EDUCA 2010 Conference in Lisbon

It is always interesting to get another perspective on my work from another country. I provided the opening keynote for EDUCA 2010 sponsored by the University of Lisbon, Portugal, their First International Meeting devoted to the problems of using ICT for learning. It was literally standing room only during the opening session... the largest group I have addressed in years (including the AAEEBL conference in July). By a show of hands at the beginning of my keynote, about half of the room were K-12 teachers, the other half were from higher education. The meeting had one distinction: the hashtag #ticeduca2010 (ICT and Education Conference)  was tweeted more than the Summit Meeting of NATO at Lisbon being held at the same time. I guess the followers of the NATO conference are not active on Twitter, like these educators are! Their blog points out the highlights of the conference. I left the social dinner prior to the music! Jet lag overpowered me in the middle this four day trip!

Here are a few of the comments about my presentation tweeted with my Twitter ID while I was presenting:

• Helen Barrett @eportfolios keynote about e-Portfolios was very effective and passionated about their key goals, functions #ticeduca2010
• Apresentação de Helen @eportfolios Barrett terminou. Tempo para café. Até já...
• Everyone in education shoud check Helen @eportfolios Barrett blog - http://blog.helenbarrett.org/ #ticeduca2010
• Helen @eportfolios 3 niveles de desarrollo de eportolios #ticeduca2010
• #ticeduca2010 - Helen @eportfolios Barret http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/
• Engaging slides and some key discussion points for attendees of #CILT2010 via @eportfolios http://slidesha.re/dbuyaz
• #ticeduca2010 @eportfolios RT @jlramos1957: Helen Barret presentation in slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/eportfolios/necc2010
• Helen @eportfolios Barret RT @grahamattwell: Standing room only for @helenBarret at #ticeduca2010 conference in Lisbon
• #ticeduca2010 Helen @eportfolios Barrett explora este link http://ow.ly/3co83
• "O que é um Portfolio em Educação?" Helen @eportfolios Barrett
• #ticeduca2010 Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios @eportfolios a iniciar...
• #ticeduca2010 Sessão inicial encerrada... a seguir Helen @eportfolios Barret

Here are my slides:

Lisbon nov2010

At the end of the presentation, I showed Erin's Digital Story:


I am amazed at the number of graduate students who came up to talk to me about their research on e-portfolios... and who are referencing my work. I also have offers to translate some of my diagrams into Portuguese! I also have a pending request from the U.S. Department of Education to use one of my visuals, which I intend to adapt to the new GoogleApps environment.

I am also getting used to my new tiny MacBook Air. I missed copying some of my files (like a local copy of my website), but I have wifi access in my hotel and at the conference. I am still using my iPad for listening to podcasts, primarily because of its long battery life. I do miss my iPhone, though; I don't have an international data plan, so it stays in airplane mode while I am out of the U.S. I head home tomorrow. Because of the NATO Summit, I won't get to do much sightseeing today... all the tour companies have canceled their routes today. Time to get some needed rest.