I keep lamenting on the fact that I’ve not blogged as much as I have been. Truly a part of life though I guess. Going to try and do back to back postings tonight and tomorrow to kind of review the last week. I don’t want to go into all of it tonight, otherwise it will become HUGELY long.

Thursday marked the second year in a row that I presented digital storytelling at the FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) Conference. Most, if not all, of the attendees for this conference were media specialists. I did see a spattering of teachers when I asked if there were any teachers in the hall. It was a pretty great turnout for my session. Had standing room only, and saw some sitting in the aisle just inside the door. Made me feel really good.

Now me being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until the last minute to complete my presentation slides. I know I know…I’m a tech guy, why am I using powerpoint to present??? Well, I learned my lesson last year with this conference. My goal last year was to run everything off of my wikipage. HA! I was dropped off REAALLY early to last year’s session, as my wife needed the use of the car that day. So I had a few hours to kill before my presentation. Lo and behold, as I’m setting up in the presenter’s room, I find there is no internet available that’s free. Just the paid 4.95/hr or 19.95/24 hour through the Disney Resort. Not having my credit card, and being cheap, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I paid for the hour to at least get the information that I wanted off of the wiki and put together a slide presentation. So I knew better for this year.

Last year’s presentation was more of a ‘how to’ begin digital storytelling and other video content into the curriculum. I took the approach this year of integration. I was very surprised at the number of media specialists in the room that have not used, nor even heard of digital storytelling. They took copious amounts of notes, and asked many great follow-up questions. What amazed me the most was learning that a school had the use of windows movie maker blocked as part of the group policy settings. Fortunately having backup plans like using Photostory3, slideshare, and voicethread are out there to allow educators to get around such roadblocks.

Being my second solo presentation, I had a great time doing it. I look forward to getting in front of groups again. Although, my wait won’t be that long. I am presenting on Audacity, Blogging and Online web 2.0 tools later this week at the FAACS conference at the Orange County Convention Center. I can get used to doing this pretty quickly! Unfortunately I got word 2 weeks ago that my proposal on blogging for teachers for FETC was denied. Oh well….I get to hang out with Anne T. who’s coming down then

Till Tomorrow…

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: FAME2007 digistory digitalstorytelling pd