SITE 2008 Conference

It is good to be back. I'd forgotten what a warm and caring community I had found in the Society for Technology and Teacher Education (SITE). I attended these conferences every year from the mid-90s through all of the PT3 grants (2006). Last year I missed the conference because I was in Asia/Australia/New Zealand. Some highlights from this conference (besides lots of wonderful networking!):

• I did a presentation on Lifelong ePortfolios, as well as a round table on digital storytelling
• I met educators from Germany working on software for PCs and cell phones, so that students could collect data with their mobile phones and transfer it to their desktop computers (MOLES and mini-MOLES)
• I attended the Special Interest Groups on both Assessment/eFolios and Digital Storytelling, and connected with educators from around the world who are interested in both of these topics. I also learned that UNLV graduate students are doing their ePortfolios using GooglePages!
  
• I attended the keynote address on the last day that focused on the One Laptop Per Child, and attended the follow-up conversation with the speaker, Dr. Antonio Battro (from Argentina), the Chief Education Officer. I am anxious for my OLPC to arrive so that I can play with it and see how it could be used for online portfolios. If it works, I am interested in providing some professional development for teachers.
  
• I learned about an organization, Teachers without Borders, which is headquartered in Seattle. I am anxious to contact them, to see if there are opportunities for volunteering and contributing to this worthwhile cause.

I'll have to plan to attend SITE next year (I am advocating for a Retired membership and conference fee rate). I am starting to form an idea for a distributed research project where educators from across the world can participate in Researching Lifelong Portfolios and Web 2.0. More to be revealed in the next month or so.