NCTIES - Teach21: Building Capacity

Mrs. McMillan and I are back at Bolton after soaking up all kinds of ideas and information at the NCTIES conference. I have never experienced a conference quite the same as I did this year's NCTIES conference. As we attended sessions we kept notes, updated Delicious accounts with new resources, and participated in what David Warlick likes to call the subterreanean conversation.
Connected with my newly added Tweetdeck and using the conference backchannels I participated in the connected conversations of others attending. So - instead of the communication being a presenter to audience/1 to 1 conversation there was the presenter to audience and audience to audience interactions/reactions as the presentations were happening. That made it a much deeper learing experience for me - being able to share ideas and respond to what educators from all over the state were thinking, asking, and sharing in real time. There was a clicking of laptop keys throughout these sessions, but somehow they weren't a distraction. It was just passionate educators sharing ideas in a connected world.
Being able to have these conversations with national technology leaders such as Vicki Davis, Meg Ormiston, Kathy Shrock, David Warlick and Will Richardson was very beneficial, but not nearly as beneficial as having them with colleagues simultaneously.
Our own presentation, Teach21: Building Capacity went well. David Warlick even slipped in the back to hear our story, which meant a lot. Later - in passing on our way to a session he simply looked at us and said, "Good Show." He had blogged that what he wanted from the NCTIES conference was stories and HE HEARD OURS!
Although we collected many ideas to bring back to Bolton more than anything, after hearing what is happening around our state and being able to talk with fellow educators, we are convinced we are on the right path, and doing things the right way. We have never lost sight that it's not about the technology, but what we do with it. This is the reflections video we shared in our presentations - and it's very powerful because it signals shift happening at Bolton Elementary.