I've had this idea, after watching the response to the Google Teacher Academies, of holding regional/local 1-day Web 2.0 workshops for educators. (I have already talked to the folks running the Google stuff just to make sure they didn't feel I would be competing with them.)

Here's what I was thinking:

1. Organize in certain cities, and have local educators sign up to actually facilitate topics
2. No requirements to come (geared toward newbies)
3. Short on lecture, long on hands-on

Any appeal? Any ideas?

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Notes from talking with Gail Desler (via Skype!):

* Web 2.0 Education Day
* Could have Will R. or Wes Fryer or someone video-conference in
* Send note out through regular channels in local districts, but with a twist: training day, but also a way for them to tell what they want to learn about, and for those who are interested a way to indicate that they can contribute to sessions.
* Notice should be very welcoming of those who feel they are real beginners, though, and not scare them off at all.
* A workshop on collaborative technologies should model collaboration
* Could be held at a high school--larger room to start, then break-out rooms with computers and/or wireless
* My thought: include students in some way!
* Have some overview sessions: what are the technologies? What do the words mean: blogging, podcasting, social networking, etc! :)
* Would be good for administrators as well.
* Session on safety issues
* Do soon in the Sacramento area.
I'm there. I think the idea of seperating the newbies out is good because they need the foot up, but not at the expense of folks who are looking for more. All the ideas sound good, and so far I'm not sensing they are in conflict. I am willing to help with blog and/or podcast with the newbies. How about at the overview, those that are already doing can show/share, or if they are not at the overview, get their URLs and show their stuff? Student inclusion (if we can do it) would be great. I'm with Gail, lets do Sacramento.
In the 24 hours since Alice sent me the Classroom 2.0 link and Steve straightened out my registration issues, I've been imagining the possibilities for a Sacto workshop and am already convinced that we need to make this happen. Given that Steve, Alice, and I live and work/teach in the area - and I anticipate more locals joining in the conversation soon - we already have a planning committee in place:-). So two bike rides and one dog walk later, here are some of my thoughts:

* Let's pin down possible locations and dates. I can confirm this week if my district (via Tech Services) would host the event - and cover the insurance end. I would recommend the 3rd or 4th weekend in September, when teachers are back from summer break, past all the opening stuff of the new school year, but not yet into 1st quarter progress reports, etc. If for some reason, we opt out of doing the conference, there would be no deposit issues when going through a district.

* An early fall date is far enough away to book a keynote speaker, such as Will Richardson, if that's what the group wanted to do. If we hold the conference in my district (or any site with the bandwidth and camera setup), we could have Will deliver via a video conference, thereby eliminating any travel costs.

* Steve and I talked about whether the conference would be free or not. If we wanted to bring in box lunches, have a big name keynote, and maybe throw in a book too (such as Will's Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasting book, we would need to charge. But we could always do the early bird bargain registration, which I think helps people commit to an event. I think we could keep the cost under $40.

I realize I haven't said anything about content,and I apologize if I'm starting to ramble, but I am very excited about making this event a reality, which does require looking at some of the nuts and bolts stuff.

I look forward to continuing this conversation!
Elk Grove may have a better set up for this. I have one of the better labs in my district, but it only sites 33. You know the Sacarmento people will be looking for 18 hour (professional development) credit. Are we thinking one or two day? I'm thinking one will get more folks, but I know that's hard to stuff the info into.
Met with my manager at EGUSD Tech Services on Monday and wanted to share out some our thoughts re. hosting a local Web 2.0 Teacher Academy:

* Our first thought is to combine forces with Sac CSD (Alice, I'm already looking forward to bringing Rita into the Web 2.0 discussions), Grant, and Folsom-Cordova. Knowing the tech people in those districts, we're pretty sure they would want to play. Elk Grove would probably be the best hosting site, at one of our high schools (probably Sheldon or Franklin) where we have plenty of breakout session classrooms with computers and videoconferencing capabilities. By going in as a 4-way project, we'll be able to boost promotion/advertizing possibilities.

* We also discussed if we should bring SCOE (Sacramento County Office of Ed) in as the host. Even if we did, we would still need to turn around reserve a high school site since SCOE has only 1 computer lab, although they do have a set of laptops.

* We'll check into the insurance issue.

* Whichever host site(s) we pick, we should reserve now - with the right to cancel if the group decides not to move forward with the local academy "real time" concept.

* We enthusiastically support the concept of a Web 2.0 Local Teacher Academy!
Wow. Good work!
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/04/09/edubloggercon-questions/
Sounds like Steve already has something going in Florida. We can probably learn alot from how the format works at this event, no?
I do have the EduBloggerCon coming up, but I don't think it will end up being *anywhere* near as practically-oriented as I have imagined these local workshops to be. Really, the edubloggers just wanted a chance to be face-to-face, and I think it will be mostly socializing and some high-level discussions. But you never know!
We may be able to take some tips from how the organization process goes there though? People here seem to be favoring something that is an unconfrence/less structured, but all of us here are talking about having it applcation oriented. Is that doable? Can we be that flexible. Inquiring minds want to know ;-)
If you're going to video-conference Will or Wes in, then why not set up multiple locations and have it for all over? I can't afford a trip (as much as I'd like to) to CA for a one day conference. But if I set up something here in Florida with the teachers here and we use the web2.0 tools available, we can all still collaborate together. Some of the sessions could be LIVE and F2F while others are webcast in.
What about offering a special workshop for teachers-in-training? Or at least make a point of advertising to education students.

Is there anybody on this list up in Toronto? I'm feeling left out.
Good idea!

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