Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Friday I got a comment on my post A little used tool of mine came in REALLY handy this summer!!
from Alan November himself. Imagine my ego to know that Alan November had read my blog and even taken the time to post! Here is his comment:

Alan November // Jul 27th 2007 at 7:19 am (edit)

Helllo Kathy,

I am thrilled that you were able to join our community in Boston from South Carolina. Now I have to rethink the BLC conference design to take advantage of how the new tools can connect to people around the world. It is a fun time.

It excited me to no end that I’d gotten this comment (so much so that I can forgive Alan for misspelling Cathy), as I had thoroughly enjoyed BLC this year through the kind efforts of the skypechatting going on during many sessions. David Jakes had sent out in his blog The Strength of Weak Ties and open invitation for anyone wanting to join in to skype him and he would add us. I took advantage of this opportunity since I could not go, and learned so much. I was not alone, as many (from within the conference and session to around the world) joined into this amazing new way to learn from the experts.

Well yesterday I find out something different, and it dismays me to no end. You see, I live in a state where funding for public education is TIGHT. Even though I have desired to go and asked each year (only to be told no), I do not think it is realistic to think that I’ll ever get to go. I only know of folks from the wealthier districts in South Carolina, like Lexington 5 and Greenville County who have sent folks. I read a lot of blogs through my reader, and frequently link out to those blogs to see if there are comments, especially I I feel it’s a popular topic (and the blog doesn’t seem to offer an rss for comments.) So yesterday, as I was reading up, I came to the folder in my Bloglines titled NECC Tags. I came across the post about Skyping called “Uber Blogging” which oddly enough mentioned me and my participation in BLC from my home here in South Carolina. Yes, I was flattered that I had gotten a mention in that blog, called Nexus. So tonight I pulled up that link again, but this time instead of linking to Nexus since I’d already read it, I went to the links that linked to it in Technorati. Here I found this blog named Educational Discourse, and the principal blogger (Kelly Christopherson) also talked about all the skypechatting and back channeling going on during BLC, and how it had forever changed the way folks want to enjoy presentations at conferences. Yes, I was in total agreement! And I was proud of the fact that I had already experienced this phenomenon and had already blogged about it in my own blog. I have now subscribed to Kelly’s feed (in a folder I’ve named school administrators who blog.)

But here is where the disappointment comes in. I linked to this blog simply because it had linked to Diane Hammond’s blog Nexus (the one that had mentioned me.) I wanted to check out the links as I was sure it had something to do with skypechatting or “uber-blogging” as Diane had aptly titled it. But what caught my eye was the lone comment by none other than Christian Long, a presenter from BLC, and an author of his own blog. He was also heavily involved in extending my learning at BLC through the skypechats. I’ll quote it here:

Christian Long
July 26th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

First, thank you for pushing on this idea. Echo your thoughts across the board.

Second, as a new papa who has video access to his kidddo in daycare each day, I am already preparing to be blacked-out once he arrives in a traditional school that considers ‘parent teacher nights’ to be the equal of ‘access’ that I have n0w. Whether regular or semi-regular podcasts (or something more or less dynamic), I’d like to think that by the time my kiddo goes to kindergarten it will be possible for me to regularly ‘attend’ his classes from a distance.

Third, and the same can be said of the classes ‘down the hall’ at the same school I’ll be teaching at this fall. So many wonderful conversations taking place in the same building, but I can’t be in all the classrooms at the same time. Mmm.

Fourth, Alan November’s BLC events will be available for a fee virtually starting next year. He announced that in Boston this summer. Plan on attending one way or another!

Cheers, Christian

Did anyone catch Christian’s fourth point?? Let me quote just that one again:

Fourth, Alan November’s BLC events will be available for a fee virtually starting next year. He announced that in Boston this summer. Plan on attending one way or another!

To say I am shocked and dismayed is an understatement. I even feel a little mad. You see, as I mentioned before, the rate (roughly $700) is high, and it does not include housing or travel. If I were to fund this my self, the trip would more than likely be well over $1000. It saddens me tremendously now to think that the opportunities I enjoyed this year at BLC (from right here in my own living room) will not be available next summer because for someone in charge, this will be transformed into a money making scheme. It really concerns me to know that this conference costs participants $700, and when you factor in that there were roughly 600-700 people there this year, well that’s a lot of money they made. In working with SCAET over the last 3 years, I realize it takes a lot of money to run a conference. And BLC brings in some really great presenters, like Mitch Resnick, Angela McFarlane, Tim Tyson, and Dr. Yong Zhao, which I’m sure come with a hefty price tag. Factor in some of the other amenities that have a cost, like free wireless, its location at the Boston Marriott Newton, breakfast and lunch daily, very nice evening events (this year’s conference included a trip to Boston Waterfront and a Harbor Dinner Cruise), and assorted activities daily for participants’ entire families. Yes, I’m sure this conference totals a whopper-sized bill.

But I don’t think BLC will lose participants just because of the skypechatters who enjoyed the conference (some like me free, but only in the virtual sense) this year. This conference is way popular enough that the planners SHOULD NOT charge for what we did this year. For some reason after reading Christian’s comment yesterday, and then rereading Alan’s comment on my blog, I felt like I had done something wrong…like I had stolen something. Something that had felt so wonderful two weeks ago, suddenly felt dirty. Gee thanks for making me feel that way.

Well, all I can say is I’m sorry if I did something wrong. I am changing school districts this year, and once again I will ask for funding to attend BLC in 2008. I really don’t think the request will be funded, and so once again next summer I’ll be sitting at home wishing I was there and clamoring for blog posts, podcasts, and any other tidbits that may come from this conference. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. I really hate to think this change is going to take place because it’s just another way to make money. Oh well. Hopefully it will be considerably cheaper than the $700 it’s costing participants now, and will include perhaps an opportunity to see and hear the presenters, and not just get bread crumbs from the skypechatters.

If the planners are going to find a way to charge for even the “breadcrumbs” that go from this conference, then PLEASE, develop some kind of scholarship system so those of us in rural districts with tight budgets can apply and perhaps win a conference registration.

Technorati Tags: blc2007 blc07

Olsen, Tracey. “Money!” Tracey O’s Photostream. 22 October 2005. 31 Jul 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391/.>.

I haven’t written much about podcasts before and really only have limited experience in making them. I hope to change that this school year.  There will be many changes coming, as I am changing schools this year, and that change is going to take me three hours from home and family.  (I almost feel like a college student going away, though I’m much to old for that!)  When I took this job, the thinking family-wise was that we would all go. But the jobs available to my husband were not equal or better than the one he is currently in, and we have one son still in high school who was very reluctant to move just before his junior year, so we made the decision to relocate just me.  I’ll be a weekend wife and mom for a while.  It may be temporary (one school year) or it may be long term. Who knows? Maybe in two years when son #2 graduates from high school, we can be a whole family unit again. But for now, beginning next week–August 6th, we will be a weekend kind of family.  Yes, it’s scary, and there have been many prayers about this, but we believe the Lord answers prayers and things happen for a reason. So we are truly playing it by ear right now.  I’m excited about my new job, and I believe our family will be a stronger unit in the long run.

Which leads me to the purpose of this post–professional development from podcasts.  Podcasting was all the rage at the Philadephia NECC back in 2005.  It was still raging at San Diego’s NECC 2006.  I don’t recall a big rage about it this year (Atlanta NECC 2007), but it hasn’t changed my following of some of the podcasts I’ve learned about in the last three years.  I can say that listening to the podcasts has helped me grow significantly in my pofessional life, and I have some  personal podcast subscriptions too. Here is a screenshot from my iTunes of the podcasts that I subscribe to.

When do I have time to listen to them? I wish I could say it is a regular thing, but it isn’t, especially in the summer.  But once school resumes, I’ll listen each day in the car (driving back and forth to work.)  I’ll also listen in the evenings–especially since the vast majority of what is on tv is not interesting.  Some of these I catch live from the web, and only need to listen to them if I miss the live cast (Women of Web 2.0, EdTech Talks shows.) Some are just for my own personal enjoyment (like Guiding Light, a CBS soap, and What Not to Wear, a show about clothing and style–which is a video podcast.) I also subscribe to a sermon series from Seacoast Church, where my sister attends church.  I try to tune into that, especially if I can’t go to my own church, or really need some spiritual replenishing.   But I can say without a doubt these have helped me grow unbelievably!

No, you don’t have to have an iPod to subscribe and listen–I believe any mp3 player that can be  synched up to iTunes  will do.  But don’t forget, listening straight from your computer is okay too. How many of you multitask?  Just add podcasts to your list of things you do simultaneously.

If you listen to different podcasts, share some of yours with me.  I’m always fine-tuning my subscriptions.  And always looking for ways to stay on top of what’s going on, especially in the field of education.

Okay, yes, I will blog about Skype. Skype is a handy tool that allows you to have f2f conversations with a person using an online connection. All that is needed is a good connection and a webcam. Now I have to confess that I have been using Skype for about 2 years. My entire family uses it for calls–even my 72 year old mother! You see, I have three brothers and three sisters, and we are scattered around: I’m in Rock Hill, SC (soon to be Myrtle Beach), one is in Seattle, WA, two are in Charleston. SC, one in Columbia, SC, the rest right there with dear old Mom in Lancaster, SC. But we travel a good bit too, so Skype has allowed us to really share travels and experiences with each other. I will not go into the technical details of Skype, but it is a downloadable program, and there is a free version of it. You don’t have to be really all that technically savvy to download it, set up your web cam and use it. I promise. My technophobic mother did it for pete’s sake!

But my reason for blogging about it is related to the uses I’ve found for it. I was introduced to Skype I want to say three years ago in October (2004) during the SC EdTech conference sponsored by SCAET. I downloaded it then, but couldn’t really get any frineds to use it. Then last Christmas as we sat around after eating Christmas Dinner, somehow it came up in a conversation, and all of my brothers and sisters agreed to download it and use it. We demonstrated for Mom too, and we’ve all been using it since. I’ve been in conferences too many to name where presenters (like Alan November, David Warlick, and others) have also demonstrated Skype. But I hadn’t really figured out how I might use it for my own educational journey. I even skyped Alan November in March during our SCASL Conference, when he was trying to demonstrate it there! It was a funny moment–read about it here.

I have had a few professional conversations with some of the experts I know (Alan November, Chris Craft) but other than that, I’ve had little use for it. Now that does not mean it wasn’t important to me. It’s just that I didn’t feel the need to use it outside the uses I’ve mentioned just now. But recently, I’ve begun to see it in a different light. I follow several different live podcast type programs on EdTech Talk, and many of them have their guests call in using Skype. They are frequently asking if anyone wants to “skype” in, though honestly I haven’t had the nerve to do that just yet.

But recently, David Jakes sort of sponsored a “Skypecast” of the sessions he would be attending at the November Learning Conference (Building Learning Communities) last week. Now I had attended NECC, and knew that some were doing this “skypecasting” of sessions, but it didn’t make sense to me why i would join a skypecast if I were there in person hearing, seeing, and participating. So I ignored the invitations at NECC to join in skypechats. I read over the blogs that posted the scripts of the skypechats, but really didn’t give it much more thought. Then BLC happened, and I wasn’t going, but Jakes had extended this invitation! So I jumped at the chance. David, along with many other experts who were there (Will Richardson, Ewan McIntosh, Joyce Valenza, and so many more…)used the Skypechat to summarize the presenters points, and do some reflecting and asking questions that racheted up my learning like I couldn’t believe. It was a whole different level of participating. Amazingly enough, some of the presenters even participated in the Skypechats about their own presentations! it was like back channeling going on, and it all centered on the topic at hand. Very few folks got off topic, and we (those in the session and those like me, sitting at home) didn’t miss anything. If anything, we all got a deeper understanding of the content. Read about my experience here.

Here is a pix uploaded by Will Richardson of David Jakes’ screen during BLC. If I’m not mistaken, I’m the third contact on that screen! Hey, isn’t that Bloglines on the presenter’s screen?  Another favorite tool I use!

Now I have another friend (Kitty Forbus) who is learning Skype. She used me today as a guinea pig to test her web cam and microphone. It was a major revelation for her. She then asked for some ideas on how to use it–to really implement it in the classroom. Guess what? I drew a great big fat blank! I was so embarrassed! But she bounced back with some really good ideas, which she posted here in her blog, Stirring up the Dust. I may use some of your ideas Kitty! Just as I’ve been a help to her in some respects, she is being a help to me too. Thanks Kitty.

I’ve seen this posted in several blogs I subscribe to today and in several list serves that I am a member of.  When I first saw it, I read it but didn’t really process it.  Then when I saw it in several different locations, I began to pay attention.  Considering my posting to support Global Lib 2.0 this week, here is an awesome opportunity to invite the teachers at my school to jump in the water.  I’m copying and pasting, though I cannot take credit for it. The first place I recall seeing it was on the Teacher Librarian Ning, posted by Karen Kliegman of Albertson, New York.  But what an awesome way to seriously think of ways to implement 2.0 tools?

MidLink Magazine Call for Participation!

You are cordially invited to explore the July-December issue of MidLink Magazine http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink the award-winning magazine for students ages 8 – 18. If you’re looking for ideas for your upcoming year, you’ve come to the right place! Please email the teacher/editors of the projects below you would like to participate in with your students! You and your students are sure to get inspired by the projects created by MidLink Magazine’s teacher-editors:

1. Periodic Table of Podcasts: Have your students add their own scientific podcast to the growing body of information found in this exciting project!

2. Find a Story… Map a Story… Tell a Story: Use emerging digital mapping tools to explore the connection between story, place and community.

3. Science Through the Camera Lens: Study the science found in pictures and then create a multimedia project

4. Tell Me a Story: Learn how to encourage children to accept and celebrate their differences, using digital storytelling

See detailed descriptions below or visit MidLink Magazine at: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/

1. Periodic Table of Podcasts

We invite students from any school to participate in the development of the “Periodic Table of Podcasts”. To participate, instructions are provided within this website. There are very easy ways to create audio files in the classroom even if you have only a few computers by using Internet resources such as Podomatic or Odeo. Audio files could be hosted on your school’s server, various Internet resources, or other means. Don’t let the technology get in the way- for help and advise contact the webmaster of this site. All we need is the URL (link) to your students’ audio files, and we can add them to the Periodic Table of Podcasts! If you wish to collaborate regarding your podcast project, e-mail Joselyn Todd, Ph. D.

Project URL: http://tinyurl.com/2ornnn

Contact Teacher Editor, Dr. Joselyn J. Todd, Cary Academy, Cary, NC

2. Find a Story… Map a Story… Tell a Story

This Place-based Stortelling Project invites students to choose a story that matters to them and using an online mapping tool like Community Walk, Wayfaring or Google Maps, create a StoryMap that will place their stories within a geographical context. Using one of these digital mapping tools, students will locate a geographical map from their story location, and add images, audio and text memories to the place markers found on the mapping tool. This project will help students recover lost stories and save and share them so other can enjoy and learn from them. You are invited to browse through the project resources and projects example on this web site and plan to have your classroom participate:

Project URL: http://www.rebooting.ca/place/

Project Coordinator: Brenda Dyck, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Red Deer College (Middle Years’ Program), Red Deer, Alberta

3. Science Through the Camera Lens

Have you ever seen a view of nature or engineering and wondered about the “awesomeness” of it? Did you take a picture of it so you could capture it forever? Florida State University School Science students did just that. They took pictures with a digital camera or a camera phone. Students delivered them to their science teacher via email or on a flash drive. Students studied the science in the pictures then created their multimedia project. Here are their stories…..

Project URL: http://www.fsus.fsu.edu/mcquone/scicam/scicam.html

Teacher Editor, Cathy McQuone, Earth/Space Science Instructor, Florida State University Schools, Tallahassee, Florida

4. Tell Me a Story

Tell Me a Story is a project in which students were asked to contemplate the following essential questions:

How does culture shape the way we see ourselves, others, and the world? How does my culture shape me? Why is it important to understand culture? The purpose of this project is to encourage children to accept and celebrate their differences. We want to help all children develop a positive self-concept and feel proud of whom they are. If this positive sense of self and others is allowed to flourish, today’s children will become adults who accept and affirm differences, identify unfair situations, and strive to eliminate racism of any sort.

Grade levels: K-8

Project URL: http://tinyurl.com/2qnzgr

Teacher Editor: Karen Kliegman, Library Media/Educational Technology Specialist, Searingtown School, Albertson, Adjunct Professor, Long Island University, New York kkliegman@herricks.org

Brenda Dyck, BEd, MET

Senior Editor: MidLink Magazine: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/

Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Red Deer College MiddleYears’ Program, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

E-mail: dyckba@shaw.ca

Carolyn Foote of the Blog Not So Distant Future has asked the we support Global Library 2.0 Week (which is next week) by sharing ways we will connect with fellow librarians and educators using our web 2.0 tools. My desire is to connect, collaborate, create, reflect, and learn which is similar to Mitch Resnick’s cycle of Kindergarten learning, which is imagine–>create–>play–>share–>reflect–>then start over again with share…Mitch Resnick’s model was shared at NECC07 & BLC07.

This image (thanks Ewan McIntosh for sharing it!) has really gotten in my head this week. Mitch also has another picture of what school typically winds up being, which is really scary, and everything I want to avoid as an educator. I’ll let you go look at it here. So I accept the challenge Carolyn has posted about sharing the ways we will connect to implement the learnings from the professional development opportunities I’ve had (which come from a slew of resources, including my Bloglines, my iTunes (podcasts), my attendance at NECC, and my “virtual” attendance at BLC, just to name a few.)

Here are some ideas I am working on now:

• Booktalk wiki with my friend in Marietta, Ga.
• Classes making videos for TeacherTube this year to share with the world–I hope to connect with a media specialist somewhere to get the kids working together…
• Create a blog for the library (it will be my first year in this school) and get students from across the district, state, and maybe further to participate…
• Collaborate on pathfinders, and make them a part of a wiki project–having media specialist, teachers, and even students make contributions

Lofty goals, I know. Hopefully I’ll successfully implement some of them. Thanks, Carolyn, for this challenge. Sometimes we need to be pushed a little to get some momentum going.

McIntosh, Ewan. “What Kindergarten is Like.” Edublogger’s Photostream. 19 July 2007. 20 Jul 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/edublogger/851051243/>.

Technorati Tags: Globallib2.0week

I know I’ve been rambling quite a bit in the last few days. The BLC has gotten me so pumped!! Who would’ve thought I could get excited by merely participating in a conference through skype chats and blog posts? Move over Doug Jonhson, Alan November, and David Warlick, you have some new competition! I think Ewan McIntosh has moved up to number 1 for me! Ewan totally blew me away today, and I wasn’t even there to hear or see him in person. All I could get were breadcrumbs from skypechats and blogs, but it was well worth he 2 straight days I have been glued to my chair! I wanted to share a picture of me from this morning—took it using my “PhotoBooth” program on the Mac. This is how I have looked for the last two mornings in a row because of this conference…. So much learning from the comforts of home! Here’s hoping I’ll get to be there next year.

I skypechatted with another BLC attendee–Principal Barbara Berreda, who oversees a K-8 Parochial school in Los Angeles, California (I didn’t catch the name of her school). I had wanted to “virtually” sit through Joyce Valenza’s session, and Barbara was in the keynote skype chat this morning, so we opened our own chat once she was in Valenza’s session. Often I wonder if principals truly understand the role (or the potential of the role) of a school library media specialist. I can tell that Barabara has this vision. She said she came to learn what a good library program can look like. She confessed that her concern was that her school would not get a great instructional partner for the library because they could not pay as much–they won’t be competitive salary-wise. But I assured her there are school librarians out there who would come just for the vision alone, if she truly wants her media specialist to be a catalyst for change and integration. Barbara has already demonstrated she has a solid start in having an effective library program. Her K-8 school does NOT use the library as part of the planning rotation so teachers can collaborate in a common planning time. Read what she said recently about what she wants in her library here. She said she did not want her librarian to be considered a babysitter–her words NOT mine (although many of you know I cannot stand the thought of being a babysitter in a school! It is why I have decided to change jobs this fall!) Barabara Barreda blogs at Dare to Dream: Technology Classrom. I’m adding her to my bloglines today. I’m making a new folder in bloglines too, for administrators with vision. Thanks Barbara for letting me be a virtual participant today!

Before she even left the stage after her opening keynote, Ewan McIntosh posted photos and a nicely written summation of Angela McFarlane’s opening keynote for Day 2 of BLC. I am amazed! I was in a skype-chat with 10 or so folks, one of which was Ewan McIntosh. He was skype-chatting with us, writing the blog, and snapping photos all at the same time! I am so amazed! I’ll post my reflections later. You Rock Ewan!

Day one of the BLC is done, and I’m already on information overload, even though I am not even there! There are some very nice, generous educators attending this conference. Today I was allowed to virtually sit in sessions given by Dean Shareski, Marc Torres, Marc Prensky, and Ewan McIntosh, all through the invitation from David Jukes to “sit in” via a skype chat. In the last one there were 10 to 12 virtual attendees. Some were right there in the same presentation, but some (like me) were here at home reading along, eating up every little crumb David Jakes and others were sharing!! It was awesome. Notice the picture from my skypechat participation!

So what’s got me on information overload?

Marco Torres presented “Lights, Camera, Learn: Movie-Making made Simple & Fun,” gave me some terms to use (such as the word “cuts”) and analyzing video samples, counting the cuts, and asking what skill is that in literacy? A possible fun and enlightening assignment could be to make an effective ten second video, and see what your kids can come up with. This is true higher order thinking skills, especially now that Bloom’s highest level is “Create.” Lots of synthesis and evaluation go into creation. I gave David Jakes a new term to roll around in his head—HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills). I think he liked it. [UPDATE: Link to skypechat on David Jake's site]

Marc Prensky – “The True 21st Century Literacy Is Programming: What Should we be teaching our kids and how to do it” Basically there are many tools available and we need to be modeling their use and teaching our students to use them as well.

Ewan McIntosh – “Is Your Public Body Public?” Ewan had five points, and if David Jakes posts the Skypechat, I’ll direct you straight to that. But major impressions I left with center on using the tools (once again). There was a side discussion of how empowering it would be to allow tools such as skypechat as a way to learn. Would there be misuse? Another conversation (skype subchat I guess you might call it) dealt with failure, and whether or not its okay to fail? A comparison was made to video games and their addictiveness, despite failure after failure. Those who play video games learn from their mistakes and keep trying. They don’t dwell on the failure itself, but rather learn how to approach a problem they encounter differently to have success. Do we as educators discuss our failures or student failures enough? Are there opportunities to try again? That’s deep! This group shared videos and websites, and so much more. It was powerful!

From Will Richardson’s blog posting yesterday, Will Richardson made the point that how can we truly expect teachers to encourage the use of Web 2.0 tools for learning? We as educators need to spread the word about the tremendous amount of knowledge and/or professional development that is available out there for US as educators. According to Will, only when a teacher values the tools for their own self learning will they try using them for student learning. I agree with this statement whole-heartedly. My SCASA Summer Leadership Institute presentation this past June centered on getting buy-in from k12 administrators by showing them the tools they could use to learn all about tools of the 21st Century. My goal, I shared with them, was that they would begin to utilize the tools themselves, and then hopefully model the use of tools to their faculty and staff.

Okay so some of you already know I’m a HUGE Alan November fan. Alan has been to SC’s Edtech Conference and SCASL’s Conference in recent years, as well as many times at ISTE’s NECC, so I’ve had many opportunities to see and hear him. He is even on my Skype contact list, and yes, there’s a story behind that here. I’ve had several opportunities to chat with him since then, so I’ve gotten to know that he really is a nice man, too. It is my goal to eventually attend one of his “Building Learning Communities” (BLC) Conferences one summer. It is so expensive though!! Generally my own summer learning opportunities are self-financed, and if this desire is to come to fruition, I’d better start saving now. Maybe in 2 years I’ll have the ability to send myself to Boston for a BLC. Why can’t there be a few grant or scholarship opportunities??

Which leads me to the point of my post, the BLC 2007 Conference, which began with pre-conference sessions today. Even though I cannot attend physically, I am able to track a lot of what is going on from right here at home, thanks to my network of virtual friends and Web 2.0 supporters. David Warlick (of 2 Cents Worth blog fame) has set up a website called Hitchhikr, and by searching for BLC on that site, I have been able to subscribe to an RSS feed of any blog posting that come from that conference (by way of tagging). Attendees have been given a workbook and guide on tagging posts and so there is already over 100 posts listed in my aggregator from BLC attendees who are writing and sharing about what is happening and how much they are learning. Other attendees (like Will Richardson of Weblogg-ed, David Jakes of The Strength of Weak Ties, and Ewan McIntosh of Edu.Blogs.Com) are “twittering” through Twitter about the conference, as well as blogging too. David Jakes has graciously offered to Skype with anyone interested in the sessions he is attending, and he posted his two-day agenda on his blog yesterday. It astounds me that I have so many opportunities and methods to track what is going on at this conference.

I am not alone in my helpless feeling that I am missing a great opportunity here too. David Warlick twittered just a moment ago that he wishes he was attending BLC. I’m right there with ya, David. But I am also ever so thankful for the ways that I can be there at least “virtually.”
Berger, Jutta. “View from our Window: Boston Skyline.” Ernie*’s Photostream. 22 February 2007. 17 Jul 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/juttasfotos/399095639/>.