The TWAIN blog

Can I tell you how excited I am about TCEA this year?

This is my 11th year attending this conference. My dad was one of the founders of the organization back when there were a handful of people meeting in a tiny conference room. They weren’t technology directors. There wasn’t technology yet in the classrooms. These were people in different districts who thought the concept of the computer could be of use in schools.

I remember my dad going to the conference and bringing back all sorts of toys and pens from all the different vendors that my brothers would fight over. I remember one hammer-headed pencil from a company that I took to school only to have it stolen during lunch. I still have a coffee mug he received from Apple Computers back in 1985 and it sits close to my desk at work.

When I started teaching, I would drive down to Austin and stay with friends so I could go to the conference. I would take a sick day and pay my own way to get there. I would mostly spend the evenings out on the town and attend a few sessions. I would spend most of my time in the vendor area looking for something cool to take back to school to share with my students.

Most of the time at the conference, I would tag along behind my dad only because I didn’t know anyone except the people he worked with in his career. For years, I would attend the conference to be introduced as “Bill Adkins’ son”. No name. Just that title. And people who knew my dad shared how much they respected him and enjoyed his company.

A few years ago, my dad retired from education. He attended the conference a few times and the roles reversed a bit. He was introduced as “Joel Adkins’ dad” to a few of my friends. I think he might have enjoyed this a little bit more than I did – though I enjoyed it very much!

His last year of attendance marked the 25th anniversary of TCEA and his 25th time to go to the conference. I remember him telling me at that conference that it would be his last. I told him that I would get him to the next one somehow. Sure enough, I received the Instructional Technology Specialist award and I invited him to attend the banquet for all honorees. I came through on my promise.

A lot has changed with technology over the years. Education has changed in some ways and stayed the same in other ways. The conference gets bigger each year with more attendees and more offerings of training.

I look forward to this conference more and more each year because of what it represents for those of us on the frontlines. It’s a time for us to refocus, refresh, and connect with others in the same boat all over the state and now the world. Twitter is great for posting those quick little bits of info and questions but there’s nothing like like seeing that person in real life for the first, second, or next time.

This year, I am taking 10 staff from my district to this conference. Over half of them have informed me that they have never attended a conference before; much less professional development that takes place over several continuous days.

I am excited about not only visiting with old friends from all over the world, but for the week after the conference listening to what these newbies will experience. I am looking forward to them sharing what they saw, experienced, grabbed (free pens!), and heard.

Blogging is a new concept for them. The wiki is something I started them on when I arrived and they are still figuring it out. Most of the district doesn’t understand YouTube or the relevance of why I unblocked it (for staff only). Some of our computers at the campus level don’t even have Microsoft Office on them.

And all this seems foreign to some who will read this.

But to me, it is the most exciting thing about my job. I am so excited for them to go! After 11 years, I can get jaded about a conference or session and how it “wasn’t anything new”. For this crew, the entire experience of a conference of this magnitude is new. And that is the start of their history with TCEA.

If you are going, give me a shoutout! You can find me via Loopt, Facebook, Twitter, this blog, and just by finding me in the crowd. I would love to see you and shake your hands!

See you in Austin!

A coworker shared this link with me from New York Times writer, David Pogue.

Pogue is one of my favorite podcasters because he shows off new technology in such a quick and humorous way. I highly recommend you visit iTunes to subscribe to his podcasts.’

The article is titled “Twittering Tips for Beginners” and it comes from David’s column in the NYT for January 15, 2009.

In his brief outline of the program, David provides some tips for the new user:

1) Don’t just go to the site. Use an app to monitor your Tweets (and yes, he explains what Tweets are!) or feed them to your phone.

2) There are public and private Tweets.

3) Don’t feel you must respond to every Tweet. Nor do you have to subscribe to everyone.

4) Don’t Tweet about what you are doing right now! Use this resource to post interesting questions, links, articles, discussions. People don’t care about the mundane experiences you are experiencing because they are experiencing their own. (Amen!)

He also relates some insight into how Twitter has been used for even some basic troubleshooting help on a computer.

It is a good article and it can be helpful to explain to the use of Twitter to a broader audience than just technology geeks. A good addition to this may be to also share the Common Craft video on Twitter.

I am quite disappointed in the lack of comments to my blog. I get more response on my old Myspace page that I haven’t touched in years, than this place.

I thought blogging was two-way communication. I post something and then people respond.

But lately, I post something and no one responds. Lately?? Who am I kidding? This has been ongoing for about 4 months now! No response! No comments!

It is bruising my delicate ego, to say the least.

Another nail in the coffin: I tried Plurk again recently, only to find that I have no fans there. So whatever I post, no one is reading. I wondered why no one responds to my comments there. The news was broken to me when I had to read the help page to learn that I have no fans. I can post a response to others on the timeline but they choose not to follow me.

I use Plurk to post all my confessions now. It is quite liberating to throw them out to the world. I also post vulgar tirades there. I mean, why not?!?! A timeline of tirades that no one is watching meshed in with other ed. tech leaders sharing about what they eat, how they exercise, and what they think of Plurk vs. Twitter. It is like an explosion of vulgarity between their conversations that only I am enjoying.

I get good responses to Twitter, but that’s the only place where my Web 2.0 interactive conversations take place. The problem is that the response has to be less than 140 characters.

Maybe blogging is dead and I didn’t get that memo! I read blogs daily on all sorts of topics in and outside of education.  I have noticed that several educational blogs/podcasts I used to access haven’t updated in a while (see previous post). Maybe it isn’t just me! Maybe our entire blogosphere has shifted. Have people stopped blogging? I bet they have until February 10 when we all finish the state conference and blogging is cool again!

Ahh.. I dunno what I am saying here. I don’t understand this at all and am really starting to take it personally. I reach out and post on other blogs, Twitter posts, Plurks, message boards, etc. in hopes that the link will draw them to read my opinions here. But…..that isn’t working.

Am I giving up? Nope. This is a nice venting place. People can reply or not. I use it to track my own progress on things.
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Hmmmmm

I don’t think anyone is even reading this post,  so I will end by saying “ppppplllllllbbbbbbppppp!!!!” (phonetic raspberry sound)