FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach:
Date: 10/15/06	Phone: 757.450-3784
News Release No. 001	Fax: 757.301-7436
	E-mail: snbeach@cox.net

K12 Online 2006- Unleashing the Potential
Worldwide Online Conference for K-12 Educators

Announcing the launch of the first annual “K12 Online 2006″ convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with a preconference activities beginning Oct. 16, 2006. The theme of this year’s conference is “Unleashing the Potential.”

There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day. Four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or screencast format and released via the conference blog at http://www.k12onlineconference.org

THE FOUR STRANDS ARE:

Week 1
Strand A: A Week In The Classroom
These presentations will focus on the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes.

Strand B: Basic/Advanced Training (one of each per day)
Basic/Advanced training will focus on “how to” information on tool use in an educational setting.

Week 2
Strand A: Personal Professional Development

Tips, ideas and resources on how educators can orchestrate their own professional development online around school-based goals.

Strand B: Overcoming Obstacles
Tips, ideas and resources on how to deal with issues like: lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, and other IT concerns while trying to focus on best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools.

CONVENERS & KEYNOTES
This year’s conveners and keynote presenters are:

Preconference
Convener: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Keynote: David Warlick

David Warlick is a 30 year educator, author, blogger, and Web 2.0 programmer. David blogs at http://2cents.davidwarlick.com and podcasts at http://connectlearning.davidwarlick.com.

A Week In The Classroom
Convener: Darren Kuropatwa- http://adifference.blogspot.com/
Keynote: Bud Hunt

Bud Hunt teaches high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. Bud blogs and podcasts about his practice and larger educational issues at http://www.budtheteacher.com.

Basic/Advanced Training
Convener: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach - http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/
Keynote: Alan Levine

Alan Levine is the Director of Member & Technology Resources for the New Media Consortium (NMC, http://www.nmc.org/ ). Before this, he spent 14 years evangelizing technology for the Maricopa Community Colleges. Alan works from home in Phoenix, Arizona and publishes his work on CogDogBlog (http://cogdogblog.com/).

Personal Professional Development
Convener: Will Richardson- http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
Keynote: Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland he frequently works around the UK and Europe, leading student and teacher workshops and conferences. Ewan blogs at http://edu.blogs.com

Overcoming Obstacles
Convener: Wesley Fryer - http://www.speedofcreativity.org/
Keynote: Anne Davis

Anne currently works at Georgia State University in the Instructional Technology Center in the College of Education as an Information Systems Training Specialist. Her weblog, EduBlog Insights is a co-winner of the Best Teacher Blog in the second international Edublog Awards, a web based event that recognizes the many diverse and imaginative ways in which weblogs are being used within education.

Conference Presenters
Presenters from as far away as Australia, Bangladesh ,Canada, China, Scotland, the United Kingdom, and from coast to coast across the United States were selected to participate in this one of a kind conference.

Each strand will have nine presentations for a total of 36 creative online presentations related to using web 2.0 tools for instruction and teacher professional development. To see a listing of the various presenters and their topics please view: (http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online06-agenda.html)

Live Events
In addition to the archived conference presentations that can be viewed by participants anytime, anywhere there are several scheduled Fireside chats that will enhance the online collaboration of presenters and participants. More information about attending one of the fireside chats can be found at http://k12onlineconference.org/?page_id=9

When Night Falls
As a culminating activity, conference participants will attend a 24 hour Skypecast called “When Night Falls.” This live event will take span through all time zones across the globe. For more information on how you can participate please see the conference blog at http://k12onlineconference.org/

Conference Tags: k12online, K12online06