Friday, July 03, 2009

Overall Reflections on National Educational Computing Conference

National conferences are behemoth by nature and when it comes to technology -- much like waking up on a Christmas morning with way too many gifts to comprehend. This year's NECC did not disappoint. Besides the massive exhibition hall with over 500 vendors shouting about their newest and greatest, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of sessions, round tables, poster tables, and more to view. Steve, Donetta, and I spoke about the long time it took for each of us to just narrow down the field to the sessions that we felt would be best for the district. To review the program in detail, check out - http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/program/search.php. I have written separately about most of the sessions I attended in this blog, so I won't go over those again, but I will share some goodies that I think are worth further investigation this year:
  1. Thinkfinity from Verizon (Free) - http://www.thinkfinity.org - excellent interactive activities and lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom. Very dynamic, searchable, and connected to standards.
  2. Google Apps for Schools (Free) - http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html - allows the district to base email and other apps for staff off of the Google tools -- for free. Allows each staff member to have 2 GB of space online, enhanced web-based email, and collaborative documents.
  3. Clicker 5 (Cost) - http://www.cricksoft.com/UK/products/clicker/ - is a cross-platform program that helps pre-rereading / pre-writing students to put together ideas and words to write stories. This looks exciting for our PreK and Kindergarten classes to replace some of the older programs that no longer are being supported. Can also be used with more sophisticated content. To find out more, check out - http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/ideas/using_clicker/index.htm.
  4. Library of Congress' Website (Free) - http://www.loc.gov/teachers/ - one of the best experiences from the conference was a free pass to visit the Library of Congress for a closed evening event. We were treated like royalty with free drinks and desserts as well as free access to the main reading room at the Thomas Jefferson Building. This room is only available to the public about twice a year so we truly were treated as honored guests. There are so many resources available for students and educators at the Library of Congress and even if you have checked out the site in the past, you should take another look.
Here is a picture from the Main Reading Room:



For more pictures from Washington, DC, check out my photo website at http://picasaweb.google.com/lhillclasses/WashingtonDC#.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

21st-Century Learning: The New Visionary Administrator Speaks Up!

The CEO of Project Tomorrow (the non-profit organization that runs the national survey of students, teachers, parents, and admininstrators called "Speak UP!") shared the responses of the Fall 2008 survey with a focus on responses of visionary leaders. From the 2008 Fall survey, Project Tomorrow discovered from the data that there is a growing cadre of visionary leaders whose technology skills and goals are more closely aligned with their students than with their teachers. To view the report, click this link - http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/leadership21_visionaryAdmin.html. My beliefs about student, teacher, and admininstrator's responses to the survey seemed to be along the same lines. Hopefully, we too can participate in this survey this coming fall.