NECC Conference

Almost 12,0000 people were registered as participants for NECC 2000 by Sunday evening. The Georgia World Congress Center was a busy place Monday morning as individuals stood in lines to register and as others made their way to the exhibits or keynote address. John Kuglin delivered his keynote message at 8:30 Monday morning in an auditorium where there were no empty seats and people stood everywhere. Dr. Kuglin shared with the audience many new an exciting technologies that will soon make their way into education. He demonstrated Data Visualization and its connection with NASA. He explained that satellites are collected different data and pictures of the world, not outerspace that will allow teachers and students to instruct and learn in exciting new ways. Students will be able to actually see the temperature change as the seasons move in throughout the country and virtual tours of cities will be a reality in the classroom. In addition, Dr. Kuglin shared with the participants how to make more effective use of the Internet by developing a Personal Web Portal. He demonstrated that the portal would provide a one-stop community for technology users. Individuals will no longer just use the web for email and surfing but for document storage, listening to personal play lists, preparing documents, leaving messages, receiving faxes, watching DVD's and much more. Make sure to visit Dr. Kuglin's website http://www.kuglin.com and learn more through his presentation on-line. *******************************************************************

Have you ever heard of Web Quest? If you have who explained it to you? Participants received the opportunity to attend a concurrent session delivered by Bernie Dodge, "The Father of the Web Quest" on Monday. Dr. Dodge explained what the key components of a Web Quest should be but he directed his attention on how to make sure that the participants complete the task of the Quest. Web Quests, and some that really are not Quests, are being developed daily and one problem tends to be that there is not enough thinking require on the part of the student. Dr. Dodge demonstrated how "Scaffolding" would assist in providing that thinking by the individual learner and group of learners. He explained that there are three types of scaffolds, Reception, Transformation, and Production. The scaffolds are used in the assessment on how to make sure that the participants complete the task of the Quest.

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Here is Richard Riley, Secretary of Education, delivering his keynote address at NECC (Tuesday 8:30 am) I will post/fax some text to go with it later!!!!

Charlene Pace checks her email at one of the many stations at the conference.
All this stuff has been brought to you by Shawn Haws and Dan Downs. Shawn writes the text, Dan snaps the pictures!