A day of learning and sharing - Day One of FETC is in the books.

Well, Thursday was technically Day 2 since the opening session starring actor/environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. took place Wednesday. Even earlier than Bagley's keynote was the Brown Bag Sandbox Shoot-Out, with Hall Davidson, Leslie Fisher, and John Kuglin offering a barrage of web 2.0 resources. (click on their names to see what they have to offer)

Thursday was, however, the first full day of concurrent sessions. I stayed out a little too late last night and was bummed that I missed the early morning session. My day started with Harvard's Chris Dede and Transforming Education for the 21st Century. Dede made the case for maximizing current and emerging teachnologies to remake the education system to serve the learner's of today. One of the highlights of his talk was his use of cool videos, like this one from Microsoft.

Next, I headed into Steven Katz's Teach with Video: Student-Created Digital Video Projects in Your Class. The session was full of Tweeps that I was meeting in person for the 1st time - people like @stevekatz @SimpleK12 @jswiatek @JMGubbins and more. Many of us have played around with video production, and some have even used it with our students. Steve has made it an integral part of the work he does with his students. His presentation was loaded with practical tips, techniques, and tools. I can't wait to get back to Tallahassee and start putting that Flip to good use. You can find Steve's presentation notes here.

Cindy Lane (@clane) and Lee Kolbert (@TeachaKidd) were next on my agenda with their Biggest User session, which was a rapid-fire stream of web 2.0 applications. I often left wanting in sessions like this because they usually cover the most basic and well-known apps. Cindy and Lee gave us several that I had little or no knowledge of. They also put together a nice wiki for their presentation which can be found here.

We wrapped up the day with a tweet-up at TGI Friday's. Jerry Swiatek (@jswiatek) and the girls from SimpleK12 (@SimpleK12) teamed up to pull it together. I enjoyed fianlly being able to put a real face on those tiny Twitter avatars. I looking forward to another great day on Friday.

I'll be posting with highlights of final day at FETC.