Serendipity35

I attended the NJEDge.Net Annual Conference yesterday and today. I'm not one of those bloggers who tries to chronicle all the sessions at a conference. Actually, at many conferences I attend I never end up blogging any specific sessions. That's not to say that there were no good sessions. In fact, the best sessions are often the hardest to blog because I know I won't be able to capture the presentation in a post. I'm more likely to be inspired by a line or a slide than an entire presentation. Some of my best moments usually occur between the sessions.

In our presentation on "Human Networking", I was hoping not only to let people know about NJIT's efforts at K-20 collaboration with Science Park High School, but actually do some human networking with attendees. This conference is not really for K-12 people, but I thought I might make some higher ed or industry connections. The attendees said good things about our projects and partnerships. I had to ask if my talk had enough in the mix of enthusiasm, because I know that some of the plans we have for SPHS are not finding fertile ground in Newark and I think they have such potential. I was afraid I sounded somewhat defeated. I guess the caffeine was working because several people approached me about new projects they wanted to try with us - from cell phones for GIS/GPS, to digital storytelling, to internships.

I had my Moleskine with me and scribbled notes about a few of the sessions. I sat down tonight and started writing and somewhere near midnight I realized that I had several posts starting to emerge. I cut those from here and I'll rethink them in the next few days and post them next week.

I also realized that what I had written in my notes about several sessions were that they missed for some reason.

Take the talk by Rich Griffin of OSTN on student-produced video content for IPTV. I wrote about the Open Student Television Network enthusiastically awhile back and a reader commented that she hoped he would talk about K-12 use of the service. Rich even replied to the comment saying he would address that in this talk. Well, he didn't. In fact, some of the best information about the service - like that it's esentially free to schools and how to join - didn't even come up until he Q&A portion of the time. I think all the tech talk and even the few samples shown lost the educators in the audience.

On the other hand, one of the really good demos done was for Medical Missions for Children here in Paterson, NJ. Their mission is to “Transfer medical knowledge from those who have it
to those who need it using the latest in communications technology.” They are using video, Internet2 and have partnered with nearby Montclair State University and are doing good work. But my sense was that the audience was trying to see "what's in it for my school" and that wasn't the point.

Without a doubt, the best part of the conference for me was meeting up with a former student of mine. I taught Mary in one of my past lives as a middle school English teacher, and she was in her past life as a 7th & 8th grader. We have both had a few professional lives since then, but Mary is now an instructional designer at Seton Hall University. She presented two poster sessions at the conference.

One was "Utilizing Web 2.0 to Engage Students and Foster Community." SHU is trying some new things with their Freshman Studies department trying to engage incoming freshman before they ever set foot on campus. Like many of our institutions, they have a freshmen one credit course during their first semester (University Life) taught my faculty mentors. They started a blog where each mentor posted information on topics that incoming students would need to know ("How to get around campus," "Health Services," "Student Support Services") and they have podcast episodes with additional information.

It was her second topic that was more interesting for me since it involves literature. "Exploring Literary Texts Through Virtual Worlds" is part of a larger effort at Seton Hall using virtual worlds. I'm interested in Second Life and other virtual worlds, but I'm still not convinced about the applications to education. Seton Hall makes my short list of schools doing convincing work in the area. Over lunch and in the hallways, my conversations with Mary about my old classroom and the connections I'm still making to some of the same ideas today was not only nostalgic, but inspiring. More on this Monday...