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I just finished NECC 2009. This was the 30-year anniversary of the conference. I have decided that NECC is my favorite conference to attend in the world of Ed Tech. I have been attending NECC since 2006. The reasons I like NECC the most are the following: 1) they always bring in the big name keynote speakers (this year we had Malcolm Gladwell first and Erin Gruwell last), 2) the sessions are mixed and not only focused on research, 3) the people that attend are all focused on the mission of meaningfully integrating technology in education, 4) the best exhibitors always attend, and 5) they always select great cities. If you have not attended NECC before, be sure to attend in Denver in 2010.

Since I finally had a little time to read something I wanted to, I decided to finish the third Eragon book. The book itself was a good read. It was well-written, had a good plot, and further explained the details of the epic battle. However, I am a little disappointed. It was my understanding (naive) that there were only going to be three books in the series. The third book did not even bring closure to one of the “bad guys” in the story, which means that another three books will likely be published before the story concludes. While I enjoy reading this story, I am upset that I will now have to wait several years before this story comes to an end. Waiting this long is just like waiting for the Harry Potter stories. Not happy!

I found out today that I lost a friend and colleague. Dr. Shauna Schullo was my supervisor at the Center for 21st Century Teaching Excellence (C21TE), a mentor early in my doctoral experience, and an overall great person. After a two year battle with cancer, her life was taken on May 7, 2009. Dr. Schullo spoke to one of my classes earlier this year. All of my students said that she was an excellent speaker and wanted to learn more about her. Shauna, you were such a positive influence on all of us. Thank you for being such a wonderful person. We will greatly miss you.

Last week, I had the privilege to visit one of the schools (Cape Fear Middle School) involved with the gaming research I am conducting here at UNCW. We were able to get the local media to visit the school as well. They put together a news story about the game intervention and the research program. Here is a link to the news article and video: http://www.wect.com/global/story.asp?s=10091886. This is exciting because it is drawing some attention to the product, DimensionM, and is also raising awareness about gaming in education.

Recently, we hosted a teacher cadets program at UNCW. This program brings high school students interested in becoming teachers to campus to learn about the field. I was asked to do a short workshop on games in education and was interviewed by the local news channel. Here is the link to the article and video clip: http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=605339. The product that was demonstrated was DimensionM which they did not mention in the video.

I recently came into contact with a software program called Wordle. This software basically does content analysis of key terms that emerge in a written prose. The more frequently words occur, the larger they appear on the word diagrams generated by Wordle. The software randomly generates colors and alignments of the terms on the diagram as well. For example, I took one of my journal articles titled the “effects of time-compressed audio and verbal redundancy on learner performance and satisfaction” and plugged it into Wordle. A thumbnail of the resulting word illustration is shown below. You can click on it to see a larger picture.

As you can see, the softare summarizes the key terms in a visual and spatial format that allows an observer to make meaning from the diagram. This is fun and interesting software that certainly has a place in summarizing the vast quantities of text published on a daily basis. Enjoy!

ISTE and many other professional associations have applauded both houses of US congress for slating $1 billion for educational technology funding this upcoming year. Here is the news link. While I feel this is a great way to spend federal stimulus dollars, I have to question whether $1 billion is enough money to have a national impact on school technology integration when Florida alone slated $1.25 billion last year for the technology infrastructure of classrooms. We have schools that have inadequate Internet connections, computers with barely 256 MB of RAM, and teachers lacking the professional development to effectively integrate technology into their instructional practice. If we are to invest in a stimulus package to have an effect on our future, I think more money is necessary to equip our schools for the 21st century!

I made it to Florida yesterday. I will be here during the holidays. I have plenty of work to keep me occupied, but will also be spending some time with friends and family. Look forward to seeing you!!!

I will be teaching a new course this upcoming semester for the Watson School of Education. The course is called Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds and will focus on connecting principles of learning to these media. I created a flyer and it is attached. If you are a student in our program, please consider enrolling in the course. Topics include the characteristics and terminology of games, simulations and virtual worlds; development life cycles; design principles; evaluation; and an emphasis on connecting principles of learning to the design games, simulations and virtual worlds. Students practice these concepts in several assignments. The course culminates with teams creating a functional prototype.

I have recently become very interested in the relationship between school district information technology departments and innovative teachers. What I have observed in the past several years are inherent contradictions between the nature of the information technology department and the vision of 21st century teachers. This contradiction can often lead to many hardships for innovative teachers and misunderstandings for all that are involved. I have thus become interested in systematically investigating this phenomenon by collecting the narratives of teachers who have experienced trials and tribulations in relation to information technology departments.

Specifically, the idea is to make a request for narratives from teachers using a well-designed instrument. The narratives would then be qualitatively analyzed to identify the emergent themes. This information would then be used to build a system of understanding and balance to assist teachers in reaching their goals and to inform other stakeholders in how to support this process. This is not to say that information technology departments are to blame for these problems, but rather, to communicate the interests of each of the stakeholders with the overall goal of improving the relationship.