ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Yes- it is that time again- off to the National Educational Computer Conference 2009 in Washington, D.C. I will spend the next couple of days talking to exhibitors and educators and participating in one of the most exciting educational technology conferences. I admit going into the Exhibitors Hall is like be a kid in a candy store. Upon entering the Exhibitors Hall you are overwhelmed with the sounds and visuals as each vendor tries to attract you into their venue. I will have some time to meander in the Exhibitors Hall-but I do have a pretty full schedule of interviews set up with some of the top industry leaders that I am really looking forward to.

I just got finished packing my bags and I am sure you want to know what technology I will be taking with me to NECC 2009. While I am gone I will have my trusty Blackberry Curve to stay in touch on the Verizon Network. I will also have my Acer One, my lightweight and dependable netbook with me which you can throw into any bag and not really know its there. To round out my technology attache- I will have my Apple iPod, a Flip Digital Video Camera, and my Olympus digital camera with me. I will also be taking my Livescribe Pulse Smartpen to take notes and for my scheduled interviews. It should be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to seeing all of the latest and greatest new products that are announced and being demonstrated on the floor. With the Stimulus Funding coming down the pike, I'm sure that the vendors will be in a real positive mood and will go the extra mile to make our stay in Washington, D.C. a memorable one.

So to keep in touch while I'm at NECC 2009 you can follow me on Twitter. I will use the hash tag NECC as part of my tweets which you will be able to search. I hope to do some regular postings while I'm at NECC 2009 to keep you abreast of all the happenings. And by the way if you will be attending NECC 2009 shoot me an email maybe we can connect.

Just yesterday evening Karen Janowski and I completed and successfully submitted our NECC 2009 Proposal. When all is said and done we could not have done it without Skype and CrossLoop. Karen and I set up a CrossLoop session and I had my computer logged onto the the NECC Submission Proposal Screen ready to go. At any point in time Karen could jump right onto my screen and make edits and add text. Using Skype for the audio we were able to complete the process in about an hour's time. Having Karen have access to my computer screen as we filled out the form made life so much easier. We didn't have to email or pass text from one another or get confused as to where we were in the process. If I had to do it again I would definitely turn to Skype and CrossLoop to complete the online proposal. Having these two tools at our disposal made this a truly collaborative experience and one that allowed us to efficiently complete the task at hand. Now the hard part- waiting until December to find out if our proposal was accepted. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Three days at NECC. I spent the last three days at NECC, looking at new technologies, new software and new hardware. Educators have lots to be excited about. HP and Asus were showing off their mini laptops which were both small in stature and price. The exhibition hall was filled with companies tauting their interactive whiteboards and the impact it will have on learning in the classroom. Both Smart and Promethian had some of the largest booths on the floor and had many teachers doing live demonstrations. Mimio was also there showing off their latest release of MimioStudio 6 and the release of the Mimio Pad, a hand held portable tablet. Many of the vendors were demonstrating various response systems and there is definitely a move towards a totally digital classroom. The digital classroom would include an interactive whiteboard, data projector, response system, document camera, and a audio sound field system. Of course Web 2.0 and collaboration was another key trend. Software as a service is here to stay and there were many companies who were showing off their software applications that are hosted solutions right through the browser. Crick Software was demonstrating Write Online and FTC Publishing was demoing WriteIt Live. With Hyperstudio back there seemed to be excitement about multimedia and project based learning. Adobe was showing off their creative tools and showing off Adobe Acrobat 9, which has some very strong multimedia features. It is now possible to embed a Flash video and create a Portfolio of individual PDF's which can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe was also demonstrating Adobe Acrobat website which gives you data storage, Buzzword, and Sharing capabilities. Acrobat.com is a wonderful website and one each and every teacher should set up immediately. Acorbat.com holds much promise for collaboration and all of the tools are free.

My bags are packed and I off to San Antonio, TX for the National Educational Computing Conference. I will have 5 full days of educational technology and meetings with both hardware and software developers. At this conference the hardware and software developers will announce new products and services which always makes this one of the more exciting conferences of its kind. For the conference, I am packing my MacBook, Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, Olympus Digital Camera, Blackberry Curve, and FlipVideo camera. If I have learned anything, attending these conferences, is make sure you bring lots of business cards. I have lots of meetings and look forward to reporting to you from the convention floor-up to the minute news. I have set up my Jott account so that I can use my cell phone to quickly post to my blog. So if you see some minor errors please know that it is the speech recognition that is faulty. It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to reporting the news to you- so stay tuned.

While my schedule precluded me from attending NECC 2007, held this year in Atlanta-stay tuned here to find out about the latest releases and announcements. I hope to be in touch via Skype to some of my colleagues on the Exhibit Floor so that I can get you the scoop. So stay tuned.