If you’re interested in the field of education and use technology, try to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). It’s an incredibly well-organized conference which does a good job balancing academics, corporate promotion, and hands-on learning. NECC is sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE’s mission is to:

Provide leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in education!

NECC is a great opportunity to connect with colleagues whom I collaborate with online over the year.  I also enjoy the chance to learn about emerging technologies and software updates.  A few examples are:

• ISTE unveiled a new tool authored in Moodle to help teachers assess effective technology integration using videos.  The session, NETS•S in Action in North American Classrooms, featured video from the Ferryway school and three other HP Leadership grantees from 2007.
• Tablet-based computing can be enhanced with learning management software that allows the teacher to exercise control over a classroom.  I attended the session, What Impact Can Pen-Based Technology Have in Your Classroom? Some interesting features of the DyKnow software was the ability to have the instructor collect student work, randomly assign partners in a classroom (students don’t know who their partners are), create on the fly polls, and turn Internet browsing on/off.  The instructor taught Spanish using a set of graphic organizers that we completed with the tablet stylus.  Participants were encouraged to attend the  Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (wipte) October 15-16, 2008 at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
• Second life is starting to garner much more attention as an educational research and instructional tool.  Quite a number of conferees wore name tags with their Second life personas.  During the Pearson Foundation reception I spoke to a devoted Second Lifer who convinced me to give it another try.
• Adobe’s floor presence emphasized how the multitude of software products support one another using Camp Adobe.  As an Adobe Education Leader (AEL) I worked the Adobe booth answering questions and distributing camp stickers.   Major software releases included Adobe Acrobat 9 and Acrobat Connect Pro 7.

This year I marked my fourth NECC by presenting a session called Digital Investigators: Using Digital Media for Project-Based Learning. I shared presentation duties with Dianne Stratton and Elizabeth Tousignant.  Visit our  wiki page for session content.