Browsing all posts in February, 2009.

Four NECC 2009 Travel Tips for the Budget Conscious

The economy being what it is today, we’re all looking for more streamlined ways of maintaining our professional development efforts. In order to help the educational technology community understand some of the ways they can make their trip to NECC 2009 a little ‘lighter on the wallet,’ I’ve prepared the following tips that you might [...]

U.S. Educational Technology Funding Updates

What was included in the stimulus package recently passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama for educational technology? What are the expected funding levels for EETT (Title IID) next year?
One of the best places to turn for answers to these questions is the ISTE Community blog of Hilary Goldman. Her February 13th [...]

Independent Learning Experiences and the Role of Reflection in the Classroom

This is a guest blog post by Disa McLean from Green Island, Dunedin, New Zealand.
I was a Primary School Teacher in Dunedin, New Zealand in 2008. This year I am an ICT Facilitator. I completed this Action Research last year in my classroom. Although I used a wikispace to run my programme from in my Year 2-3 [...]

ISTE Announces Full NECC 2009 Program

It seems like only yesterday that Wes Fryer introduced me as ISTE’s online community manager for NECC 2009 (actually that was yesterday), and I’m proud to make my first post one of significant substance. Below you’ll find a ton of great info about NECC 2009, which, by the time you read this, may already be [...]

Introducing Your NECC 2009 Community Manager

Saavy organizational leaders are growing increasingly aware of the importance of social media and their ability to respond to the digital feedback of their constituents. Rather than relying on a single individual to monitor the pulse of conversations taking place in the blogosphere, twittersphere, and other social media spaces, some of the most forward-looking groups [...]

The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom

GUEST POST BY NEIL STEPHENSON.
Neil Stephenson is a grade 6/7 teacher in Calgary, Alberta and has been his district’s 1:1 PD coordinator for the last three years.  Neil speaks regularly about technology and inquiry based learning, and was chosen in 2007 as a Apple Distinguished Educator.  You can follow Neil’s blog at Thinking In Mind.
Last [...]

Sub-$100 Netbooks are coming

My crystal ball reading skills are admittedly weak, but if I was going to make a “buzz prediction” for NECC 2009 it would focus on netbooks. I agree with Tony Vincent who observes that both netbooks and webapps are exciting because they are “easy, free, and cheap.” I’d add “powerful and flexible” to this list [...]

Attend NECC for free on ISTE!

Last week I highlighted an opportunity to win a free trip to NECC from NetTrekker. This week I’d like to share another way educators can win a free NECC trip, this time by submitting a digital story to ISTE. The official guidelines explain:
To be entered into the Grand Prize drawing, we are asking members to [...]

Cell Phones as Audio Recorders

Presentations about the uses of cell phones to support learning both inside and outside the traditional classroom have been popular as well as contentious at educational technology conferences in the past year. I first become aware of the wide variety of constructive ways cell phones can be used to support learning through Liz Kolb’s presentation [...]

Get a scholarship from netTrekker for NECC

The recession is being felt by individuals as well as organizations around the United States, so any opportunity to get financial support for a professional development conference like NECC is likely welcome news to educators everywhere. netTrekker is offering two $1500 scholarships to educators to attend NECC in Washington D.C. this year. Anyone who is [...]