Final reflection, for now, on NECC 2008.  In many ways, NECC is the perfect complement to the TIE conference.  NECC brings in speakers and practitioners from all over the country, and even the world.  It’s intriguing, and in many ways validating, to see and hear what’s going on in other places.  I’m happy to report that as I sat listening to many speakers, I could honestly say, “Oh, we do that.” I don’t pre ...

So a quick day two update.  As I mentioned last post, I was excited to attend a session by Ian Jukes.  Ian is always on the bleeding edge of the educational technology world.  As a former professional football player, Ian attacks every speech as if he is playing in the Super Bowl.  His mantra: Kids today are digital, and unless we’re fluent in digital mediums, our kids will simply unplug us.  To be clear though, Ian doesn’t want to throw traditional literacies out the window.  He correctly notes that schools are important social agencies for the transmission of culture.  What’s different today though, is that students aren’t simply receiving culture—they’re producing it.

After that, I stuck around for a session by

Oops.  Started the morning off by going to the wrong session, but sometimes detours lead to interesting destinations.  I had hoped to go to a Web 2.0 and Marzano’s instructional strategies class, but it was booked up 25 minutes before the session even began.  I was interested in the Marzano class, as that is the premise that Brent Wilson and I are using for our IT 6515 class at the University of Colorado, Denver.  Feel free to see our class work (and think about making a contribution via the discussion tab if you feel so inclined) at http://it6515sharedresources.wikispaces.com/ .

So instead, I wound up at a digital editing for elementary students session.  It’s a bit heavy on the tool process, and perhaps glosses over the curriculum connections, but reminds me of something I heard at the TIE confer ...

Day two blog post:

Well, first the good news. The heat index has dropped down to 90 degrees or so, and is notably cooler. Now the bad news—NECC 2008 is experiencing some Internet wireless connectivity and density issues, and it has been a bit of a challenge to access resources. However, the sessions have been fantastic. I started the morning off at an information literacy and management session that was geared for elementary students and their teachers. My key takeaway: guided research on the Web. Younger students (maybe all students) need to be able to simultaneously gather information from electronic resources and analyze the source itself. This is best accomplished by leading students to preselected web resources and holding discussions on just why the teacher selected these particular sites. If it sounds like a modified web-quest, it is.

My next session centered on the new teacher standards on technology. The new standards ...