NETA 2015: Nebraska Technology

NETA 2015

I (and 2000 of my closest friends) attended the annual Nebraska Education Technology Association conference which moved to the Century Link Arena in downtown Omaha this year.

This year was special for me personally because it was the first year that the Nebraska Writing Project partnered with NETA. This meant that we had 3 presentations and a table. Brenda Larabee of Stuart, June Griffin of UNL, Dan Boster and I all presented. I have to admit that I was preoccupied by both our presentation and helping to get the table set up and keeping it personed throughout the two day conference.

June Griffin’s presentation on using oral

feedback via Google docs was very informative. I wasn’t able to attend Brenda Larabee’s presentation, but I heard the accolades after she had finished. Dan and I had a small crowd, but we had a solid discussion about choices that teachers make

when they use technology.

In addition to the table and the presentations, I also attended both Keynotes and multiple sessions. The hardest thing about NETA is choosing sessions. Sometimes the names are deceiving and the descriptions don’t help much. I chose to observe sessions about Google since our school, Westside High School, adopted Google as our email server this year. I learned about Google maps and lots of add-ons and extensions. It was a bit overwhelming.

The new venue was wonderful. It was easy to navigate, and everything was easy to find. The only complaint I had was that our “discussion” thread presentation was in a regular room, so everyone was sitting in the back and in rows. It wasn’t very complimentary to what we had planned, but I think it was successful.

Most people seemed to really enjoy George Corours’ keynote @gcouros. He spoke about our online footprint and how active we are through technology as teachers. I was glad to hear him talk about getting an online presence and sharing it with students and parents. I have been working on curating student work for years, but it is still an uphill climb.

My persistent question (which I tweeted during the keynote) is that if I write a blog, but there is no audience, then what is my purpose? Am I doing anything worthwhile?

And I submit this blog as a reference to my time at NETA this year. I know that at least one person will be reading.