NEC 2008 - Article for TechLearning - Musings under deadline

TechLearning asked me to write a short 300-500 word article on trends from NECC2008 for their August issue and I'll be turning that in tonight. But here are a few more personal observations from NECC2008.

San Antonio is a cool town. Never been there before, but really like its charm, beauty, history, and how easy it is to get around via the riverwalk. Also some great Mexican food, dancing and singing.

The ISTE book area (near and dear to my heart because of my book) was well done this year, felt like a "real" bookstore, and allowed purusing and enough space for a change.

Second Life might grow on me. But am I the only one who thinks every avatar looks like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt? Is this reality? It's obvious this phenomenon is expanding and people are tapping the possibilities. My friend Kevin Jarrett has promised me a guided tour sometime. Have to get over my reluctance!

Web 2.0 is no longer the toddler technology, it seems much more mature, and a given. Probably the term will disappear pretty soon.

In the vendor area, it's LMS's everywhere (Learning Management Systems.) I'm really psyched about this one. 1-to-1 needs the power of LMS. Let's all push for really great ones.

I (heart) Edubloggers and having an edublogger area. Every time I dropped in there was someone I followed on Twitter or online or knew some other way to see and talk with.

Next week I'll be at the Lausanne Laptop Institute and will post from there. Memphis in July, woo-hoo! Seeing more ed tech colleagues next week: priceless.

NECC Musings

Considering NECC this year, which will be maybe the 8th one attending, about the 6th presenting. Trip down NECC memory lane, or at least the memories that pop up. One NECC maybe 1999 memorable for Jennifer James the cultural anthropologist who warned that huge changes were coming and that because of these big changes, driven largely by technology, people would be disenfranchised and more people would be left out, painfully so, than from the Civil War. And that many teachers would be among those left out. Also that globalism, diversity, working in teams would be required. Hmm, pretty true you'd think.

Another NECC (maybe 2000?) where Bill Gates was a keynote and there was no way to fit in the main room so all sorts of smaller rooms with video cameras (with varying watchability) were set up for the overflow. And where several teachers and I brought along letters written by our students to Bill Gates telling him they were unhappy with the clipart in Microsoft Office because the images of people were not diverse. We gave the letters to someone from Microsoft, no one ever responded, but eventually the clip art reflected real people.

Seattle several years back (one of my favorite cities) where I brought my daughter and she went to the coolest ecology camp on Bainbridge Island sponsored by NECC.

Baby panda bears at the Atlanta Zoo one year.

Last year's videos of the Manhattan dance company that throws themselves at walls and floors as part of the interesting though spotty keynote panel on creativity.

But the best part for me every year is seeing colleagues from all over and getting a chance to talk and blog and share. So glad there is an unconference this year, a continuing blogger cafe, and lots of advance chatter and twitter and a Ning as well. My Personal Learning Network face to face for a change! What could be better.