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I have right fond memories of my time at the Naace 2008 conference in Torquay, England, this time last year. This is partly because both Brenda and Martin went with me, train’ing through the country side, the day we spent in St. Ives, and the nearly 24 hours we spent learning the subways of London. Then there was the part that was the hospitality of the folks at the conference. Honestly, I felt so far behind where those folks were, not so much from practicality as in the direction and momentum for change for schools in that country.
Last year, the Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, presented the opening keynote from Second Life™. I was blown away by the (political) courage involved in that. This year, he’ll be interacting with conference attendees via Twitter. I can’t help but believe that when our department of education (not just edtech) is interacting directly in the conversations of in-the-trenches educators in U.S. schools, we might, then, start seeing progress and momentum.
Naace 2009 is taking place right now, and I’ve added Twitter tracking to Hitchhikr. Naace can be followed at http://hitchhikr.com/?id=410.
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Speaking of U.S. conferences, North Carolina’s ISTE affiliate, NCTIES (use to be NCAECT) starts their conference tomorrow, here in Raleigh. I’ll be working all three days, and spending the night at home 😉 Keynotes will be Vicki “Cool Cat Teacher” Davis and Meg “Writer” Ormiston. Invited speakers include:
- Cris “Idea” Crissman
- Leslie “Digital” Fisher
- Bill “Builder” Lovin
- Will “Weblogg-ed” Richardson,
- Tammy “Tech Tips” Worcester
- Howie “Digtial Journey” DiBlasi
- Kathy “Webqueen” Schrock
I didn’t have to be invited. I’ll be doing some of my regulars, a pre-conference workshop on PLNs and my virtual worlds session. However, I’ll be doing a new one, called The Foundational Structure for Learning 2.0, and I’m still working on it. Also, for fun, Will Richardson and I will be doing a conversational (unconference) session together, back by popular demand from a similar session two years ago.
NCTIES can be hitch hiked to at: http://hitchhikr.com/?id=408
Anyway, it will prove to be an adventurous three days of conferencing in Raleigh, named for Sir Walter, the great British colonizer, and watching Naace, this year in Blackpool, England.
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