plannecc2008 » THE NECC UNPLUGGED IDEA PAGE

" Vox Populi " for voting for sessions. Some kind of voting and commenting system for sessions?
My intention is to focus upon the fundamentals of the (failed) Technology Integration Movement and discover a core of folks who wish to get back to the fundamentals. Doing what we should have done in the first place, i.e., developing a plan to document and demonstrate the direct connection between technology and measurable student achievement. The reason that Ed Tech funding is always in flux and always a budget-funding challenge is because this "First Step" was ignored...and has yet to be addressed. The Second Step: Figuring out how much "Doing Technology Right" will cost (Hint: a huge, huge amount), and communicating just how much to every stakeholder (including those meddlesome politicians). Two areas of increased cost: Training and Professional Development...hiring an army of trainers...paying for release time for teachers, and the Back-End programming and database support...focusing on making technology "one-click" easy for teachers.

For a series of articles on what needs to be done to fix the Technology Integration movement, visit my switchboard...
http://switchboard.open-source-resource.com/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=49&Itemid=22
Joseph Chmielewski -- joseph@classroomtoolkit.com
The Open Source Resource Switchboard -- http://switchboard.open-source-resouce.com has been set up as a demonstration to show how teachers can structure online tools. The switchboard (Joomla!) connects a Blog (Wordpress), a Forum (Simple Machines Forum), Tutoring (Moodle!) and a Wiki (PHP Wiki). Domain names cost as little as $1.19 ( a .INFO for the first year), and hosting is available for as less than $4.00 per month. There is also a link to my newsletter [Serendipity (an Open Source Blog Platform) is made to look like a news magazine], also without extra cost. (Note: setting up Open Source Applications is "one-click" easy...writing quality content is what takes time and effort.) Here is what the Serendipity-based newsletter looks like, http://www.classroomtoolkit.net/serendipity (Caution: this is a "Tell it like it is" newsletter for teachers, so teachers may not want bosses and school district administrators to know that they are reading this kind of information. School district higher-ups become embarrassed and defensive when confronted with the questions that many of these articles raise.)
Joseph Chmielewski -- joseph@classroomtoolkit.com
Meet-ups for specific groups
Mentoring volunteers! Topic and t-shirt or hat.
A greeter program! (Jen Wagner is the first volunteer...:) Helper T-shirts or hats. "Helper Hats"
Making sure no one is intimidated or doesn't feel comfortable coming in. Schedule of events will help that. Greeters/Helpers, too.
Pins of some kind? Classroom 2.0?
UStream presentations OR use Elluminate for all of the sessions (need to get another Elluminate room or two)!!
Tweetfest? Tweetup?
Do we want to do evening sessions? If we want to be in the convention center past 6:30 pm, we need to send info on why and where to Anita McAnear (amcanear@iste.org). Or we could find a venue outside for events. Would be fun to have evening presentation, etc. If so, then add in the evening schedule, but indicate another location. Could do presentations of videos from video project...
Some evening ideas: local social media culture, Dell blogging initiative, interesting drop-ins. Like the idea of bridging the educational and business world. Same worry about time/energy, but love the concept.
Hugh McCloud. I do think we should talk to him about a logo for the event?
Peggy George. Let's Skype-in some of our colleagues who are unable to attend NECC. I'd like to invite Terry Freedman (UK) for a video Skype call. Who else?
Peggy George. I'd love to see some demos of student-created multimedia projects, vodcasts, podcasts, VoiceThreads, ePortfolios, etc. Lots of examples. :-)
I would love "fans of bloggers" to get a chance to meet their IDOLS :) I dont blog, but I learn so much from all of you!
Clif Mims - I'm willing to facilitate discussions, demos and activities on the topics of Twitter, Diigo, Weebly, Zoho, Live Blogging, teacher education and professional development, designing instruction that integrated technology, and more as needed.
Scott McLeod: I'd love to see some demos of creative ways to use some of the newer technologies (e.g., uStream, Twitter, whatever else is out there that I don't know about). Also, can anyone pull together a session on educational ways to use MySpace / Facebook?
Peggy George. I would really love to see a f2f tutorial session on how to ustream on a MacBook Pro--equipment needed, software needed (ie. CamTwist), etc.and how to use the different features. Based on the conversation in the NECC Unplugged planning session I think there was a lot of interest in offering many tutorial sessions for the various online applications for streaming--ustream.tv, Elluminate, Mogulus, CoverItLive, etc.
I would like to talk about/brainstorm ideas about what we can do to better prepare pre-service teachers for the classroom- where and how to we go about starting to make those changes in higher ed. I am too chicken to do it myself, and would like to have a higher ed. person team up with me to discuss this topic, or anyone else who is interested- (vejraska/tansmom)