Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Imagine my disappointment when I arrived in Atlanta the Friday BEFORE NECC began to attend the Edublogger Con and NECC, and Edublogs was experiencing major difficulties!! I did not blog any of the sessions I had wanted too. It really is okay though because I discovered much of my conference time was spent being “star-struck” by being elbow to elbow with a lot of the bloggers I read!! I will share soon. I am currently in Chicago for a short vacation and to get my oldest moved from a dorm into an apartment. We bought a seven day CTA pass so we can go anywhere in the city via the bus or the El (sp?) and practiced by riding a shuttle to O’Hare airport, and then the El to a restaurant near our hotel. We will only stay in the hotel one night, since tomorrow afternoon (yes, Sunday PM–I am so shocked!) is time to move in. We will spend the rest of our trip in the apartment getting it set up. It is right across the street from the main campus area of his school, so it passed the mom-safety test–at least as much as it could for being so far away from home! I am begging my family to go to Willow Creek Church tomorrow morning. We’ll see how that goes. I don’t know a whole lot about the city. I feel like a Beverly Hill Billy visiting the city!! I am also having problems with the SCASL Blog, and since I’m still traveling, haven’t had time to really address that either. I hope to post more thoughts tomorrow.

Update: We didn’t gt to visit Willow Creek, so my weekly worshhip was via my ipod and Seacoast Church out of Charleston. They offer their services via iTunes, and they are really relevant to my life when I can’t get to church at West End.

“What’s New? What’s Coming”
SCASA Summer Leadership Institute, June 17-22, 2007
Myrtle Beach, SC

This post stems from a presentation I will be giving at the South Carolina Association of School Administrators Annual Summer Leadership Conference on Monday, June 18, 2007. My presentation titled “What’s New? What’s Happening? is designed to showcase blogs and podcasts that will introduce administrators to 21st Century Learning using the vehicle of Web 2.0 tools. The content included below will feature weblinks (blogs & podcasts; aggregators) that are showcased during the presentation. These were listed on the handout from the session.

Here are a few examples that may just jumpstart your journey into the 21st Century. There are many people online who will support you! Just start reading a blog a day, you will be hooked. You will find the best staff development and encouragement online! (Parts of this post and handout have been borrowed from guest blogger Cheryl Oakes on the Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog.)

EdTechTalk.com – a great place to listen to (and chat along with) some good conversations about 21st Century Literacy. http://edtechtalk.com/

K12Online Conference – Absolutely free learning; listen or read at your leisure! http://k12onlineconference.org/

Melinda Miller- The Principal Blog – an elementary principal who just started blogging and podcasting
http://weprincipal.blogspot.com/

Tim Lauer- Lewis Elementary – an elementary principal who blogs about his school
http://lewiselementary.org/

Tim Tyson- Mabry Middle School principal (from Marietta, GA who transformed the entire website into a Web 2.0 landmark filled with blogs, videos, and podcasts.
http://mabryonline.org/blogs/tyson/

Wesley Fryer- an educator, author, digital storyteller and change agent. He addresses a range of topics related to education, technology integration, distance learning, and twenty-first century literacy.
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity (Blog & Podcast)
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/speedofcreativity/podcasts

David Warlick- a podcaster/blogger who asks you to think outside the box ideas about classrooms, teaching, and learning in the 21st century.
• 2 Cents Worth (Blog) http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
• Connect Learning (Podcast) http://davidwarlick.com/connectlearning/

Favorite RSS Feed Reader/Aggregator & Podcatcher:
Bloglines www.bloglines.com/
ITunes www.apple.com/itunes/

Be on vacation, be cool and learn new tools.

To contact the presenter, please use the comments link.

Have you heard about this book, Everything is Miscellaneous? I read about it today on Teacher Librarian Ning, and they pointed to a video where the author does a one-hour presentation on the premise of the book. It’s really thought provoking, and really questions the organization of the library among other things. Best, its pretty humorous. If time permits, watch it here. The video (available through Google’s videos) is roughly 1 hour. I’m going to order this book for my own collection.

In the news today–I saw references to it frequently in my aggregator from Fox, CNN, and MSNBC that state assessment programs are not all equal! All I  have to say is IT’S ABOUT TIME! For the longest our state has been pegged as uneducated and having students who continuously perform the lowest or next to the lowest across the nation.  Finally, the National Center for Education Statistics is showing why our SC students get such a ranking. Our kids are not dumb. Our teachers are teaching their hearts out.  It’s our standards and our state assessment.  We are noted in this study as having one of the most rigorous tests around.  See what MSNBC had to say.

Sorry Dave, I had just done exactly what you said NOT to do right before I read this:

So what do you hope to learn at NECC? No need to list sessions from your Conference Planner — just share in your blogs, tagged with necc, necc07, or necc2007, why you’re going — what you hope to learn. Let’s start up the conversations by jacking into the networks. What’s important to us as educators? What are the conversations we all need to be ready for? (David Warlick, 2 Cents Worth, June 7, 2007)

So here is my response, tagged as requested:

• I hope to meet other educators with similar interests that I have (web 2.0, digital video and imaging, school news shows, 21st century classrooms, 21st century libraries, just to name a few)
• I hope to hear and see my “faves” (you, Will, Chris Craft, Women of web 2.0, Joyce Valenza, and more) and get mega-inspired!
• I hope to find a way to impart all the knowledge I gain on the educators I will work with in the fall in as unique and special way as it is presented at NECC. I get so pumped from this conference, and i always feel I just cannot share it and give it justice when its my turn to share with those who didn’t get to go.
• I hope to get more fellow South Carolinians interested in 21st century learning.

Thanks for the tag generator on Hitchhikr!

Technorati Tags: necc2007 neccprep necc07

Just in case you are curious, this is what I have tentatively planned for NECC 2007. I still have not totally committed so my planner is a mess of conflicts! Of course this may change multiple times BEFORE the actual conference gets here in just two and a half weeks. I have included thoughts or rationales in italics after each session listed.

Schedule E-mailed June 7, 2007, 6:11 pm
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Sunday, June 24
5:45-7:00pm
Opening Keynote
GWCC Murphy Ballroom
Just because the keynotes are always excellent!
——————————

———————————-
Monday, June 25
8:30-9:30am
Almost All New Return of the Gadgets!
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
Leslie Fisher is always AWESOME!!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
9:00am-4:00pm
21st-Century Media Center
GWCC Level 2 (Playground A)
NOTES: Time Conflict
Going to cruise through here, then maybe hit an aisle or 2 of the exhibit hall. But I’ll have to be sure to get to the next one at 11 since i really want to see/hear this one.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
11:00am-12:00pm
Daring Conversations: An Actor Shares the Voices of Students
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
Daneen Frazier Bowen was so awesome at NECC 2005 until I have to attend this session. She is scheduled for SC Edtech in October too!!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:30-1:30pm
Teachers and Librarians as Technology Facilitators: A New Mindset
GWCC B208
NOTES: Time Conflict
Not totally committed to this one yet. May ditch for lunch or the exhibit hall.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
2:00-3:00pm
How Virtual Worlds Help Real Students: The River City MUVE
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
I chose this one simply because MUVE and what i’ve read about them in the blogosphere as well as the name of presenter, Chris Dede.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
3:30-4:30pm
Use Your Noodle—Learn Moodle! An Open Source Learning Management System
GWCC B308
NOTES: Time Conflict
Conflicts with another one–but I want to see Moodle in action. Not sure about the speaker, and hopefully someone in the know at the conference will be able to steer me in or away based on their knowledge of the speaker.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
3:30-4:30pm
In the News! It Is Elementary!
GWCC B207
NOTES: Time Conflict
I do a morning news program too, so its always nice to see what others are doing, no matter the level. In my new job, i will have a 40 minute daily class to work on the show, so we may pre-tape and edit, and this looks like it will give me some ideas. I’m leaning towards this unless someone really sells the moodle.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
3:30-4:30pm
Classrooms and Libraries for the Net Generation
GWCC B212
NOTES: Time Conflict
I have to see Doug Johnson. Need I say more?
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
4:45-6:15pm
SIGMS (Media Specialists) Business Meeting
GWCC B304
Always the professional!
—————————————————————-
Tuesday, June 26
8:30-9:45am
Tuesday Keynote Panel
GWCC Murphy Ballroom
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
10:30am-12:30pm
SIGMS Forum: The Changing Landscape of 21st Century School Information Centers
GWCC B206
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
11:00am-12:00pm
Del.icio.us Research: Redesign Assignments with Social Bookmarking
GWCC B305
NOTES: Time Conflict
I don’t have a great handle on Social Bookmarking so his might feed my mind…
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
11:00am-12:00pm
Staggeringly Good Things Integrating Media and Google Earth
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
…but I do enjoy Hall Davidson. Haven’t decided on this or the Social Bookmarking session yet,…
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:30-1:30pm
Open Source Blogging Solutions for Publishing Student Writing
GWCC B308
NOTES: Time Conflict
…and I really would like to see Chris’s session too. He is from right her in SC! Decisions, decisions, decisions! There is also a session by Bernie Dodge, Will Richardson, and David Warlick (panelists, i think) at the same time!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:30-1:30pm
Can Technology Make Us Wise?
GWCC Murphy 2/3
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:30-1:30pm
New Tools, New Schools: Starting the Conversation about Web 2.0
GWCC B207
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
2:00-3:00pm
Contemporary Literacy in the New Information Landscape
GWCC Murphy 2/3
David Warlick, Need I say more?? I’m a huge fan!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
3:30-4:30pm
The Good, Bad, and Ugly: Taking Digital Pictures Effectively
GWCC Murphy 2/3
NOTES:
Leslie Fisher–very popular and a favorite!

—————————————————————-
Wednesday, June 27
8:30-9:30am
Information Fluency Meets Web 2.0
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
Joyce Valenza–Goddess of school Libraires — She is the EXPERT and Model Pro!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
9:00-11:00am
All the News That Is the News in Your School
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
9:00-11:00am
Clay Animation: Intro to Magic
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
10:30-11:30am
From Hand It In to Publish It: Re-Envisioning Our Classrooms
GWCC Murphy 4
NOTES: Time Conflict
Will Richardson–conflicts w/ Mark Wagner
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
10:30-11:30am
With Power Comes Responsibility: Online Awareness, Ethics, and Safety
GWCC B217
NOTES: Time Conflict
Mark Wagner–conflicts with Will Richardson
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:00-2:00pm
NetSmartz: Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, and Social Networking
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
its a poster so I hope i can catch a little b/w sessions
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:00-1:00pm
Preparing Teachers to Lead in a Global Society
GWCC Murphy 4
NOTES: Time Conflict
Lucy Gray, a blogger I like to read, and a friend in Ning!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
12:00-2:00pm
Keep It Simple! Easy K-5 Digital Photography Activities and Projects
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:00-2:00pm
Photoshop Elements Projects for Kids!
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
12:00-2:00pm
Wiki While You Work: Best Practices for Educational Wikis
GWCC Galleria (Posters)
NOTES: Time Conflict
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
1:30-2:30pm
Expanding Boundaries of Learning: Designing Rigorous and Globally Connected Assignments
GWCC Murphy 1
NOTES: Time Conflict
Another TOUGH choice–Alan November or Women of Web 2.0???
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
1:30-2:30pm
Women of Web 2.0: Collaborative Content Coaching
GWCC Murphy 4
NOTES: Time Conflict
Here is the conflict with Alan November!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
2:45-4:00pm
Closing Keynote
GWCC Murphy Ballroom
I‘ve never stayed for the closing keynote before, so i don’t know if this will be any different than the opening keynote. I hope to find out soon.

Unscheduled Items
—————————————————————-
I purposefully left off Kathy Schrock because she assured me the presentation from FETC is the same as this one.

I also need to explore some sessions on Second Life, but I just don’t see when i’ll have the time!

Technorati Tags: necc2007 neccprep necc07

I have so much more time in the summer to read and enjoy stuff. Today stumbled across Gizmo! OMG you must check it out! Just the thought of what it could do! I am just going to point you to a sample I came across today. Thanks, Susan, for posting that.

If so, let me join your club.  But I read about LoudBlog on another blog I follow and they swear by its simpleness! Four clicks away to posting a podcast! Thanks Wes Fryer for a great post to this.  I can’t wait to try it out. I’ll have to return here to let you know.