On behalf of eBN, the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) and Galileo Academy, thanks to all those who attended (Send an e-mail if you attended and are not properly noted on that list:    ) underwrote (kudos to Clarity, Puget Sound Center, Userland, and Weblogger - "Can't you still taste those crab cakes?") , pointed to (We'll get Dave out here one day to do "directories and OPML" with a very friendly audience of outline-loving English teachers.) and blogged the conference.

It's too late tonight to blog it all, but it's worth noting one important understanding: The conference gathered into the same room two usually disparate groups of people:

1. teachers (and students!) committed to integrating "digital paper and binders" into classroom practice;
2. and "willing-to-listen" tech-savvy supporters.

What BAWP's non-digital history and design can provide for this emerging community of eBN writers is a model for teacher engagement, support and challenge. Call it, for the (revisable) moment: "Teacher bloggers teaching (and blogging) blogging teachers." Look for more on the implications of this understanidng in a day or two.

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A final request for all attendees to click the "How'd we do?" link and give us some feedback. Commentary will probably appear on other blogs, like Clarity's http://ncte.edweblogs.org/ ; (I think it's Clarity's. Corrections appreciated.) and via gifts like Phil Wolf's Blogrolling.com list of attendee's weblogs.

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Help us figure out how it all went. Click the links below and respond to the questions. Feel free to just link in your Commentto a post on your weblog.

1. What worked?
   
2. What might have worked better?
   
3. What is next?
   

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For some participant eye views, visit some of the attendee blogs. First session on writing and blogging processes is over. But the second BOF sessions seem to be continuing way into lunch. So be it. We can crunch that afternoon schedule in one long scircle discussion maybe.

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Click the headline.

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Earlier this month, BAWP and eBN discussed with NCTE staff the idea of a blog for this year's San Francisco convention. It was a bit late in the planning process, but we're talking about something for Indianapolis next year. Meanwhile, here's a trial blog for NCTE meeting and conference activities.

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With help from Patrick O'Brien and some S.L.A.C.-er staff, we did a thorough (and temporary) redesign of the library. We can now seat about 75. Registration remains open. Wireless appears to be working via 2 Apple Airport Extreme hubs, so even PC users should be happy. We'll also have some CAT5 connections around. BTW, no guarantee on net access. Murphy rules all events with more than one person present.

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"I just read an entry on MarkBernstein's blog (I'll see him at the conf.) about why people write... 'Writing for your friends and family is great. Writing for your teacher, so you can get a good grade, is misery' does not fairly portray everyone who writes for teachers. There are many sides to the issue." [Nathan News]

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"I'm heading for EdBlogger, and asking, 'Why do weblogs matter for schools?' Not because 'Web skills' will help the kids get jobs, but because writing for the Web helps restore the value of writing.

What we do ourselves, what we ask children to do, must be worth doing. Writing a sonnet is hard, but worth doing; copying five synonyms out of a thesaurus is easy, but worthless. Out of an exaggerated tenderness, out of a genuine concern that children should not feel hurt by failure, we have kept them away from real challenges. We're not letting them play the same game as the great players, even when they could. (Philip Pullman, Isis Lecture 2003)

Writing artificial exercises to satisfy a teacher is, at best, an invented and artificial task. Who benefits? Students see this, they know it.

Writing a weblog is public, it's serious, it means something -- and it continues to mean something even if your teacher is ..."

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A KPIX-TV film crew will be covering the early morning portion of edBlogger SF 2003 live. (Kudos to Gina Snow, SFUSD Office of Public Engagement and Information.)

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Sunday's first roundtable's partners (8:30 - 10:15 AM "Roundtable 1 -  Writing Process, Blogging Process") are confirmed! Facilitated by Paul Allison, conversation partners will include Mark Bernstein, Phil Wolf, Nathan Edelman and Patrick Delaney. (With kudos to the distant 'potential' partners who weren't able to confirm in time.)

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Conversation partners for this roundtable will include Dan Mitchell, Tom Hoffman, Jay Cross and Erin Clerico. We've got in-depth experience here from varying levels of implemenation: multiple schools, county district, community college, and corporate.

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Christopher Kelley from Pacifica Graduate Institute's Library just confirmed as a conversation partner on the "In the classroom ..." roundtable. Librarians are the mortar for all of this.

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Attendance is now at about 50, relatively comfortable for what is, after all, a "still under construction" library. We can go a bit over that for those who are unafraid of yoga-necessitating perches. So, continue to let other people know about the conference. We've got a wide range of participants - from the University of Oregon's Center for Advanced Technology in Education to Oakland Unified's Joaquin Miller Elementary, from SBC Bell Knowledge Network to video-blog uniting vidiBlog.  This will be fun.

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The Sunday 12:30 - 2:00 Roundtable 2  "Blogging in the classroom, lab, library and school" will be facilitated by Terry Elliott. Conversation partners (as of this posting) will include Will Richardson, Karen Claxton, Paul Allison, and Tim Lauer. Note: These folks are really just partners in the conversation. They're charged to briefly and adequately delineate the topic, and then to engage the gathered participants in a conversation.

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Alas, alack, no DSL during the reception. So if you were counting on showing sites or blogs during the "birds of a feather" session calls, cache your pages on your laptop. We will have only a single dial up line at the Firehouse.

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Slight changes to the draft descriptions of Sunday's roundtables 2 and 3 have been made. Obviously, we're trying to cram too much into a single day. But that's alright; the real purpose of this "not quite a conference" is to explore opportunities and designs for future gatherings.

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Knowing the extraordinary interest of many of Galileo's SLAC-ers in cartooning and illustration, we took a long shot and asked Dan Perkins of This Modern World comic strip and weblog fame to participate in our 'Writing Process, Blogging Process' roundtable. He responded with generosity and speed but, alas, we missed him by a single weekend. Maybe next time. Thanks, Dan.

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Joseph Taylor, guitar and piano teacher at Galileo Academy, will be providing light background guitar music during the early part of the reception. Thanks, Joseph, for your flexibility.

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Cyprian Lomas from UBC's Skylight: The Science Center for Teaching & Learning is registered. We're at approximately 40 participants and will, at the moment, max out at 60. We can accomodate over 60, but only with some advance planning. If you know of anyone thinking of attending, encourage them to decide soon.

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We posted new, more detailed pages for travel directions and hotels. Sounds as if high speed internet connection at the hotels is in short supply. The Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf (a 15 minute walk from the school) seems to have a DSL internet connection in its business center. And yes indeed, that is an accurate picturing of the school and its neighborhood at the top of this column.

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Announcing a much more relaxed schedule, with time for participant-chosen "birds of a feather" sessions. Take a peek.

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With generous underwriting provided by Clarity Innovations; Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology; and Weblogger.com, this first eBN gathering will start with a festive reception at the historic Fort Mason Firehouse on San Francisco Bay.

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Thanks to Tom Hoffman: "My aggregated feed of attendee's weblogs seems to be working fairly well, so perhaps you could mention it on the Ed Blogger weblog.... rss feed and Peerkat page."

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Technical difficulties overcome. Registration is open for both the pre-gathering Manila Intermediate and Frontier Server trainings. Permanent links low on the right navigation bar. Depending on registration totals and space availability, we may be able to add a brief "Blogging Tools" session to the Sunday schedule. Meanwhile, again, please let us know about any other trainings on blogging tools happening in SF at about the same time:

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These are pre-gathering sessions. Space is limited. Watch here for details. Please forward any information regarding other training opportunities.

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"To prepare for Ed Blogger this is the ongoing list of hotels around Galileo Academy: You can find most of these hotels online at the San Francisco Convention Center:Marina District and Fishermans Wharf." [NathanE News]

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"Sponsored by the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. Air Fare Specials from $34 to $99 one-way with 21-day advance purchase, plus great deals on rental cars and hotels!"  [via Joan Anderson]

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES' CLICK 'N SAVE E-MAIL UPDATE-OCTOBER 28, 2003 from southwest.com NEWS ON THE FLY

1. southwest.com(R) Systemwide Internet Specials:
2. This week's Featured Destination: San Francisco, CA

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If you signed up for edBlogger SF 2003, your name will appear in the Registered list on the right side navigation bar. If your name's not there within a day of your signing up, drop us a note:  

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Click the headline to proceed. Remember - space is limited. If you change your mind after registering, please notify us as soon as possible.

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