Some thoughts about last year's NECC Conference

Peggy George gives us a personal view of last year’s NECC conference.
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Communications at NECC

Ease of communication at NECC was certainly not an issue, with both online and face-to-face meetings catered for. So, what lessons can be learnt for both conference organisers and conference delegates?

But enough about me; let's talk about my latest project

Five things to avoid, and five things to embrace, when it comes to giving presentations. These tips are based on my recent experience as a victim audience member at NECC.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to wind me up, it is, as I ranted to Jennifer Wagner and anyone else who was unfortunate to be within earshot, people who waste my time. Some presenters should show some respect to their audience.

Catching up

So why was our website not updated for a week? And what is happening now? All is revealed...

Five Minute Tip: Getting the best out of teaching assistants

14 key points of good practice.

In my experience, many teachers make poor use of teaching assistants, regarding them as a sort of junior helper on the same level as a school pupil doing a holiday job.

This lack of vision is, of course, almost always due to ineffective management.

The teaching assistant can be a vital component in the quest to raise standards; this briefing explains how.

This article is available only to subscribers to Leading and Managing Educational Technology.

Countdown to NECC 2007: The feeds

This year's NECC show, in Atlanta, is massive. Fortunately, the organisers have set up RSS feeds for every session. Unfortunately, they haven't made the facility that easy to use -- but help is at hand.

Countdown to NECC: A podcast about Coming of Age 2.0

The trouble with Skype is that you just cannot get any work done, what with friends popping up all day and night. Still, it has its compensations. Last night Elaine and I had a great chat with Shawn Wheeler. We chatted about our house and where we live, and then I waxed lyrical about the forthcoming 2nd edition of the Coming of Age book. It is going to be published, I promise!

Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web, came out just over a year ago and was intended to help teachers who had heard about Web 2.0 stuff (blogging and all that) to dip their toe in the water. That edition consisted of about a dozen contributors and was downloaded at least 60,000 times (I stopped keeping track after that) and almost won an award. The 2nd edition is much expanded, and I give some details in this podcast.

If you missed the first edition, it's still available, it's still free, and it's still here: http://www.ictineducation.org/db/web2

If you'd like to keep up with the developments on this new edition, and maybe even read some previews, then join the Coming of Age community at http://comingofage.ning.com.

And if you're visiting NECC next week, then do stop by the Coming of Age poster session, where you'll be able to say "Hi" to Peggy George and myself, leave your business card or sign up to be sent more information, and say how much you loved the first edition by speaking into a microphone and contributing to a podcast .

There's also a Birds-of-a-feather session where you can say how you'd like the project to develop. I've already had some great ideas presented to me, and I myself am busy planning the next iteration (I must be a masochist!).