Let me explain: while I miss my family and home like crazy, and I’m really excited to start the school year and see my students again, it’s difficult to return from a place where people “get” you.  At ISTE, if you tell someone you’re on Twitter, they don’t look at you like you’re a crazed Ashton Kutcher fan who lives in a fantasy online world. When you discuss the inanity of standardized testing our children to a learning-coma-like state, they understand. It’s nice to be around people who know that using technology tools to help transform student learning means more than copying your paper notes to a PowerPoint slide. Or worse, PowerPoint slides.

I’m not saying that I’m an edu-snob or that I subscribe to the Nick Burns, Computer Guy mentality of tech support. I truly enjoy working with people who want to learn more about, well… about anything. Learning is always the key. But for one brief moment at the end of June each year, it’s really refreshing to be around some of my favorite people in the world. Luckily, I only have to wait about 360-ish more days until the next time.

Thanks, ISTE, for another great experience.

I’m fairly certain the majority of the attendees today will leave feeling that they have 1) learned something new, 2) reinforced a previously held philosophy, and 3) thought of a different way to teach when they return to school. I know I have already, and I’m only just now sitting in session 2 of 6.

This is great professional development. How are you facilitating opportunities like this for your school?

EdubloggerCon 2009- Saturday, June27

• learning through conversations is one of my favorite ways to learn, and EBC is all about this. Small groups, one or two people agree to moderate, and the discussion carries us all.  People share their opinions, agree/disagree, and we’re engaged.

Volunteering for ISTE- Sunday, June 28

• this was my 2nd year volunteering for ISTE, and I really love the opportunity to a) give back to ISTE, b) meet new people, and c) learn more about the conference during my shift. Met two new dinner friends, too… thanks for the conversation, Pam and Fern!

Malcolm Gladwell, Keynote- Sunday, June 28

• I think I may need to reserve the right to a follow-up post on this one, and there are also several others posting their thoughts. Will have to link them as well.
• Points he made I liked: 1) when we think of success stories, we need to remember that many of those successes came after years of hard work and little to no success–effort counts; 2) some people who become successful do so in spite of obstacles- they compensate in other ways; and 3) to be successful, one needs the opportunity to fail.

The best thing, in my opinion, about conferences like NECC is meeting new people and carrying on conversations outside the conference sessions. Dinners and tours can be just as meaningful- sometimes more- than the ‘working’ sessions. Thanks for the dinner discussion tonight, Ryan, Deven, and Donnelle!

The only bad thing for me about conferences like NECC – when should I sleep?

After preparing all day, I’m really excited for this conference, as well as meeting and re-connecting with other educators.

Day 1: Looking forward to Hall Davidson’s opening keynote.

Also, NETA is providing a Bloggers’ Cafe this year. If you’re attending, plan to stop in and see us. You can find us on Wikispaces at http://netabloggerscafe.wikispaces.com.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow http://www.twitter.com/NETA2009, and of course, you can always follow me, too: http://www.twitter.com/michellek107. If you’re looking for more people to follow, there is a microblogging page in the Bloggers’ Cafe wiki that lists several educators on Twitter.

The best part of these conferences for me always comes from the conversations had with the people I meet… I always thoroughly enjoy the sessions and speakers, but I think I personally grow more when I participate in the discussions about what we all experience in those sessions. Really looking forward to that!

Probably the most important key for me is that I need to maintain the passion and enthusiasm that inherently builds during and after a conference like this… and share it with educators around me. I see some very necessary steps to help those educators with whom I’m in close contact– face-to-face contact on a daily basis.

Initially, I had intended to live blog during the sessions I attended, but I found that difficult… especially when there was little to no internet access in some of the session rooms, and even more so in those events that were open to discussion. I wanted to participate and be engaged in those discussions… that’s difficult to do when taking notes. However, because I was so engaged, I didn’t need to take notes. All of those discussions are very much on my mind and have been for over a week now. Hmmm, imagine that. Learning more from being involved in the discussion, rather than being lectured to and expected to capture it all in notes. What a concept, yes?

So for now, I’ll post a few things that I found important, thought-provoking, and maybe even a few links to information I’ve found since the conference. The Ed Tech world is really buzzing loudly right now, and I feel badly that many educators will never hear it.

I’ve posted a few times before about Blogging Etiquette, and I’ve had many discussions with other educators about what responsibilities and standards are for people in education vs. other professions. I haven’t really had that discussion about Twitter as much. The opinions about the use of Twitter, especially, were all over the board yesterday at the Bloggers Cafe. Should rules beyond the Terms of Use be expected of people who use Twitter? or any blog for that matter? Is there only one blogging/Twittering community? or are there several communities within the “Blogosphere” and “Twitterverse?” Very good discussions, even though many people disagreed… quite loudly in some cases. I really appreciate that people can disagree in a public, face to face forum, and still feel like their voices were heard. I’ll post later about my specific opinions…

Digital Magic/K-12 Online– all I really have to say about this is what a great idea! The fact that educators can contribute and even participate in something that is not bound by time or location is really amazing about the future of education. I talked with some educators who participated in K-12 Online the previous year, and they had nothing but very positive things to say.

Regrets for me regarding NECC 2008– I didn’t spend as much time in the Exhibitor’s areas as I usually do. There were just too many interesting things going on in the planned sessions, NECC Unplugged, Poster Sessions, and playgrounds!!

I did take about an hour or so to see the Alamo with my friends Josh and Wendy. I love history and visiting historical sites! It’s a beautiful area… have some great photos to share!

I tweeted this morning that my head is spinning with all the things I want to blog about, take back to our school district, upload to Flickr… I may not get any sleep in the next few days because of all I want to do!

All in all, NECC 2008 was a great experience. Even though San Antonio was pretty hot, it’s a beautiful area for a conference. The Riverwalk is just amazing… if you ever go to SA, be sure to visit Pesca’s (specialize in seafood) on the Riverwalk. You’ll spend more than you want, but it’s totally worth it!

What I think I enjoy the most about conferences like NECC are a) meeting new people and sharing ideas, and b) the incredible conversations you can have even informally in a hallway that might be a great new strategy to take back with you.

On another note, I had intended to do quite a bit of live blogging today, but the wireless connection seemed to be a bit overloaded. I took a lot of notes and plan to summarize, recap, etc. within the next few days.

Finally… someone asked me today at the conference why I named this blog “Avenue 4 Learning.” No, I don’t think my blog will lead you to all the answers. I view tools used in education the same way I do with roads, streets, avenues. I don’t need to know everything about a street in order to use it. It’s important to know basics about the road (Is it one way only? Does it take me where I need to go, or will I drive in circles, etc.). Other than that, finding the right road is part of the process to ultimately get me where I need to go. I look at education the same way. If we use tools in education– technology or otherwise–  the tools themselves might be great, but it’s really all about the final destination… learning.

So, this morning was “acclimation time.” Met some very nice people from Texas, and then I volunteered at Presenters World for three hours. While volunteering, I met some more great people from Texas (TCEA) and talked to them about using the NECC Ning and Twitter (Hi, Karen and Katie!).

Haven’t decided yet whether I’ll live blog any sessions, or maybe just take notes and then post later. For now, maybe I’ll just conclude with the fact that NECC can be so overwhelming… so much to do, so much to learn. It’s a great opportunity, though, for educators of all levels and experiences.

Some other Ed Tech folks have been posting their goals for NECC, and I thought that was a great idea. When I was a NECC newbie, I was very overwhelmed with all the available sessions. Even though I used the conference planner in San Diego (even downloaded to my PDA while I was there), I was really never certain about which session to attend… when to hit F2F networking opportunities, etc. Last year in Atlanta, I was even more overwhelmed by the sheer size of the convention hall. I had mapped out every session and workshop, and I wanted to visit more vendors/exhibitors. I probably made it through 1/100 of the exhibitors. That might have been due to the fact that their was an ice cream vendor in the same place each day in the Exhibitor Hall, so I tended to go back to the same area every day. haha

SO… for San Antonio, these are my goals this year. Some of them are already checked off–

1. Mark all sessions I want to attend in the conference planner. (CHECK)

2. Volunteer for ISTE. (CHECK– am scheduled to volunteer Monday afternoon)

3. Stop by the Bloggers Cafe.

4. Go to the Second Life playground.

5. Gather more ideas (especially those with any research-based themes) about digital learning and using Web 2.0 in our schools.

6. Search for more evidence that blocking too much on the internet does a disservice to students and faculty (I already believe this, which you know if you read my posts at all).

7. Look for ties between goals #5 and #6 that support our district initiatives.

8. Attend more sessions and workshops than I ever have before at NECC. Yes, I’m optimistic.

9. Catch up with fellow Ed Tech-ers that I don’t get to see very often.

10. Go to the Alamo. I didn’t sign up for the NECC-sponsored tour, so maybe I will find some friends who want to “wing it” with me. ??

If you’re attending NECC 2008, leave a comment or shoot me a link or trackback to your own blog posting of NECC goals. If you’re not able to attend in San Antonio, did you know you can be a virtual conference-goer?

Also, I’ll be adding the “Tips for Parents” page soon! Come back and visit me again… leave a comment if you wish! I’d love to hear from you.