justice, the jury's verdict must be set aside.

With the new trial, Amero will have a chance to present the new evidence. The saga continues.... -andy

Site performance is so fundamental to user experience and adoption, I cannot understand why Technorati does not get its IT house in order instead of devoting resources to graphical redesign and feature creep.

"There are myriad blogs complaining about the site being down or other issues.

While my experience with them has been mostly good (and again other options are pretty limited) when they do go down bloggers everywhere seem to go into a frenzy. That whole self-importance effect of the empowered masses."

Is Technorati sold or down? The site has not responded for 30 minutes.

Apparently Technorati is down. As I normally have code from it embedded in both the main and individual pages, this has caused the site to load slowly, improperly or not at all.

I am not overly impressed with the research paper I completed on Pedagogical Practices Second Life and thought I’d share some of the struggles I had in writing this piece to assist others considering something similar:

"the very nature of it is exploratory at a time when exploration is the current state for many educators within Second Life but more importantly, it is a time when those not in Second Life are struggling to understand the culture."

One of the big issues I faced was the ethics of researching within Second Life. Obviously, avatars are virtual representations of humans meaning the Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a critical step. However, there is little in way of standards currently on researching in Second Life or at least not from a PhD perspective. This left me often in a confused, even frustrated state as I wondered about in-world notecards, observations, presentations, conferences, classes, workshops, and causal conversations.

Today is the first full day of the Future of Education Conference. We have an exciting line up of presenters to spur our discussions: Sugata Mitra, Chris Sessums, Dave Cormier, and Dave Snowden. These presenters will explore broad subjects from self-organizing learning systems, teacher professional development, communities of the future, complexity science views of knowledge. The sessions will be recorded if you are unable to attend the live session.

To Attend Today's Sessions:

1. Check the conference schedule (scroll down for today's session).
2. Sign into elluminate 10-15 minutes prior to the presentation: click here to access elluminate
3. Following the presentations, express your thoughts, views, etc. in the Moodle dicussion forums.

On the weekend, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay provided a compelling discussion on why we must begin to see education as a global, collaborative activity, rather than local and isolated. If you missed their session, the recording is available here .

Twitter - do you use Twitter? If so, you'll find our : conference Twittering here

Later today, I will post a summary of the topics presented during our discussion last week on "what education will look like in 10 years". The key themes will be presented in separate discussion threads.

Looking forward to some great discussion!

George

...and again, thanks to Elluminate for offering the live conference services...and for University of Manitoba's Learning Technologies Centre and Extended Education for sponsoring the event.

This was an amazing undertaking and the results are stunning! It was an absolutely privilege to be part of this project and the students in my class who did some of the reviewing were blown-away at times with the information they were reading and watching and learning! These students got to review multimedia presentations and wikis completed by students that they themselves will one day be. I have no doubt that being involved in this process will seriously raise the level of multimedia and wikispace presentation in my class.

I am going to try at least one new thing every week.

I already started this weekend. I have been starting a wiki for organising my summer tech courses. I read the program manager's instruction on the Horizon Report, copied Vicki's code, changed the search terms, and saved. When my page refreshed, my mouth dropped open! I didn't know it was that easy. (I excel at copy and paste skills)

So that is my something new for last week. This week - making a digital story. I will add sound to pics and upload. We'll see how it goes....

The next best thing to be wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are. CS Lewis

We can't let fear stop us from doing the right thing. Chris Lehman

The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation. Albert Einstein

This movie was made by a group of Grade 4 students in Bradford, Ontario, Canada. It is about a former child soldier, Sidibay, from Sierra Leone.

• 10 Habits of Bloggers that Win (;-) - of course!
  
• How to comment like a King (or Queen) - Another one of mine -- (OK, I'm done!)
  
  
• Networking within your Blog Niche: 7 essential Tips for Bloggers
  I think that networking within your group -- commenting, conversing, sharing, and being a good conversationalist is the most essential ingredient to being a good blogger (besides not changing your url every time the wind blows!)
  
  
• The Roundup Post - (also from Dosh Dosh)
  Never assume that all of your readers know what you've written in the past. In fact, I love some of my old posts dearly and reread them -- The Power of a Newbie is one of my personal favorites.
  
  I'm preparing this year's version of my Top 10 Eduposts of this year (see last year's). Sometimes you have newcomers to your blog who wonder -- "What is the big deal?" and they can benefit from what you've written in the past. Interestingly the first post I ever wrote on Wiki Wiki teaching is still one of my more popular posts but it would never be found because it is considered "old" and "not fresh" by the search engines. It is your job to keep your best posts in the forefront.
  
  This is one reason that I put my MVP - most valuable Posts on the left hand side of my blog. So people can have that information at their fingertips.
  
  Face it, we're all busy and many of us mark our RSS feeds as read without having time to read them. We all do it! Make it easy and summarize!
  
  
• 90 Ways to improve your web presence
  This is quite a long list but he includes some things many of us bloggers take for granted and some things I've never heard of. I particularly stress the importance of claiming your blog on technorati and putting your blog into stumbleupon.
  
  
• Top 10 Blog Survival Tips
  While some of these are specifically for money making tips and the bent is for those who want to "make it big" -- I think the author makes great points about Competition (I think the more edubloggers, the better), dedication (I'll say focus), and niche blogging (don't try to be everything to everybody.)
  
  
• 4 Pillars of Effective Blogs
  I love this one! I particularly appreciate the importance of passion and having your own voice. Be who you are, unapologetically. If you do not try to represent something you're not, you'll be fine. I am very open that I interject my opinions on things and I'll tell you many of my opinions (particularly on ethics) are probably more stringent than most people. But you do not have to agree with people to work with them or read their blog. (Unless you have ostrich syndrome.)
  
  This is not a homogeneous world and thank God it isn't! How boring that would be! Be yourself, be who you are, express your opinion, listen to that of others, change your mind when necessary, and admit you've messed up when you say something in error.
  
  But be real! Be authentic! Don't be a know it all! We all have our unique perspective but it is not the only perspective! It is about listening, learning, and conversing not about being right all the time or saying "Hey world look at me, I'm so great."
  
  When I start feeling overly important (as can happen to all of us sometimes), I just go do laundry. There's nothing like washing someone else's underwear to keep a Mom humble and keep it all in perspective. When it is all said and done, I will remember if I was a good mother and wife more than if I was a good blogger, although I enjoy blogging so very much!
  
  
• Aristotle's Top 3 Tips for Effective Blogging
  I just LOVE this one! Although it seems a bit of a contrast to what I just said, the second point is that "its not about you."
  
  The author says it so well - "Once identified, Aristotle argued that the most compelling way to communicate that natural element is via pathos, the ability to connect with the emotions, desires, fears, and passions of the audience. And you certainly don’t accomplish that by focusing on yourself."
  

"The good thing about blogs...if you are bored or don't like reading...just log off. We also thought this would be a good way to record thoughts for our future daughter. Someday she can read and it will help show her how much we we wanted her and loved her even before joined our family. So we welcome any comments, as they too will become part of her story."

"As a classroom teacher who is really enjoying having a blog or two, I offered an after-school session on getting a blog up and running. I provided very clear, written instructions on how to create one. What a great way to help teachers who aren't quite sure of technology to feel more comfortable and see that something as cool-looking as a blog can be quite simple to do."

"After a little more reading and discussion, I think that I am going to begin my focus with blogging with my 7th grade. They are fewer in number than my 8th grade class and I have worked with them throughout the past year on different assignments. Here are some more thoughts on working this out:"

Hello World. I am trying Jott for the first time, I think this is a very fascinating messed [method] of sharing information and recording to myself when I may be away from my computer. I am excited about it and hope that it I can blog and twitter from my cell phone using Jott.

Labels: technology