The 22nd Annual National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) will kick off Monday at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago.
Apple always has a presence at the show, but this year the company is expected to be out in force as part of its renewed focus on education. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be on hand.
NECC is a three-day (June 25-27) conference. Jobs will be the opening keynote speaker at 8:30 am Monday — it will be his first NECC keynote. On Tuesday, Cheryl Vedoe, Apple’s vice president of Education Marketing and Solutions, will give a session on “Empowering Education through Technology” from noon to 1 p.m., then David Dwyer of the Apple Classroom for Tomorrow program will discuss “Technology in our Schools: Have We Learned Enough to Prepare for the Road Ahead?” from 3-4 p.m.
Apple’s booth in the Exhibition Hall will sport an iBook Wireless Mobile Lab. Look for a focus on Mac OS X in education, as well as lots of info on Apple’s newly acquired PowerSchool, the Web-based student information systems for K-12 schools and school districts.
The focus of NECC is to educate and inform educators on developments in computing and technology for the classroom. Last year over 13,000 educators — classroom teachers, school administrators, technology coordinators, media specialists, higher education professionals — attended. This year more than 400 hardware and software vendors have committed to demonstrating their education solutions.
MacCentral will be present at the conference so look for daily reports and updates.