Thursday, June 30, 2005

Fits and starts

Didn't hear much from NECC today, due to the end of the conference - and most were in a going home mode, and then my laptop gave up the ghost. Actually, just a bad trackpoint (and maybe nonfunctional fan?), but managed to swap out the hard drive into another chassis, so am back in business. Back to school (isn't that over yet?) for parts. Was especially worried about the failure, as I'm heading back east in a few days, and will be depending on the laptop quite a bit, in different locations. Will catch up on the last NECC blogs and podcasts tomorrow...

Did manage to order 15 copies of Inspiration for my classroom next year. Not the end all, be all - but it will be part of my tech answer to the all school pencil and paper writing program in the fall. We'll see how it goes.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

NECC proceedings

Many thanks to all the bloggers and podcasters at NECC. Feel like I am there, in a way. Had intended to go a coupla months ago, but then finances and family stuff made it a nogo. Anyway, I've listened to a few sessions and read the writing of many astute edtech champions.

Am more determined than ever to MOVE ON in these areas of technology in my classroom this year - in spite of reluctance of my colleagues and lack of leadership from those who could make a difference. Am still reeling from the all school adoption of a writing program that has NO tech component. We'll be writing in Mead composition books, for goodness sakes - talk about returning to the 19th century. I thought I left them behind in jr. high school.

For this reason, it it especially exciting and encouraging to read and hear the thoughts of those at the head of the pack. Anyway, my plans are to move into the regular use of Inspiration, explore the possibilities of blogging with my third graders., and so on.

Read about Andy Carvin's panel presentation at NECC - ten years on the web for wwwedu, luminaries like Bonnie Bracey, Ed Gragert, David Warlick - wished I could have heard it - and then I did, via Andy's podcast. Today I updated the Young Authors' Conf. web page at Arbor Heights for the ELEVENTH year. Made me think about how things have changed and remained the same - and how I've sat too still this past year.

Very cool voices speaking. Steve Dembo also has some real interesting things to say in his blog. Can't wait for reports from tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

NECC blogs - and locals

Since starting this up yesterday I've been following my nose from blog to blog, with NECC and local blogs as a focus. NECC sounds very exciting, but also monstrously huge. A couple of good blog spots are Andy Carvin's and a listing of current postings at http://technorati.com/tag/necc and several blogs listed by author at http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2005/glance/blogging.php

The last one led me on to Bremerton's Jeff Allen's blog - which led me on to Conn McQuinn's - so, it is good to hear about some local folks out there.

Speaking of local, I did get a couple of personal responses to my posting to tictech asking about local blogs. Great hear from them - really lifts to the spirit, but I wish folks weren't so shy about posting back to the list.

Monday, June 27, 2005

School's over - really

The laptop mess from the 100 we had donated last September is now finally put away. Holy cow, what a mess. But most put to good use (31 to staff for personal use, 30 as replacement cpu's for our lab, and 24 in mobile carts to be used in classrooms). Just to top off the year and feel as though big headway had been made somewhere, I spent a few hours in our lab, throwing out about a dozen years worth of assorted programs, manuals. Several trips to the dumpster got it done.

Just posted a note to tictech, asking if anybody in the area is blogging edtech stuff. I sure don't hear much about it locally, but the national stuff (like at NECC right now) is pretty impressive and cool.

Another try...

It's been too long since I've tried my hand at this. Here's a lovely picture of me from last summer, visiting sister Kristin in Ithaca. Back to school for a half day of cleaning up the laptop mess....