TCEA 2010 Information

The K12 Online Conference pulls off an “Unconference” every year, but they don’t call it an ‘Unconverence.”

The K12 Online Converence is a no-cost conference open to anyone. This online conference is an “Unconference” in the sense of Web 2.0 sharing by educators from around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice.

One goal of the (K12 Online Conference is to make sense of new technologies, meet the needs of a changing learning landscape, and to streamline decision-making for adopting technology and teaching streategies that produce measurable student learning outcomes.

Getting started on the Conference Wiki.

Vendors or affiliates should check the K12 Online Conference Goals and Values page for guidelines for vendor participation.

In 2009 the K12 Online Conference is using three sites for Web 2.0 conference participation:

• The K12 Onnline Conference Ning conversation hub
• The K12 Onnline Conference Blog where announcements and news items are posted
• The K12 Onnline Conference Wiki where basic how-to information helps participants and presenters obtain the most benefit for the conference.

In 2009, conference presentations will are cross-posted to both the K12 Online Conference Blog and the K12 Online Conference Ning. In addition, scheduled live events receive asynchronous discussion support and activities are posted in individual conference presentation Blog posts.

The Conference Ning contains videos categorized by Special Interest Groups (SIGs) targeting the strands and theme for each year of the conference. The Conference Ning also contains a discussion forum.

To engourage interaction and collaboration, participants post about, cross-link to, and embed conference presentations and content in their discussions.

The official tag for Blog posts, Flickr images is k12online09. The official Twitter tag for this 2009 is #k12online09.

The K12 Online Conference is a volunteer effort. The project is brainstormed, developed and conducted by four planners and a bevy of subcommittees.

So, although the K12 Online Conference does not call itself an “unconference,” it meets all the criteria necessary for making the conference a true, participant-centered, collaborative effort.

Other Unconference projects such as the TCEA’s 2010 Unconference can learn from the experience of the K12 Online Conference.

What should we call a teacher-focused Unconference?

While researching my proposed Unconference topics, I discovered some bad news.

The bad news, the term, "Unconference" is associated with the description, "Geeky," at least by Wikipedia.

This association may present a hurdle in reaching teachers, this association validates my observation (at the NECC Unconference in San Antonio) that participants at seemed "out of touch" with educational reality,
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TCEA celebrates 30 years of conferences in 2010. This means that TCEA was an innovator and visionary in 1980.

Imagine a 1980 vision. Who could have predicted the evolution of technology, the Internet, software, the capacity of modern computers.

Imagine a 16K computer that loaded software with a cassette tape! In those days, computer aided (assisted) instruction programs consisted of “drill and practice.” What else could a teacher do with these primitive computers?

And, in those days, Radio Shack was a player in the computer market. But Radio Shack isn’t an exhibitor for modern TCEA Conferences, now.

In a few years, Radio Shack’s K-8 Math software was a hit. And, the program has yet to be equaled in the quality of measurable student learning that

Could the visionaries of 1080 known what the future of educational computing would be like, or did they make a lucky mistake?
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closed its “Early Bird” (discounted) registration process at the beginning of November.

This is a slick move because so many teachers submit purchase requests to the school district that employs them. However, the turn-around time for school district purchase orders is lengthy, and a majority of teachers and technology staff cannot get the purchase order processed in time unless they submit it through bureaucratic channels by the end of Septermber.

To be fair, some school districts have an system in place to expedite purchase orders for conference registrations.
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2010 Unconference…

Modelled after Edubloggercon at NECC.

February 9, 2010 in Austin, Texas

Look for the TCEA Unconference to provide superior Web 2.0 community support and exemplary post-Unconference folllow-up support.

Related links…

TCEA Unconference | TCEA EduBloggerCon | Open Source Resource Marketing Plan