Subscribe to RSSNECC 08 t-shirt anyone?
Couldn’t make it to NECC this year? What better way to commemorate your vicarious NECC experience than with a tee? I had a good laugh and just had to post the link here in case anybody wanted to take advantage of this offer. Plus Zazzle just sounds cool. We’ve been talking about creating a Tech Chicks shirt and since we haven’t had a world class designer step up and offer to create one for us, this might be a viable alternative. :-)
NECC, Here We Come!
Helen and I are getting ready for NECC. I can’t believe it’s here already! We’ll be driving down to San Antonio together on Saturday evening and are preparing for no sleep and lots of sharing and learning! We’re bummed we’ll miss the Edubloggers and the Twitter meet up. How unfair! But we do hope we run into old and new friends! If you see one or the both of us, please say hi!
I’m up late-ish for some unknown reason and found myself catching up on my feeds. I read this one on Learning is Messy. A few useful tips if you’re going to be attending a conference for the first time. Well, even if you’re not new to conferences, I like the tips.
#1 - Unless you have to be there, spend as little time on the vendor floor as possible.
#2 – Make a schedule of all the sessions you want to see … then be ready to ignore it … or at least a lot of it.
#3 – Don’t be afraid to hang out and put your 2 cents in.
#4 – Bring a cheap plug strip.
#5 – Don’t stress … YOU ARE GOING TO MISS SOME COOL THINGS YOU WISH YOU HADN’T MISSED! It’s OK
Well, there was a lot more on each point on the site, so be sure to check it out. But to these tips, I add…
- If you DO plan on browsing the vendor area, bring labels with your contact info so you can stick those to all of those cards for drawings and door prizes. I do tend to walk the floor but mostly because I seem to win something every year Yay me! And I’m a wee bit on the greedy side. But Brian is absolutely right about taking home junk you don’t need or want. I’m in the process of changing schools and while organizing, I found two bags of past TCEA years that were left untouched. Geez.
- If you’re a blogger, consider live blogging the sessions and keynotes you attend. It serves two purposes - 1. you’re taking notes that you can reflect on later and 2. others who can’t attend those sessions can be a part of it virtually. Even if you read a live blogged session later, the live blog feel gives you a bit of a sense of being there. Helen and I have used CoverItLive.com with success. Honestly, I haven’t tried any other live blogging software but we don’t get anything from CoverItLive either. :) Anyway, you can tweet that you’re live blogging and others can “listen in” and comment or question while you’re taking notes. Very cool!
Okay, so only two more suggestions. It’s late-ish and I’m tired. See you at NECC! I hope!
Episode 45 - In the Can!
Helen’s fault we haven’t podcast. On the road again! Anna has a broadband card! TinyURL DOES save your URLs forever, but MooURL is still cuter! And customizable. So there! Shout out to Region VIII in Mount Pleasant! Hi Melodie! Visit us at NECC! Make us a t-shirt! Check out Steven Katz’ Teach with Video book! WordWorld on PBS is SOOoOoOoOO cute! Spin & Spell is great for early literacy! Take a look at LookyBook! I learn technology from iLearnTechnology! Old news now, but we finally have Google Docs offline! Get the skinny on a zip code with ZipSkinny! If only I could see that web page, I know I’d recognize it! SearchMe!
New Mobile Broadband!
So, for various reasons I won’t bother listing, I decided it was high time to get a mobile broadband card and service. I’d been thinking about it for quite some time, but the extra monthly expense has kept me merely thinking about it. So yesterday, I was reading Pogue’s Posts and David Pogue reviewed the Sierra/Sprint Wireless Compass 597. I usually read his posts the day they come out, but this was from last month. Not sure how I missed it the first time, but I read it at just the right moment. At lunch today, I went to a local Sprint store and signed up. I’m posting this using my new connection. As you can see, it’s not super duper fast, though I was running a few things at the same time during the connection test - including Google Earth - so I’m not being fair. Either way, I’m already so excited about my new found freedom! And I can hardly wait to answer my 8 year old’s at least weekly question, “Do we have Internet in the car?” She’s going to be thrilled to get onto Webkinz on her way to Nana’s house! And even more thrilled to be AT Nana’s house with access to Webkinz! Nana and Papa don’t even have a computer!
