Wednesday, October 08, 2008

NECC Stress? Submissions Due Today...

OK, so even though submissions are due today for speaking at NECC 2009, I want to give you one reason to breathe a little easier if you're feeling stress.

I've been given approval to move forward again with both EduBloggerCon and NECC "Unplugged." EduBloggerCon planning will start in a few months, and we'll make a real effort to involve the larger community in the what and how of that event. I've asked for as many breakout areas as they can give us, with the guiding philosophy being that we (I!) won't try to control the breakouts like we (I!) did last year. That was a pretty clear lesson!

And as excited as I am to gather again for the all-day fun that EduBloggerCon can be, I'm really delighted to have NECC Unplugged being supported again. The idea behind NECC Unplugged is that anyone who wants to can sign up and give a short presentation during NECC--whether it is on a topic that hasn't hit the ed-tech radar before today but becomes significant, or it is a topic that gets turned down in the formal submission process but you still feel has real value. Long live the wiki as a conference organizing tool! :)

For those who care, the Open Source presence at NECC will remain strong--and maybe stronger because of this economy. We'll have our "Pavilion" once again, and will have an active playground area where we hope to get the legendary Jeff Elker involved with his students.

And don't forget the CUE.org show in March '09 in Palm Springs, California, where all of this same good stuff happens as well! And if you're going to be at NSBA's T+L Conference in a few weeks in Seattle, we will have an Open Source lab room there for the very first time! Wahoo! If you're going to be there, come find me.

7 comments:

  1. I missed EduBloggerCon last year because of a Computer Science workshop the same day. After hearing all the feedback from the previous two sessions, I'm looking forward to the upcoming session.

    Thanks for all the time you put into setting this up. I know it is a lot of work and we appreciate all of the time you dedicate to the task.

    Enjoy,

    Kyle

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  2. Anonymous6:25 PM

    Hi Steve, this is terrific news, one question/suggestion. As someone who attended EBC07 and EBC08, I felt the Atlanta accommodations were far more suitable to conversation than San Antonio. What flexibility, if any, do you expect you'll get with regards to placement of the meeting spaces? I really loved in Atlanta how people just flopped into rooms or into groups in the cafe and just started sharing. It was so comfortable. And, if there's anything that can be done to formally schedule LESS and let things evolve naturally, that would be great, personally. I feel the appeal of EBC is its spontaneity. To some that would appear as disorganization, but I feel otherwise.

    Keep up the good work,

    Kevin Jarrett
    Northfield Community School
    http://www.ncs-tech.org

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  3. Kyle: Hope to see you there.

    Kevin: You're right on target, I think. While we won't have a lot of flexibility with what we get from NECC (which is super-generous no matter what!), I agree with you completely. In Atlanta we still had the pre-meeting indications of interest, and tried to make sure we didn't have the most popular topics in conflict with each other, but what made it better, I think, was that we had more things going on during each time.

    I also think that the size and constitution of the group were different. And this is something we have to face as Web 2.0 becomes more ubiquitous--I mean, over 12,000 people are in Classroom 2.0 right now. Somehow we have to be both inclusive of new folks and respectful of already existing conversations and relations. An interesting dilemma...

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  4. Thanks again for the great news! I'll second Kevin's suggestion regarding meeting spaces, if it's at all flexible. If not, I know it will still be effective.

    As someone who is "NECC-stressed" right now, you have no idea how much I appreciate the un-conference.

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  5. Anonymous3:30 AM

    Hi Steve,
    Are you speaking at the Innovative Learning Conference coming up in San Jose?

    How about the CUE in March?

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  6. Hi,anonymous! I'm going to try to make the EduBloggerCon taking place Wednesday night at the ILC, but unfortunately I have other commitments next week that will make it really hard to do any more than that... :(

    I've submitted to speak at CUE, and as the organizer of both the Open Source Pavilion there and another EduBloggerCon, I can say for sure I'll be there!

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  7. Steve,
    I missed the EBC last year due to another commitment, but I'm planning to attend this year. Thanks for all you do to make it easy for people like me to get involved and have a voice.
    ~Lee

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