What's My Line? Er....PLN?

Sitting in the post-ISTE 2010 afterglow I received a direct message from my Financial Adviser asking what the heck ISTE 2010 was all about. He had been following my Twitter feed and went to the ISTE hashtag, thought it sounded interesting and wanted some more information. Well today we got together to talk about the week in Denver, what my wife Cindy and I had seen, done and learned and the idea for this blog post was born. Josh wanted to know who I follow in my PLN. Just because he's a darn good financial adviser, a friend and also a fellow technology geek as well, he wanted to see what I thought would be a worthwhile read for him venturing into the Edublogosphere. So, I made a list of my favorite blogs. Here we go.

I choose to present this in an alphabetical format so as not to appear to have a "Top 100 List" or anything of the sort. It is definitely not my intention to try to rank fellow educators or decide who is the best read, I'll leave that to others. Rather, this will be who I read and maybe why.

Alphabetical Listing of EduBlogs:

Steven Anderson - Web 2.0 Classroom
I met Steven for the first time in Denver this week. He taught me 4 Square. Fantastic insight and a great blogger on education. Steve is also a HUGE NASCAR fan, as I am. We had a nice long conversation about Jimmie Johnson's win on Sunday at Loudon! I know lots of folks don't think racing is cool but it was fun to find a fellow teacher NASCAR fan! Steven's Blog Post about his ISTE PLN it is a very good read.

Kim Caise - Kim's Ventures in Educational Technology
Kim is always in Elluminate, or it seems like she is, on Saturday mornings for the Classroom 2.0 Live professional development facilitating sessions with Steve Hargadon, et al. Kim was one of the people I really wanted to meet at ISTE 2010. I was sitting in the Blogger's Cafe and noticed she had just tweeted and was also there. I asked Sue Waters if she knew Kim and she said yes and would I like for her to introduce me to her, which she did. I found out Kim lives in San Antonio, a city I go to often to see my grandsons. Hopefully on some future trip we can have lunch on the Riverwalk!

Vicki Davis - Cool Cat Teacher Blog
One of my heroes! The 2nd person I started reading in 2007. What she and Julie Lindsay have done with The Flat Classroom Project is amazing. When I first started reading in the "Edublogosphere" I learned a tremendous amount from Vicki she was very kind and invited me to participate remotely in some sessions she was presenting in Elluminate and CoverItLive. She's really an amazing Edublogger.

Darren Draper - Drape's Takes
Just great ideas and a really nice guy. Wonderful to have a conversation with.

Brad Flickinger - School Technology Solutions - Website
I met Brad for the 1st time while we were both "lost" trying to find Edubloggercon Saturday morning. First, we couldn't find a door that was unlocked, then we roamed the cavernous bowels of the Colorado Convention Center together until we found Steve Hargadon and the Four Seasons Ballroom. I thought I was looking for a hotel, not a ballroom with the same name! Brad facilitated some sessions I sat in on and I was blown away. Exceptional. Someone I want to read more from in the future!

Wesley Fryer - Moving At The Speed Of Creativity
Wes is the 1st Edublogger I met at a Moodle Moot in Oklahoma in 2007. Great posts. One of the best writers I know. Great Keynote speaker, someone I'll go listen to every opportunity I get. Very good ideas, plus Wes is a genuinely nice guy!

Peggy George - My Web 2.0 Adventures
Peggy also co-hosts many of the Saturday morning Classroom 2.0 Live Elluminate sessions with Kim Caise and Steve Hargadon that I participate in. I was actually just talking to someone in the Blogger's Cafe and looked down at her name tag and it was Peggy! When she realized who I was we both said almost in unison "I know who you are!"

Steve Hargadon - Infinite Thinking
The founder of Classroom 2.o, leader of Edubloggercon. Steve is an absolutely fantastic organizer, full of wonderful ideas. Steve consults with Elluminate and travels extensively, or so it seems. I noticed that he is heading to Brisbane, Australia, Shanghai, China and Nova Scotia in the coming months, I wonder if he would consider taking me along to carry his bags and set up his equipment?

Kristin Hokanson - The Connected Classroom
Great ideas and a very nice lady. She will be on the ISTE 2011 Committee in Philly next year. She spent a lot of her time in Denver "shadowing" the current committee members, but I did get to say hello to her a few times.

Kevin Honeycutt - Essdack
One of the most wonderful guys around. He is as much of a coffee-holic as I am! He gave me his 2nd cup of coffee Saturday morning at Edubloggercon, when I couldn't find the coffee shop at 7:00 AM. Then I returned the favor just in time! Funny, excellent ideas and just plain fun to talk to. Kevin is always on the move! Here's a photo of him with David Warlick who said:

Only photo taken of Kevin Honeycutt that isn't blurred. Notice I'm having to hold him still! http://yfrog.com/emuuzrj

Bud Hunt - Bud The Teacher
I got to get to know Bud for the first time at ISTE 2010. One word description: Awesome!

Chris Lehmann - Practical Theory A View From The Classroom
A Principal I would love to work for. The SLA Academy in Philly is his school.

Alan Levine - CogDogBlog

Julie Lindsay - E-Learning Journeys
On my list of heroes Julie is hero #1A right along side of Vicki Davis. An unbelievable educator. She has recently taught in Qatar and now in China. I got to visit with this week a wee bit and meet her daughter. The ISTE session: 7 Ways to Flatten Your Classroom was one of the highlights of the week for me.
7 Ways to Flatten Your Classroom - ISTE Video on Demand

Angela Maiers - Angela Maiers Educational Services
An absolute dynamo in the Edublogger World. One of the most friendly ladies I've ever met. Willing to do anything to help you or you students learn about technology.

Ewan Macintosh - Edublogs
Ewan didn't make it to Denver. I did get to know him in San Antonio at NECC 2008. He is one of Europe's leading Educational Technology experts.

Scott Mcleod - Dangerously Irrelevant
One of the most interesting and thought provoking Edublogs out there. Also Scott is extremely interesting to listen to in person.

Karen Montgomery - Thinking Machine
Some really good stuff here.

Will Richardson - Weblogg-ed
I didn't see Will at ISTE 2010. After reading his blog I found out that he was a Vendor for much of the conference. His post: ISTE 2010: Easy...Not Free is interesting. I'm thinking about a blog post about the pros & cons of the ISTE Exhibit floor as well.

Stephanie Sandifer - Change Agency
Another one of the truly nice people in the Edublogosphere! I have learned a lot from Stephanie. If you every have a question, she will have the answer!

Thomas Scheeler - From Room 36

Dean Shareski - Ideas and Thoughts
One of the Heavyweights in Educational Technology. Dean was awarded the 2010 ISTE Award for Outstanding Leadership in Technology and Education. I saw him a few times at ISTE but he was deep in conversation and I didn't want to butt in.

Beth Still - Nebraska Change Agent - Classroom 2.0
Beth was (is) featured both online on the ISTE Website in the daily ISTE 2010 magazine while we were in Denver. Beth was another one of the people I really wanted to meet in Denver and I did have a short, get-to-know-you conversation with her.

Marco Torres - Marco Torres Website
Just absolutely amazing student work. Keynote speaker that is amazing. If you ever get to hear him present it is inspirational.

Jeff Utecht - The Thinking Stick
Jeff is one of the most prolific Edublogger out there! Currently he is teaching in Bangkok, Thailand. Jeff is a presenter and consultant. He is widely respected in the Edublogger community. Plus a very nice guy as well. I haven't read Jeff's book, Reach: Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development, yet but I'm going to try to get a copy and read it. Having talked to Jeff it's probably very dynamic!

David Warlick - 2 Cents Worth
One of the most sought after professional development speakers who is in high demand. David has presented at both at NECC and ISTE and he presented a few sessions in Denver. We both sat in on the same session "Are iPdas a 1:1 Solution?" Afterward we had a 10 minute conversation on whether or not the iPad was going to be a "game-changer" in educataion and it was fantastic.

Sue Waters - Sue Water's Blog
All I can say about Sue is Wow! I finally got to meet her in Denver this week.

One of the buzzword questions we seem to always here is this: What were your 3 best Take-Aways from ISTE 2010?

Well my #1 Take-Away is always the people I meet and the connections I make. In addition to ISTE 2010, NECC 2008, several TCEA (Texas Computer Educators Association) Conferences and a host of smaller professional development conferences, I've really been fortunate to meet and get to know many, if not most of the people on this list in my Personal Learning Network. For me that has been really fun and educational.

Now the challenge given to us by Vicki Davis in the 7 Ways to Flatten Your Classroom session was to "DO SOMETHING"! Do something with your students that you learned during your time in Denver. Which is my #2 Take-Away.

What was my #3 Take-Away? Well that will have to wait for a future post!

Resources:
7 Lists of people who Tweeted about ISTE
Edublogging: My Favorites - My blog post from July 2008
Views of EdTech: Trump Talks - Michael Trump

ISTE Videos
ISTE 2010 Video on Demand
EdTech ISTE 2010 Videos

EduTecher's 10 Web Tools - Iste Presentation