I like computer conferences of any type. Big ones, small ones ??? if I have the opportunity, I am going. I enjoy the opportunity to interact and to pick up ideas from practitioners.
The conference in North Dakota is called T-N-T (Teaching and Technology). This is the 14th year for this conference and I have had the opportunity to attend many. North Dakota is obviously one of the smallest states (in population), so a group of several hundred people at a technology conference in North Dakota is a reasonable turnout.
Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris (GoKnow) provided the opening keynote. If you know the recent work of these individuals, you might anticipate the topic ??? ???sub-laptops??? (hand helds). I have not been a fan of this position, but today???s presentation was quite persuasive. They seem to have anticipated many of my counter-arguments. In addition to building on the willingness of students to work with small devices (cell-phones, Game Boys, etc.), the core logic is to use tools that are cost effective and task appropriate. They claim sub-laptops can perform 80% of academic jobs for 20% of the cost. So, the idea is to combine a 1:1 sub laptop initiative with a few Internet-connected classroom computers. What are the 80% of tasks ??? drill, writing, reading, etc.
Another of my personal issues ??? input. The presenters strongly recommended the device and a keyboard as making up the basic unit.
