The real point of going to Denver

O.K. So I didn't go to Denver just to take pictures of a Conspiracy Theory. The real reason was to attend ISTE and see Karen get her award for being the ISTE INTERNATIONAL Teacher of the Year. I don't think it really hit home how big this award was until we were there and saw the stage. It was huge! And all of the people were very nice. We were fed and given the opportunity to attend great workshops. I got to meet with many of the Librarians I have only known through e-mail and online. I hope we get to go back....I have a project up my sleeve to enter into next years collaboration competition. Here is a video of Karen accepting her award:

Karen Wins the ISTE Educator of the Year from Doug Valentine on Vimeo.

Amazon Commercial

Last summer Amazon has a "contest" for Amazon users to come up with a commercial for their company. Although they advertised it as a amateur competition, of course it wasn't. The winners (you've seen the stop motion Kindle commercials)were professional producers. Oh well...Amazon got some great talent for a bargain and it doesn't stop me from buying there. Here is the commercial I entered. It's a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Amazon .com entry. The Dawn of Shopping from Doug Valentine on Vimeo.

ISTE AWARD WINNERS

My wife and I entered some of our work in the ISTE/NECC conference Digital Stories contest recently. The conference was in D.C. so we didn't get to attend. The finals of the contest were streamed from the conference live and we were thrilled to find out we were both finalists. The crowd that was at the conference voted live for their favorite and Karen's video "Living in a Digital World" won! We were especially happy since Karen had entered this in another competition and didn't even get selected for the finals! *interwrite/e-instruction* cough cough..Anyway, she wins an all expense paid trip to Denver for the national conference next year so our summer vacation is planned. I'm working on a video for the Amazon.com contest but that is a REAL long shot. Here are the videos if you would like to see them: