Today is the first day of the free and virtual Learning 2.0 Conference, being held in conjunction with Connected Educator Month. While tomorrow is the actual start of the formal sessions and keynotes--there's a pretty incredible lineup of speakers--today is the (very cool) experiment of holding a virtual SocialEdCon.

SocialEdCon (formerly EduBloggerCon) is the six-year-old unconference on social media, technology, and education change that is held a couple of times a year at different ed tech conference, and annually in its largest incarnation the Saturday before the ISTE conference. A couple of hundred folks gather at the start of the day and write out on poster board the titles of "conversations" they would like to have that day, and then everyone adds their names to the conversations that are of interest to them, and the most popular ones are scheduled for one-hour blocks during the day. Many people tell us it's their favorite day of the conference.

Can this be done virtually? We think yes, and we'll have the answer today! Now, we know for a lot of folks that this is the start of the school year, and you may not have all day to participate. The day starts with a welcome and organizing meeting at 10:00am US-Eastern Time (International Time Link) and finishes seven hours later at 5:00pm, and and you are welcome to join us for as little or as much as you are able.

THE ORGANIZING AND ATTENDING SPACE FOR SOCIALEDCON IS HERE. Click to join this Mightybell space, and then join in the fun. The session topics, voting, and the overall organization of the day will take place in the first hour, and then the actual detail session titles and links will be posted afterwards, so be sure to come back and look. If you can make it for the start or all of the day, be sure to help us establish the sessions, and then enjoy the ones you want! Instructions are in the "Welcome" and "Schedule" posts.

The actual sessions, including the organizing meeting, will take place in Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). We will be use audio, webcam, chat, the whiteboard, polling, and any other features of the program we can. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page: http://support.blackboardcollaborate.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=8336&task=knowledge&questionID=1473. Each session will then have its own Blackboard Collaborate room for the actual meeting and a separate Mightybell space for curating resources and ideas.

Special thanks to the sponsors and supporters of Learning 2.0: