This week at NECC, I will be presenting at a poster session from 1-3 PM on the topics covered in RSS for Educators.

John Hendron published the book RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts and Wikis in the Classroom (2008, ISTE) based on his experiences working at Goochland County Public Schools as supervisor of instructional technology.

For ISTE’s NECC 2008 in San Antonio, John will be available for answering questions about the use of Read/Write Tools in K-12 education, demonstrating examples used in the book.

Relevant Links:

• Goochland Blogs (2005-2008)
• Goochland Blogs (2008+)
• Goochland Wiki
• Goochland Technology Times (over 120 episodes)
• Goochland School Websites
• John’s Professional Blog: Hendron’s Digest
• ISTE Bookstore

Our efforts in using Read/Write tools have been recognized by the Virginia Tech School of Education and the Virginia Department of Education. If you don’t have an opportunity to ask questions in person, feel free to use the comments in this post for questions.

I will be presenting this year at NECC on Wednesday afternoon! I invite attendees to NECC to attend my presentation on High Quality Technology Professional Development. You can download the session handout, below (PDF).

I’m also going to be leading a (filled) workshop on Google Sketchup and doing a poster session covering the topics I wrote about in my book. See you in San Antonio!

It’s great to be here for NECC 2008.

You know, this week I’m presenting at NECC. That’s the National conference that has international attendees. Some of the big-boys from Virginia are here, including Fairfax, Falls Church, and Henrico, just to name a few. And then there’s little old Goochland. We have a pretty good reputation in the Commonwealth, but sometimes I worry.

The presentation is on quality professional development. I think we really, honestly do provide some quality training and support. But it also requires the support of everyone, including those above you. It certainly isn’t as strong as it used to be.

Last year I could actually pay teachers to attend some classes. It made it a much stronger, better-attended experience. This year, I’m having people just not show up, or cancel the morning of the session. In one class, I had one student and 2 hired helpers. Disappointing.

One case in point that gives me cause for worry is this exchange between me and a teacher in a session:

• (John) Okay, next we’re going to find some photos from the city you selected in Flickr via their Creative Commons search area. Open up a web browser and go to flickr.com.
• (Teacher) Whoa, what? A web browser? Come on, what is a web browser??
• (Another teacher) Firefox, click on Firefox.
• (Teacher) Why didn’t you just say go to the Internet?
• (That other teacher) Well, Firefox is a Web browser.
• (Teacher) Ok, never knew that! Can’t I use Safari? But that’s not a Web browser, is it?
• (John) [Speechless gaze.]

We’ve come so far in our little school division. We really have. I have some 200 blogging teachers, with at least a quarter who are podcasting. Yet, we still have those that struggle with basic terminology. And I won’t even begin to extrapolate on how three different people, among three different courses we taught, didn’t know how or what copy and paste worked/was.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.