From the Editor

NECC Roundup

Anne Wujcik —Thursday, July 02, 2009

Welcome to our NECC 2009 issue. This was a fun meeting which I think had something to do, at least in part, with being in Washington, DC. There was a sense of new possibilities in the air. There was certainly a lot of energy in the Exhibit Hall. I don’t have the official attendance figures, but I think that attendance was level or maybe down slightly from last year. What really matters is that the educators who were there were focused and enthusiastic. The exhibitors I spoke with were happy with what they described as a “steady” stream of “really smart” visitors to their booths.

Teachers continue to flock to the booths of the whiteboard and student response system manufacturers. This year the Google both was always busy, with educators trying to learn how to employ the powerful (and free) Google apps in their schools and classrooms. Netbooks attracted a good bit of attention as did the various solutions focused on assessment and the integration of assessment, data and instruction. There’s no question that the school community remains focused on student achievement, but these are also technology buffs and they understand (or for new applications, want to learn about) the ways that technology broadens and deepens the classroom experience, engages students and moves the education enterprise toward 21^st century learning.

Just a housekeeping note. In cases where there were multiple releases form one company, I used one in the e-mailed News Alert and posted the others to the web site, so you will want to be sure to check the web site this week.

I hope you all have a terrific holiday weekend... I love the 4^th of July and am a real sucker for fireworks, so I really look forward to the next few evenings. More next week about a few of the prodiucts I saw at NECC and about MDR's new partnership with WeAreTeachers.