NCCE 2010 Session 1 - The State of the Craft, What's New

Session one at the NCCE 2010 conference was a quick showcase of new and emerging technology and the uses of said technology in the educational sphere. Not really a whole lot I wasn't aware of, mostly a validation of a lot of tools and concepts I already employ (or would like to). He covered the expected stuff (iPad, wii, etc.) but did bring two things to the table I hadn't seen before.

The first was a demonstration of augmented reality. For this he went to a GE Augmented Reality site and utilizing a print out and webcam was able to interact with the paper document on the screen in front of him. I can't give the description justice in the time i have now so go to the website and check it out: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality. (Another neat application of this technology is found at http://www.weareautobots.com/ww/index.php as a promo for the Transformers series of movies.)

The other tool he highlighted that impressed me was the online presentation site Prezi (http://prezi.com/) which has the potential to be a PowerPoint killer. I have not had the time to play with it yet but the demonstration was really impressive.

OK, magician coming on stage to start the keynote so suppose i better go, more to follow.