It’s quiet at Newark airport, where Brenda and I are waiting for our connection to Buffalo, where we’ll get a cab across the border to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I’ll be speaking at the Ontario School Boards Association conference tomorrow, and they selected one of my more provocative topics. We’ll see how that goes.
It’s customary for us to post the NECC session(s) we will be presenting. For me, I’ll be doing some work with David Thornburg for SETDA (State Education Technology Directors’ Association) on Sunday. I’m not sure what I’ll be presenting. I know I will not have much time. If Thornburg presents on science, then I may counter with something on the creative arts. Not sure yet. But it will be fun.
Then, on Monday, at 12:30, in the HGCC Lila Cockrell Theatre, I’ll talk about our students and our worlds, describing three disruptive conditions that are converging on every school, classroom, teacher, and learner. It’s a fairly big-picture session that I have not done at NECC before, though it is being increasingly requested by conference planners as a large group general addresses.
I spent some time last night going through the conference program, selecting the sessions I was interested in. After finishing, I had my calendar subscribe to my selected sessions as an iCal file, and my calendar gave an audible groan under the strain.
A couple of things did strike me as I was reading through the sessions. Their attraction may have had more to do with things I’ve been thinking about lately, rather than a count of sessions.
First of all, I saw a lot of sessions about using technology in science instruction. There is certainly a lot of interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics right now, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. I also saw a lot of sessions with Web 2.0 in the title or description. What was interesting was the many of them seemed to assume a basic knowledge of the tools. The sessions were geared toward bringing together some meaning to these new tools within the context of teaching, learning, and improving student performance (not one of my favorite phrases).
I also found it interesting that podcasting seems to have fallen in popularity from the past couple of years, but what has risen is ePortfolios. I’ve been sensing a renewed interest in alternative assessment methods, and there may be some logical and valuable connections between collecting artifacts of learning and the increasing interest in blogs, wikis, mashups, and other Web 2.0 applications.
David,
I wondered when podcasting would tail off. I have a theory as to why, though it is not very flattering. Podcasting, at lest good ones, take time. Educators either don’t have time, don’t want to make the time, or have yet to figure out how to create time for podcasting for classroom purposes.
Further, the easiest publishing for podcasts is in many cases blocked by school filters…iTunes (you have to get to the store), GCast, Gabcast, Odeo…are all blocked in my district and surrounding ones. The reason I have been given in bandwidth overload on streaming.
On the other hand, ePortfolios are rather simple. Create an online storage space, upload material students want to include, paper, pictures, scans, etc. It’s analogous to the physical file cabinet that sits by the teachers desk. The difficult part is deciding what to include as “assessment worthy” alternatives to circle coloring.
I agree with you, Ric. It’s the main reason why I’ve fallen off, once again, in my podcasts. I suspect that those classrooms that are continuing to use podcasting are doing so because the teacher has figured out a way for the students to do the work. They’ll take the them to influence other people.
Bottom line is that teachers will integrate a technology that helps them do their jobs, that solves a problem for them. If it doesn’t solve a problem, then it’s just “integrating technology.” And that’s not enough.
So what other sessions do you recomend? I have already added yours to my planner. Just curious. So much to do/see/experience so little time
This is an interesting question, Judy. Wouldn’t it be cool and so Web 2.0, if we could see the sessions that people are adding to their planner. Not that anyone should attend a session just because I’ve flagged, or you, but it is a type of community recommendation that is so possible today, and valuable.
Hi there,
I am inspired by your work. I read something you write each day. I can’t wait to get to a NECC conference.
I’ll probably have to retire. I will try to follow all the activity online.
It’s a shame when the day job gets in the way! Elaine
I noticed a picture of the Salt Lake Temple with the Capital in the background on your Flickr roll. I live in Salt Lake, and I can’t figure out how you got that angle. Was it taken from a hotel room? I’ve seen a billion pics of the temple and haven’t seen one with that angle. Cool. Just wondering.
It was from a hotel, though I do not recall the name, probably a tall one.
Hi!
Another possibility leading to the decline in podcasting…web 2.0 applications such as Voicethread, youtube, teachertube, and Animoto. Why go through the process of recording, converting, and publishing a podcast when you can do all of that on one website? Though I do think it’s something of a shame, given all the benefits of podcasting, the way technology changes we’re not going to see any one thing “stick around” the way they used to and perhaps some of the new stuff will be even better…
This is probably true, though Podcasting is unique because of RSS, our ability to subscribe to them, have the program automatically fed to our iTunes or iPods.
I agree that most of the sessions with Web 2.0 in the title assume some prior use or knowledge of the tools being discussed. At the beginning of the school year that just ended, you came and talked to our online charter school in Nevada. About 3 people in the audience knew what Web 2.o was when you were there. By the end of the couple hours most knew what it was but weren’t sure how to change their courses without a lot of extra learning and work on their part. So we felt lucky that by the end of the year about a quarter of the staff were using some Web 2.0 tools besides embedding Youtube videos in their courses. The point is, there are still a ton of teachers out there that don’t know much about Web 2.0 let alone how to use it effectively in a classroom.
I didn’t get my proposal in for the traditional lecture sessions at NECC, but I am going to host a poster session about this very topic. Looking to spread the word, spread awareness, and trying to reach those teachers who aren’t already “on the bandwagon” so to speak.