Day: July 7, 2006

The World of Educational Software is Flat

OK – my title is a derivative. In his book (by a similar name), Tom Friedman describes when he discovered the world was flat. I think this conference represents the time point at which I realize the world of educational software is flat. Now I understand that MacKiev is not a company located somewhere in Idaho. Now I understand that the “international types” do not all attend NECC to learn what folks in the U.S. are doing.

The person who described the feature of KidPix that allows podcasting was a software engineer from the Ukraine (very cool – more on that later – by the way this is MacKiev). The woman showing the best document camera I have seen (Wolf Vision) was from Austria. EducationCity is from England (I have this strange image of these electrons running through a cable across the Atlantic. One electron with an angry look on his face turns to the other and says – “North Dakota, again?”)

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Different faces, different places

We meet some of the students from Fultondale, Alabama, while waiting for the fireworks to being on Tuesday. They were engaging in a little competition to see who could invite the most adults to their Thursday morning showcase session. They were mature and polite and seemed excited about being at the conference to share their technology experiences.

Fultondale

We did attend the student showcase and reintroduced ourselves to the student who had invited us. He then explained the different parts of their exhibit and described their epals projects (check out the link from the web site). I said I would blog their presentation – so here is a “shout out” to the students in Mrs. Ramsey’s class.

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Outside Aisle 2006

Vendor

My reason for posting this image requires an explanation. Over the years in which I have attended NECC, I have become interested in the vendors who populate the outside aisle. Vendors purchase different areas of the arena floor for different prices and the small and lower price spots are around the outside. The vendors who purchase the smaller and less central locations often seem to have a single product and are not well established. I admire these folks. Gaining attention must not be easy, but where do we expect new ideas to come from? So here is to those small companies with big dreams.

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