In our chats about EduBloggerCon on Twitter, Jon Becker made a comment about it being like the first day of summer camp. I love the analogy! It’s funny to look back at the first photos I took, with a room full of people that I had never met in person. Sure, some I had connected with virtually and consider a valuable part of my personal learning community. Yet there were many in the photos, (even sitting in the rows right around me) that I didn’t know that day, but came to know well by the end of the week. Now, it feels like I’ve known them for years. (I mean that in a good way.)
Steve Hargadon organized EduBloggerCon to be about getting together in a “collaborative conference” setting, to share experiences, questions, tools and strategies. He did an amazing job putting it together, giving enough structure that the day could be organized, yet allowing enough freedom that the schedule could grow organically around conversation. The free event was also organized by the participants in a wiki and allowed for virtual participation.
The day began with an hour of time to socialize. Who wouldn’t love a whole hour for a meet-and-greet? I was all over that. It was a wonderful time to catch up with old friends, meet virtual peeps in person, and get to know new people. The room was busy with business card exchanges, cameras clicking, hugs and conversation.
My first session was difficult to choose. My interest in Professional Development Models made me want to attend the session led by Liz Davis. However, since this was my first time at NECC and EBC, I had to experience a Web2.0 Smackdown for myself. The basic idea involved people lining up to demo their favorite Web 2.0 tool. However, there was a 3 minute limit per person. I love that the event was streamed live in elluminate and Ustream for virtual attendees, and backchanneling goodness in CoverItLive. Thanks to Vicki Davis for facilitating, Paul Wood for officiating, and Kristin Hokanson for organizing the backchannel. Many thanks to all who took the stage to demo a cool tool.
Go here and scroll down to watch a fun remix of Smackdown Memories from 2007 and 2008 that Vicki Davis put together. You’ll also find the recorded video and backchannel recordings from the 2009 Smackdown.
Here is a list a few of the cool tools from the session:
Diigo Lists – Vicki Davis – I heard a lot about Diigo this week. Amazing features. Need to switch over. Vicki also shared how the Diigo lists can be shared as a WebSlide. Very cool!
FreshBrain – Rushton Hurley – open & free website for teens to create projects, engage in social networking, and explore technology
QR Codes – John Costilla – What are these things? Had to check Wikipedia!
Google Similar Images Searches – Lisa Thumann – Loved her recent CR2.0 session on Google Tools. This Google Lab feature is cool!
CompFight and FlickrStorm – Angela Maiers – Amazing tools for images. Angela did a refined search for literacy. You need to try this!
CoverItLive – Kristin Hokanson – This is a great find. I plan to use this one a lot next year. Loved the line: “Students notes are better, because they are doing it together.” On the break, Kristin (below) took time to give me a more detailed tutorial of CoverItLive. Awesome!
Wikispaces – Adam Frey – tools and tagging tips from our favorite wiki guy
Fur.ly – David Jakes – Shortening multiple urls into one
Twoogle and Twitalyzer – Scott McLeod – Cool Twitter tools! Twoogle is a genius idea!
Woot – Leigh Zeitz – online store that sells cool stuff cheap, selling one item per day until it is sold out
K12 Online Conference and EdTech Talk - Wes Fryer – Can’t wait for this conference!
Taggalaxy – Lee Kolbert -This is an awesome find! Try it out!!
TinEye – Maria Droujkova- a reverse image search engine
Opus09, Noteflight, JamStudio – Chris Chater – great resources & new ning
Bump – Chad Lehmann – Love this. What a quick and easy way to exchange information!
Today’sMeet, TinyPaste – Craig Nansen – A backchannel option and an interesting tool.
And last, but not least, I have to mention the…
New and Improved Web 2.0 Keychain – Kevin Honeycutt – Loved how Vicki had Kevin demo this from a train, on his way to NECC. (Gotta love Skype!) If you weren’t able to get one of these keychains, you can download it from his website. I need to ask him permission to use this idea with the teachers at my school this year. I’d love to give them “a new key” every time I finish a presentation.
If I’ve left anyone out, please add it in the comments. I typed as quickly as I could into my Google Doc. Time flies when you’re watching the Smackdown!
More on the other EduBloggerCon sessions in another post. I’ll leave you with this list of resources for now:
Resources:
EduBloggerCon Wiki: http://www.edubloggercon.com/
EduBloggerCon Group on Diigo: http://groups.diigo.com/groups/edubloggercon
EduBloggerCon Schedule: http://www.edubloggercon.com/DC+2009+Agenda
EduBloggerCon Aggregator: http://www.edubloggercon.com/EduBloggerCon+Aggregator
Thanks to kjarrett for the many awesome photos he took at EBC09 and NECC09!
