I just got back from attending the two-day DCET (Delaware Center for Educational Technology) Conference in Dover. This is the second time that I've gone. Last year, I went as a presenter (Blackboard 101) and district Showcase Teacher, and this year I went solely as an attendee. I have to say it was much easier to enjoy the sessions stress free without worrying about getting ready to present myself.
An additional nice perk about attending the conference was that my Mom gets to attend as well because she's the head librarian (oops, head Library Media Specialist) at a local community college. My Mom has supported my technology efforts over the years from the early age of 5 when my grandfather gave me a Tandy 1000 computer for Christmas, so it's pretty cool to be there to support her as she learns about new technologies, including the advantages (and growing disadvantages) of social networking sites such as MySpace.
A few session highlights...
The Handheld Computer Dilemma: Palm vs. Pocket PC - Presented by Todd A. Fishburn and Steve Garner
I ended up in this session by accident, after going to the LoTi workshop and discovered I had attended the same session last year. While I'm already very familiar with both Palm and Pocket PCs, having used both over the years myself, I was curious to see how teachers were using them with their students. These guys did a very nice job! It kept my attention, and I especially liked how they brought enough units of each type for everyone to test right along with them. Good idea! I don't think I plan on doing anything with those anytime soon in my room, simply because I have a 24 seat computer lab and it's not necessary, but I am curious as to what the results would be if my students started using those in other classes. I think I would lean towards using the Pocket PCs because of the ease in using Microsoft products, and plus I just like the look and feel of the Pocket PCs much better anyway.
Social Networking, Internet Safety, and the Collision called MySpace! - Presented by Pat Sine
While I considered myself pretty familiar with the concept of MySpace, I wanted to see if I could find out a little more about it. I was hoping that it would present a more in depth look regarding why students use MySpace, what they do on there, etc..., however it focused more on the dangers and issues of MySpace, which while certainly important, wasn't really what I was looking for. It was, however, a good session for my Mom to attend, because she's really in a situation right now where she wants to learn more about the <em>issues</em> before she gets to the benefits. I think that that is important, but I want to see more about what educators are doing with MySpace once (if?!) they get back the issues and progress into the positives and how to make it relevant and timely.
Will Richardson's sessions
These were the ones that I was truly looking forward to! Unfortunately, my memory fails at the moment and I can't remember the names of his sessions and can't find it online, so I will look that up tonight and update this. The first session talked about Web 2.0 technologies and some of the latest and greatest that are available and starting to be used right now, and the afternoon session focused on Blogging and using RSS readers in the classroom. I personally love Feed Demon. I also picked up Will's book while I was there. Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but that's on my list of things to do once I finish up this week's doctoral group presentation as well as submit my dissertation draft of chapter's 1-3.
Overall, great conference! My district's budget willing, I plan to attend next year!