Monday, October 15, 2007

What is this blog? and K12 Online Conference

Ok, the title and description of this blog doesn't always hit the mark with regard to the content here. When I have enough content that I can look at it and say, hey here's my purpose, I'll change the description. So for now, I'll just charge ahead . . .

The 2007 K12 Online Conference has started. I had heard about this conference last year but did not really dive into it mostly because when I'm sitting in front of a computer, I usually have a specific purpose or task to complete. Since I sit in front of a computer a lot, I found it difficult to spend more time to attend a "virtual" conference. (This is the same problem I have with reading blogs. At least, driving and a digital audio player have worked well for staying engaged with some podcasts.)

I watched David Warlick's opening keynote this past weekend and the recording of the related Fireside Chat, and the themes of the conference seem connected to what at least some faculty here at D-E have been thinking and talking about informally and during formal professional development days we've already had.

So this year, I am going to try to "attend" at least three sessions (and maybe one a day as a "reach" goal) each week. A purpose I'm affiliating with this is to identify some sessions that faculty here at D-E might find interesting and motivating. I still haven't figured out how (mostly the problem is when) to do this yet, but I'd like to get some groups of teachers into a room together to view some of these presentations to generate ideas and conversation. Maybe also to "sell" the conference a bit as a way for those motivated enough to find the time outside of school to dive deeper through a self-guided "tour".

As part of my attempt to focus more time on faculty professional development and training, I may write a little here on the conference presentations as a possible guide to sessions D-E teachers should check out. Maybe this post will be buried at least a few messages deep under newer posts in two weeks? Stay tuned and see how this works out.

If you are interested in learning more about the K12 Online Conference, the First-Timers page is a good place to start. The easiest way to jump into participating or viewing the sessions is via the schedule. Note that links to sessions are posted as each session is "released" or started. While the sessions are released at the date and time specified, you can participate in the sessions any time after that. If you just don't know where to start or get overwhelmed by all the different links and information on the conference website , heed these suggestions quoted from one of the conference guides:

  • Don't try to take it all in at once. Pick a strand and follow it. View, perhaps, only one presentation per day.
  • There is approximately one synchronous [live] activity per week but remember, these are archived so you can always catch up later, if the timing does not work for you.

The strands are described here.

As always, if you see anything here that you want to know more about stop me and talk about it (if you are at D-E) or post a comment if you are not or that's your preference.

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