Back from NECC, off to D.C.
I'm back from the National Educator Computing Conference in San Diego: catching my breath, washing clothes, re-organizing, and re-packing for the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) Leadership Institute in D.C. starting Monday night. In addition to all the great presentations and products that overload your brain for three days, there's just a wealth of wonderful people, new and old friends, to connect and re-connnect with.
It started on the 4th of July when I headed to the home of one of my high school/college classmates with whom I was staying. He has a beautiful home up on a hill overlooking the airport and the bay. He also made some of the best ribs I ever had in my life and we watched the fireworks from all over the San Diego area at just about eye level. Coincidentally, I ended my stay with a birthday celebration for my host at a restaurant on the island across the bay from his house. Out of nowhere, comes a barge that fires off about ten minutes of fireworks. We tried to convince him we arranged it for his birthday, but he wasn't buying.
So, rather than focus on the stuff, here's the skinny on all the people. Our Illinois folk were well represented and a local suburban guidance counselor told me how he uses digital storytelling to get some of his students to open up. The usual Apple gang was there and we had a great reception followed by a get-together for those of us who are headed to Europe on a global awareness trip. The DEN was also well represented as was Discovery (in their butterfly wings!) The American Film Institute announced a partnership between themselves and unitedstreaming to deliver a great video on making movies in schools. We also headed over to Dave & Buster's to celbrate the 1st birthday of the DEN. Though I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, we celebrated, played an interactive trivia game, had dinner, played video games in teams (selected by the birthday hat you had on), had a scavenger hunt, and received party favors with their signature thank you note and explanation of the significance of each of the gifts.
HOWEVER, the high point for me was running into Roger Wagner who was the genius behind the best interactive presentation program ever, HyperStudio. Not only did he create an incredible program for kids and teachers, he is personally responsible for turning me into the the multimedia guy I am and greasing the skids to get me out of the classroom. It seems every time I turned around in the early 90's there was Roger saying, "Joe, do you know kids can do this, teachers can do that, and even Spanish teacher/coaches can do it, too? Joe, you need this microphone. Joe, you have to have a video overlay card (with which I made a laser disc and wowed some company in New York)." So, it was only fitting I got to talk to Roger who launched the last iteration of my career as I begin the next.
It started on the 4th of July when I headed to the home of one of my high school/college classmates with whom I was staying. He has a beautiful home up on a hill overlooking the airport and the bay. He also made some of the best ribs I ever had in my life and we watched the fireworks from all over the San Diego area at just about eye level. Coincidentally, I ended my stay with a birthday celebration for my host at a restaurant on the island across the bay from his house. Out of nowhere, comes a barge that fires off about ten minutes of fireworks. We tried to convince him we arranged it for his birthday, but he wasn't buying.
So, rather than focus on the stuff, here's the skinny on all the people. Our Illinois folk were well represented and a local suburban guidance counselor told me how he uses digital storytelling to get some of his students to open up. The usual Apple gang was there and we had a great reception followed by a get-together for those of us who are headed to Europe on a global awareness trip. The DEN was also well represented as was Discovery (in their butterfly wings!) The American Film Institute announced a partnership between themselves and unitedstreaming to deliver a great video on making movies in schools. We also headed over to Dave & Buster's to celbrate the 1st birthday of the DEN. Though I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, we celebrated, played an interactive trivia game, had dinner, played video games in teams (selected by the birthday hat you had on), had a scavenger hunt, and received party favors with their signature thank you note and explanation of the significance of each of the gifts.
HOWEVER, the high point for me was running into Roger Wagner who was the genius behind the best interactive presentation program ever, HyperStudio. Not only did he create an incredible program for kids and teachers, he is personally responsible for turning me into the the multimedia guy I am and greasing the skids to get me out of the classroom. It seems every time I turned around in the early 90's there was Roger saying, "Joe, do you know kids can do this, teachers can do that, and even Spanish teacher/coaches can do it, too? Joe, you need this microphone. Joe, you have to have a video overlay card (with which I made a laser disc and wowed some company in New York)." So, it was only fitting I got to talk to Roger who launched the last iteration of my career as I begin the next.
posted by Joe B at
1:12 PM
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