TECHNOS

February 11, 2012

NECC 2005 Sparks a Revolution in Learning

By Elaine Larson, AIT’s Director of Education

It’s noisy; it’s crowded. It takes a road map, GPS, or helpful “tour guides” to navigate. Most of all, it’s an exhilarating glimpse of everything from beaming stations (to download conference information onto your handheld) to loaner MP3 players (for listening to specially produced podcasts of conference events) to computer repair stations (staffed by students).

The 2005 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), presented by ISTE in Philadelphia June 27–30, treated the more than 17,000 participants and exhibitors—newbies and geeks alike—to a buffet of tasty tech dishes. This year’s conference was titled “Digital Illuminations: Sparking a Revolution in Learning.”

Under the theme “Student Voices,” the conference showcased student videos, handheld computing projects, and a host of student initiatives. As one student video summarized: “Listen to us, we have much to say.”

Conference planners didn’t just offer meaty sessions on all sorts of new technology; they used that same technology in delivering conference sessions and providing networking opportunities for participants.

For example, participants were encouraged to create blogs and podcasts of their conference experiences, thus creating a new meaning for the word “networking” at a conference. You can read some blogs or download podcasts at http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2005/glance/blogging.php.

If you were a newbie who wasn’t even sure what a blog or podcast is, however, the conference offered a multitude of sessions to help you learn everything from how to set up your first blog site to defining RSS (Really Simple Syndication: http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2005/what_is_RSS.php) to figuring out copyright issues.

Check out these resources:

Weblogs in Education
An interview with Will Richardson of Weblogg-ed.com, plus links to other related resources.
Podcasting for Educators
An online handout from a NECC session. It utilizes MediaWiki, the same wiki engine that drives Wikipedia. The author invites comments and provides a good bit of information on shared media.
Exploiting the educational potential of Podcasting
This neat little site from the United Kingdom provides a brief overview of podcasting and how to create and listen to podcasts available on the Internet.

Videoconferencing brought a whole new flavor to the 2005 NECC offerings as well. Participants had the opportunity to hear presenters from all over the world, and they saw how powerful videoconferencing can be in the classroom.

The promise and the challenges of assessing student performance/achievement through technology was a major conference focus. Sessions on data-driven decision making demonstrated the most cost effective ways to gather the necessary data. Sessions and exhibits highlighted a myriad of simple and complex tools for day-to-day testing of student learning—tools that give teachers a chance to test, score, reteach as necessary, and retest.

Check out these Web pages:

You can’t encapsulate the NECC experience in an article! You can’t categorize, contain, or distill the experience. It’s much like technology itself in that way: splitting, like atoms, right in front of you. Real and virtual; accessible and out of reach; fascinating and frustrating. There’s the fun…and the future.

If you missed this year’s NECC sessions, consider attending NECC 2006, which will be held in San Diego, July 4–7, under the theme: “Explore—Dream—Discover: Charting an Intentional Future.” Conference planners are already calling for presenters. Access NECC 2006 information and proposal submission forms at http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2006.

Please see our June issue for more information about interactive videoconferencing in the classroom.