So, I'm not sure why ISTE allows me to be so experimental at NECC, but I'm really glad that they do since it's so much fun! EduBloggerCon 2009 was really fun again this year, and while the blog reports on attendance inexplicably vary, over 200 signed up for the Saturday night party, and if I had to guess we had some 125 - 150 who attended for some part of the un-conference day. It just felt intimate again, though, and was a lot less "controlled." The group felt fresh, with a lot of new faces, and I again realized once again that this is what I like and maybe what my true contribution to our community is: helping new educational users of Web 2.0 feel welcomed and supported. Seems like I always gravitate to this even though I personally love the deep drill-down stuff.Tomorrow the fun continues with NECC Unplugged. My personal NECC hero, Anita McAnear, got or gave permission for us to run this again after our first try last year. This is something of an extension of EduBloggerCon but it runs the whole three days of NECC (starting tomorrow, June 29th) and anyone who wants to can sign up to present in our area. This does something miraculous: it allows for presentations from people who've never gotten to present at NECC before, and it allows for presentations on topics that weren't necessarily current when applications to present were due last fall.
The presentations slots are 30 minutes, and this year we actually have our own separate area across the hall from the Blogger's Cafe. AND we are "Elluminating" (live-streaming) the sessions so that those who aren't attending NECC have an additional way to tap into the conference "live." I spent some time getting ready for tomorrow, since the sound for the Elluminate sessions during EduBloggerCon wasn't great--we've got a separate mic for NECC Unplugged which goes directly into the broadcasting computer, and my 16-year-old daughter Kate has agreed to spend the next three days overseeing the technical since my NECC schedule and my new Elluminate job will keep me pretty darn occupied elsewhere most of the time.
Now, if you are actually at NECC, please note that there are still some empty slots on the wiki available if you want to present something! You can also come over and say "hi" and check up on Kate, who will likely be completely exhausted after the first day and will need the draw of new friendships to agree to come back Tuesday and Wednesday. :)
Another new feature of NECC Unplugged this year is the addition of virtual presentations. So, if you are not attending NECC you can still present to others who may be attending virtually. You also sign up on the wiki to do so, and the ever-amazing Kim Caise, one of the co-hosts of the Classrom 2.0 Live Saturday show, will be helping moderate those sessions. The wiki also has a column for any other "live" links for those watching from afar. If you are aware of any live-blogging or streaming, please add those links in the final column so that others can easily find them.
Finally, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and want a really progressive activity to attend, Derrall Garrison has arranged a room at Foothill College for those who want to attend NECC remotely and watch the different streams while also having the association of gathering locally. I actually think this is a very cool model for "conference 2.0," where we blend the physical and the virtual, which I think is being done by some and will likely be done by more--imagine being able to attend NECC in 15 different cities "live," with sessions being streamed out to and between all the locations. Fascinating concept! Derrall has reserved Room 4002 at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College from June 28th to July 1st from 8:00AM to 2:00 PM daily. Contact derrallg@gmail if you have any questions.
Joyce Valenza has been the librarian at Springfield Township High School (PA) since 1998. For ten years, she was the techlife@school columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joyce is the author of Power Tools, Power Research Tools and Power Tools Recharged for ALA Editions. She currently blogs for School Library Journal. Her NeverendingSearch Blog (now on the SLJ website) won an Edublogs Award for 2005 and was nominated again in 2008. She won the AASL/Highsmith research grant in 2005. Joyce is a Milken Educator and an American Memory Fellow. Her video series, Internet Searching Skills was a YALSA Selected Video for Young Adults in 1999. The video series Library Skills for Children was released in 2003, and her six-volume video series Research Skills for Students was released in Fall 2004. Super Searchers Go to School, was published by Information Today in 2005. Her Virtual Library won the IASL School Library Web Page of the Year Award for 2001. Joyce is active in ALA, AASL, YALSA, and ISTE and contributes to Classroom Connect, VOYA, Learning and Leading with Technology, and School Library Journal. Joyce speaks nationally about issues relating to libraries and thoughtful use of educational technology. Joyce earned her doctoral degree from the University of North Texas in August, 2007.
Buffy Hamilton (
Cathy Nelson is a 22 year veteran educator. She is a teacher-librarian, aka school library media specialist from South Carolina. Cathy is transitioning from a middle school in the Myrtle Beach area to Dorman High School in the Spartanburg area of SC. Cathy is a member of ISTE, ALA, AASL, and the state and local affiliates of those organizations. She particpates in many online forums and nings as well, and strives to evangalize student engagement and making learning relevant through the tools students love. Being in the school media center is the perfect place to make a difference with students and teachers alike.
Carolyn Foote, a high school and district librarian at Westlake High School in Austin, TX, had a small feature in School Library Journal, October 2007, as well as an article on Skype in the January 2008 and was included in the article, “Mattering in the School Blogosphere” in American Libraries Magazine in May 2007. Having recently redesigned a library, she is fascinated by the future of physical libraries and their services. Her blog can be found at 
Will Richardson is known internationally for his work with educators and students to understand and implement instructional technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web into their schools, classrooms and communities. A public school educator for 22 years, Will’s own Weblog (Weblogg-ed.com) is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level and is a leading voice for school reform in the context of the fundamental changes these new technologies are bringing to all aspects of life. His critically acclaimed, best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms (March 2006, Corwin Press) is already being used by thousands of teachers to reinvent their practice, and his keynotes, presentations and workshops to audiences around the world communicate a fresh and inspiring vision of what schools can and must become. He is a founding partner of the Connective Learning Group which is dedicated to assisting educators contextualize and implement Read/Write Web tools into their schools and classrooms.
Bob Burg is a highly sought-after speaker at corporate, financial services and direct sales conventions. His critically acclaimed book, Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales has sold over 200,000 copies and continues to be used as a training manual for top sales organizations throughout the world. His latest national bestseller (and one of Steve's favorite books), The Go-Giver has been heralded as a new business classic. It’s been translated into 14 languages and has already topped the 100,000 mark.
Travis Alber is the co-founder of BookGlutton.com. Her day-to-day role has been Chief Creative Officer, creating the look and feel for the website and the Unbound Reader, and managing marketing and communications. Prior to founding BookGlutton.com Travis was a creative director at JLOOP.com. She has eleven years of on-line experience, and has worked in web design, advertising, online training and education. Her client history includes: Cisco, Sprint,
Aaron Miller is the co-founder of BookGlutton.com. His role is Chief Technical Officer, where he manages the architecture and development of the Unbound Reader, Catalog, website, and all widgets and APIs. He has eleven years experience working on-line; professionally he’s worked on both the creative and technical sides of projects—working at times as a writer and designer and at others a developer in San Francisco and LA. His clients include Wells Fargo, Organic, and Driving Media. Aaron has a Master’s Degree in Interactive Multimedia and an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine.
Maggie Tsai is the Chief Diigo Ambassador and Co-founder of Diigo. Diigo provides a powerful online research and collaborative research tool that integrates tags and folders, highlighting, clipping and sticky notes, and group-based collaboration, enabling a whole new process of online information management.
An award-winning journalist, Rachel has been producing documentaries for FRONTLINE since the mid-1990s. She and her husband, filmmaker Barak Goodman, are joint partners in Ark Media, a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York. Together, they have produced and directed numerous documentaries for FRONTLINE, including: The Lost Children of Rockdale County (1999) winner of the George Foster Peabody Award; the three-part series Failure to Protect (2003), winner of the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Grand Prize; Merchants of Cool (2001); The Persuaders (2004); and A Hidden Life (2006). Independently, Rachel's films for FRONTLINE include Hillary's Class (1994); Betting on the Market (1997); The High Price of Health (1998); The Search for Satan (1995) and Growing Up Online (2008). She has also produced for WNET New York, NPR's All Things Considered, MSNBC's Edgewise and most recently, a short film for The New York Times Magazine on the Web. She and Goodman have three children, ages 11, 8 and 6.