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…

1. 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.
2. 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!

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Notes from TCEA’s Closing Keynote

These are my notes from Marco Torres’ keynote during TCEA. They are what they are, but I think you’ll get the general gist…

Subscribe to the comments for this post

GarageBand in the Classroom

Session notes from John Maklary’s session on GarageBand.

GarageBand in the Classroom

(02/08/2008)

Close

8:01	John Maklary http://mistermak.pbwiki.com/GarageBand

8:02	presentation is on GDocs…all resources can be found at the URL above

8:03	Why GarageBand? Suppports project-based learning Enhances digital media projects Addresses musical intelligence Cross-curricular

8:04	Going to talk about a mashup of Google Earth and GarageBand–cool

8:06	more examples available at http://jp2kidcasts.blogspot.com also his podcast server–subscribable in iTunes good digital storytelling examples

8:08	Saint’s Live–monthly student podcast use mics attached to iPods Flip video cam GarageBand (GB) used for editing/mixdown Students created their own theme music Very student centered, engaging, and motivating Students used writing, editing, and speaking skills

8:09	Sharing example of student podcast-John Paul II Catholic School News, sports, and more Interview of teacher

8:12	Sound Seeing Tours 8th grade trip to DC Used iPods and mics to record what they are experiencing and for interviews Supports social studies, speaking, and editing Uploaded nightly from DC–lots of parent interest http://jp2washingtondc.blogspot.com

8:15	Same theme for beginning and end so that there was consistency. Students came up with their own content. Great idea for field trips Mics are relatively inexpensive, as are Olympus recorders

8:19	Movie Soundtrack Students create digital documentaries 2 examples: Documentary on the story of the Indianapolis; used UnitedStreaming clips; first efforts used lots of voice sound effects and may have copyright issues (things to think about) Computer game soundtrack (Waffles Revenge)

8:24

Writing Songs Based on a curricular theme or special event of study Teach song form/patterns (ABACAB) Supports sequencing/patterns Student examples: Drug Free Rap (became viral–kids passed it around everywhere; brought these kids motivation level higher) Working on My Beat (springboard to talking about pattern-lyrics were really about this student’s life; let kids just go and do it, then review and talk about how it can be made better)

8:28

Mozart Meets Magellan (or Meatloaf meets Marco Polo) Students create Google Earth tours to research different world music cultures (history, influences, etc) Students use GB to construct music showcasing each culture’s music and embed into Google Earth (new vers 4.2 allows for embeddable media) Supports geography and world history Geo-Music World tour (kmz file) Tutorial for embedding media in GE Code for embedding audio (have to use shockwave code, but didn’t work on the Mac he is borrowing to use this morning–may need further investigation)

8:31	GB has extra jam packs that contain more loops–definitely worth it if you want more to work with–especially World vibe

8:34	Pimp Your Ride to get more out of GB M-Audio (audio interfaces and pre-amps, mics, MIDI controllers, etc)–allows for greater degree of control with instruments Apple Jam Packs (more loops)

8:36	Mac Envy? If you don’t have a Mac and can’t use GB, try Audacity M-Audio Session ($50 or you can buy a bundle w/mic or MIDI controller for ~$100) Sony Acid (free version w/very few loops; pd version has more loops)

8:37	Recommended Reading Dan Schmit’s books (Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom, etc) Available from FTC Publishing

8:42	Demo of GB ’08 Magic GarageBand–click on genre, then click audition, can click on instruments and chage up the vibe (cool! ) When you have what you want, click on Create Project and you’ll get all the tracks laid out in GB interface ready to edit. Video tutorials available

8:43	Ques about how he does student review process… very informal, does it have all the required elements, etc.

8:44	This Live Blog has now ended.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

David Pogue at TCEA Past Presidents’ Luncheon

WOW–can’t wait to hear David. We’re trying out Live Blog, so let’s see how it turns out.

Subscribe to the comments for this post