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Alan November's Building Learning Communities 2006

I have been very busy this summer to say the least! After having gone out to SanDiego for the NECC Conference and painting an apartment, I also found the time to attend Alan's BLC. This was the second time I have attended one of his conferences and I must add that it is one of the best! What a nice way to rub elbows with some of the leading "gurus" today. I was very impressed with Will Richardson. I am here right now writing this blog because Will spoke about the Read/Write web. He explains how using blogs can provide an authentic audience. This makes sense to me having my Harvard background in reading and language. How much more authentic of an audience can the internet provide! Yes! We do need to teach students internet safety because as Will explains, kids are doing it anyway - so why not get on board and teach them the right way to do it and the safe way to write to a public audience. I highly recommend his book entitled, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.

Speaking of podcasts, if you're in the area - Bob Trikakis from Apple will be speaking at my MassCUE Special Interest Group at Norrback School in Worcester, MA on September 26 3pm-5pm. Come and join us! Find out more about podcasting and how it can be used in the classroom. Find out more about out SIG at http://masscue.org/community/handheld.htm

NECC - SanDiego
What an awesome time we had in SanDiego!










The keynotes were superb!
http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2006/program/keynotes.php

I was bowled over by DeWitt Jones' keynote!
He's a photographer for National Geographic. What an inspirational speaker! - and his photos!!!! He brought tears to the eyes of many - including me as he focused on the POSSIBILITIES! He spoke right to my heart and soul. Last year I had produced a short video on the possibilities of using handheld (one-to-one) computing in the classroom. I ended it with "Oh! The Possibilities!" If you missed DeWitt's keynote you might want to check out his inspirational videos at http://www.business-marketing.com/store/dewitt.html

The next day Nicholas Negrapointe explained how every student in the world could have a laptop computer 24/7. Wouldn't that be nice! If you missed it check out this blog: http://123elearning.blogspot.com/2006/07/nicholas-great.html

I spent some time supporting Belmont Community School at the poster session for the HP Grant recipients. Two schools from Worcester (Belmont and Columbus Park) were presenting. I also had a chance to browse many of the other presenters and was impressed by what is going on in schools around the country.

The workshops I attended were high quality.

I also had some time to visit the SanDiego Zoo.










Compass Learning sponsored a dinner at SeaWorld which was "out of this world!"










Shamu posed for his photo. Thanks, Shamu!

Intel Training Update

I just began my online training course for version 2.0 of Teaching Thinking with Technology. I am preparing to teach my third group of participant teachers. It is advertised as a four hour training but think it will take me twice the time as I tend to get very involved. I can relate to my students who have taken this course when they run out of time to do the projects. Some people get very involved and excited. This program is so intense it is easy to get caught up in it.
I definitely like the changes that have been made to the curriculum. One of the most common requests of participants has been that they'd like to have been exposed to the Unit Plan earlier in the course. Well, they listened and now it is being introduced in the first Module. so far I really like what see.

Here are a couple photos of my most recent group of participants in the Intel workshop this summer

Hello, My name is Debbie and this is my first blog. I'm sure it will be the first of many. I have many interests some of which are kayaking, handheld computer use in classrooms, traveling and more.