Thar's gold in them thar conference reports! A fresh mother lode of exciting ed-tech resources from eSchool News beckons this month, both in print and online. Drawing on the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta a few weeks back (see Page 1 of this issue, for example), we've got tons of practical information to share with you about the latest technology products and ideas for educators, students, and their institutions.

The need to produce a generation of students who are creative thinkers and innovators was a key theme at this year's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta.

The use of Web 2.0 technologies to create interactive, online social environments for networking and professional development was on full display in the exhibit hall at this year's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta.

The opening scene was a pirate story using Geometer’s Sketchpad. Frank Sobierajski, the speaker for this session, showed us how you can travel around a pirate’s map and eventually get to the starting point where you began. The boomerang or perimeter theme was prominent at the beginning and end of this standing room only presentation.

An estimated 17,000 educators, administrators, and company and nonprofit executives gathered in San Diego July 5-7 for the National Education Computing Conference (NECC), currently the nation's largest educational technology trade show. Throughout the three-day event a list of distinguished speakers and educators urged attendees to embrace technology as a means to empower students. In case you missed it, the editors of eSchool News were on hand during the entire event. For more on NECC, see our coverage below.

This session covered the work done by the Santa Cruz, California School District of some 39000 students in putting together an Internet portal or web site for the gathering of resources for students, teachers, administrators, and parents.
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Two heads are better than one was the impression that these two wonderful teachers left after a presentation on digitizing the classroom. Although the title on the Power point caused some concern since it was centered on Science teachers, it was obviously modified to aid all teachers. The modest turnout kept the crowd intrigued enough to stay and listen to all of the great ideas. Most of the teachers in the room admitted to being science teachers.
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Tommy Clay, Marquis Montgomery, and Carol Harless offered great practical advice for providing electronic literacy to students. It was apparent that these teachers had a keen sense of understanding the process of helping students through digital media, specifically with the creation of iMovies.
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It is 2007, with 2008 coming up ever so rapidly, and one of the buzz phrases here at NECC is 21st Century "fill in the blank". That is, 21st century schools, 21st century student, 21st century teaching, and 21st century learning, to name a few. After having attended four sessions so far, the best one featured information on a relatively new initiative focused on defining and helping to implement transformation to a new model: focus on the skills students need rather than just the content. This initiative offered by the non-profit Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
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