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Posts tagged ‘conference’

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EdCampChicago – Recap, Review and Reflect

I’ve sat at the keyboard for the last five minutes trying to figure out the proper way to start this post.  You see, I’m not an events guy.  I mean, I love events, and I’m never short on ideas for events.  But I’m not the most organized person in the world, and putting together something like an EdCamp was more than just a little stressful to me.  However, now that the event has come and gone, I can take a step back and really appreciate just how incredible the day was.  And before too much time has elapsed, I wanted to share some thoughts on the entire experience.

First of all, a few thank yous.  Chad Lehman (@imcguy) was the co-organizer of the event.  I’d say he volunteered, but that wouldn’t be quite factual.   Way back on October 11th, I mentioned that I was thinking it’d be nice to have an education uncoference in the midwest.  Chad replied that he’d be interested, to which I said “Thanks for volunteering!  What date is it going to be?”  And then I hounded him until he actually agreed to be the co-organizer (sucker).  Time and again, we would chat on the phone, create a list of things that needed to be done, and then take the lion’s share of making sure they happened.  The event wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for his leadership, so for that I give him major props.

I also have to thank our volunteer crew.  Not only did they raise their hands and say that they wanted to help, they took on a role and RAN with it.  Naomi Harm not only volunteered to handle the livestreams from the event, she organized a small crew (including her husband) and had the archives up on the site within 24 hours.  Brendan Murphy created the name badges, including QR codes and setting out a ton of materials for people to add their own little personal tweaks to them.  Jodi Greenspan created and kept up with our Featured Attendee posts leading up to the event. Nancy Stewart made the connection at EdCampPhilly, which was happening the same day. Debbie Gleason gathered together all the materials we needed for the agenda board (including the sticky notes that everybody commented on).  Anne Truger not only hounded companies for door prizes, but organized all the prizes on site as well.  Stuart Ciske who also brought in a plethora of prizes to give away.  Erica Roberts sacrificed some of her first session to get the agenda online right away.  And last but certainly not least, Jim Gubbins, who tracked down door prizes, created the kick-butt QR code challenge, and archived very single tweet that was posted from the event… by hand.   If I missed anybody, I humbly apologize.  There were a ton of others that helped put up signs, check people in, set up food and so on.  Every little bit was appreciated, believe me.

I also have to thank the good folks at Lenovo.  We had a ton of sponsors that put up door prizes, but Lenovo picked up the bill for the site itself, provided breakfast and lunch for all attendees, and even gave away a ThinkCentre M90z (congrats @taml17!), the same computer I’ve written about and am using with Aiden.  They were fantastic to work with, and are demonstrating a real commitment to educators by hosting days like this.  Big ups for making this event happen!

The day itself was a blast, from top to bottom.  Some personal highlights were watching that agenda board fill up, and having exactly the number of sessions that we had rooms for.  Karma?  Walking around during that first session and seeing such a huge variety of types of conversations going on was a real treat.  The iOS apps session was packed and the list of apps shared would take people weeks to work through.  Other rooms had far less people, but some incredibly passionate conversations were taking place.  Five of us left the school building to do a quick round of GeoCaching, and wound up finding both caches we sought out!  Upon returning, I jumped into a conversation about social bookmarking, and am now being forced to reconsider whether I should stick with Delicious or not.  Finally, I saw that an impromptu “smackdown” was taking place in the atrium, which I sat in on for about 10 minutes.  Heard about plenty of old favorites, as well as some new sites that I’m going to need to make time to explore.

There’s quite a bit I’d like to share about the process itself, what worked, what I think could have been done differently, but this post is going on long enough as it is.  So I’ll wrap things up with some links to a few blog posts that stemmed from the event.  I was a little surprised, and quite thrilled, at how many people told me this was their first unconference. It really demonstrated yet again how important it is that we keep reaching out and giving people opportunities to experience these life changing events for themselves.  It’s still a new idea to the majority of educators out there.

A huge thank you to everybody that attended the event.  It’s a leap of faith to give up a Saturday for an event that doesn’t have any speakers, session titles, or agenda set in advance.  I appreciate your taking that chance, and hope it provided you with a learning experience that not only met your needs, but provided you with inspiration that you could take back to your own buildings.  Just remember, being inspired can make a difference in your classroom.  But sharing that inspiration with others can make a difference in hundreds of classrooms.

SO…. who’s volunteering to organize the next one?

5/23/2011 31 Comments Short URL
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A few highlights from ICE09

Illinois Computing Educators 2009 has come and gone! I’m too tired to write a coherant wrap up post right now, but I will say this: There was a closeness, family type of feeling there this year beyond what I’ve seen in years past. Not that it hasn’t always been a tight knit group, and a wonderful conference to attend, but this year it seemed to be a little more so than in years past.

I can only attribute it to 3 things. 1) The addition of the PLN Plaza. An open lounge type area for people to network/hangout/plurk in. Scott Meech did a fantastic job putting it together and keeping it active. 2) The bar area being smoke free. In previous years, only the smokers would hang out there, and everyone else would do their best to hold their breath and race past it. This year, it was a place for anyone and everyone to congregate. And congregate they did. 3) The attendance of Kevin Honeycutt. Not to take anything away from anybody else who was a speaker or traveled many many miles to come, but I must say hanging out with Kevin was like a breath of fresh air. Truly a kind and genuine human being and it was a pleasure to watch him ‘in action’.

So, with that, I’ll just share two highlights. So long as we’re on the subject of good feelings, Thursday night Kevin broke out his guitar and we were treated to a fantastic jam session. Here’s just a little taste of it.

The second is my ‘geekbumps’ highlight of the conference floor. The latest and greatest from SMART. Their response to the Microsoft Surface. But this thing is produced for the consumer market and ready for sale. I played around with it for about 10 minutes and was way impressed. It ain’t cheap, but it truly is a magnificent piece of technology. The vendor showing it was Bradfield’s, so if you’re interested in it feel free to drop them a line.

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2/27/2009 1 Comment
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Constructing Modern Knowledge

A few words from guest blogger, Gary Stager

Why I Created Constructing Modern Knowledge
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.

Sincere thanks to Steve Dembo for the generous loan of his blog!

During my career I’ve had the privilege of working with many of my heroes – Seymour Papert, David Thornburg, Fred D’Ignazio, Jonathan Kozol, Bruce Dixon and countless others whose names you might not recognize. This is not the result of magic. After familiarizing myself with their work, I met my heroes at conferences. The chance to interact with great thinkers and education leaders face-to-face contributed immeasurably to my own personal development and led to opportunities I never could have imagined.

My greatest source of personal and professional pride comes from creating such powerful learning experiences for other teachers. I’ve seen colleagues and students who thought of themselves as “just a teacher” transform into educational superheroes as they shook hands or shared a refreshing libation with an expert they respect. The realization that I stand on the shoulders of giants who are just like me can mean everything to an educator.

Mt other powerful learning experiences are rooted in Mr. Jones’s 7th grade computer programming class back in the mid-1970s. Computers provided an intellectual laboratory and vehicle for self-expression that made me feel intellectually powerful and creative in ways I never imagined while “doing school.” Computer programming felt just like music composition in my head and the computer made all sorts of other connections possible for the first time. The computer can capture my writing, but it also allows me to be a scientist, engineer, composer, mathematician, astronomer, filmmaker, etc.

That’s why I created the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute.

I wanted to create an environment in which educators could reacquaint themselves with he joy of learning while expanding their vision of the ways in which computers may be used and interact with some of the most powerful thinkers of our time.

cmk09badge

Our four-day institute, July 13-16, dedicates a large chunk of time to learning by doing. Participants engage in personally meaningful projects that challenge their creativity and build upon the expertise of the community. The Constructing Modern Knowledge faculty is comprised of remarkable teachers who love learning and teaching alongside a student.

Last year’s projects included:

  • Kinetic sculpture
  • Videogame design
  • Simulation building
  • Robots that played musical instruments
  • Puppets that roared

…and much more

Best of all, amazing connections were made between subject areas. Art teachers collaborated with mathematicians while kindergarten teachers shared her molecular models with an accomplished scientist. A good time was had by all!

Such “hard fun” is punctuated by interactions with guest speakers. Can you imagine the thrill of having Alfie Kohn chat with you about your project or have Herb Kohl work with you? Constructing Modern Knowledge wants its participants to be able to say, “I spent time with Deborah Meier,” rather than “I heard Deborah Meier.”

Our learning environment contains laptops, a well-stocked library, LEGO, robotics materials, art supplies, snacks, marshmallows and a Whiffle Bat.

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2009 will be held July 13-16, 2009 in Manchester, NH with an optional pre-conference science and history tour of Boston on July 12th.

Manchester is a small New England city with a great airport serviced by most major US airlines and terrific restaurants within walking distance of the institute site, The Radisson Hotel. There is a free airport shuttle and discounted hotel rates for participants. Manchester is also a convenient drive from most of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

Faculty:

In addition to our fabulous faculty of Dr. Cynthia Solomon (one of the three people who invented Logo), John Stetson and Sylvia Martinez, legendary educator and author of more than 40 books on teaching and learning, Herbert Kohl is scheduled to be a member of the team – available to collaborate, chat and create with you throughout the entire institute.

Guest Speakers include:

Deborah Meier – a Macarthur Genius honored for her decades of service and innovation in urban public education. Ms. Meier is the “mother” of the small schools movement and her Central Park East in NYC and Mission Hill in Boston provide stunning examples of creative, compassionate, competent public education.

Lesa Snider King – one of the world’s leading experts on digital photography and imaging. She is such a great teacher that even I understand Photoshop while watching her perform her magic. Lesa just authored the new Photoshop CS4, the Missing Manual.

Brian Silverman – a gifted recreational mathematician, scientist, bricoleur and raconteur who has his DNA on nearly every version of Logo created over the past 30 years. Brian played instrumental roles in the creation of MicroWorlds, LEGO TC logo, Scratch, Turtle Art, the Phantom Fishtank and is now the president of the Playful Invention Company, creators of the Pico Cricket. Brian even built a working tic-tac-toe playing computer made entirely of Tinker Toys.

Peter Reynolds – the award-winning author, illustrator, animator, software developer and inspirer will host a CMK Reception at his famed FableVision Studios at the start of Wednesday night’s Night Out in the Big City (Boston)

Other surprises are planned. Full bios are available on the CMK09 web site.

Registration includes:

  • Four-days of learning adventures
  • Conference dinner
  • Night Out in the Big City (Boston) beginning with a reception hosted by Peter Reynolds at the famed FableVision Studios
  • Free creativity software from Tech4Learning, LCSI, Inspiration and FableVision

Hope to see you this July ! Super Early-bird Registration ends March 1st!

Constructing Modern Knowledge is sponsored by The Constructivist Consortium and The Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation

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2/13/2009 2 Comments
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What’s next for NECC?

A few years ago, the big splash at NECC was live blogging. After that it was podcasting, when Apple first announced that iTunes was going to support podcasts at NECC. Last year big splashes were the Bloggers Cafe, Twitter and back channeling.

So what’s next?

I don’t think too many people are going to be surprised when I surmise that the big splash this year is going to be live video coverage of the conference. In fact, I dare say that the people who are not at the conference are going to experience something pretty unique (as of now). I’m guessing that the people who can’t attend NECC are going to have their choice of multiple sessions to watch live at any given time.

Think about that. Sitting at home and not just being able to read about the sessions, not just being able to hear them, not just being able to participate with people sitting in the audience, but actually getting the chance to WATCH them live and even have some choice regarding WHICH sessions you’re going to be watching!

Why do I think it’s going to happen? Well, think about how big uStream has become in education. Every day people are broadcasting high quality professional development opportunities. Hang out on Twitter long enough and you’ll find people announcing live streams from conferences around the country. While it may still be in its infancy, it’s a significant enough technology that Will Richardson and David Jakes are doing a spotlight session on the subject at NECC.

But the real reason it’s going to be so big…. is simply because its become so easy to do. Anybody with a webcam can be broadcasting live. And simply because they can, people will. And so long as they’re doing it, they’re going to want an audience. Which means that people will be announcing them on Twitter, on Ning, on their blogs, and everywhere else they can. This means that viewers away from the conference will not only have some choice in what they watch, but they’ll actually have people competing for their attention! Just like at a real conference, off site viewers are going to need to make some hard decisions. Which sessions do they watch live? Which do they want to see and participate in the back channel, and which can they just catch up on later?

If this actually occurs, it will be a major victory on several fronts. For one thing, people that can’t afford to travel to conferences can actually participate in real time. That really is something special that’s hard to measure the value of. Additionally, the message from these presentations can reach much larger audiences over time. I still get comments from presentations of mine that I did several years ago because people are finding recordings of them after all this time. These archives are an incredible resource for the presenters because they can actually SEE their own presentations, and hear/read how the audience reacts to them. This is an invaluable part of improving one’s own presenting ability that gets so often overlooked. But most importantly, it allows people in attendance, turn around and help spread the message to others who aren’t attending, in person or virtually. If you see an amazing presentation, having access to archived live streams allows you to pass it along to other educators, administrators and colleagues that might never have seen them… or that may really NEED to see them.

One last piece before I wrap this up. I’ve been talking mostly about uStream, because that’s where the comfort zone is right now for many of us who hang around the cutting edge. We’ve been doing it for close to a year now and have figured out most of the in’s and out’s of the process. But if you really want to surf the razor’s edge, you need to cut out the umbilical cord. That’s right, no USB cables, no computer, no WiFi required. Sites like Qik.com and CometNow.com enable you to create and broadcast live video streams from your cell phone. While I haven’t been able to try out Qik (Nokia only), I’ve experimented with CometNow several times and have been very very impressed with the quality of its mobile streams. I’m planning on doing some serious broadcasting from NECC using my mobile device. I have about three or four extra batteries and I plan on bringing them all to the conference!

Whether you’ll be in attendance or attending virtually, it promises to be a very exciting conference experience this year!

6/2/2008 18 Comments