Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

The SLJ All Together Now version of 23 Things is now in its 2nd week, and “thing 3″ calls for us to subscribe to a podcast or two and tell why we like it. Yesterday I wrote about Bob Sprankle’s Bit by Bit. Today I thought I’d plug the upcoming K12 Online Conference, which starts its 3rd annual event October 13, 2008 (with an introductory keynote) followed by two weeks of forty presentations (October 20-31, 2008.) I have participated in the last two years, and plan to be there for the 3rd annual conference too. Best, it is ALL online, so I don’t have to go “anywhere” in particular, and even better, it’s totally FREE. It has been promoted as free, flexible and forward thinking. This is last year’s logo, but it really speaks to what the K12Online Conference is all about. Free is self explanatory–it doesn’t cost you a dime in travel, hotels, lodging or any of the other amenities we commonly associate with attending a typical conference. Flexible describes it well, because participants choose when and where they partake of “most” of the offerings–there are a few events that are live, but most of those are even archived. Forward Thinking (Progressive & Practical) is also used in describing the K12Online Conference too, as participants can capture a true vision for forward thinking from great presenters who share fabulous and usefull tried and true tips for engaging learners using 21st century skills. (Gee I sound like a commercial.) But its true! There is something for everyone here, from the true novice beginner to the professional keynoter who alredy knows it all. This year’s theme is “amplifying possibilities.”

I know I will blog about this again nearer to the actual dates of the conference, but for those out there who have decided to participate in “All Together Now” 23 Things, here is a wonderful podcast series that you can go ahead and take advantage of now. Subscribe to the K12 Online Conference and GRAB learning on the go that will NOT disappoint you. Yes, it will be last year’s content, but the content is still wonderful. I think this picture from a set in lynetter’s photostream says it all. This is true especially for podcasts, no matter when, where, or even how we consume them.

Where are the K12 Online feeds? Here

Image Attributions:

“Online Things Can Live Forever.” 1 February 2007. lynetter’s photostream (set “interesting Snippets”). July 29, 2008. <http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/376632696_3f4d7a3755.jpg?v=0>

K12 Onlince Conference Banner 2008
http://k12online.ning.com/

K12 Online Conference 2007 Image
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/1520649674_db1606ee7d_o.jpg

I had a chance to attend BLC08 compliments of my school this year. I was very excited and even blogged about it some time back. So why did I not go? There is a story there, and I will attempt to share it. I feel I owe it to my network that celebrated with me when I thought I was going.
BLC07 Remembered and Shared At the beginning of school, I shared with my principal about BLC—I had virtually benefited from BLC07 through the breadcrumbs of backchannels from the likes of David Jakes, Ewan McIntosh, Barbara Barreda, and others willing to open up their skype chats for any who wanted to respond to backchannel discussions. These people were physically in the audience and invited anyone from their network to join in. Those out in the network did not have the luxury of U-Stream then, nor were we privy to listening in using Skype (I still wonder why no one thought to do that?) But still it was a phenomenon I will not soon forget. I think this alone is what made me realize my professional learning centered around conversations more so than speakers, classes, or presentations.

Interest grows at the district level So my principal shared with a district administrator who works with the school library folks. He asked me about it, and I excitedly told him all I knew. I also shared that I had wanted to go every year since its inception, about which SC districts I knew had been, and that due to the cost, and what I saw as a suggested requirement→that schools and organizations should come as a group→I had never seriously pursued it. (I have always floated my own boat at national conferences-paid for them right out of my own pocket.)

District Decides to GO! The next thing I know, this district leader has gone back and shared about BLC to others at the district level, and a group was formulated to go. I found out later, and was VERY excited. There were six going from my district (already registered and scheduled for flights/lodging.) I told my principal, who told me to go ahead and plan to go with them—she would pay for me and another teacher to attend with that group. I tried to get a teacher to go, but many were reluctant to use summer-time to do this (which is shocking all by itself-that few would consider using their summer for PD–is that just a Cathy phenomenon?).

Too High a Cost As time lapsed, I also began to think how dare me use school money for such an expensive extravagant trip. I kept rationalizing that registration for two teachers alone would be right around $1300, and that is not including airfare, food, and lodging. I kept saying jeepers how much more we could do with more teachers if I would just NOT do this. I have a pet peeve about anyone who fleeces the school of much needed money (like color copies of family photos, or baby-shower thank-you cards made AT SCHOOL in color on school cardstock and FILLED with baby-shower photos, oh gee I could go on an on here.)
My BLC Dream Ended So I let it go. The district is doing what I thought needed to be done→they are sending a group from the district. It is representative of district leaders, building principals, and I do believe a teacher, so I am satisfied in that. My hope of the group going is that they will catch the vision of 21st century learning and then bring this vision back to the district. I already have the vision (I think) so why should I go? I should allow others who haven’t gotten that vision yet to go. I should have my principal spend our professional development money, limited as it is, to get more teachers in pd that will help them grow.

Missing Friends, Virtual & F2F So there you have it—that is why I am not going to BLC this year. I will, however, very much MISS a reunion of virtual friends, including Joyce Valenza, Liz Davis, Lisa Thumann, Alice Barr, Colleen King, and many others I have met virtually in professional social networking tools and f2f from Educon 2.0 in Philly. I DO plan to go again to Educon 2.0, and once again, ask that my school help by splitting the costs with me. Last year I asked to go with this agreement in mind, and said if I could do it for under $500, I would. That is my plan once again—hope the gas prices and airfare will allow it.

Breadcrumbs will have to suffice… Please know that as I sit and reach out for breadcrumbs of information coming out of BLC, I am solidly kicking myself for NOT going ahead and attending, all expenses paid by my school. There are breadcrumbs available though, in the format of blog posts, wiki edits, twitters, and U-Streams. It’s the next best thing to being there.

Attribution:

Okay so I’m still reeling from our session at NECC (so titled in the above blog title.) You can visit our wiki handout here. It is very surreal to even now reflect and realize that I have done 2 presentations (both panel style) with Joyce Valenza. My other panelists, Carolyn Foote, Diane Cordell, Judy O’Connell, and Anita Beaman, all could have held down the session alone too. I am astonished at the content I alone learned in our session, and all was pulled together with only a little interaction before hand. We each sort of divvied up the topics, and went our own way with them, not sharing a whole lot until right before the conference. I think this is why I was able to enjoy listening after my contribution.

Time was ticking

Speaking of that, we began with Joyce going first. I was stunned at the number of slides she used, considering we had all decided before hand to just use pictures, and leave the text for our voices. Not a single bullet or visible powerpoint template to be seen, which seemed to go over really well. I had nine slides, Joyce had twenty-seven last time I counted. OUCH. I was following her, and we had decided before beginning that we each had seven minutes to talk. Seven minutes times seven people (Kim Cofino had a part that was pre-taped using Voice Thread) would mean forty-nine minutes, leaving ten minutes for discussion and questions/answers in a perfect world. I worked hard to make sure my part was seven minutes, and so having nine slides should have made that easy. I saw as we all loaded our slides on the wiki in the days leading up to our session that some had a large set of slides. I wasn’t worried though b/c Joyce had said seven minutes, and she had a large number, so I just figured if she could cover hers in seven minutes, we all could create that many and be successful.

Sometimes it’s a perfect world…

Well it wasn’t a perfect world, b/c even with a timer, some of the group went over their allotted seven minutes. I was just after Joyce (what huge shoes to fill) and so felt at ease thinking I would probably be done with mine well before my time was up. Low and behold the timer gave a warning of one minute and I still had 2 slides to go! I wrapped it up in just exactly seven minutes, whew! Our time did not allow though for Kim’s video, but it is available for any who still haven’t seen it. Awesome work too.

I became a sponge

After my part, I just sat back and absorbed like crazy b/c shockingly enough each panelist was FANTASTIC. I am proud to report that I learned so much from the other panelists. It is worth your time and effort to go back and watch/listen to the session, which is on the wiki in an archived u-stream (THANKS Derrall G.)

One of my OMG Moments

One surprise I had in our session was when just after we began I saw David Loertscher–yes, THE David Loertscher–come in the back of room. Since we had a full back channell (from the Ustream chat–53 was the highest number I saw–and then the “cover-it-live” live blog that Carolyne Foote was trying to maintain, I decided to let it be known that he had joined us. I tweeted, added it in the Ustream Chat, and added it in Carolyn’s live blog. Shocking to me, about a third of the room turned around to get a glimpse of David Loertscher. WOW. That is truly a powerful feeling–1) he chose our session (and that he was AT NECC), and 2) other people in our room were apparently live in the various chats and visibly turned to look for him. (He even has a blog–though its not as up to date as I like. Still, I’m impressed.)

Now What?

This has made me realize that we in SC should also do a session like this for SCEdTech, SCASL, SCASA, SC Middle School Conference, and any number of other conferences held around our state. So, I’m looking for recruits. Who’s in? Chris? MaryAnn? Julia? Bob? Fran? Come on!! I also think its time for me (and all the other panelists as well) to step up to the bigger conferences on our own. It’s Independence Day, right?

Want to see some other streamed sessions from NECC? Visit here.

Image Attribution:

Image: ‘David Loertscher‘
http://davidloertscher.wordpress.com/

Image: ‘Flat time‘
www.flickr.com/photos/45451323@N00/108818423

Image: ‘Panel‘
http://necclibrarians08.wikispaces.com/

Image: ‘Sponges‘
www.flickr.com/photos/96878569@N00/826064663

Yesterday there was a very large outcry amongst the bloggers about restrictions ISTE was last minute placing on attendees intent to video, ustream, or podcast entire sessions. Wes Fryer broke the story to me in my reader, and then i read it many times over after that. Miguel Ghulin suggested we all contact conference conveners Leslie Connery and/or Don Knezek from ISTE. Migeul actually wanted many to blog there dismay as well, though I just chose to email–since he did provide us contact info (thanks Miguel.) I gather from reading Miguel’s update at his blog the email I received is more or less copy/pasted, but it was personalized by Leslie (or a Leslie designee.)

(UPDATED 6-21-08 Noon EST–I am removing the rest of this as after reflection and comments left here and elsewhere. I do not feel it is conducive to positive conversation and leaves it open for misinterpretation. My intent with this post was to give thanks to ISTE for listening to members’concerns, particularly mine. If you need more info you can contact me via my contact form on the blog.)

I’ll be in San Antonio for ISTE’s NECC very soon. It seems surreal to think I’m on the list for presenting in a panel discussion. So what if it is not like a real preso? Instead of my own presentation it is rather a group who talk about how the newer tools have changed the way we do things, particularly in the school library. My contribution (voice of expertise) is supposed to be using the tools for professional development. I hope I can hold a candle to the other experts on the panel. I am so in awe of Joyce Valenza, Carolyn Foote, and Judy O’Connell! Oh and some how one of the expert voices is not showing in the list–>Diane M Cordell-a wonderful friend I would have never met had it not been for the tools we use to network (blogs, Twitter, Skype, etc.) So looking forward to this one! Here’s the description from the NECC planner.

Next week right here in little ol’ South Carolina, I will be privy to two expert voices!! Welcome to true southern charm and manners Marc Prensky and Ewan McIntosh!

Welcome Marc!

Coming to Rock Hill (my official hometown) Marc Prensky is giving a keynote at a local conference for this school district. My husband is part of the planning committee, and yesterday he informed me that the coordinator of the conference (which I am not officially attending or participating in) said I was welcome to come hear Prensky. I guess this coordinator knows how excited I would be–meaning, I suppose, he recognizes that I’m a forward thinker too, and clamor after forward thinkers, either virtually through blogs, ustreams, and other networking or in person, like conferences. Whatever the reason, I am so excited to know I can attend for at least Prensky’s part of this conference. I won’t be able to ustream so don’t ask. The school district does not allow outside computers connectivity (wonder how they will deal with Prensky’s?) I’m still very excited. Will it look bad if I steal a front row seat for a conference that I am neither a paying or contributing member of? The uber-geek in me will be in full swing for sure. The ultra nerd in me also wants to talk to him AND get maybe I’ll even ask for an autograph. Confession–I’m an edtech groupie!

Welcome Ewan!

Ewan McIntosh will be keynoting the first day of the Greenville County School District’s Upstate Technology Conference. This one is absolutely FREE! I have a preso there at 8:00 am, and then at 9:15, Ewan does his keynote! I am so excited! Ewan was very instrumental last summer in making sure many virtual participants could participate in back-channels at NECC and the Building Learning Communities conferences. It made me realize there is a whole different way to enjoy conferences and get professional development, right from the conference I am at AND from my own living room if I am not present. I just emailed the UTC coordinators to inquire about Ustream possibilitis, and I will let you know what they say.

On a sad note, I will not get to enjoy David Jakes as keynote speaker for day 2 of the UTC. Isn’t it cool though that he will also be in SC? And he does indeed have a history in SC as part of the CSRA and the Department of Wildlife, though I’ve heard him talk about that time in his life, and though he is complimentary of his job, well, I’ll just say he doesn’t seem to like SC as a home (but of course that is my take after some “virtual” conversations.) Maybe next week when he is here, someone can get an official and 100% accurate opinion from him directly. Thursday I’ll be in Columbia, SC working with a group from across our entire state to hash out concerns relevant to school library media specialists. Perhaps more details to come later. Then Friday, we fly out to San Antonio for NECC.

Yes this is going to be a VERY exciting week coming up!

Attribution:

Today I did a session at our annual principal’s conference on social networking. Since the vast majority of tools like MySpace, Facebook, and even professional networks like Classroom 2.0 are blocked, I took the stance that we as educators must educate ourselves and our parents, especially in light of how issues stemming directly from student online interaction seems to find its way into our classrooms, guidance offices, right up to the administrators desks. I’ve presented at the conference several years, but usually in the morning. I was taken aback by the “ghost-town” feeling I had for my 2PM afternoon session. I had roughly fifteen participants. One lady assured me that my topic was popular and relevant, but after lunch folks attending this conference seem to find to “other” things to do. Factor in that it is the next to last day, and well, the lure of the beach was calling too. But honestly, when I attend conferences, I go to 90% of the offerings, and many times you can find me near the front row if I can get to a session early enough. Does this make me an uber-geek? Even in my session today, only one participant sat near the front. This was a new experience for me.

Don’t Preach to the Choir

My attendees seemed generally complimentary, and even one of the conference directors greeted me warmly by name when I arrived. But today I was a wee bit disappointed. Our SC State Department of Education library liaison (Martha Alewine) encourages us to get out and speak at different conferences besides our own. She suggests if we are to gain respect in the field, we must stop “preaching to the choir” (presenting to ourselves at our own conference) and branch out and spread our message about information literacy, ICT, and standards-based collaboratively taught engaged learning by presenting at other conferences. What better way to market what you as the teacher librarian have to offer the school and its curriculum? We must help the teacher population see that we can address standards and impact student achievement.

Spread our Message, Support our Colleagues

I generally try to present at our state edtech conference (SCEdTech), the middle school conference (if I remember to do the proposal), and this one. There are not very many “techy” sessions at this conference, as my friend Dennis Richards has noted before, and from his post here, this goes all the way up to the national level. I really like SCASA’s SLI, as I strongly feel administrators are the ones who MOST misunderstand what should be happening in a library, particularly a 21st Century Library. They are also in a position to “from the top down” help us become more of a collaborating and contributing partner for student learning. In years past, I’ve had wonderful reception and positive feedback from my sessions. My session today was later than I’d ever had before, 2PM. I never expected such a low turnout. It was quite frankly a little disheartening.

I Solemnly Promise…

I promise to all future presenters who draw an afternoon or late presentation I will strive to attend if I’m at the conference. Been there, done that. I know what if feels like now to present to an empty room. I’d have liked to have been out on the beach today too. I especially thank the ones who came.

Attribution:

Who am I writing for?

Recently I’ve had to do some real introspection. Why do I blog? Who am I targeting? What is my goal with each post? It has really made me go back and look at many posts. I used to think it was for my technorati rank, and then I thought it was for readership. Then I thought it was to solicit comments/conversations and affirmation that I have good points, thoughts, and ideas. Some would say it is for attention, and some might even say I am campaigning for an award or two.

Check out this:

Blog Stats

There are currently 191 posts and 479 comments, contained within 55 categories and 105 tags.

And for the record, those are not necessarily great stats, but I’m pleased with them.

Why then…?

That’s a lot of possibilities
As I sit here reflecting on this tonight, I realize it is for none of those reasons–though some of those things I list are definitely side effects, and some of them very satisfying ones. In short, however disappointing this may be to some, I do it for me. I do this as a way to tumble ideas through my head. I read others, and respond there, and then quite often here. And I’m open to any and all agreements and or disagreements. There is no harmful or malicious intent, but rather a desire to think out loud (albeit in a blog.)

Face to Face vs. Virtual Conversations

Feel free to agree or disagree, and if you want to be left out, I will remove anything that makes you uncomfortable, particularly if you express to me your interpretations. Words, just like emails, can be easily misinterpreted, and when someone is not known very well, the ever important “voice” that comes out of writing could start something that was never intended. It is better to set the record straight right away. Face to face conversations will ALWAYS supersede blogosphere conversations. It is the very reason we all strive to attend the conferences where we might meet up, and why many flocked to EdubloggerCon in Atlanta (NECC 2007) and Educon2.0 recently in Philadelphia. We clamor to see the people who do partake of conversations in the 2.0 tools because as much as we love these tools, they still cannot top meeting face to face, having conversations, sharing and networking in real life, and realizing that commonalities do exist in more than just our virtual presences. Even though the tools (like Skype, Ustreaam, and CoveritLive) allow us to experience the faraway and impossible (either physically or financially) to attend workshops, conferences, and seminars, nothing beats hanging around face to face with the people we have befriended in virtual places. I feel I made life long friendships with Liz Davis, Joyce Valenza, Lisa Thuman, Jennifer Wagner, Carolyn Foote, Sylvia Martinez, Will Richardson, Ryan Bretag, Robin Ellis, and many more who attended Educon. When I attend NECC this summer, I will deepen already strong friendships with Sue Waters, Diane Cordell, Sheryl Nussbaum Beach, Darren Draper, Dean Shareski, Lisa Parisi, Alex Couros, and more there. This is true on a local level too, as I have recently cultivated a few good friends (Heather L., Fran B.) out of virtual tools right out of my library association, SCASL. Why? We already share a camaraderie in other virtual venues.

So just who is Cathy Nelson?

Please don’t think you know all there is to me or what makes me tick from what is written here. The blog is just one component of me; it is one place you can learn a little bit about me. But it is not the total me. Want to know the total me? Pick my brain in person. I’m not near as forward, brave, or sassy in person. (But I do like to be that “wannabe” personality sometimes, and the blog allows it. It’s probably my one take away from getting to know Doug Johnson in person this past summer at NECC 2007–outside of his blog.) To quote him–straight from his list of biases which I am more and more seeing the wisdom of instead of just humor:

1. Technology is neutral.
2. Best practices should drive educational change, not technology.
3. Short-term fixes rarely fix anything and usually aren’t short-term.
4. PowerPoint doesn’t bore people: people bore people.
5. Machines are the easy part; people are the hard part.
6. Cell phones are evil. (Exception to bias #1.)
7. Macs are better than PCs.
8. More and better are not synonymous.
9. My best judgments are made when I think of myself first as a child advocate, second as an educator, and lastly as a technologist.

PS-don’t humor yourself and think you did something to warrant this post. I got the idea after reading what Clarence Fisher said today in his blog. Because that is true, no one gets a pingback except Doug and Clarence. Hope the rest of my friends have subscribed to google alerts or something to let them know I named them. (I can be so selfishly mean sometimes.)

Attribution:

Image: ‘asleep‘
www.flickr.com/photos/45519093@N00/7790062

Image: ‘mac kitty‘
www.flickr.com/photos/94507863@N00/144630706

Image: ‘Photo 43‘
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2287488214_f3157bc639.jpg?v=0

That was the title of my session Friday, March 14, 2008 at our annual SCASL conference. This was the 3rd time I had given this preso, and quite honestly, I am still getting feedback from my attendees. The preso in one of its earliest formats appears on my “preso” page, which is supposed too serve as my place for anyone looking for handouts. I’ve gone strictly to electronic handouts, though in all honesty, it is really just some links. But since I first presented this at Summer Leadership (SCASA Annual Conference) and SC Edtech, it has been transformed. I have gone from a heavily scattered text approach (bullets–oh no) to a visual representation of my material for many slides, and I mixed in videos too. Oh and don’t forget I invited my Twitter network to say hello and speak to the power of RSS, as well as a Skype call from a network friend (Dennis Richards, Superintendent of his school district in Falmouth, Massachusetts .)

This mixture of material including Twitter shout-outs, a Skype Chat and call, videos, and my slide show helped me make this session much more than the “sit and get” presentations I have grown oh so weary of. And today, I have posted the entire slide show, all 37 slides, for anyone who wants to review it. I welcome your comments, either here or on Slide Share. Looking for constructive criticism, b/c I have one more conference where I may do this same presentation.

Today ended the SCASL conference that I attended in Columbia, SC. It is always a rewarding experience, as being a librarian makes you a singleton in your building most of the time, so what fun and excitement all of us like minded people can have when we are all together. There was never a dull moment. Here I am setting up my Exploratorium booth and getting ready to show and tell Flickr and SCASL Blogs!

Columbia was warm and sunny the whole conference (March 12-14, 2008) and I rekindled old friendships and made some new ones.

Fondest memories:

Sitting with Susan Henley and Camillia Harris (from Charleston School District) in Larry Johnson’s pre-conference session was so much fun–We talked almost through the whole presentation! But I had my laptop so we were pulling up the links to things he was talking about, so it was somewhat related. He never seemed to get annoyed with us, but I do think we were a tad distracting. Apologies Larry!

Eating dinner @ California Dreaming with Heather Loy and Mary (from Busbee Elementary). Although the three of us come from different school levels–Heather is from a high school, Mary from an elementary school, and I am from middle–each of us seem to face a lot of similar issues in our libraries.

Sitting through Joyce Valenza’s sessions were probably the highlight of the conference. She is leading with such an awesome example of what a true 21st century teacher librarian should look like, and I have set her as my own personal role model of what I want to be. I just want to thank Joyce for raising that bar SO high. One of my friends made fun of me for sitting on the front rows of the sessions Joyce gave. I just asked isn’t that what all kiss-ups do? But I truly wanted some of her knowledge & wisdom to touch me, if not physically, than spiritually from her aura. I don’t know why, but I felt the need to be right there. I think Joyce may have been surprised at the lack of knowledge on 2.0 tools, and she even fretted to some of us after her first session that perhaps she needs to slow down or chunk some of the content for easier digestion. I said no, please keep the bar raised high so our state librarians will know what they need to work towards. Note to Joyce: While there may have been fear in some eyes as you presented, there was a spark that we need to fan into a fire on utilizing today’s tools to engage learners. Many came to my session just thelp them understand better, and I thank you for that.

The SCASL Bag Fashion Show was a hoot-and yes, I participated. I hope to get more of the pictures posted and Ida Thompson’s rather funny diatribe that was read as we walked the fashion runway!

Supper at Damon’s with Julia Davis, MaryAnn Sansonetti, and Chris Craft was a delightful way to end the day, and we have some plans underway–watch for them to be revealed soon. Collective wisdom is awesome.

After two full days of “sit and get” style presentations, I was worried about my own presentation on RSS Feeds. I returned to my room Thursday evening set on revamping my preso, removing the little text that I already had in it, and retooling it to be less like the “sit and get” sessions I had been in the two previous days. I tried hard to come up with interactivity, but never could formulate a plan that I thought would work. So I decided to turn to my network. I asked for shout outs at the beginning of my session, asking Twitter to greet my group and tell how they use RSS. I had 24 tweets to share, and I used them to start and finish my session. I was dumbfounded to realize that Joyce Valenza herself and Kathy Shrock, both of whom have been at SCASL before, and both in my reader’s “expert” folder, tweeted to my group. (Joyce had already returned to PA, but sent warm wishes and thanks for the fun she’d had in SC the day before.) I also got a skype chat from Tim Van Heule while presenting, which was rather funny b/c he did not know I was in the middle of my preso. Really cute and funny, and it went something like this:

Tim Van Heule
Sessions already? 8:13 AM

Cathy Nelson
ready 8:13 AM
hi Tim Van Heule 8:13 AM

Tim Van Heule
What’s going on, Cathy Nelson? 8:13 AM

Cathy Nelson
in the middle of a presentation 8:14 AM

Tim Van Heule
Ah… Fun… leaving you to it. 8:14 AM

Cathy Nelson
bye 8:14 AM

My audience got a real kick out of the fact that I briefly chatted (using Skype chat as a text) with Tim. Since I had Skype open there was no disregarding it, so I just pulled it in as part of my preso! I had arranged to get Dennis Richards of Massachusetts to skype in, so instead of waiting for him to call (which is why i had Skype open) I just went ahead and called him. He was at the ASCD Conference in New Orleans. Using wireless on a conference connection is risky business indeed, too, but I forged ahead. It was a stop and go call, but Dennis did a fabulous job telling all how we knew each other from networking with the tools. He introduced himself as a school superintendent in his area, catching many LMS’s there off guard to know that a supt was using the tools as well. He shared that he had only been using RSS since last summer, but now thinks a whole new way about learning, particularly personal learning, now that he uses RSS. I didn’t drag out the conversation long since it was choppy, but do feel I left a strong impression about how RSS can help you develop a PLN (professional learning network) to grow and learn. In the mix I had the RSS in Plain English video as well as a video interview of Will Richardson where he spoke to the fact that educators must first learn the tools themselves before tryng to use them in school with kids. I also showed a short segment of an archived Ustream that Dennis Richards had on his blog where Sheryl Nussbaum Beach is talking about how a network can supplement your learning, and it was form the day before at her keynote at the NCAET Conference no less, going on simultaneously with SCASL–just about 175 miles up the road. Read about her keynote, and even view it here. I hope today I did teach how RSS can play a lead role in professional development, and I think I embodied the example of taking advantage of generous people in my network who helped me out. I thought this was one of the best presentations I have ever done. Of course, I’m biased too.

My audience seemed receptive to my message and now I have a TON of homework to do. I promised all the links I used would appear in the presentation link of this blog, and so I must set out to create that. I also have a 3-hour workshop to prepare for Monday. Am feeling very swamped!!