Arrived at the San Diego Conference Centre about 8.30 after a great shuttle bus ride. Talking with driver and after having mentioned I had visited 37 states of the USA, she decided to count up how many she had visited. She was still working it out after I left the bus – hope to get on her bus tonight.

Into the registration area – presenters had separate lines but with #ISTE12 not officially starting until tomorrow, the lines weren’t that long. But the amount of stuff in the bag was enormous, will check it out when I get back to the hotel later today.

Well officially, it isn’t day 1, instead it is called SocialEdCon. It used to be EdubloggerCon, but the name has now been changed. Began at 8am this morning, finished 4pm. Participants arriving early came up with ideas for discussions. These were added to a wiki, given a meeting room and by 10am, the first sessions were on.

First session I attended was blended learning with collaboration – many different meanings to blended learning – is it mix of online and facetoface? is it cross curricula with digital overlay? Many schools doing different things but finding more students are engaged when learning is blended rather than the traditional face to face only or online only. Some schools have no specific subject lessons – everything is student based. No specific lessons means no bells for changeover time etc. Other schools are looking at how the classroom space can be best utilised when doing blended learning.

Second session I attended was about using social media to build school and community relationships. Also looked at bullying on social media eg facebook and twitter. Was great to hear that participants believed it was necessary to start in the early grades teaching about what is appropriate or not on the internet and building your own dossier. Angela Maiers was there talking about Twitter and YouTube and what is trending with them at the moment. Also a discussion about social media user policies in schools. Link to page from Cybraryman, Jerry Blumgarten.

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Time then for a quick picture on the steps of all those at SocialEdCon. Wonder if you can see me? Brown top, far left near wall.  Lunch then with Sue Waters and her son Liam, Tracy Watanabe and her husband, Ronnie Burt, Paul Harrington and myself at the Hard Rock Cafe – tuna melt sandwich very filling with an apple flavoured coleslaw.

Back for the last sessions – creating online courses – great discussion about creator not always the facilitator, platforms to create courses, teaching teachers how to write and facilitate courses. Most important point was that many kids or teachers can’t cope well with a total online course – they do need some face to face whether that is attend the school or use skype or BBcollaborate etc.

Time to head home to the hotel to check out the bag of goodies and decide if I am going to the party tonight – not a party person at all – maybe the Karaoke party will be enough on Tuesday!!

Image from this source.

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