Friday, May 21, 2010

Update on Free Classroom 2.0 Community Events at ISTE - EduBloggerCon, OpenSourceCon, ISTE Unplugged, and Bloggers Cafe

This is just a brief update on the FREE Classroom 2.0 community-based activities happening as a part of the ISTE 2010 Conference in Denver at the end of June.  If you're attending ISTE, hopefully there is something here that will be fun and exciting for you!  If you're not attending ISTE, hopefully some of the virtual content will let you participate remotely.
  • EduBloggerCon - now in its fourth year, this all-day unconference gathering for those interested in social media / Web 2.0 in education takes place the Saturday (June 26) before the official ISTE start.  Honestly, this is a great event, and many will tell you it is the event to attend at ISTE because it's all about connecting and sharing.  We'll socialize and create the session schedule from 8am - 9am and will finish roughly at 4pm.  The website for EduBloggerCon is at http://www.edubloggercon.com and the now-obligatory Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=104806156230000  If you want others to know that you are going to attend, you can sign up on the Facebook page or here, although no advanced registration is actually required.  We meet in the Colorado Convention Center thanks to the generosity of ISTE, we have access to free wireless, but bring extra computer batteries or make sure you're fully charged up because this is a BYOP (bring-your-own-power) event.
  • OpenSourceCon - for the first time ever, a parallel FREE all-day unconference for those interested in Open Source Software in education.  Same basic details as EduBloggerCon (8am - 4pm on June 26th in the Convention Center) and you can even go back and forth between the two activities!  The Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=129729370370845 or you can sign up at http://community.k12opensource.com/events/opensourcecon-1, or you can just show up!  
  • Bloggers' Cafe - also in its fourth year, this is an amazing gathering place at the conference center where there are couches, tables, chairs, and fun people to meet all during ISTE.  This is an open event--do not be intimidated if you are new to the social media world.  We want you to come and be a part of this informal gathering, and if we don't welcome you be sure to just come in and introduce yourself.  Biggest idea for this year, and now approved by ISTE:  we'll have a live webcam and mic so that those not at ISTE can say hi and chat with those who are in the Bloggers' Cafe.  Not that this needs a Facebook page, but what the heck:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118907761481941
  • ISTE "Unplugged" - this will be the second year of this incredible opportunity to present at ISTE even if you have never done so before, or weren't accepted to speak, or just have something valuable to say!  Run inside the convention center near the Bloggers' Cafe, on the same timetable as the conference, you can sign up to present to in our small presentation are to both live and remote audiences (those not at ISTE can watch all the presentations via Elluminate).  We still can't believe that ISTE lets us do this, but they do, and we think they are awesome because of it!  The website just went live, so sign up to present or see who's presenting at http://www.ISTEUnplugged.com.  (Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129492867064828)
  • Classroom 2.0 Birds of a Feather Meeting - Tuesday, 6/29/2010, 4:45pm–6:15pm.  Come meet other members of Classroom 2.0 and have some fun as we share with each other.  Usually a big crowd for this one!
  • Classroom 2.0 LIVE Broadcast - time and date to be determined.  Come meet with Peggy, Kim, and Lorna as they broadcast a live show from ISTE that features YOU as the guests.  :)
  • Open Source Pavilion, Speaker Series, and Playground Area - this terrific speaker track, supported generously as a formal part of the ISTE conference now, is not to be missed if you're an Open Source enthusiast or wanna-be.  We need volunteers, too, who can help to man some of the playground stations during the conference (free limited admission)!  
  • Global Education Poster Session - as part of the amazing 5-day online Global Education Conference in November that we're just starting to announce, we'll be manning a poster session table on Sunday night, June 27th, to give details and make connections with the larger community.  
I've said it before:  this is an AMAZING list of community-generated activities.  If you're going to be at ISTE in Denver this year, it will be fun to be together.  For those that can't attend, we hope we provide you with lots of good, streamed content so that you can have some of the same fun.  

(Cross-posted from http://www.stevehargadon.com)