Overall, this week’s National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) was a great conference for educators as well as Apple.
Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote Monday that Apple is involved in education “because we give a damn — just like you guys,” some folks think the speech was a bit too much like a commercial.
Some folks (both educators and vendors), who asked to remain nameless, told MacCentral that the speech contained a bit more hype and promotion than the typical NECC speech.
The reaction was much more positive when Jobs showed work produced by students using Apple products. For instance, the CEO showed an iMovie about triangles, in which a group of kids use geometry to figure out the height of a flagpole. In another iMovie, a high school girl offered a moving look at sweatshops. And a hilarious iMovie featured two boys dressed up like Aristotle and Galileo discussing whether objects of unequal weight fall at the same rate of speed. They greeted the audience with a “Wasssssssssssssup?”
Despite feelings that the Apple CEO spent a bit too much time hawking Apple products, the teachers with whom both MacCentral spoke were glad he appeared at this year’s NECC.
“Jobs also does a great job, and there are still lots of teachers devoted to the Mac platform,” one educator said.
The atmosphere of the show itself was very upbeat. All the vendors I spoke with were very pleased with the floor traffic. There’s no report given on sales because, unlike Macworld Expos, NECC is for information dissemination only.
NECC 2001 was very well attended. Almost 13,000 educators visited. And this number doesn’t include the hundreds of vendors on hand.
Planning is underway for NECC 2002, which will be held June 17-19, 2002, in the San Antonio Convention Center, San Antonio, TX. NECC is already seeking “educators from all over the world to bring synergy, center, focus, and connection to the 23rd annual NECC.” Proposals will be accepted beginning Aug.31 at the NECC Web site.