Fruitlands at NECC?

Right now, many of the coolest people I know are in San Antonio at the NECC conference. In a Pink Floydian way, I wish I was there, but NECC being a K-12 gig, the college doesn't cough up the coveted ticket stash or room and board for such events. I feel like the only kid in the hood that didn't get to go to summer camp. Fortunately, because of the technology - I will be ing with a group of wicked cool educators on Wednesday.

So, I watch with my binoculars...using RSS...among the posts I read, Wes Fryer's blog has been very helpful in my quest to keep up!

Anywho...next year will be different.

Like may others, I am following the conference via my RSS tab. I am convinced that my friend, Vicki Davis, does not sleep. I am also convinced that I have no idea how big NECC is as an event. Tons of stuff seems to be happening. But, in a Transcendental way, some things seems to be intellectually edifying but falling flat in practice (like the Transcendental communes "Fruitlands" and "Brook Farm").

Among the things happening, I guess Pearson Ed (the textbook publishers) showed up to do some filming. Some folks got their britches in a knot, and some folks think it is uber cool to be caught on film.

Since I am not there, and I don't know the whole story, I won't comment much. But, Pearson IS, indeed, a PROFIT company. So, you should expect that they will use that video in a PROFIT venture. For people like me (ya know, those Edupunks who denounce profit-based learning), I would be in the britches group. We give all of our material away under the spirit of collaboration; for a company to come in and capitalize on what we deliberately choose NOT to capitalize is wrong. The folks that set up edubloggercon should have thought about the implications, and they should have made the plans known to folks ahead of time.

This wasn't the only instance of things gone strange, though. Apparently some person took a photo and another person used the photo on his web page without citing the source. People still don't get that Creative Commons is a BRIDGE copyright...it means you can USE it but ya still have to tell people where you GOT IT. Now, if I send up images, I expect that people will not use them right because they haven't a clue. But, the folks in THIS case are well versed in CC issues.

Now, the big deal is that APPLE IS NOT IN THE HOUSE! (Well, they are giving presentations, but they totally skipped out in the vendor area). Wes Fryer does up a nice post about it here. Apple is losing mega steam (IMHO). They skipped out on THE LAST THREE conferences I attended. Not only did they SKIP...they didn't tell anyone! Google also skipped out at Innovations. Perhaps Apple doesn't need educators? Well, that is fine...Dell and Gateway go to everything, and I am happy enough to look at their products (BTW, Apple, I don't get out much, so I doubt, highly, that I will get around to your store...). Isn't it interesting that the apples were ALSO bad at Fruitlands??????

But, to end on a high note...Smashing Magazine is an absolute JOY to read. I love their wallpapaer collections, and you will, too. Go there!