#PodcampNYC Day 1

There is no way that a day of a podcamp can adequately be summarized in a single blog entry, especially when sitting on a train back to New Haven, after having had several Gin and Tonics. However, there are many impressions that are worth sharing.

During the introduction, there were talks about simple logistics. The WiFi was down, but they were resetting the router. People spoke about the infectious joy of learning and a desire to spread that. One person spoke about learning astronomy from his grandfather when he was five years old and dedicating his Podcamp experience to his grandfather. There were discussions about the importance of the 'rule of two feet', meaning that if you are in a session that you are not getting a lot out of, don't feel bad about walking out and finding a session that is better suited to your needs. They spoke about the importance of tagging, and if you don't know what tagging is, ask someone near you. They some about the importance of Creative Commons, and the whole idea that the podcamp experience is based on sharing information. It was noted with humor that this was perhaps the first camp where people asked for press passes.

Then first session had several good sessions. I went to Teachers Teaching Teachers. Paul Alison and Susan Ettenheim had many great comments. Several of which I captured on Twitter. Since I am sitting on a train without Internet connectivity, I will have to simply try to remember as much as my Gin laden brain can remember.

The session started, in true podcamp style, with everyone introducing themselves and talking about what they hoped to get out of the session. Peggy Sheehy, whom I knew from Second Life and the Second Life educators list, and who describes herself as a consultant in Virtual World Education, summed it up quite nicely by stating that she was all over anything that gets people engaged. Another person in that session, whose name escapes me as I take the train home, is a . Another was an artist, who, because of the small living space that he currently lives in, creates his sculptures in SketchUp. I wish I got his name, or a link to some of his SketchUp sculptures.

One comment that especially jumped out at me was the observation that before we put our kids on school buses, we make sure that they understand the rules and etiquette of riding a school bus. Yet when kids get in trouble online, we don't stop to think about what we've told them about the rules and etiquette of riding the information superhighway. To original quote was a bit different, but I think it captured the sense of what was said.

A different session during the same time period was Michael Carrasquillo's "Video Podcasting for Musicians". I heard a lot of good comments about this session.

During the 11 o'clock session, there a couple sessions that drew overflow crowds. Alan Levy of BlogTalkRadio spoke about "how to build and sustain a social community". He told various stories about BlogTalkRadio and I think I will see about adding them into my social media mix. Perhaps I can set up a weekly podcast featuring Fiona. Concurrent with that, Dave LaMorte spoke about "Using technology for differentiated instruction" and Cliff Ravenscraft spoke about communicating with your audience: Building community around your podcast. Cliff's session was overflowing as well, and I confused the two sessions in a couple messages I sent to Twitter. Cliff had great comments about responding to every email and about using sites like TalkShoe, as well as either j2.com or k2.net for voicemail.

After lunch, Peggy Sheehy and AJ Kelton spoke about 'Second Life: Shifted Learning". I liked their approach to the divide between digital natives and digital immigrants, noting that some older folks, like Peggy and myself, are perhaps closer to being digital natives than some teenagers growing up in a digital native culture. Instead, looking at it in terms of a shift in culture and education, and thinking about those who have not made the shift, many digital immigrants, and those who have made the shift, many digital natives, seemed particularly useful. There is probably some play on words about those who are 'shiftless', but I will leave that as an exercise to the reader.

Peggy made reference to a book, "Don't bother me mom, I'm learning", which sounds like a book worth exploring. She also noted a T-shirt that says, "I'm not ADD. I'm just not listening". There were many great tidbits from that session. Peggy suggested that one of the worst things teachers can do is to teach students about technology without talking about the ethics of how to use it responsibly. She spoke about how kids come into schools, full of media rich experiences, and how schools shut these kids down. She told a wonderful story about one day when a pigeon flew into her classroom. It walked over to a computer and started walking on the keyboard. Peggy called someone to get her digital camera out of the locked draw in the desk in her office. Yet by the time the person arrived with the camera, just about every student had taken a picture with their cellphones. Students these days are well versed in the use of digital media tools.

She did note that 21st century literacy is based on traditional literacy, such as reading and writing. There wasn't any reference to the Pew report that just came out, and it seems like this is a good area to explore.

There were several other sessions I was particularly interested during this time slot. Lisa Thurmann ran a session entitled "Using Podcasting to Connect with Children Re-entering School After Having Been Treated for Cancer". I didn't get any details about the session afterwards, but many people said it was going to be a great session. Another session was "Music in Podcasts-Pandora.com", lead by Kevin Seal. Later in the day, many people told me that this was the best session, in true Podcamp style, with a very lively and informative session. I had a brief chance to speak with Kevin at the bar at the end of the day, and it does sound like this was a great session.

During the 2 PM time slot, Christine Cavalier spoke about 'Social Media Parenting". The crux of her talk was about how we need to teach kids about digital technology. Yet it is the kids that understand digital culture, better than their parents. She took the Digital native/Digital Immigrant dichotomy and ran with it to a great place. Parents are like the first generation immigrants in America. They need to learn technology as a second language, so they can communicate with their kids growing up in a digital culture. What we have to worry about are the parents that are afraid of technology, and help them ratchet down their fear factor.

I think her points were right on mark, but as people explored what it meant, it felt like a bunch of digital immigrants returning to their fears of being online. As someone whom so many of the new digital natives meet as they first explore their surroundings, as a digital immigrant since 1982, I felt very frustrated by the discussion.

This session was followed up by Whitney Hoffman talking about "Education 2.0 - How New Media is Changing Education". I would be tempted to retitle her presentation to "How New Media Should be Changing Education...” She had many great comments about encouraging students to set up Wiki's, mailing lists, blogs, and other tools to make sure that their educational experience is as fulfilling as it should be. Whitney was a key organizer of PodcampNYC, and if anyone 'gets it', it is probably Whitney. I bookmarked a few sites she highlighted and started following her in various social media sites.

By the time the four o'clock session rolled around, I was close to information overload. The session I sought out didn't have the presenter appear. So, I headed out, in search of another session. On my way, I ran into Ann Marie Mathis and Howard Levenson of Cheil Worldwide. Cheil is an advertising agency that seems to 'get it'. I first met Ann Marie and Howard at the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference. They are fellow residents of Second Life. As I spoke with them, I wondered why there were no other advertising agencies apparent at PodcampNYC. This was a gathering of some of the leading content creators, as well as people who could be potential clients for advertising firms. Is it just because Cheil is the only firm forward thinking enough to get beyond strict adherence to ROI thinking? Just because people haven't figured out, yet, how to measure something, doesn't mean that there isn't great value there.

As I sort through the business cards and brochures that I received, I find a few other sites that deserve mention. At the bar, various firms deserve shoutouts. I believe that Raw Voice and Culinary Media Network bought the first round, Blip.tv bought the second round, and mDialog bought the third round. This does illustrate a problem. After a long conference, and a couple hours at a bar, some of the details get a little blurry. Let me simply say that I have been a long time fan of blip.tv. mDialog is a company that particularly caught my interest early, during the show. While blip is a great way to upload videos, and I'll probably keep uploading my videos to blip, mDialog looks like a great way to create channels of video content, whether you use their own site, blip.tv or other sites. I need to explore their system in much more detail when I get a chance to catch up. That said, I may be confusing them with Magnify.net. When the dust settles, I'll try to figure it out.

Another site that caught my attention, in part because they had a table, thanks to their sponsorship of PodcampNYC, was redlasso.com. Redlasso gives you the ability to search TV and radio broadcasts and then clip and share the stories on your own blog. I look forward to seeing what they can really do.

Other sites that I picked up cards for, mostly because the people involved seemed like good interesting people were Travels with Child, Leisure Creative, Queens Artists, including their podcasts, Karol Duclos Photography, and Terrific Teaching Ideas, although the site isn't fully functional yet.

With that, I've done a mind dump of the first, very full day of PodCampNYC. Tomorrow, I'll be speaking at the first session, gathering more information, hopefully, writing another blog post, and then crashing in exhaustion. If you were at PodCampNYC, and have additional information, please drop me a note at aldon dot hynes at orient dash lodge dot com.