EBC - Professional development

I started out with a discussion on Professional Development which Liz Davis started (and Alice Mercer covered in her blog). We had a great discussion (and commiseration) about how difficult getting teachers to come to PD is, and ways that we can change our strategy for PD. Jeff Utech shared how he puts his teachers on an individualized "tech plan." Although I love this idea, I doubt my professors would be up for it. But I do like the idea of customizing goals with our instructors, and meeting with them one-on-one to tailor tech integration to their needs.

We also had a great discussion about different ways of offering PD, from Open Lab sessions, to planning time, etc. Most of us have found that doing a teaser (such as the Wired Wed I conduct) work as effect teasers, as well as give us an idea of interest before having a full blown workshop. I struggle with the idea of consistency (something every week or every other week) vs. only holding them based on interest. Last semester I didn't host any workshops, only Wired Wed. I'll try to do a bit of both this year, but definitely focus on more one-on-one interactions.

The only down side is that I missed the Web 2.0 smackdown AGAIN! Luckily you can get all the great Web 2.0 tools & UStream Video on http://coolcatteacher.wikispaces.com/Web+2+Smackdown

NECC & Edubloggercon

NECC & the pre-cursor Edublogercon have become one of my favorite events of the year. I get a chance to connect Face to Face with all of the people I tweet or Ustream or blog with. It gives me a chance to be inspired about the possibilities of education again and how true technology integration can occur. This year however, I found myself Tweeting much more Blogging and I find myself almost an entire week later without a single blog post. I'd like to say I've spent that time "reflecting," but really it has been more about recovering!

Hopefully the following blogposts will highlight some of the best reasons why so many of us go to NECC every year, most of us on our own dime.


Created with flickr slideshow.

Ninging @ NECC

This year will mark my first time presenting a NECC, and I couldn't be more excited or more nervous. I decided to present on what we were doing at the College of Education with Ning, but I thought that some of the other "people behind the Ning" would be interested so I put out a call on Twitter. Boy did I get an incredible & wonderful set of responses. I am honored to co-present with the following:

Dean Mantz was Director of Technology for USD 405 in Lyons, Kansas. Dean has recently taken a position with USD 376 in Sterling, KS. He conducts technology integration trainings with teachers from a variety of fields to help create interesting lessons to education-impacting problems. Prior to his current position, he served as the Assistant Director of Technology and was the lead instructor for the Rice County Technology Academy.

Dianne Krause is the Instructional Technology Specialist and Classrooms for the Future Coach at Wissahickon School District in Ambler, PA. She
works with teachers district-wide to best integrate technology into their teaching and to develop 21st century skills in students. Prior to this position, Dianne was a French teacher recognized as a Keystone Technology Integrator for her technology integration into her courses.

Amira Fouad, Program Manager for RezEd.org, the Hub for Learning and Virtual Worlds, a network launched by Global Kids Inc. in March of 2008. Amira worked as a facilitator for the Project Tolerance Fellowship and the National Coalition Building Institute in programs utilizing conflict mitigation and informal education as a vehicle for peace building and community development.

Sheryl Grant is the Director of Social Networking for HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media & Learning. She is a former instructor for UNC-ITS Teaching & Learning, and coordinator for the Community Workshop Series, an award-winning program serving free information literacy workshops to the general public.

We will be discussing the following Nings & how we adminsiter them:

The College of Education at NC State is utilizing Ning to leverage the the popularity of these SNS, such as MySpace and Facebook, in a more professional environment with their pre-service teachers. Their goal is to encourage discourse and sharing both in and out of the classroom. Students are grouped not just by class or course in the Ning network, but by interest and social groups.

The HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media & Learning Winners' Hub uses Ning in order to create a public learning experience. Winners report to the hub as their projects evolve and create a "learning legacy" that serves successive winners and others in the digital media and learning community.

RezEd is a Ning- supported community of practice that brings attention to the myriad ways virtual worlds are being used for learning in various settings. It covers both commercial and educational virtual worlds through news updates; multimedia resources; a podcast series with youth, theorists, world builders, practitioners and experts in the field; a curated best practice report series, various digital media resources, guest-moderated discussions, etc. In addition, knowledge is generated and shared as members contribute photos and videos, facilitate special interest groups, and manage personal blogs.

The Wissahickon School District uses Ning as a professional learning network for faculty and staff of the district. The Ning network is for sharing, collaboration, support and communication district-wide. Groups are created for each grade level, school, department and other special-interest audiences. Resources are shared amongst colleagues in different buildings and grade-levels. Wissahickon is also exploring the use of Nings with students and its implications on pedagogy and learning.

The Future Kansas Teachers Scouting Ning was designed by ESSDACK to allow talented future teachers to be discovered and recruited by great districts.

Join us if you can in the Open Source Lab!

Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 12:30pm–1:30pm WWCC 152 B

NECC 2009 - DC Here we come!

I am excited that in a few weeks I will be attending my 3rd National Education Computing Conference - NECC - one of the best conferences in and surrounding Education Technology. Beth Still's post about surviving your first NECC has me thinking back on the last two I attended.

The first NECC I attended was in 2006 in San Diego, CA. It was the first National Conference I had ever been too, and I was so excited. My husband, Brent, came with me and we made a mini-vacation out of it. I was shortly joined by Lisa Grable, a long time NECC attendee & the pair of us divided and conquered the sessions. It was nice to have someone to meet up with and discuss the sessions, but the downside is that you don't really socialize too much with others. This was the first conference I saw Wil Richardson speak at, and I was blown away by his message and presentation style. I am still influenced by what he pulled off that day.

There were a small group of us that were bloggers and we met at a Bar/Pub/Brewery to discuss what was going on. Steve Hargadon was passing out "Support Blogging" buttons. I had an idea of whom some of these people were, but I really was just hearing or meeting them for the first time. It was strange to be in a room full of people and know things about them, but they know nothing of you and try & start a conversation, but I held my own & had a good time.

I missed the NECC in 2007 while I was on maternity leave with Evan, but was able to make the trip to San Antonio last year. I knew I would be headed to the conference not knowing anybody and I was really intimidated by that. I really wanted to go to the Edubloggercon on the Saturday before the conference started, but knew that would basically leave me with nothing to do on Sat night & Sunday. It also happened to be a big birthday for my mother (of which I will not reveal her age - sometimes she actually reads my blog :) and I thought it would be perfect to inviter her to spend the weekend with me. This worked out perfect, I was able to experience the best of the conference and enjoy San Diego.

The Edubloggercon really helped me to get to know my fellow attendees, and helped facilitate some great discussions that carried over into the next few days. I found myself hanging out more at the Edublogger Cafe than actually attending sessions. This was also my first "real" introduction to Twitter and how it could be utilized. I found out what sessions were popular or full, made lunch plans with virtual strangers and went out to night clubs. The twitter dinner was a great culmination of all the connections I had started to make and solidified friendships that I have kept up in the past year.

I'm excited to see what this year will bring. I am presenting for the first time, and with a group of people I have never met in person! Luckily, this year it is in DC, so that even though I have no travel budget I can afford to travel on my own and stay with friends. I wonder what this NECC will bring? I hope I will meet some old friends & make some new ones. My PLN has grown so much over the past year - I look forward to meeting everyone in person!

P.S. My blog will probablly be filled with NECC related entries in the next few weeks - as will my Twitter so watch out!

EdTech Talk - Its Elementary

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One of the best things about going to NECC was meeting some great people. One of those was Alice Mercer, a blogger, twitter, and educator :) She uses a cell phone in ways that would scare most people - better yet teachers (or should I say administrators ;)

So fast forward a few days and Alice asks me to join her on EdTech Talk. No I have to confess that I have listened to EdTech Talk in the past - but had no idea that it was Alice I was listening to.

Sidenote: It was great to meet people I had no idea were "famous" at NECC. I ended up just talking to so many and then later would find out that I had "heard of them before." It was a great experience, because it allowed me to have no pre-conceived ideas about them

I had a great time on the program. Although the whole time I wanted to know the backend of how they were ustreaming a skype call - you just can't take the geek outta the girl. Cliff Mims (the real star of the show) and I discussed technology skills, or the lack there of, with our pre-service teachers. My favorite part of the discussion revolved around - what can we do to fix it?
1) Cliff: Have our student teachers observe and be placed with technology proficient teachers
2) Me: Create a place (possibly a ning) for students to continue to be connected through the student teaching process as well as after they graduate - their own PLC.

We had a pretty great discussion - please check it out. http://edtechtalk.com/ItsElementary They might even invite me back :)

The Power of Twitter @NECC

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I have used Twitter passively over the past few months - sometimes forgetting to login for days on end, but I truly felt the power of the tool at this conference. (I hate that I missed the Twitter conversation @ the Blogger Cafe yesterday morning). It allowed for me a way to connect with others that I may never had been able to.

My memorable Twitter moments:

• Bemoaning my lack of cowboy hat since I was watching the keynote streamed in the blogger cafe and having Marlo Gaddis pick one up for me :)
• Having Lisa Parisi send out a large group invite for lunch which allowed me to meet Scott Meech, Bud the Teacher, Derrall, Christine, & Adina Sullivan
• Watching the contest of "Who can Twitter This first" at the Twitter Dinner
• The Twitter/Edublogger dinner (Thank You again Sharon Betts) that allowed me to connect with the people I have read snippets of their life for so long
• Sharing session/Ustream information and getting to multitask (It was like traveling with a group of friends and dividing and conquering the sessions)

All in all, even though I'm sure that the non-NECC people that follow me on Twitter were completely perplexed, I think it was THE TOOL that helped make this conference experience one of the great ones.

ENDAPT - Electronic Mentoring

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Research Presentation by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach on "Electronically Mentoring to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers."

• Choosing your mentor based on posted background for 1-to-1 or group mentorship
• Providing Mentor-only space for them to collaboarate
• Almost all asynchronous and a closed community - with "guest speakers"
• Heavily facilitated in begining, then became behind the scenes - need a good community leader
• Mentors were well versed in online communities ffrom TLN
• Started with structured questions then evolved to Just-in-Time Q&A
• Did alot to build trust and building a community of practice
• Multiple directions of conversation and support
• 110 is when they met critical mass

Edubloggercon - The Beginning

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Its weird to be in a room full of strangers - but yet they are somewhat familiar to you. I was so excited to be at NECC early for the Edubloggercon, yet I am so intimidated by a room full of people and the fact I have no one to sit next to. The morning starts out well, except for the tone of "fight the man" against the Person recording team. Several people, including Ewan McIntosh & Wil Richardson are upset about the "corporate presence" at our fringe festival. I'm not sure what I think, except that they are a bit of a distraction, probably more so for the edutech celebrities than myself.

I trying to upload pictures to my flickr account of the day - so far the hotel internet is not cooperating. Will try later...

Traveling to NECC

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I have finally arrived in San Antonio. Its weird to travel by yourself, I don't do it that often. If I'm not with family, at least I am traveling with people from work - so it is a bit strange to be doing all of this by myself. Now, please do not get me wrong, I am not one of those people that can't do anything by themselves - according to my family I am fiercely independent - its is just weird to eat dinner by yourself. I have no idea how some people travel so much and do this all the time.

Anyways, I was thinking of the last time I was at NECC - in 2006 (I missed Atlanta due to the arrival of Evan) when it was in San Diego. I did all the typical first-time things. I overbooked myself, I went to every single session I could and wore myself ragged. I had a great time meeting so many people and became so inspired by what I heard.

I look forward to the conversations not only at NECC, but at all the "fringe offerings."

NECC Unplugged

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After my last post I had to sit back and think about why I was so incensed by some of these comments about participation. It reminds it bit like being forced to play a sport and being afraid to be chosen last. But I really had to think about why I wasn't participating. I came up with a few reasons.

1)I looked at the list of talks at EdubloggerCon and completely felt not only overwhelmed - but also inferior. What can I add to this conversation? But after looking at the list - I was determined to find a place where I fit in. As an Instructional Technologist at a College of Education, I figured this would work:
Web 2.0 in Teacher Education: Discussion and demonstration of best practices of web 2.0 technologies in undergraduate and graduate education. Co-facilitators are strongly encouraged. Please add your name and/ or suggested topic/ technology below. We'll be able to customize the actual discussion in San Antonio.
So I did it - my name is on the wiki - as permanent as wikis can get :)

2) Now the NECC Unplugged was much more accessible to me. The format was much less intimidating than a full blown session. I could demo something for 5 mins. But what? What do I do that is cutting edge? So I couldn't decide between VoiceThread & Moodle. So I chose Moodle - this way I could do a quick overview of how Moodle is different yet similar to BlackBoard.

I hope you're happy now :)

Participation REQUIRED?

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I'm really excited about NECC and especially the Edubloggercon, but I am also a bit nervous. The last time I went to NECC it was my first National conference and I was just dizzy with excitement. I read a few blogs, and was excited to go to the first edubloggercon at a bar in San Diego. The group was small and I had no idea who Wil Richardson, Jeff Utech, or David Jakes were - I just talked to them - like they were normal people. Now two years later after reading their blogs everyday - I am completely afraid to make a (well you know) of myself.

Now, those of you who have met me may find it hard to believe that I can keep my mouth shut, but speaking to your "education idols" can be quite intimidating. My ideas feel feeble and unworthy. My work is so last year or my blog not updated enough. So when a cry goes out that I "should be participating in the discussion," or implying that if I'm not there to share I'm not contributing to the conversation and therefore "unworthy."

From Drape's Takes

In doing so, I had also hoped that others would follow suit, eagerly adding their names to the list of Short Talks, Speed Demos, and Facilitated Discussions.
Sadly, at this point in time, only a handful of people have followed suit.
It’s pathetic, really - to phrase it honestly.
As I think about the throngs of Twitter enthusiasts that continue sign up for Monday night’s Twitter dinner, I can’t help but feel sickened by “our” overall hesitancy to teach - particularly in light of Twitter with all of its “educational value”. Are we not teachers?"

From David Jakes

So here comes NECC, with the Blogger Café and EdubloggerCon. I can only imagine what a scrum for attention those could potentially turn into. But EdubloggerCon provides the opportunity for those who have blogged and twittered for a year to step up-let’s hear what you have to say face to face. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to earn it-really earn it?

Did it ever cross anyones mind that this is taking us out of our comfort zone? I'm going to a national conference - would teaching VoiceThread be old hat to some? Does a participant in an conference already define you as cutting edge? What can I offer?

I mean every time I can get the gumption to leave a comment on one of the "education idol" blogs - it is either the 10th of several or just comes out sound stupid and insignificant. The comment challenge, grant us nubies some leeway - but for some of us this is still really hard.

Now I understand that sometimes people need a push, and that some are dismayed about the lack of participation, but sometimes people need some time to scaffold their experiences. I may be a big fish in a small pond (i dare to presume), but when I get to San Antonio I may as well be a guppy.

So keep us little fish in mind. Yes we may be in awe of you, but don't take it to heart - one day we won't be.