Now that NECC will be wired, as are an increasing number of ed tech conferences, I have two pieces of advice for folks who plan to be there.
Attendees:
Get a blog. It’s easy to do. Go to http://blogger.com or to http://edublogers.edu and follow the instructions. You’ll be up and blogging in less than ten minutes. When you have your blog, and you’ve brought your laptop to NECC, blog your sessions. Some people do it in real timel. Some folks wait until after the session is over. But talk about what you’ve learned, and talk about what you think about what you’ve learned. You can add enormous value to a good presentation by sharing your professional insights about the topic, through the blogosphere. Talk to other people who attend the sessions and write about what they thought, and what you think about what they thought. It’s a conversation, and in a time of rapid change, conversation can be our best source of information.
Presenters:
Come up with a tag for your session. It should be one word and unique. It should be descriptive, does not have to be spelled correctly, should ignore grammar niceties like spaces and punctuation, and it should be easy to remember. For my spotlight session, I will probably use tellingthenewstory. Easy to remember, no spelling challenges, and unique.
In a future blog, I’ll explain how presenters can have the attendees’ blogs automatically incorporated into their online handouts. Cool beans!
2¢ Worth
Maybe someone could set up a wiki for the different sessions and workshops. It would be nice to have as much information as possible in one place.