Due to very iffy wifi connections, I was not able to do much live blogging from CUE (although I did Tweet much of the conference). Here are a few of the gems from  the Wednesday pre-Cue EdubloggerCon-West meet up (Thank you, Steve Hargadon, for putting together this event!)

• Jose Rodriguez – How do you get students away from mandated scripted learning. Using Two-Minute Tamales (Gary Soto), for example, at end of story, students produce a video. Jose starts with Dabbleboard.com as a free version of a SmartBoard. Students build a 5-minute play for which they develop the script for narration. They have to build in dialogue. Dabbleboard.com is an easy interface (large font, upload images, etc.). Jose uploads from iMovie to Blip.tv, which has an option to save as non-flash-based file (QuickTime). Small file too!
• Copyright discussion: Checkout flickrstorm tutorial posted by David Jakes on his Jakesonline.org site.
• Janice Stearns – virtual meeting through ustream – http://district6.wikispaces.com. Besides video and back channel,  Janice also brings in coveritlive –  which adds the appeal of making conference look like sports live blogging, but you can moderate it! Whoot Whoot. Looks like an easy, baby step into video conferencing. Move them on to Elluminate as next step.