Yesterday was a great day at NECC. No presentations. Just listening, conversing, and learning. Today I have two panel sessions and the spotlight (2:00PM Murphy 2/3). But I think that Sunday was the quintessential day of NECC for me. It started out at the ISTE Leadership Symposium, rubbing elbows with state technology leaders (State Educational Technology Directors Association — SETDA).
Then I headed down to my pre-conference workshop on Advanced Blogging, which was kicked off by Chris Lehmann and Marcie Hull. It was a challenging workshop as some of the participants were already advanced and many didn’t have a blog yet. It was a bit frustrating, but it was NECC. We’re all over the place here, experienced and noobs — and we can all learn from each other, because folks who are new to this have a perspective that continues to be invaluable to the rest of us.
After the workshop, I rushed over to the International reception and was able to say about three words to about 50 people. To many people, to much to say and listen too, and too little time. This is very exciting.
Then over to an amazing keynote address, the notes of which I will post soon. Andrew Zolli was high energy and all of the information and ideas he shared was relevant to education in general and TO US. I would love to see it again, but in slow motion. Zolli is young, and so, talks fast. I’d also like to see the comedy as one presentation and the content as another. This is no criticism, just some supplementals I’d like to have.
Finally, I had dinner with Chris Craft, from South Carolina, Vicki Davis, from Georgia, Jeff Wipple, from New Brunswick Canada, and Julie Lindsay from Australia, who teaches in Bangladesh, but fixing to take a new job in Qatar. This is what NECC is about.
Nations coming together to make nations of ideas.
Should I actually be at this conference? I long wished for the time/budget to attend these, and yet here it is just a short drive away, and it never even crossed my mind to attend.
Wrong decision? These traditional status quo events seem to have so little to do with the present needs and the future solutions. Or did I miss a sea-change?
Dave it is refreshing to hear you say that there is always something to learn. Being in the ICT circuit in NZ for four years now, you come across people at conferences who have decided they have learnt all there is to learn. I think I will adopt your mantra with a winning smile and see if I can make it work.
Andrew Zolli was inspiring and funny. It was good to have a futurist kick off the conference and give us a realistic peak into what we can expect in the future. I hope that they offer his keynote as a podcast. My deputy superintendent held a leadership retreat a few weeks ago for all of our directors (me included) where he asked us to envision what our school would be like 10 to 15 years from now. I was really disappointed in how difficult an exercise it seemed for people. Most wanted to build more buildings, while I suggested less buildings-more virtual environments. With technology changing so rapidly, what are the implications to us as educators? I think his presentation was a wonderful wake-up call – I wish I could share it with all of my school.
David…
Capping off Andrew Zolli’s message by sharing a dinner table with Vicki, Mario, Julie, Chris and you was simply a great way to end my first day at my first NECC. Thanks.
My only wish would be to have many more of our teachers and especially administrators and district officials here to begin to build a collective vision…but it will come.
Whip
David,
It was so exciting to run into you on the way to the aquarium and exchange a few words. You were the keynote speaker at our CECA (Connecticut Educators’ Computer Association) convention this past fall and provided inspiration for all of us. Thanks for your blogs and podcasts that give us a glimpse into what educators from all over the country are doing to enhance student engagement and learning. I just posted to my own blog – first time since February of 2007, so I’m catching the spirit again.
Have a great summer!