I started reading some of the NECC participants blogs today. It made me a little disappointed I couldn’t be at such an obviously inspiring and interesting conference, but also got me more excited about the Laptop Institute conference that I am attending in July. Some of them have detailed notes of sessions, others just highlights and observations, but they make for some interesting reading. Here are a few of the ones I have found most interesting so far……

Tech Ideas for 21st Century Schools - Detailed Blogs by a variety of contributors on sessions from NECC.

Nola Finds Her Bark - Gail has blogged from within various sessions - some great observations and links.

ITS Think Tank - Some really interesting discussions about school 2.0 and technology in education. I found this discussion interesting because we face similar issues in our program. We are trying to implement technology, but with a focus on the benefits to learning and thinking, not technology for technology’s sake. One quote that stood out for me was “One of the most thought producing things from the School 2.0 sessions I went to was that we are using technology in our district mainly to make School 1.0 flashy.” There are some wonderful benefits to be had from judiciously incorporating technology and Web 2.0 tools into the curriculum, but improper or shallow usage can just fuel the arguments against the use of technology.