So here's the hodge-podge of thoughts that I managed to record during the blur I now call NECC08...

What we’re learning about Social Networking in Professional Development:

• It’s important to have immediate purpose, solve a problem.
• It’s important to generate feedback.
• It’s important to welcome newcomers.

Along this line, Kevin Honecutt stated that we should “meet them at the door” He continued:

Wal Mart does it, why don’t we?

Kevin, the king of the ed-tech one-liners also came through with this gem:

Staff development shouldn’t be something we do to people. It’s something we do with people.

In discussing how social networks must have a purpose, David Warlick correctly stated:

EduBloggerWorld didn’t work because it didn’t solve a problem.

I was particularly appreciative of Brian C. Smith's comment regarding his use of Ning networks:

I used Ning for NYSCTE because it gave teachers an instant audience.

Brenda Berreda stated the following, very much in line with ideas surrounding Viral Professional Development:

The value of social networking is just in time learning.

Bud Hunt made a number of interesting statements throughout the conference, most of which I have unfortunately failed to record. This was one snippet, however, that I thought was scathingly true:

We will perpetuate what we know, whether it’s good or bad.

Hall Davidson was as vibrant as ever this time around. Here's a jewel that I couldn't resist writing down:

Why not show kids the code? It might not do anything for you, but you’ve got kids that will dive right into this, tearing the code apart, trying to figure out how all of this works. Those are the kids that will be turning bicycles into airplanes.

Finally, I found a quote from Seth Godin to be incredibly relevant for teachers today. This idea was shared by David Jakes and Dean Shareski in their excellent session about design:

Why would you use words on the screen when they do just fine in your mouth?

Image Sources: Flickr users Edublogger and shareski.

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