This was the first day of NECC – mostly seminars.
I did experiment with one new thing., Various NECC documents are available for beaming to your Palm. You approach one these devices.
Your Palm locks on and downloads both programs and documents. Now I can use my Palm to decide what I want to do tomorrow, The idea is familiarize educators with the potential of the handhelds.
It takes a long time to get from Grand Forks to Seattle. Go east to Minneapolis. Go west to Billings. Wait while plane tries to find Billings. Fly to Seattle. Even with a couple of time changes and leaving before 7 I did not arrive in time to take the shuttle to the convention center. I do have a cool view from my window.
Maybe I will try to find a cup of coffee. Tomorrow is a new day.
Some NECC 2003 sessions will be webcast.
This is an anniversary of a sort. I started this blog as a short term demonstration based on NECC 2002 (note first entries). The idea was to chronicle some of the things I saw and learned at the conference. I later decided to continue keeping an online account of resources and ideas as much for my own benefit as for anyone else. I do appreciate the visits from those of you who were curious and especially those of you who bothered to come back.
The original post – a goals statement:
iv. to teach them this techne, should they desire to learn [it], without fee and written covenant, and to give a share both of rules and of lectures, and of all the rest of learning, to my sons and to the [sons]of him who has taught me and to the pupils who have both make a written contract and sworn by a medical convention but by no other. (from the Hippocratic oath – translated).
http://www.indiana.edu/~ancmed/oath.htm
It is not time for NECC 2003. My next posts will originate from Seattle.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Internet Filtering may be required in libraries (Washington Post) and that it does not violate the rights of adults wishing to use the same computers.
ALA continues to disagree.
MacWorld (July) offers a nice article of blog tools and services (mostly for Macs).
Here is a new multimedia authoring tool for you to explore (if you both operate a recent Windows system and own a recent version of Microsoft Office). Producer is an intuitive and FREE product allowing the integration of many media types. My understanding that it is primarily a way to connect PowerPoint slides with other things (audio, video) using wizards and then publish (CD, web, etc.). Lots of options. Did I mention free?
Here is a demo I created – Demo. (Windows users only)
Only downside – both production and viewing (I think) must be on the Windows platform.
If you cannot examine the demo, here is a screen capture of the demo to give you some insight into what one display format looks like (a small video running in the upper left corner is keyed to changing PowerPoint slides on the right).
A CNN news item contends that young learners are perhaps limiting their development of cursive skills because of a preference for the keyboard. This seems a classic case of unintended consequences of technology (someone should add this to the list) and also an example of the reality of activities competing for the limited time available in our lives.