Wow, what a day! I have not absorbed all I saw today but I can tell you that I was exposed to a great deal. One of the things I learned more about was Scratch, an open source programming language developed at MIT. mobile technology has changed a lot since the NECC 2009 conference which was ISTE in 2009 in Washington, DC. There were more net books then. Now those net books have been supplanted by iPads, iPhones and Android devices. There were a surprising number of PC laptop and MacBooks too. I learned to travel light two years ago. The Pennsylvania convention center is a larger venue than NECC 2009’s host, The Walter Washington Convention Center. This year’s conference has much better wifi coverage too. That is a real improvement from last time. There are also many more electrical outlets to keep everyone charged and happy.
The food is good too! We lunched at the Reading Market, right across the street. What an incredible array of delicious food at reasonable prices too. I learned more about Google Docs. I’ve been a Google Docs admin for four years now and the product just keeps improving. One of the presenters from the Google teacher academy showed us how the State of Iowa is using Google sites to create student portfolios. All of that and free too. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see more of Microsoft Live@edu. Maybe they were there and I missed them. I did see an incredible 3D projector from BenQ. Too cool!
My biggest disappointment was falling asleep during the Microsoft Kinect/XNA session. I got some good links though and I’m already reading. It was not a total loss. Twitter too and my PLN continue to pay dividends as tweets and retweets kept me informed and pointed me in the direction of more learning. A great day overall and I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I’m praying once again for the beginner’s mind.