Academic Aesthetic Netcast 120

I'm giving up.

That's right, I'm giving up on Audacity. It's a solid program with some nice features, but it just can't top my copy of GarageBand. Purple tracks extending across the screen, how I missed you!

In any case, I recently received an email from Lance Rougeux of the Discovery Educator Network. He was inquiring about how many DEN members would still be attending the PETE&C Pre-Conference in Hershey, PA.

I must admit, I thought about it for a while. As you may recall from my last netcast I wasn't too happy about the DEN's recent layoffs, and to be honest just thinking about it gets my blood pressure rising even more.

But as I said back then I'm angry at the corporate penny pinchers, not Lance, or Steve, or any of the others that barely missed getting the axe themselves. I consider those people to be my friends.

So should I pass up an opportunity to see them again, just because I'm mad at their bosses?

I was close to saying yes, but instead I asked Lance what was on the agenda for the pre-conference. He replied with what I should stress is a tentative schedule, just in case you attend and are surprised to see a different list:

• 1 hour opening session from Will Richardson


• Hall Davidson's session Mega VCR presentation


• Google Earth


• Green Screen session using editable clips in unitedstreaming


• Podcasting


• Steve Dembo is either going to present on web 2.0 or more specifically about blogging

In that whole list there's only one mention of something they're actually selling, and it involves software that I don't own. (Or more specifically, software I own but cannot run on any computer I have, since they gave me the wrong version.)

Now there are only a few edu-bloggers out there that I would pay money to see. Will Richardson is one of them, and Steve Dembo is another. The only thing missing from this list is David Warlick, but I guess you can't have everything. (Sorry Hall, but if you have a blog I don't know where it is, so I can't call you an edu-blogger.)

And yet this pre-conference is free. I may not be an energetic promoter of the DEN any more, but this is too good an opportunity for me to miss.

And besides, it'll give me something to share with that new group I'm starting up.

Oh yeah, about that group - it's coming along nicely, and already up to 14 members! It's no DEN, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Now if we can just pick a name for ourselves...

I know that some people might think I'm a hypocrite for starting this new community but not leaving the DEN. That would be true if the two were mutually exclusive, but the truth is that you can join as many educational groups as you want. I think of it as people who drink Pepsi still having an occasional Coke or RC cola if they feel like it. (Personally I prefer the "A-Treat" brand, but they don't sell that around here.)

I know there are many people who refuse to have anything to do with the DEN because of what happened. That IS one of the reasons I set up the new community, after all, But I know that there are also many people who are more than willing to be a part of both groups, provided they don't have to sell anything. That's the part of the Venn Diagram that I'm in, at least while I still have friends that are cashing checks from Discovery.

But I'm still not wearing the lab coat.