Principals Call for Mobile and Social Technologies in Schools, Article by David Nagel

Here's an interesting article related to a hot topic, social media. As I continue to participate in Web Council and read these types of articles, it's evident to me that we're not the only ones trying to figure out how to provide these tools in an environment that will minimize legal risks because these tools could be quite dangerous if misused. However, on the other hand, blocking these tools may not be a good long term solution. I like how the National Association for Secondary School Principals (NASSP) released a position statement that makes sense. In particular, I like the idea of having school administrators involve students in the creation of policies. Students know how their peers use social networking and would assist administrators with the development of effective social media policies that will allow safe use of social media for educational purposes.

1. The Journal Article: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/05/23/principals-call-for-mobile-and-social-technologies-in-schools.aspx
2. NASSP position statement: http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=Using_Mobile_and_Social_Technologies_in_Schools
   

Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) 2011

I always enjoy the Florida Educational Technology (FETC) Virtual Conference every year because there is always something new I learn from the conference. Unfortunately, this year, with the IOC 2011 conference occurring the day prior, I didn't have as much time to dedicate to the live sessions. I sat in the mobile learning session, but missed the others. I hope to be able to view the archives once my schedule permits. I did take some screen shots because the creativity of how they run a virtual conference attracts my attention. This year, similar to last, they had a virtual auditorium set-up. The new addition was live streaming video during the sessions. People pass by the live cameras once in awhile, but other than that, it was pretty cool to see the speakers live. There was also no lag in the connection from my desktop. So no technical challenges. I think virtual conference experiences are getting better and better. :)
















FETC virtual auditorium with live Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn feed from participants.














Live video streaming feed (right corner) with PPT presentation in the center.