As I awaken very early on Saturday morning for which ISTE begins, some of my thoughts are gaining clarity for me. Is this ISTE once again going to be a call to action, a call to a Revolution? If so, what will be the call?

I think this as this is the third time that in my memory that the conference has been in an Eastern pre-Revolutionary War town steeped with such history.

In 1994, I was at NECC in Boston. It was the first indication that this concept called the Internet was becoming available to all and I signed our school up for our first Internet connection, a 56 Kb connection and installed the cool new program called Netscape which was the first step in the revolution.

In 2005, I did not attend the NECC conference in Philadelphia. I was on my sabbatical getting ready for my first trip overseas. I do recall connecting with the conference and really hearing about blogs, wikis, and podcasts. I filed that aside and when I returned from my sabbitcal, I can honestly say that my immersion using these tools has transformed my life and practice.

Now we return to Philadelphia in 2011. What will be the call? Are small, mobile devices going to provide the tipping point, now that we have the connectivity (Boston) to take advantage of the tools (Philadelphia 2005) that starts the Revolution?

We can only wait to see what unfolds.

My day at ISTE includes an all too brief stop at EduBloggerCon, a stop in the Special Interest Group Leadership Meeting, and then attendance at TEDxPhillyEd. This promises to be a great day.

Here is my current recipe for making me rethink who I am and what I stand for:

Boy, I could really use a reading/thinking day to be able to fulling articulate the new thoughts. Stay tuned...

We have a local service station, yes, a service station, not a gas station, which provides a full arrange of services, they fill up your car, wash your window, check your oil at an extremely competitive price. The average price of gas shot up to $3.59 in the area yesterday. You are greeted by a friendly attendant and even offered a small piece of candy.

When we think of our schools, do we go the extra mile and provide a cutomer service experience like this? Go the extra mile?

My name is Vinnie, I am 49, I love baseball and long walks on the beach.

One of the reasons I am attending NAIS for the first time this year was I was invited to participate in an experimental session type, Speed Innovation. During this session, attendees where able to pre-register for three 10 minute mini-sessions, just like speed dating. I had to prep for this 10 minute experience and repeat it three times.

My session was "Millions of Ideas in 600 Seconds:Google Apps in Your School." In addition to the time limit, I had to present this session with only myatop, energy, and no internet access. To prep for this, I planned only 5 minutes of material knowing that I would go into the appropriate directions and easily fill the time.

I can say that the session, from my perspective, was a success. My table was filled for each of the three sessions, with additional people standing nearby. I heard from the organizer that I was bring it, amped energy for the full 10 minutes. I was able to hit my time within a few seconds.

As for the concept, I think that it worked well. It forced presenters to focus their messages and branding. Some suggested a longer time, but I don't think that this is needed. Prep and focus were key, what were the three take-away. Similar to the elevator talk, we should be able to succinctly send our message. Like Pecha Kucha, this is a challenge all of us should engage in. Do a 10-18 minute presentation, like a TED talk or the like.

I hope that other large conference adopt a similar format.

For the record, my three take-away:

1. Google Apps fosters collaboration between students and teachers, both local and global.
2. Apps + Marketplace = Flexible, Adaptive Learning Environment.
3. You own your data, not Google.

We utilized a low tech method of capturing where participants comfort with collaborative tools. A great conversation starter to connect individuals. One goal achieved for our workshop, connecting folks.

After a really late arrival, I got up to have a pre-workshop run through with our team of presenters for "Creating Connected Teachers".

When my co-facilitators arrived in the room, there were rows and rows of chairs. This is a physical space which is not conducive for 30+ leaders and administers to learn and connect in the 21st Century.

So after a bit of labor, we created a space better suited for our journey today.

This year, I am making my first trip to the National Association of Independent School Annual conference. While I have attended many other large conferences, such as ISTE/NECC, I am both nervous and excited.

I am nervous because I do not have a complete sense of the audience. I have attended regional conference, but this is the big leagues. I am co-leading a three hour workshop on how to incorporate the use of social media to enhance professional development. I was also invited to be one of the speed innovators. Thias presentation type is going to challenging for me, since I know I can be too word.10 minutes to discuss Google Apps for Education, a topic I have spoken for hours about.

I am also very excited to meet so many people who have inspired, guided, and mentioned me. I am not going to list anyone, since I don't want to leave anyone out. This will be the first time we will be in the same space and time.

I am only sorry that this will be a quick trip and I will not be able to potentially catch up with everyone.

Tomorrow will come all too quickly.

I now have had a chance to get beyond the honeymoon period using the iPad which I picked up on April 3rd. While it is noted that the iPad does not have the same functionality as a netbook or my tablet pc, nevertheless, it has transformed my how I use technology In my life. Rarely do I pull the laptop out of my case when I get home from school, unless there is a project which requires significant use of a keyboard. I am able to simply open my iPad and consume the media that I need to, with some very light creation when needed.

Although I have a non-3G iPad, I have found it extremely useful when performing the function of Dad Taxi. Waiting for them to get to the car or while they are at an appointment, I am able to access the material that I have already downloaded, saved, or purchased. I almost wish my children were younger and I would have to cart both of them around so that I could take better advantage of this feature of the iPad, the same way that I began to incorporate my iPod into my professional learning practice when carting the kids to swimming, dance, grocery shopping, or to friend's houses.

There are many iPads beginning to show up on my campus and people ask me which are my must have apps. While they may differ based upon personal choice, here is how I have my home page of apps loaded:

On my dock
On my home dock, I have placed the apps which I want easy access to all of the time. For me, going from right to left, this means first the Mail app, to access all of my email accounts. Next is the MLB At Bat app. I am a huge baseball fan and now love to access my baseball news and to listen to a game from the west coast, especially when the Giants (Jon Miller) or Dodgers (Vin Scully and Charlie Steiner) are playing. I will do this while I read a book using the Kindle App as I wind down for bed. The Safari App is there whenever I want to surf or fact check while watching a show or sporting event. I also have the Photo App and iPod app at the ready for those functions.

The first app on my home page is a link to my Google Calendar. While I have limited editing functions, I often want to review what I am doing on a particular day. The next apps are some of the built in Apple apps, Video, YouTube, Maps, Settings, the App Store, and iTunes. I use these Apple apps frequently enough that I want quick access to them. The next apps on my page are the newest, but very indispensable. The first is HelTweetica, which is my current favorite Twitter app. I do have Twitterific and TweetDeck on my second page, but I love the speed and feel of HelTweetica for the moment. The next app is Reeder, which connects me to my Google Reader RSS feeds. I love the way I can zip through my feeds and it will cache items so I can read them while not connected to a network.

The next group of apps are my news apps, the Weather Channel, New York Times Editors Choice, BBC News, and The NPR app. This is now I get my news in the morning. Five minutes with these apps and a quick scan of HelTweetica, and I feel like I am as current in terms of global news as anyone. At least I can reference it and go back if I need to.

My next app is one of my favorites, GoodReader. This PDF reader is simply outstanding. I have it configured to access my Google Mail apps and attachments for both my personal and domain accounts, plus accessing the web based set of PDF newsletters and other reports. Simply outstanding. By far, the most value for it's cost of any apps I have purchased, with the possible exception of the MLB At Bat app. On the bottom row, when horizontal, are the Zinio magazine reader app and the Wired App. It is through Zinio that I can access my Sporting News Today, a which shows the power of magazine publishing. As a life-long baseball fan, it broke my heart when TSN began to lose my interest in the early 1980s. But this daily dose of coverage surpasses what used to be a week late. I also like he fact that they provide sample articles from a number of their different magazines for free. And if you want to see the future of publishing, one needs only to take a look at the Wired app. The inclusion of video and audio into the print version, with promises of more, recalls the first time that I picked up version 1.01 of the magazine oh so long ago. I hope that they are able to deliver on the promise of this initial attempt and make it a reasonably priced experience. Next are my offline web page readers, Instapaper and Offline Pages. Before moving to Reeder, I would have suggested that one save the money and stay with Offline Pages. But the integration of Instapaper is changing my mind. I have installed both of the bookmark tools on my laptop browser, so when I know I may be without access, I can download and reward clippings from the web while on the train or waiting for my kids. This is a great way of catching up all of the great thinking.

My last app on my home page is the Enjoy Daily (Free) Sudoku app. Hey, everyone likes to play a game. Although the iMahjong, Frenzy, and Skeeball apps are great time wasters, I love a logic puzzle to sharpen my mind.

Now if you are counting, there is one slot left on my homepage. I have no idea what app while makes its place there. Could yours be next?

So that's $30 worth of apps, plus the cost of some music and books. Not a bad little learning machine which allows me to access my reading when I am ready. What's on your homepage?

(sent from my iPad - how cool is this)

Please excuse the personal appeal  -

World IBD Day, led by patient organizations representing 27 countries on four continents, will officially be celebrated today, May 19, 2010. Patient groups from the United States, Canada, Australia, 23 European nations, and Brazil are working to draw awareness to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. As part of World IBD Day here in the United States, we’re also celebrating our eighth annual "IBD Day on the Hill," where patient advocates visit Congress to discuss support of important IBD legislation. Here are some fast, easy steps you can take to support World IBD Day:

• Make your voice heard in Congress. If you haven’t already, write your local legislator and urge them to support the "IBD Research and Awareness Act." Research funded by this Act will help not only people with IBD in the U.S., but also worldwide.

• Tweet your support! Follow @worldibdday on Twitter, and Tweet about it, too -- don't forget to include #worldibdday in your message!

• Change your Facebook profile picture -- find out how at CCFA's Facebook application!

• Think globally, act locally: Get involved with your local CCFA chapter. A great way to start would be to participate in your town’s Take Steps walk!

Thank you for your support -- today and every day -- of the five million people across the globe who struggle with IBD.