I arrived in San Antonio this morning, checked in at the hotel and walked outside just in time to catch the shuttle to the convention center . . . and it was empty! I hope my luck holds out for the rest of the week, but somehow I think it may not. San Antonio is beautiful, sunny, and very hot, even at 11:00 am. At this moment, I’m grateful for an air conditioned venue for the conference.
It occurred to me as I was flying down that some of you may be new to blogging, as am I. Although this particular blog is structured for your input, not all blogs are. Most blogs are created by people who want to write about what interests them, what inspires them, or what puzzles them! Feel free to do that here, on this post. If you would like to be able to create your own posts and not just comment, email me and I’ll make you an author in a snap! Don’t worry about writing something that everyone will agree with – if everyone agrees, the chance for discussion is pretty slim. Write what you really think. If you attend a session that fits one of the NETS-S standards, but just doesn’t seem to fit IISD, it’s okay! Write about it and let us know. Maybe we can get a great idea from your thoughts.
I’m looking forward to the keynote this afternoon, and I think his message will be applicable here: there is wisdom in crowds – diversity of opinion, experience, perspective – we need it all! I can’t wait to hear from you, and I expect Sam and Alice to pop in from time to time, as well. Let’s get blogging!
Hello to all you NECCers!
I have to admit to being somewhat jealous about all you will see and hear and do and PICK UP AT THE EXHIBITS in the next few days. But I promise that I will be very hard at work on grants that will incorporate everything you bring back.
Have a wonderful time!
Rest assured that I’ll be watching your blogs to hear about all the fun ….. and trying not to get too awfully jealous!!
I really enjoyed the keynote speaker. I makes me wish I was back in the class room to perform some experiments by grouping the students. Might have to try them with some teachers during inservice. Excited (as I get) about tomorrow.
Well, Stephanie, I was not sure I was looking forward to the keynote after driving all day but I was very pleasantly surprised. I quite enjoyed Mr. Surowiecki’s presentation and thought how applicable it was to all walks of life. Boy, when he said good decisions may come from disagreement and conflict I thought we are right there! We do know how to voice our opinions. After a delicious meal I am ready to look over the program and make big decisions about tomorrow.
I, too, enjoyed the keynote speaker tremendously. I thought he had a lot of good ideas and food for thought. “The best group discussions emerge from conflict, not concensus.” Helen – you called it right! We do know how to voice our opinions, but I think we also need to be comfortable with conflict. One thing that I thought was really important was that he said you have to have a group of people that really trust each other in order to have that level of comfort, and then from that conflict and discussion, we can become smarter together.
His analogy of casting a net was especially appropo for this blog! He hit my intent exactly as he described that when you cast your net wider, you are able to capture more pieces of information to consider. A larger group is a larger net. Technology is a tool that allows us to cast our net wider and wider, and thus become smarter and smarter, together.
Well, I am in Irving working on closing both middle school summer schools this afternoon with 36 teachers and Wednesday afternoon with four teachers. I hope you folks learn a lot, and I look forward to hearing all about your experiences. Keep me posted.
Well, so far my experience at NECC has been very pleasant. I am not a “crowds” person and usually shy away from areas with large (massive in this case) groups of people. But so far, everything has been great. I was impressed by the opening speaker from A&M as well as the keynote speaker. When I taught AP Statistics, I loved opening class with the penny simulation and the kids were always impressed how the data became more accurate as we combined results from all the classes. I never made the connection between data and cognitive ability… silly me!
I was very excited to have the opportunity to come two days early and attend an all day workshop on pod/vodcasting Saturday. While the practice with Audacity was beneficial, I was frustrated that the rest of the session focused on Garageband (a Mac only product). The worst part was that I really enjoyed using the Apple computers and Garageband was so easy to use! When I mentioned my disillusionment to the presenters, they suggested that I ask my district to switch to Apples… right!