Infinite Thinking Machine

Hopes and Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie deLaBruere) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:21:00 +0000

It’s almost that time of year again for many teachers – the time when eager little smiles will walk into your classroom outfitted with clothes and supplies from their back to school shopping trip. For some teachers with a different school year than mine, your back to school experience might not be this month, but hopefully it is filled with the same feeling of rejuvenated hopes and dreams. Many teachers I know actually build in a Hopes and Dreams student activity as part of their beginning of the year routines. I hope you do! Perhaps this student's hopes for her new classroom can inspire you to integrate some 21st century tools in your classroom.

Perhaps you can learn a new tool to help your student express their hopes and dreams. Perhaps you can help them expand the scope to more global hopes and dreams. Perhaps you can provide the next stepping stone to dream that will only be realized long after they leave your classroom.

Recently, I overheard a teacher tell a colleague “This year, I’m going to make sure that the kids write hopes and dreams that we can actually accomplish in our classroom”. I wanted to say “Oh, please don’t!”. Today’s technology puts tools in your student’s hands that will allow them to express their dreams in ways that were not possible only a few years ago. What about using Animoto or Voicethread to create a classroom hopes and dreams project? Perhaps start a list on a project like 43 things.

Today’s technology can knock down the walls and open the possibilities for you to reach far across the globe. How about using Google Maps, Google Earth or Google Sky to take a field trip that your students’ could only dream of not so long ago. Video’s available through You Tube, Google Video, or other video-sharing websites, along with other video services such as Discovery Education Streaming, Annenberg Media, or National Geographic Video can also help your students’ dreams reach far beyond their classroom.

Today’s technology makes it possible for you to connect with someone who can help your students achieve one of their hopes and dreams. Astronauts, authors, video game producers, Olympic athletes, visiting your classroom are more possible than they ever were through tools like email or video chat. Consider having your students use a service like Skype or GabCast to turn a phone call interview into a podcast of someone who has achieved one of their hopes and dreams.

Today’s technology allow you to collaborate with others who have similar hopes and dreams. Consider joining one of the many collaborative projects made possible by collaborative tools such as those featured at Global School House’s Project Registry, Taking IT Global, or Epals. If you’ve never experienced the power of global collaborative projects in your classroom, check out Jim and Mali's Keynote Address from NECC 2008 (two outstanding teachers whose practice was transformed through their participation in global collaborative projects)

But most importantly, today’s technology is available to you as teachers to be a tool that helps your students reach their hopes and dreams.

As teachers, we are in the fortunate position to help our students get one step closer to realizing their hopes and dreams. If for any reason, you need a little convincing of this, I strongly suggest you put aside an hour to watch “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. Randy, whose legacy includes ALICE, a program that helps kids learn the concepts of programming through storytelling and animation. In this inspirational video, Randy shares his childhood dreams with his audience during some of the last months of his fight with cancer. His lecture is filled with inspirational messages to today’s teachers, parents, mentors, and children about the people and events that helped him realize his childhood dreams.

May you be one of the forces in your students’ life that takes them one step closer to realizing their hopes and dreams. And please, please, share your Hopes and Dreams activities with other readers or simply add to the this Hopes and Dreams VoiceThread.

Google Teacher Academy: Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Wagner) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:48:00 +0000

The next Google Teacher Academy (GTA) has been announced. I've said this before, but I’m thrilled to be involved with this project - and to share it with you here on the this blog. As with all previous GTA events, tech savvy educators and professional developers in the local area can apply to participate in the special full-day workshop. And as with the last GTA, the application process is also open to anyone, including educators out of the area, out of the state, or even out of the country (with the understanding that Google doesn’t cover travel or lodging). In other words, any of you who feel you meet the criteria for application are invited to apply!

Below is the official announcement and invitation to apply:

Google Teacher Academy - Chicago

Chicago, IL

September 24, 2008
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Applications Due: August 24, 2008
http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html
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We are pleased to announce that another round of Google's FREE training program for K-12 educators is coming to the windy city! Outstanding educators from around the world are encouraged to apply for the Google Teacher Academy taking place on Wednesday, September 24, 2008.

The GTA is an intensive, one-day event (8:30am-7:30pm) where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, collaborate with exceptional educators, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, GTA participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.

50 outstanding educators from around the world will be selected to attend the GTA based on their passion for teaching, their experience as leaders, and their use of technology in K-12 settings. Each applicant is REQUIRED to produce and submit an original one-minute video on either of the following topics: "Motivation and Learning" or "Classroom Innovation." Applications for the event in Chicago are due on August 24, 2008. If possible, please use Google Video or YouTube to post these original videos. Participants must provide their own travel, and if necessary, their own lodging. Though we will give preference to K-12 educators within a 90-minute local commute of an Academy event, anyone may apply.

Learn more about the program and the application at http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html

The GTAs have been a wonderful experience for everyone involved, with 97% of all attendees rating the GTA as "outstanding."

Here are a few quotes from GTA participants:

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"The academy was everything I hoped for and more! I can't wait to plan out ways to use the tools we learned about, to share my experiences with my colleagues and to re-connect with the other academy participants!"

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"The focus on innovation in education, and not just about the tools, was right on target."

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"I appreciate the opportunity to be connected to a group of educators that are passionate about preparing students for the 21st century. I feel inspired and able to meet the challenges that lie ahead!"

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"Until now, I had never attended a conference where I was so engaged and loving every minute of it."

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"This was easily the most important professional development experience I have ever had as an educator. World-class tools demonstrated by world-class people at a world-class facility. THANK YOU!"

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"I love [the Google Certified Teacher community] for the ideas and inspiration that comes flowing to and from it...folks share professional development strategies (technology or otherwise) that have worked. It's nice to have a variety of ways to assist others and having that variety also provides spice for those of us responsible for doing the providing."

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Feel free to send any questions to "gteachers@gmail.com", and please spread the word to anyone who may be interested in joining us.

We're looking forward to another great event!

- The GTA Team

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Google Teacher Academy

September 24, 2008

Chicago, IL

Applications Due: August 24, 2008
http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html

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Note: Another GTA is currently being planned for New York City in November 2008. Sign up for the Google Teacher Newsletter on the front page of Google for Educators site to receive more detailed information soon.

I'm excited that Google has continued it's support for this program and that we've been able to announce another GTA so soon after the last one. (And, as you may have noted, there's one more coming before the end of the year!) Thanks goes to Cristin Frodella for making this happen at Google, and to the folks at CUE (particularly Mike Lawrence) and at WestEd (particularly Allison Merrick) for making this a reality. Thanks also go to fellow ITM blogger Lucy Gray for her role in planning the Chicago event.

See you in Chicago! ;)

UPDATE: By the way, Google for Educators announced two other cool projects today, Letters to The Next President and Google Elections Video Search.

Shining Eyes of Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie deLaBruere) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:23:00 +0000

School’s out for summer - yet for many --more learning is happening in shorter periods of time than happened during the 180 day school year. Having just spent a week with 22 girls during TechSavvy Girls summer camp and another week with 32 middle school kids during TechSavvy Kids summer camp, I started to think about what makes summer camp so much more engaging than school. Surely it takes more than replacing the word “school” with the word “camp”… to transforms the experience. Why is it that we would rather spend time at “summer camp” than “summer school”.

Is it because there are no bells that tell us it’s time to move to the next station and we have larger blocks of time to immerse ourselves into our learning?
Is it because there are no mandates that create solid boundaries about what will and will not be learned and how we should learn it?
Is it because there are no test and quizzes that try to quantify how much we remembered about what we learned?

No… I don’t think it’s the absence of something; but rather the ‘presence’ of an important element – PASSION!

A week long experience where talented passionate instructors focused on creating fun filled experiences that pass on that passion to others --– whether it be humanities camp, chess camp, outdoor camp—will yield lots of learning, lots of eager smiles, and lots of shining eyes.

And for those of you who think that this formula only works when learners themselves are passionate about the subject – think again as you watch the masterful Benjamin Zander create an understanding and appreciation for classical music amongst the unsuspecting audience of the T.E.D. 2008 conference.

Consider your role as a teacher as you listen to Zander describe his role as a conductor.

“The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound..
He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.

My job was to awaken possibilities in other people..
How do you know if you are doing it
Look at their eyes.. if their eyes are shiny you know you're doing it

If not.. you should ask..
Who am I being that my players eyes are not shiny?”

What do you need to do this summer to come back to school in September ready to bring out the shine in your student's eyes?

Do you need to immerse yourself into a new experience that lights your fire? Do you need to do something new you’ve always wanted to try – and reflect on the parts of it that make your eyes smile as you do it ?

Do you need to immerse yourself into the powerful words of writer who allows you to escape into the passions of their experience? Perhaps escape to Italy, India, and Indonesia with Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray Love or to a village in Afghanistan’s with Greg Mortenson in Three Cups of Tea.

Do you need to immerse yourself into an experience that takes you out of your comfort zone? Every couple of years I try to learn something that I’m not naturally good at or perhaps even fear. In the past few years I’ve tried tennis lessons, swing dance lessons, and motorcycle riders classes. Each of these has helped make me a better teacher by helping me tune in on what it takes to bring a reluctant learner’s fear of failure to a state of confidence and success. Success doesn’t mean I’ll ever play in a tennis tournament, participate in a dance competition or drive a motorcycle in real traffic, but it means I gained an appreciation for those who have passion for each of these activities in real life.

Do you need to immerse yourself into a self study of some new technique or tool that might engage your students when they return to your classroom this Fall? Pay attention to the young people around you this summer and notice what they are passionate about.

Take note of the little white buds in their ears and think about how you might be able to bring ipods or other mp3 players into their learning environment.
Take note of their thumb typing skills and consider ways to use cell phones as a learning tool.
Take note of how they interact with the web and look for websites that bring the same type of interactivity elements to their learning.
Take note of the messages in Darren Draper’s Pay Attention Video and the related Transforming Teaching Through Technology tutorials and strategies and challenge yourself to select one new technology tool to play with this summer that could transform one of your lessons into an engaging experience that bring a shine into your students eyes.

Behold the clash of civilizations

noreply@blogger.com (Wesley Fryer) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:08:00 +0000

In 1993 political scientist Samuel P. Huntington wrote an article in Foreign Affairs titled, "The Clash of Civilizations?" In it he wrote:

It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.

Fifteen years after he penned those words, they still offer both insight as well as challenges to many of the conceptions we maintain about politics and international relations. Just as cultural fault lines arguably divide much of the world in a geopolitical sense, cultural fault lines also define a growing chasm between the environment in many of our U.S. schools and the environments outside them. This chasm is readily apparent in the latest RadioShack circular delivered to my home mailbox in Oklahoma today.

As thousands of K-12 students and teachers prepare to return to fall classes in a few weeks in the United States, commercial advertisers are carefully crafting messages to woo adults as well as young people into their stores to make purchases for the upcoming school year. In many cases, but certainly not all, students will be returning to school environments where cell phones are banned. In one of our Oklahoma districts northwest of the Oklahoma City metro area, students are fined monetarily on an increasing scale every time they are caught with a cell phone at school.

Like a concealed weapon, cell phones are considered by many school board members, administrators and teachers as dangerous, inappropriate items to bring into the school environment.

If cell phones are brought to school (as they are and will be in many cases, of course) school rules may dictate they can only be used outside of the building. Rather than encourage students to learn responsible and appropriate cell phone use habits and etiquette, many schools this year will take what they perceive to be a more efficient and easier approach to the challenges posed by cell phones and continue banning them entirely. The suggestion that cell phones can and should be used as powerful learning tools would, in many cases, fall on deaf administrative ears unwilling to even consider such pedagogical heresy.

Contrast these school environments anathema to the presence of cell phones in the hands of teenagers to the following RadioShack advertisement from today:

ONE DAY THEY'RE TEETHING, THE NEXT THEY'RE TEXTING.
How can a kid survive these days without a wireless phone? Imagine how hard it would have been for you to get by without bellbottoms. Same thing. Don't let your child suffer, because during the school year, a wireless phone will be multipurpose. They're going to need to call you to come pick them up after school, or to bring them their cleats for soccer practice. Okay, they won't all be demands. Some of their calls will probably be filled with "I love you's" and "You're the best parent ever." Okay, stop laughing. Seriously, there are many reasons to come to RadioShack to get your kids a new wireless phone. Here are just a few.....

Behold, the clash of civilizations.

Technorati Tags:
cellphone, school, ban, cell, education, clash, civilization, policy, learning, distruptive, technology

A Quest for NetFlix Plus Functionality for Books - for Young Readers!

noreply@blogger.com (Wesley Fryer) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:30:00 +0000

I'm on a quest and perhaps you can help me. The young readers of the world need a free website which offers "Netflix functionality" for books and specifically caters to young people-- meeting COPPA, FERPA and other legal requirements for minors in the United States as well as other countries. No one wants to pay a $130,000 fine to the FTC like Imbee.com did back in January. To avoid legal problems like Imbee ran into, websites which collect and maintain personal information from children under the age of 13 must first notify parents and obtain their consent. I've noticed as my 10 year old son continues to utilize websites like Club Lego that he's had to ask for my email address and I've had to grant permission via an emailed link for him to have an account and profile on the website. Based on the Imbee FTC case, it appears key that a COPPA compliant website for kids must NOT maintain their account and profile without parental consent. According to the FTC:

The FTC complaint alleged that the defendants [Imbee] violated COPPA and the COPPA implementing rule by failing to obtain verifiable parental consent before any collection of personal information from children; failing to provide sufficient notice of what information they collected online from children, and the site’s information use and disclosure practices and other required content; and failing to provide sufficient notice of the types of personal information they had collected from children prior to obtaining verifiable parental consent.

I know of three websites which offer functionality similar to what I'm looking for, but I am not sure if any of these sites "do it all" in terms of NetFlix functionality or in terms of COPPA compliance. The sites I know about which offer the ability to write book reviews and share recommendations are:

I will admit at the outset that I have not registered for any of these sites yet to give them a test drive, but do have several friends (including Bob Sprankle and Tim Kane) who are using some of them very enthusiastically. I'm writing this post not because I am an "expert" (yet) on these sites and how they compare, but rather to fully respond to Susan Ettenheim's tweeted question today, "What do you mean by 'NetFlix functionality' for books?"

When I say I want free "Netflix functionality" on a social networking site for young readers, I mean the site should offer the following features:

The website should be free for anyone to register for and use, but minors should be required to obtain parental consent to comply with COPPA and other relevant laws as described above.
The site should permit users to RATE books they've read, from one to five stars, just like NetFlix.
The site should let users write book reviews and recommendations that can be public and/or sent directly to friends, just like NetFlix.
The site should let users maintain lists of friends, and view what those friends report they are currently reading, as well as their friends' recommendations for books to read.
The site should use AI technologies (or whatever you call the technologies that can do this sort of thing) to dynamically generate book recommendations for an individual based on the books s/he has already rated in the system.

This is an example of what this looks like today on NetFlix. I've rated 398 different movies I've watched in the past. Based on those ratings and the ratings/preferences of other NetFlix users, when I click the button MOVIES YOU'LL LOVE at the top of the NetFlix website I am presented with the following screen which shows some of the 1279 movies the website's intelligent advice engine thinks I'll like:

The movies I've rated which generated the recommendation are shown to the right of each recommended movie. The book rating/review/recommendation and social networking website I'm describing in this post would/will offer this same functionality.

This feature (the ability to get dynamically generated book recommendations) is the most valuable aspect of the current NetFlix rating and social networking website, in my view, and would make this website I'm searching and hoping for of TREMENDOUS benefit to young people / students around the world. As an example of why this is the case, the recently released 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report by Scholastic found that kids commonly report they can't find good books to read and that is why they don't read more books. From page 4 of the report's "Key Findings:"

Trouble finding books they like is a key reason kids say they do not read more frequently. Mom is the top source for book suggestions for kids age 5-11, and friends are most influential among kids age 12-17, who also turn to the Internet.

A website which offers "NetFlix Plus Functionality" for young people about books could help take away this VERY common excuse. I'm certainly not saying social networking technologies can or should replace the role of librarians, classroom teachers, parents and others in supporting young people in their personal journeys of reading and literacy acquisition, but I AM seeing a huge opportunity for those technologies to provide powerful new tools to fuel individual motivations to read.

I've described so far "NetFlix Functionality" for this book-focused social networking site. I next want to describe several important features NOT currently included on NetFlix for movies which would make this hypothetical website possess "NetFlix Plus Functionality." The site should additionally:

Include not only books with official ISBN numbers and available in analog/atomic printed forms, but also include all texts in Project Gutenberg. I do love print books, and even though the Kindle is cool I still see myself curling up with paper books more than an eBook reader in the years ahead. My personal feelings aside, however, it is evident that eBooks are going to become increasingly important in the years ahead. This website needs to therefore include eBooks in the catalog of books which can be rated, reviewed, and recommended.
Users should be able to add links along with ratings and recommendations for other books on other websites which they like and recommend. This is potentially controversial, of course, because "What if one of our students links to a book that is inappropriate?" I think it is essential, however, because many kids LOVE reading stories on Fan Fiction websites like FanFiction.net and KidPub. As an example, if a student loved and wants to recommend the KidPub published original novel "Alone in the Middle" (written by a student I interviewed for a podcast recently) they should be able to do this on the website. Yes, traditionally published books can be fantastic for reading and we should continue to support young people's reading of print books. Electronic books are already here in great numbers, however, and those numbers are certain to dwarf our meager imaginations as people born and primarily educated in the 20th century.
Teachers, librarians, and principals (as well as any other user) should be able to create their own "community groups" within the website to share recommendations and favorites.

The current NetFlix site does permit users to select others with similar movie tastes and add them to their personal "community," but to my knowledge the site doesn't permit people to create their own groups in the way users can on many Ning social networking sites (like Celebrate Oklahoma Voices or the NECC 2008 Ning) or on Diigo.

As a final requirement for this book networking website, I'd like it to include ZERO advertisements (for individuals, families, or schools which pay a small and reasonable annual registration fee) and include both MINIMAL and student-appropriate advertisements for people who are not paying for no-ads. I'm thinking here of advertisements like we see on Facebook, NOT like those we see on MySpace.

That's a long answer, but I think some specific details were/are needed to adequately respond to Susan's question. (Susan, btw, is an "art/media/library/technology" teacher in New York and a contributor/participant to/in Teachers Teaching Teachers. MANY thanks to Susan for challenging me via Twitter with this question. :-)

Here's are my closing requests:

If you've used one of the sites I've mentioned above (Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, etc) please comment on what you like and don't like about the current site's feature set. Also please comment on how the site addresses COPPA issues for minors, if you can, and your experiences with young people (your students or your own kids) using one of the sites.
If I've left out a book review/recommendation website that you've used and recommend, please share the name and link as a comment.
If you develop or alter a book review/recommendation website based on any of these ideas, please don't be shy with your linktribution. :-)

Technorati Tags:
book, books, recommendation, social, networking, socialnetworking, review, library, goodreads, shelfari, librarything, librarian, imbee, ftc, coppa, ferpa, legal, children, students, website, technology

Inspiration and Innovation at Googleplex

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie deLaBruere) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:31:00 +0000

From the Google colored chairs to the gourmet chef, Googleplex provided the perfect environment for 50 creative educators at the June 25th Google Teacher Academy to be inspired by Googlers (staff at Google) and innovative educators using Google tools in their classroom.
The folks from CUE, West Ed, and Google designed a fast paced series of events that had us buzzing with ideas. I agreed with the educators from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the U.S. that it was like drinking from a firehouse. There wasn't a session that didn't leave me blown away by the power of Google tools to transform teaching and learning. (Photo Credit. Molly Schroeder)

Award winning examples from Vicki Davis' keynote address and the inspiring example of Esther Wojcicki's journalism classes reminded me of the quality work today's students can produce when we set high standards and expect that they will succeed. During the fast-paced tech rotations, I learned about product features that I never knew existed; I saw classroom application of these features that I can't wait to use to help students think deeper as they collaborate, communicate, connect, and create.

Chris Walsh, who many of you know as the host from ITM videos, gave us a tour of advanced search features, many of which can be found under the “more” tab or 'even more” tab. Check out this interactive demo to learn how to search Google from your mobile phone. http://sms.google.com/.

Jerome Burg, introduced his project, Google Lit Trip, amongst other GEO applications of Google Maps and Google Earth in the classroom. Check out the gadgets (browse the directory of My Maps) that can turn your Google Maps into tools for measuring distance of a path or digging a hole through the earth.

Mark Wagner demonstrated Google Doc's newest features including how to add data collecting forms that automatically add the data to your Google Spreadsheet along with the new “gadget” library (found under 'create a map, chart, or table link within a spreadsheet). I can't wait to visualize data using the gauges gadget or watching data change over time using the motion chart gadget.

Cheryl Davis helped us discover how to use Blogger, iGoogle & Google Reader to collaborate with colleagues, students, and parents. Did you know that items shared through Google Reader can be annotated with notes?

Kathleen Ferenz helped us discover the power behind Google Notebook and other Google tools to scaffold the research process for students. Did you know you can highlight important facts in a web page and right click to add it to your Google research notebook? Shared notebooks provides teachers with a digital formative assessment tool.

Kyle Brumbaugh's inspiring message of how his district adopted Google Apps for your Domain to teach students how to become Global Citzens, including making sure that all students have both a computer and Internet access from home made him a hero in my book. Kyle updated us with ways to use Google Apps and Google Sites in the classroom.

These fabulous GTA alumni modeled the spirit of collaborating and sharing their experience and knowledge by organizing Google Almanac --a wealth of resources related to the tools they presented at the Google Teachers Academy 2008. Add these to the lessons and tips from Google Educators Page or sign up for the Google Teacher Newsletter and you'll find yourself with plenty of ways to try googlizing one of your own lessons, or better yet, add a a Google Certified Educator to your personal learning network.

P.S. You can also learn more about some of the Google Teacher Academy participants and view their videos in this unofficial pre-academy wiki or by reading some of their post-academy blog post.

New and Improved: Navigating NECC 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy Gray) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:46:00 +0000

The 2008 National Educational Computing Conference is set to commence a week from tomorrow in San Antonio and I think it's time for my second annual NECC post! Last year, I passed on a few tips about navigating this gigantic conference. Let's revisit this advice and find about new enhancements for the complete NECC experience.

1. Pick a theme - It's virtually a guarantee that you will be overwhelmed by the amount of choices you'll have at NECC. Being overwhelmed is better than being underwhelmed in my opinion! Last year, I suggested picking a theme such as podcasting to investigate in depth. I'm still not sure quite what I will personally concentrate on this year, but I'm hoping to catch sessions related to professional development, global awareness, and project-based learning in primary grades.

2. Utilize the conference planner - The conference planner is an essential and practical tool for preparing for NECC. You absolutely need to spend some time thinking about how to allocate your time.

This year, I went through the entire program online at a fairly quick pace, and saved anything that I felt was particularly relevant to my interests. I also included my own sessions, so I could figure when I had time to visit the exhibit hall and other presentations. I've saved my planner into a calendar file (planner.ics) that can be imported into iCal and Google Calendar (perhaps other calendar programs support this file format as well). If you really want to get obsessive, you can also put your Google Calendars on your cell phone.

I also saved my selections in PDF format (printversionlucy.pdf)to share with others and to print out. I probably will go through this list on the plane to San Antonio and whittle it down a bit.

3. Bring Your Laptop (or other device) - This piece of advice still stands, but consider bringing a smaller device if you're a super techie. You can follow conference happenings using your regular cell phone on Twitter, a microblogging service. Here are directions for setting this up!

4. Bring a Recording Device - Last year, I recommended bringing a digital audio recorder of some sort (my recording device of choice is an iPod with a Griffin microphone attachment) in order to take audio notes. This year, consider kicking it up a notch and bring a Flip camera, an inexpensive video camera that is extremely simple to use. Flips are all the rage in the education world at the moment.

5. Come Prepared to Network - Again, this piece of advice still stands. However, here's my addendum: come prepared to network whether you are physically present or not. Here are a few things that you can participate in from near or afar:

Join the new conference ning community developed by fellow ITM blogger, Steve Hargadon.
Again, follow events in Twitter (see #3), and look for some people to use streaming video services such as Ustream to provide live or recorded feeds to presentations. ISTE has some rules about this, by the way.
Look for blog posts and other resources tagged necc, necc08, and necc2008 in Technorati, del.icio.us, and Flickr. Examples: Technorati search using necc08, sites bookmarked in del.icio.us using the tag necc, photos uploaded to Flickr and tagged necc.
Share your photos of NECCs past and present by joining this Flickr group.
Join the NECC group in Diigo, a social bookmarking service

6. Follow the bloggers and the Twitters! - Twitter has grown in popularity since NECC 2007 and it's a great way to develop your own personal ed tech cheerleading squad. Twittering is a microblogging service that allows one to post 140 characters, not words. This video from Commoncraft explains it better than I ever could! I use Twitter to query my personal learning network, to share resources, and to learn from people around the world.

I've been compiling a collection of RSS feeds (called an OPML file) from bloggers and Twitterers. You can download this file and import it into a newsreader to see user generated content all in one spot. Check out the Blog and Twit group in the NECC 2008 ning for the latest OPML file and for a screencast of how to do this.

So, that's my edited list of advice for 2008. For more suggestions, check out this discussion within the NECC 2008 ning in which veteran NECCers give advice to first time attendees. There's also a group devoted to newbies. For equipment concerns, this discussion thread is also beneficial.

You also should take a few moments to check out the second annual Edubloggercon event in which educators interested in Web 2.0 technologies will run a pre-conference unconference. Again, this is facilitated by our very own Steve Hargadon. Additionally, NECC Unplugged will take place during the conference in the Bloggers' Café. Steve has posted about the concept previously in the ITM, and my take is that it's participant-run, informal, and practical in nature.

Finally, if you're interested in the work of some of the ITM bloggers and Google Certified Teachers, here is where you might find us at NECC 2008:

The Infinite Thinking Machine bloggers

Steve Hargadon

EduBloggerCon and Classroom 2.0 Live
[Other Program Events: Meeting/Gathering]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive
Saturday, 6/28/2008, 8:00am–5:00pm; HGCC 217 A
EduBloggerCon is a free international all-day "meetup" of educational bloggers and those using collaborative technologies. Everyone is welcome to attend. Visit www.edubloggercon.com/NECC+2008 for more information and to participate in planning the event.

Open Source Playground
[Poster: Playground]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 9:00am–4:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby
Explore stations that feature K12LTSP thin-clients and a wide range of free software including Linux, GIMP, OpenOffice, Mysql, Firefox, Moodle, and more.

An Introduction to Open Source Software and Open Technologies
[Session: Open Source Lab]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 3:30pm–4:30pm; HGCC 217 A
Open source software, open data standards, Web 2.0, open content, and open device standards are all contributing to a revolution in computing.

Classroom 2.0?
[Session: Birds-of-a-Feather]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 4:45pm–5:45pm; HGCC 217 A
A meeting of educators using Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in the classroom or those who are interested in doing so.

Classroom 2.0: Exploring the Potential of Web 2.0
[Session: Panel]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive with Vicki Davis, Lucy Gray, Karen Greenwood Henke, Rushton Hurley and Leigh Zeitz
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm–1:30pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E
Join educators who are using the tools of Web 2.0 in the classroom for a lively panel discussion with interactive audience participation.

Free, Open Source, and Web 2.0 Software for the Classroom
[Session: Birds-of-a-Feather]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive
Monday, 6/30/2008, 4:45pm–5:45pm; HGCC 217 A
Explore successful uses of free and open source software and Web 2.0 in the classroom.

Social Networking in Education
[Session: Panel]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive with Steve Dembo, Darren Draper, James Klein, Michael McVey and Dennis O'Connor
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC 217 A
Social networking, once tainted by MySpace, now has a new reputation in the classroom and for professional development. Why is it making such a difference?

Mark Wagner

Massively Multiplayer Schools: Do MMORPGs Have a Future in Education?
[Research Paper: Discussion]
Mark Wagner, Educational Technology and Life Corporation
Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC 101 A, Table: 2
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games are engaging and motivating. Can they also support context-embedded, inquiry-driven, and socially negotiated learning while encouraging reflection and metacognition?

Lucie deLaBruere

Del.icio.us Research: Redesign Assignments with Social Bookmarking
[Session: BYOL]
Lucie deLaBruere, St. Albans City School
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 10:30am–11:30am; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom C
Redesign research assignments for students, increase critical thinking, and maximize your own productivity by managing online information using social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us. Please pre-install del.icio.us

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Will Fundamentally Change Learning
[Session: Lecture]
Yvonne Marie Andres, Global SchoolNet Foundation with Lucie deLaBruere
Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC 206 A
The bestseller Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything sends educators a critical message. So let's take a look at the hottest collaborative tools, content, and implementation strategies.

Show Me the Tools! Collaborative Tools for Global Distributed Learning
[Workshop: Hands-on] Only 5 seat(s) available!
Yvonne Marie Andres, Global SchoolNet Foundation with Lucie deLaBruere
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 8:30am–11:30am; HGCC 206 B
Innovative, fun, FREE collaborative tools, project-based learning resources, and strategies to support 21st century learning and increase the effectiveness of global distributed learning.

Wesley Fryer

Digital Storytelling Made Simple with VoiceThread
[Poster: Traditional]
Wesley Fryer, AT&T with Vicki Allen and Karen Montgomery
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 10:00am–12:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby, Table: 12
VoiceThread is a free online digital storytelling environment that permits students and teachers to safely (with moderated feedback) share their voices on the global stage.

Digital Storytelling With Minimal Clicks: Improving Reading and Writing Skills
[Session: Lecture]
Wesley Fryer, AT&T with Vicki Allen and Karen Montgomery
Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm–3:00pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E
Digital storytelling projects are relevant for all learners. We'll explore several practical, free digital storytelling tools that require a minimal number of clicks to use.

The Magic of Digital: Collaborative Interaction in Teacher Professional Development
[Session: Lecture]
Wesley Fryer, AT&T with Darren Kuropatwa and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 10:30am–11:30am; HGCC 207 A
The electricity often present when educators connect with each other using synchronous and/or asynchronous digital technologies is contagious for learning and transformative for professional practices.

Lucy Gray

Classroom 2.0: Exploring the Potential of Web 2.0
[Session: Panel]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive with Vicki Davis, Lucy Gray, Karen Greenwood Henke, Rushton Hurley and Leigh Zeitz
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm–1:30pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E
Join educators who are using the tools of Web 2.0 in the classroom for a lively panel discussion with interactive audience participation.

Podcasting & Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner
[Session: Spotlight]
Larry Anderson, National Center for Technology Planning with Steve Dembo, Lucy Gray, Ted Lai, Julene Reed, Dan Schmit and Tim Wilson
Monday, 6/30/2008, 11:00am–12:00pm; HGCC Lila Cockrell Theatre
Podcasting! Everybody seems to be doing it. If you've been afraid to jump into the podcasting water, join us and learn how!

Collaboration 2.0
Monday, June 30 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM Room 216 A/B of the Gonzales Convention Center
Tuesday, July 1 9:45 AM - Room 216 A/B of the Gonzales Convention Center
Wednesday, July 2 12:30 - Room 216 A/B of the Gonzales Convention Center

Google Certified Teachers

Cristin Frodella

Energize Your Classroom with Google Tools
[Session: Lecture]
Laska Koleva, Google with Cristin Frodella
Monday, 6/30/2008, 3:30pm–4:30pm; HGCC Lila Cockrell Theatre
A tour of examples of some of the most innovative uses of Google Tools in the classroom.

Kevin Jarrett

SLedupotential: Educational Potential of Second Life and Virtual Environments
[Workshop: Hands-on] Sold Out!
Scott Merrick, University School of Nashville/Vanderbilt CSO with Vera Handford, Kevin Jarrett, Jeremy Koester, Lisa Linn, Peggy Sheehy, Scott Swanson, Susan Toth-Cohen and Jane Wilde
Monday, 6/30/2008, 8:30am–11:30am; HGCC 006 D

Tom Diener

Google: It’s Elementary
[Session: BYOL]
Thomas Diener, Western Suffolk BOCES with Debra Kennedy
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 10:30am–11:30am; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom A
Not just a search engine, Google offers powerful tools to facilitate learning. Explore Google resources and see how they can enrich the elementary classroom.

Ken Shelton

Technology Integration Station: Your Next Stop to Innovation
[Poster: Traditional]
Kenneth Shelton, Walter Reed Middle School
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 12:00pm–2:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby, Table: 15
Do you use technology? Want to use technology? Are you out of ideas for differentiated instruction? If you answered "yes," then this is the session for you.

Beverly Plein

Think Big, Think Global, Think 21st-Century Skills
[Poster: Traditional]
Beverly Plein, Teaneck Board of Education with Joanna Ebert
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 1:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby, Table: 24
Motivation and engagement are the keys to students taking ownership of their learning. Develop 21st-century skills to build on student thinking.

Oracle booth on Monday, June 30, 9:30-10:30am
talking about Think.com (a free online community for students and
teachers from around the world.

Nancy Sharoff

Visual Literacy and Web 2.0: Implications and Applications for Education
[Poster: Traditional]
Nancy Sharoff, Ellenville Central SD with Maria Avgerinou
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 1:00pm–3:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby, Table: 25
Develop an understanding of visual literacy and learn which free Web 2.0 tools can support and enrich visual literacy in your classroom.

Creating a Personal Learning Network in Second Life
[Session: Lecture]
Fred Delventhal, Arlington Public Schools with Lori Abrahams, Charlene Chaussis, Beth Knittle, Elaine Plybon, Nancy Sharoff and Anne Truger
Monday, 6/30/2008, 8:30am–9:30am; HGCC 211
Create and expand your personal learning network using Second Life. Use SL as your portal to meet, collaborate, and communicate with educators around the world.

Carol Anne McGuire

Global Rock Stars: Fostering an International Community of Learners
[Poster: Global Gallery]
Camilla Gagliolo, Arlington Public Schools/ISTE with Heather Blake, Dorothy Burt, Gaby Eyzaguirre and Carol Anne McGuire
Sunday, 6/29/2008, 7:00pm–9:00pm; HGCC Tower View Lobby, Table: 22
"Rock Our World" celebrates building communities of learners through the integration of science, music, and collaborative technologies. Students across the continents will share creativity and learning experiences.

Rock Our World: Global Collaboration Buzzword or Educational Reality?
[Session: Lecture]
Carol Anne McGuire, Imperial Elementary School
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 3:30pm–4:30pm; HGCC 103 A
Be prepared to "rock your world" as you apply practical global projects in your classroom today! Learn to expand the walls of your classroom!

Hollywood Goes to School: Digital Storytelling for 21st-Century Schools
[Workshop: Hands-on] Only 2 seat(s) available!
Larry Anderson, National Center for Technology Planning with Helen Barrett, Mark Benno, Jeanne Biddle, Carol Anne McGuire, Julene Reed and Marco Torres
Saturday, 6/28/2008, 8:30am–3:30pm; HGCC 006 C
Explore the magic of digital video to tell a powerful story. Bring your digital camcorder or use ours, but have loads of fun learning!

Robert Craven

21st-Century Literacy: iLife and Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
[Workshop: Hands-on] Only 3 seat(s) available!
Robert Craven, Orange County Department of Education with Kathy Shirley
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm–7:30pm; HGCC 006 C
This hands-on session will use the new iLife to provide participants the skills and knowledge to incorporate digital media and storytelling to support standards.

Oh, the Places You Will Go: Google and 3D-Connexion SpaceNavigator
[Workshop: Hands-on] Sold Out!
Robert Craven, Orange County Department of Education with Kathy Shirley
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 8:30am–11:30am; HGCC 206 B
Google Earth and SketchUp allow learners to explore and create worlds, while 3D-Connexion SpaceNavigator allows you to to soar, zoom, tilt, and turn with ease.

Rushton Hurley

A Different Direction for Video in Teacher Preparation
[Session: Lecture]
Rushton Hurley, Next Vista For Learning
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 12:30pm–1:30pm; HGCC 102 A
Video for a student audience can help preservice teachers hone their
presentations, enhance their employment possibilities, and develop
themselves within a professional community.
Who Can Make a Video in 10 Minutes? You!

[Session: BYOL]
Rushton Hurley, Next Vista For Learning
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 10:30am–11:30am; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom D
You and your students can use free software to do powerful projects
with video—learn how, and receive resources and project ideas.
Requires Windows Movie Maker on PC or iMovie on Mac.
Very Cool Tricks for Using and Making Videos
[Session: BYOL]

Rushton Hurley, Next Vista For Learning
Monday, 6/30/2008, 8:30am–9:30am; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom D
You can use simple editing software, but wonder what's next. It's this
session! Make better videos and get students more engaged and focused.
Requires Movie Maker on PCs, iMovie and Garageband on Macs, Audacity,
and Irfan View.

Classroom 2.0: Exploring the Potential of Web 2.0
[Session: Panel]
Steve Hargadon, CoSN/EdTechLive with Vicki Davis, Lucy Gray, Karen
Greenwood Henke, Rushton Hurley and Leigh Zeitz
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm–1:30pm; Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom E
Join educators who are using the tools of Web 2.0 in the classroom for
a lively panel discussion with interactive audience participation.

Lisa Linn

Second Life Playground
[Poster: Playground]
Lisa Linn, CUE, ISTE SL, ASCD, SLolar, C.A.V.E., Sledupotential with Scott Swanson
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 9:00am–4:00pm; HGCC West Lobby
Explore stations for creating avatars, navigating in Second Life, using Second Life for professional development, using Second Life with students, and exploring ISTE's Virtual island.

SLedupotential: Educational Potential of Second Life and Virtual Environments
[Workshop: Hands-on] Sold Out!
Scott Merrick, University School of Nashville/Vanderbilt CSO with Vera Handford, Kevin Jarrett, Jeremy Koester, Lisa Linn, Peggy Sheehy, Scott Swanson, Susan Toth-Cohen and Jane Wilde
Monday, 6/30/2008, 8:30am–11:30am; HGCC 006 D
A group of ISTE educators scattered over the world are meeting frequently in a virtual environment called Second Life. Come see why, how, and "where..."

Audience Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie deLaBruere) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:28:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again. The end of the year frenzy is in full swing -- - the field trips, the yearbook deadlines, the sports banquet, the concerts, the report cards! The computer lab is buzzing. The eight grade yearbook team is asking for help trying to convert Photoshop files to a PDF files so they can rush them over to the printers. Students and parents are learning how to convert their Photostory slideshow for the sport banquet tonight. A group of sixth graders are using Audacity to edit the recording of the end of the year concert. A classroom teacher calls to cancel her computer lab reservation because they have to finish another pencil and paper assessment. The spot is quickly filled when another teacher calls begging for any available computer time because they have two more writing portfolio pieces to squeeze in to meet the state requirement.

Some of the frenzy makes me smile; some makes me sad. I think about the stress our system puts on teachers and students this time of year. I wonder about the validity of test scores gained from students this time of year. I wonder what the teacher comments will look like on those last writing portfolio pieces? Will the students get to see them? Will they learn from them?

But then I smile again, thinking about the seventh grade student who eagerly shares with me the latest statistics from Google analytics of the viewers who have read his latest blog post. I think about how the ‘rap’ song '802' composed by two Vermont student about their state capitol caught the attention of thousands of You Tube viewers, The New York Times and other news sources. I think about the third graders who posted a description about their town on Wikipedia sparking a series of related articles. I think about the 4th graders exchanging their music scores electronically in the Vermont Midi Project’s online space getting feedback from real music composers. I think about the DVD of short movies produced by the fifth graders at Waitsfield Elementary School and the premiere held at their local movie theatre.

And suddenly I know exactly what my Google Teacher Academy video entry about Motivation and Learning will be about! Producing the video contributes to more ‘end of the year’ frenzy for me – the type that makes me smile. I start to brainstorm possible lyrics and images on a wiki. Throughout the day, my son in New York State, and I were collaborating on music and lyrics using the wiki, cell phones, and the ability to compose and share music electronically. Within the next day, his brother in Connecticut, was using different software in the production process, adding the voices of young children. Meanwhile, Mom was collaborating with hundreds of photographers she had never met from the Flickr community who post their images with Creative Commons licenses. By the end of the week, the words, images, music, and videos had been edited in 3 different states (hundreds if you include the Flickr community) and was ready to be published in a venue where the audience could be from many different countries.

This is the type of “transformative” application of technology 21st century classrooms are filled with and that Grappling’s spectrum speaks of. It makes me smile to think of all the teachers who have moved beyond focusing on a checklist of technology skills; it makes me smile to think of the teachers who have moved beyond the “do something; do anything” with technology model; it makes me smile to see examples of teachers who are redesigning learning in transformative ways that would not have been possible without today’s technology.

The fact that Google Teacher Academy designed an application process that goes beyond ‘written applications read by a panel’ and included a product with a real audience models using technology in transformative ways.

Thank you to Google for giving hundreds of educators an opportunity to step back from our end of the year routines and feel the excitement of reflecting, creating, producing for a real audience. Thank you to all the teachers whose experience, passion, insight and creativity matters to the audience that watch your one minute videos on motivation, learning, and innovation. I invite readers to share stories stories and links of examples where audience matters to you and your students.

Google Gears Up as a Digital Equity Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie deLaBruere) — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:00:00 +0000

Every once in a while the universe throws you into a situation that challenges you to take a closer look at how well you understand the reality of those you advocate for. As an advocate for digital equity, I pride myself in promoting strategies that help bridge the digital divide. So there was a certain degree of irony to the fact that I have found myself in a situation with no Internet access for the summer.

Living in rural Vermont, where many communities have no high speed Internet access or cell service, I've always been sensitive to the challenges of students and teachers whose only Internet access is dial-up and even more sensitive to those for whom a computer or the monthly fees of having Internet access are cost prohibitive. Yet I was still surprised at the adjustments I needed to make at my new summer place at a campground without Internet access. A friend from my Personal Learning Network recently gasp at the fact that my last Twitter update was 18 days ago, and suggest that I change my username from 'techsavvygirl” to “she formerly known as techsavvygirl”. I'm grateful that he agreed to make an exception to his personal Twitter rule -- “drop followers who fail to update after two days.”

Ah, but alas, the “Internet withdrawal” symptoms made me sit up and take notice of one of Google's newest additions – Google Docs Offline made possible by Google Gears. Google Gears is an open source browser extension that allows you you to view and edit your Google documents offline, without an Internet connection. Well, maybe not 'all' of them. It allows you to view and edit word processing documents and to view (not edit) spreadsheets and presentations offline using Google Docs. Google Gears is now part of my summer 'survival' kit and has earned a place in my list of digital equity strategies.

Since our school has adopted the use of Google documents as a digital equity strategy and implemented Google Apps for your Domain (Educational Projects), many students have been able to continue working on their assignments outside the school day. There is a big equity gap between students who type 80 wpm and those who type 15 wpm when giving kids computer lab time to complete an assignment. Unfortunately the latter, is also usually the student who does not have a computer and high speed access at home. Our students who needed more thinking time or typing time were now able to finish the assignment offsite. Even those without Internet access at home, claimed that Google docs helped them access their schoolwork at the library or a friend's house.

But suddenly some of our teachers were finding themselves in the midst of their own digital divide problem. Students started eagerly sharing their documents with teachers or submitting them electronically using the Share feature of Google Docs. This proved challenging for teachers with only dial-up access available. I wasn't sure I could do more than empathize, until I discovered Google Gears.

Now I show them how to access their Google Docs offline. Clicking on the “Offline” link on Google Docs toolbar will result in a prompt to install Google Gears and give it access to your computer. (Make sure you don't do this on a 'shared” computer.) Then the next time you log into your Google Docs account, check out the "work off line" tab. You will be prompted to allow Google Gears to work with Google Docs off line. The documents will be stored and made available to you on your computer, even when it cannot access the Internet by typing http://docs.google.com into your browser or by clicking on the desktop shortcut that is downloaded during the installation process.

I not only used Google Gears to work with my Google Docs, but also synced it to work with my Google Reader. Getting ready to spend the weekend without Internet, I did some preliminary research for a project I was working on by adding the sites to my Google Reader, then made sure to sync my computer with Google Gears before I left. For the rest of the weekend, I was able to access information that would not have been available to me otherwise! Even though Google Gears didn't provide me with “full text” or ability to follow hyperlinks, it certainly gave me access to more digital resources than I would have had otherwise.

Although the list of applications that work with Google Gears is fairly short, those of us with limited access now have a new strategy in our digital equity toolbox. And as much as we would like to believe PC World's prediction “that it won't be that long until we're always online.”, we are thankful to those Web 2.0 products that understand that ubiquitous online access is not everyone's reality.

Unplugging Conferences

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Hargadon) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:40:00 +0000

There are times when technological innovations can fundamentally alter our practices or culture. This is not to say that we aren't sometimes so enamored with technology that we attempt to use it to solve human or social issues in impractical ways, but other times we actually create tools that have the power to re-create us, and I believe that is the case with the effect of the read/write Web.

For the last few years there has been an increased trend in the ed-tech arena to explore the use the collaborative tools of the Internet to change the nature of conferences or workshops. First on my radar were David Warlick's informal and loosely-scheduled gatherings of educational bloggers at conferences where he was speaking, which he called "edublogercons." These gave rise to last year's first all-day and now formally titled "EduBloggerCon" in Atlanta before NECC 2007, Chris Lehman's EduCon 2.0 in Philadelphia, a host of smaller gatherings at local ed tech conferences, my own Classroom 2.0 "LIVE" workshops, the online "OpenPD" sessions of Darren Draper and Robin Ellis, and this June's EduBloggerCon '08 and NECC "Unplugged." Trying to avoid the U.S.-centric model of all-good-things-invented-here, similar events in the UK called TeachMeets have been being held, and there are surely others. Going outside of the boundaries of educational technology, Open Conferences,Unconferences , Bar Camps, Foo Camps, and a host of other collaboratively organized events (see links below) are mirroring the the openness and self-organization opportunities not created by, but significantly strengthened and enhanced by the Internet and the Web.

This should not be surprising, and is eloquently described by Clay Shirky in his profound book, Here Comes Everybody:

A revolution in human affairs is a pretty grandiose thing to attribute to a ragtag bunch of tools like e-mail and mobile phones.... [These technologies] are manifestations of a more fundamental shift. We now have communications that are flexible enough to match our social capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise of new ways of coordinating action that take advantage of that change.... [T]he core idea is [that] we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations....

By making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal management (and its attendant overhead), these tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort...

For most of modern life, our strong talents and desires for group effort have been filtered through relatively rigid institutional structures because of the complexity of managing groups. We haven't had all the groups we've wanted, we've simply had all the groups we could afford. (pp. 20 - 21)

I would argue that we are not only now capable of organizing, publicizing, and holding group activities without the traditional overhead associated with larger institutions--as Mr.Shirky states--but we also now have a set of Web tools that substantively create new ways of interacting in those group activities which redefine our productive capabilities. Some are listed below, and I'm hopeful that this post will elicit comments from others who have other methods or experiences which can become a part of the larger body of practice we can all draw from when looking at holding these kind of events.

I'm also listing a set of links that I've been keeping up at www.conference20.com, a wiki I set up to document these ideas. I'd like to invite, as well, those who are interested in using NECC Unplugged as a venue for exploring the benefits of a collaboratively-built schedule of sessions during a traditional conference, to join me on in a working web-conference meeting on Thursday, June 5th, 2008, starting at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT / 11pm GMT. Links to the Elluminate session will be posted at http://www.classroom20wiki.com/live+conversations for the call. NECC Unplugged offers a host of opportunities, as its generous sponsorship and promotion by NECC's organizers will give it unique reach. Preliminary planning includes offering time for speed or "lightening" demos, facilitated discussions, group meet-ups, informal mentoring, ad-hoc panels, daily wrap-ups, and even a chance for attendees to give an abbreviated version of sessions they either wanted to give at NECC but were not formally accepted (the " Salon de Refuses"), or to speak on topics that weren't prominent or current when presentation submissions were due months ago. While my efforts will be focused in the Bloggers Cafe area, there will be six physical "lounge" areas for these activities. NECC Unplugged, it seems to me, holds the potential to become akin to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, a great addition to an existing and more formal event.

One element to these meetings that intrigues me, and which I'm still trying to quantify, is the ability for an engaged and devoted group to succeed in producing from their own experiences material and learning which not only meet what a single expert might bring, but often exceed traditional expertise. Darren Draper and I have been struggling to find a easy phrase for this, what he calls "Hargadon's Law," but which surely has been expressed somewhere else by someone more eloquent. It's the literal equivalent of 1 + 1 = 3, which does not invalidate the value of an expert, but which demonstrates or draws out the wisdom of a group, showing it to be significantly more powerful than typically manifest in more traditional teaching environments. Again, arguably not founded on the technologies of the Web, but enhanced and focused, perhaps, by using them.

Ideas for enhancing or creating self-organized meetings:

1. Use a wiki to organize the event. Or rather, use a wiki to let others help in organizing an event. You can even transfer the responsibilities for topics and organization to those who are attending! Ask them to sign themselves up on an "I'm attending" page. Make a blank agenda and let them fill it in. Granted, there is a little training or hand-holding that has to take place to teach others how to use a wiki, but return in collaborative effort from your group results in a huge net savings of time.

2. Ask your attendees to volunteer to promote the event, to facilitate sessions, to give speed demos (under 5 minutes) of successful tools or strategies, and to actively participate in whatever session they are in. Let them use the wiki to schedule themselves in to open slots you've created. You can also encourage the use of the "law of two feet:" if you're not giving or getting enough from a session, find or create another one.

3. Encourage independent discussions. Typically frowned upon in a formal conference, encourage participants to seek each other out for one-on-one mentoring, even skipping scheduled sessions to do so if they aren't interested in what's on the agenda. Consider building in as much informal time as formal time. There's nothing more tiring, and unproductive, for me than to have to rush from session to session at a conference, only to collapse at the end, to get home to all my catch-up work, and to not have the time to really go through my notes and drill down on items of significance. There's a temptation to schedule every minute because the organizers don't want to look as though they haven't done a good job! Don't be afraid of longer break times.

4. Be willing to change, reschedule, and reformulate on the fly. With a "living" wiki agenda, getting participants used to checking the wiki for upcoming sessions or activities allows you to make good changes when you need to.

5. Bring in special guests through video-conferencing tools. Skype video-conferencing deserves a post of its own. Some of my favorite times during an event have been during the lunch break when I've "trolled" the edublogosphere for short Skype conversations. Last week at a workshop in Phoenix, I sent out a twitter message and soon had our group talking with David Jakes , Chris Lehman, Dean Shareski, and Leigh Zeitz . We also interviewed a group of students from a high school technology leadership class, and I must say that the student interview panels I have done remotely are almost always a real highlight of a workshop or conference.

6. Use the wiki as a repository for all notes, brainstorms, links, photos, etc. The wiki then becomes a living extension of the meeting, a collective resource that is richer than our individual memories or perceptions, and which can be used as the basis for future events.

7. Encourage blogging, select blog tags, then use Technorati or Google Blog Search to feed into your event wiki the posts written about the event.

8. Take digital photos of the attendees and add them to the wiki or shared document you've created. Better yet, ask them to do so. You'll be amazed at how much more readable and memorable notes are when you can see the pictures of those who were there. You can ask attendees to tag their photos uniformly, so that they can either be viewed at outside storage services like Flickr, or easily embedded through widgets on your wiki.

9. Record sessions by audio or video, then post them for those who were not able to attend. Good audio recorders are now really easy to find at most office-supply stores. With a good webcam and free services like Ustream.tv and Mogulus.com, you can also video-stream meetings live for remote viewers or participants, and record them as well.

10. Start a social network or group for meetings or workshops. Ning.com is really good for this (full disclosure: I do consulting work for Ning). A social network with a good discussion forum allows you to transfer some of the discussions to the online forums instead of needing to take place in the actual meetings, or to keep discussions going well after a physical meeting is done. Lots of important discussions happen better over time when they can be addressed "asynchronously" and without rush that having to be resolved in the allotted time on an agenda can bring. Look at the Cue Community as a good example of this, or check out the brand new NECC 2008 community network.

11. Allow, or even promote, "back-channel chatting." You can use a standard IM or chat-client, including Skype.com, or a web-based service like Chatzy.com. Not only do most programs allow you to save the chat for later review, but they also can promote valuable ideas, thoughts, and questions from the quieter participants who might not normally jump into a discussion.

12. Remember electrical power and network needs. An event which encourages laptops to be open and in use at all times needs to have have lots of extension cords, power strips, and good Internet access. Don't forget to check the filtering that might be in place as well in case it will block you from your critical Internet resources.

13. Have fun!

Resources:

Steve Hargadon, "Evaluating the Classroom 2.0 Workshop in SF"
Will Richardson, "The Ultimate Conference Attendee"
Steve Hargadon, Conference 2.0 (in response to Will Richardson post)
Sylvia Martinez, Conferences Must Change with the Times
Sylvia Martinez, Conference 2.0 - Changing How Sessions Are Selected
Steve Dickie, MACUL's Gorilla Sessions 08
Fortune Magazine, Welcome to Conference 2.0
Lucie deLaBruere, Conference 2.0
Julie Lindsay, Conference 2.0: The Global Stage Awaits
Paula Thornton, Conference 2.0
Stephanie Sandifer, Conference 2.0 Resources
George Siemens, Peter Tittenberger, and Terry Anderson, Conference Connections: Rewiring the Circuit
Chris Lehman, Conference 2.0 -- NECC, Reflections and Moving Forward
Wikipedia on BarCamps
Wikipedia on Open Space Technology
Wikipedia on Open Conferences
Wikipedia on Unconferences
Julius Solaris, 20 resources for a smooth BarCamp
CNNMoney.com, Why "unconferences" are fun conferences
Ewan McIntosh's 10 Top Tips for Unplanning the Perfect Unconference

Footnote (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Unplugged):

"Unplugged refers to rock musicians primarily known for playing electric amplified instruments (usually the electric guitar & electric bass) performing live using primarily acoustic instruments.

"The word became incorporated into the title of a popular MTV series that began in the 1989/1990 US TV season, MTV Unplugged, on which musicians performed acoustic or "unplugged" versions of their familiar repertoire. Many of these performances were subsequently released as albums, often featuring the title Unplugged."

(Cross-posted from www.stevehargadon.com)

Doodle 4 Google: Vote For Your Favorites Until May 18th

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy Gray) — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Doodle 4 Google

The Doodle 4 Google finalists have been posted and now YOU can vote for the finalists in each grade level category. The deadline is for voting is May 18th, and the winning entry will be posted on Google's home page on May 22nd. The entries are truly creative and thoughtful, so take a peek!