NECC06: Corners and Oceans

Despite good intentions the posts on this blog have not been as regular as I would like. Being a full time technology coordinator and teacher in a developing international school tends to eat up the time and energy left for blogging. However, I am continuing to be an avid reader of other people's blogs and my aim is to be more proactive in continuing the digital conversation by sharing with my readers current hot topics and threads.

NECC 06: Just around the corner (and across the Pacific Ocean!)
I am really looking forward to NECC06 (National Educational Computing Conference organised by ISTE, International Society for Technology in Education) coming up in less than a month in San Diego. An email arrived today containing the first SIG (Special Interest Group of ISTE) newsletter which reminded me once again of the many opportunities that await thousands of attending educators at this event. It also included a link to some helpful Tips and Resources for Blogging.

The program for NECC is as huge as ever and fully searchable online. I have attended NECC the past 3 years in Seattle, New Orleans and Philadelphia and love the opportunity to see more of the USA as well as interact and learn at the actual conference. This year I am presenting Podcast Bangladesh as a concurrent session. It is a challenge presenting on this more cutting edge topic as the proposal I submitted in October 2005 now looks a little off centre to what has actually developed in my school and with my students. However I intend to make my presentation a cultural exchange as well as share ideas and projects from the academic year. Searching the NECC program database brings up 28 items for the term 'podcast'. There is a good mix of practitioners talking about using emerging technologies in their everyday teaching and professional development as well as workshop 'how to' sessions on podcasting. The session 'Podcasting and Podcatching for the absolute beginner' is a spotlight session run by Larry Anderson, National Center for Technology Planning with Lucy Gray, Jeanne Halderson, Ted Lai, Julene Reed, David Warlick and Tim Wilson. Amongst the non-workshop (workshops = more $$$ to pay) sessions my Podcast Bangladesh presentation, being at 8.30am on the Wednesday will be the first session of the conference on this topic! Am I nervous? A little.......

OK, today is the day I start to plan (with gusto) what I want to say and how I want to say it about podcasting, Bangladesh, international collaboration and interaction, international education, emerging technologies, Web2.0, classroom integration, teacher PD and so on. (How long do I have to convey my message???) The online resources I have started and now wish to develop further and share with others are:

• Podcast Bangladesh (the portal for most of our podcasting at International School Dhaka this year)
• Podcasting and All That Jazz (The blog I use to talk about podcasting in education)
• Podcasting and All That Jazz Wiki (Designed to collate resources and foster collaboration amongst podcasting educators)

Tags:
necc06, podcasting, blogging, wiki