I was able to attend the NECC 2007 on Monday and Tuesday (June 25-26) and visit with many of the LEGO Ed representatives there. They had a very nice booth area setup and were demonstrating many robots, including Brian Davis' LNE and some Tribots using the new HiTechnic sensors. HiTechnic also had a representative, Steve, who was available on Monday to answer questions and show off some of their products.
One of the highlights of my visit there occurred on Tuesday. The LEGO Ed rep for Texas, Betty, knowing I was going to be at the conference, arranged to have a video conference using one of the NECC vendor's real-time video conferencing systems, setup right there in the showroom. I was told 4-6 teachers would be there and it would be a Q&A session about the Mayan Adventure book... when the video popped up, I was looking about around 30-40 teachers in Temple, Texas. We had a nice discussion for about 20-25 minutes before I had to run. (This technology is really opening doors and plans are being made to have more of these distance-discussions.)
This conference focused on technology and math/science services and products available to the education field and I was amazed at the 500+ vendors there with all kinds of things to show off... looking forward to next year.
One of the highlights of my visit there occurred on Tuesday. The LEGO Ed rep for Texas, Betty, knowing I was going to be at the conference, arranged to have a video conference using one of the NECC vendor's real-time video conferencing systems, setup right there in the showroom. I was told 4-6 teachers would be there and it would be a Q&A session about the Mayan Adventure book... when the video popped up, I was looking about around 30-40 teachers in Temple, Texas. We had a nice discussion for about 20-25 minutes before I had to run. (This technology is really opening doors and plans are being made to have more of these distance-discussions.)
This conference focused on technology and math/science services and products available to the education field and I was amazed at the 500+ vendors there with all kinds of things to show off... looking forward to next year.