Great Day

I had a great day. I went to a session by Tammy Worcester who has published a set of books published by Visions on quick and easy computer activities. Her presentation and books are awesome. I also learned a lot about digital storytelling and how to use Photo Story 3 (a free download) with a microphone to complete the process. You can then put the stories on your classroom website . Google pages is a good program for creating classroom webpages. Next, I went to History Snapshots: Using Digital Phtography in the Classroom. This was a model session. The "students" used a timeline on the Civil Rights Movement to take pictures of each other acting out the events. Then, they inserted them into PowerPoint slides. The handouts for this lesson are at fordhamretc.pbwiki.com. In the next session, I learned about "Tell a story with 5 photos for educators" at Flickr and how to use Voice Thread. I also enjoyed the poster sessions. Michelle Johnson had a lot of neat activities which can be found at http://www.bgreen.kyschools.us/. Another interesting site that I learned about was yoyogames.com where students can create their own online games. Then, I enjoyed an evening of listening to Eddie Anderson's jokes and chatting with Jen, Michelle, Karen, and Wendie.

The phrase of the day is "session full"

So far today I have had three sessions that I have traveled to say "session full" on the door. I thought I was fast but I guess I am not fast enough :) I think there are over 18,000 educators here so that gives everyone a picture of the magnitude of this conference and how fast you have to run to get into sessions! Anything with the words-podcasting, blogging, or Google seem to fill up in minutes. Nevertheless, I did make it to other sessions and have gotten some really great information. I am okay with being shut out the sessions because this conference is great for posting almost everything on-line. I just have to make sure that I make notes to follow-up on those sessions. The other great thing is that there are so many choices- you can always find another one!

I was able to attend a session on Linux thin client servers. I was just interested in getting an overview of this topic. Most of it was way over my head and I realized I need to research the basics of the whole system. We do have a school that is implementing thin clients into their school so I was hoping to get some information to help them. The main idea that I picked up from the presenter is that you really need an expert in Linux to make it work and you need to start identifying teachers that you want to become your "home grown" experts.

More posts to come....

We made it!

Most of us have arrived ( a few more are on the way) in San Antonio. Many of us spent some time exploring San Antonio today and familiaring ourselves with the conference center which is immense. We went over and registered for the conference so we have all the materials and are ready to finalize plans for the Monday sessions.

We also got to to explore the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The Alamo was very interesting and really right in the middle of the city. I took lots of pictures and will post them as soon as I can.

A group of six of us ate at a great Italian resturant on the Riverwalk called Paesanos-delicious and very fun to catch up with everyone!

We are all excited about many sessions that are on the schedule for tomorrow!

Getting ready to go to San Antonio!

The National Educational Computer Conference is only a week away! I am very excited that we are able to have so many teachers attending this year. If you have not already, make sure to check out the conference website. http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/ I plan to spend some time this week picking out some sessions I hope to attend. The conference is so big that I want to make sure that I am really prepared.

I think we have 15 teachers from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston attending! We will be able to gather so much new information and great ideas. I am really hoping this blog will help us record the experience and share it with all of the teachers in the Diocese.

Good luck in preparing and packing for the conference! See you in San Antonio!!!