NECC 2009: Join the Talk Online

If you couldn't make it to the National Educational Computing Conference in the District of Columbia this year, you can still "go" to the conference virtually. Plenty of people who are at NECC, which ends on Wednesday, are blogging, tweeting and streaming videos of what's going on so that you won't miss out.

In the blogosphere, you'll find posts from educators on what they're learning.

• In Practice: Teachers blog about the sessions as they happen
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity: Educator Wesley Fryer shares notes and audio from the presentations
• Dangerously Irrelevant: Scott McLeod, the director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education, gives his take on the conference
• Technology Times: Session notes from an instructional technology resource teacher
• The Connected Classroom: High school tech coach Kristin Hokanson covers the conference live
• LIVE from the Creek: Teachers at Chets Creek Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla., share what they learn in professional development arenas outside their school building

On Twitter, search for the hashtag NECC09 to find session notes and commentary. Some live tweeters to watch include @AndrewBWatt, @isteconnects, @justinreeve, @mcleod, @shareski, @bengrey and @spedteacher. The application Twitter StreamGraphs allows you to see tweets with keywords that are frequently mentioned in relation to the conference. 

The International Society for Technology in Education also has a Google Docs spreadsheet of Twitter users in its NECC09 blog that's updated every five minutes.

You can also check out Wiki pages created by conference attendees.

• NECC Library Tools BYOL Smackdown: Five teacher-librarian practitioners share their favorite Web 2.0 tools
• The Official Notepad of Fort Atkinson School District NECC Attendees: Educators from this Wisconsin school district compare their conference notes
• Empowering Early Literacy Skills with 21st-Century Tools: Kathleen H. McClaskey of EdTech Associates provides resources and activities for educators
• Open Educational Resources: Share, Remix, Learn. Instructions, plenty of links and discussion on finding and using open-licensed educational resources 
• Web 2.0 Tools –– Birds of a Feather: Provides links to a bunch of online sites and applications
• DEN in SL: A page for the "Personal Learning Networks in Second Life Networks" session

Some speakers have posted their presentation slides and notes online so you can look them over.

• Howard Levin included slides from a nearly identical discussion in February. 1:1 Laptops and Seamless Integration: Peek into the Frontier
• Tammy Worcester posted handouts and resources from a number of sessions
• Gail Petri from the Library of Congress published PowerPoints from her presentations

For streaming video and live chats, go to the ISTE Connects blog and Scott Merrick's Ustream channel. And if you'd like to connect with educators who went to the conference, mosey on over to the NECC Ning Network.

If you have any other resources that you're using to follow the conference, please share them in a comment.