As someone who teaches digital media to college students, I eagerly awaited Journalism Interactive: The Conference on Journalism Education & Digital Media. Told my Digital Journalism II class to expect to be set on fire from all that I might discover at the two-day event this past weekend at the University of Maryland.

I figured 60 to 100 journalism educators would join me on Friday and Saturday. Wrong! More than 400 people from more than 120 institutions attended. By all accounts, it was a worthwhile trip and job well done by the conference committee; the host, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and its corporate partner, publisher SAGE/CQ Press.

I won't even to try to capture all that I learned from the 75 or so great speakers in a single blog post. Hoping to share a few related posts soon. A couple of highlights, though, readily come to mind: "Emerging Tech Trends for Academia," by multimedia guru Amy Web, CEO of Webbmedia Group, and "The Social Media Teacher's Toolkit" by Jeff Cutler, social media trainer for the Society of Professional Journalists' Newsroom Training Program.

Another highlight: the Teach-a-Thon, featuring 14 journalism educators – shout out to Craig Herndon, Andrew Lih, Ed Madison and Stacy Spaulding – who each had a few minutes to share fantastic ideas and techniques they employ in their classrooms. You can find the Teach-a-Thon resources here. Indeed, their presentations are among the archived videos of those sessions streamed live during the conference.

It impressed me that some of my students back at Marquette University spent time following the conference via Twitter – even on a Saturday morning! "Loving these tweets from@herbertlowe at #jiconf. I feel like I'm there," @becca_french tweeted. @katie__doherty, a self-described "overachiever," ended up engaging Burt Herman, CEO and co-founder of Storify, after I had tweeted he was on a panel. (My #JOUR1100 and #JOUR1550 students each did their own Storify after live-tweeting the university's recent presidential inauguration. Here are my Storifys.)

From Katie: @herbertlowe Tell @burtherman I'm liking the new @Storify as I work on NY latest live-tweeting project. 

From Burt: @herbertlowe @katie__doherty Thanks for the kind words and please let us know your suggestions!

From Katie: @burtherman @herbertlowe You're welcome. @Storify has become a great tool for young journalists to utilize in the classroom.

Well, that's all for now. Like I said, more posts stemming from this great conference to come soon.

As the faculty adviser for the Marquette University student chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), I worry when its leadership and direction is left to its own energies and devices.

But when NABJ-MU announced it had secured Benet Wilson, the Aviation Queen and chairwoman of the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force, to do a webinar on digital portfolios on a night this week I could not attend, I didn't worry. I knew that "Aunt Benet," as students affectionately call her, would ensure all went well – just as when she moderated a similar workshop, "Brand You: Creating Your Online Identity," at the NABJ convention in August.

Appreciated the live tweets from the webinar. Here's one from chapter president Marissa Evans: "Looking at best practices on using Weebly.com for digital portfolio already see ways I can improve mine at www.marissaevans.com #NABJDP"

From Erin Caughey of my Digital Journalism II class: "Students attending #NABJDP tonight walk away with some helpful tips from @NABJDigital and @benetwilson to update personal sites. #JOUR1550." 

And from the chapter's Twitter account, @NABJ_MarquetteU: "Special thanks & much love to our dear Aunt @BenetWilson/@NABJDigital for a GREAT webinar this evening #weloveyou #NABJDP."

Many thanks to Aunt Benet for sharing her wisdom with the only NABJ student chapter in Wisconsin. I look forward to seeing her produce the NABJ convention in New Orleans in June. She's the convention program chairwoman.

Does it get any better than a shout out on Twitter? A really good brother posted this tweet this week: "Big shout to my man @herbertlowe for schooling me on the site builder weebly.com. Herb, the site is now official: www.jessewashington.com." Man, amazing how someone typing 140 characters can really make your day!

Last month, I shared how Jesse and three other branding experts had wowed a crowded session, "Brand You: Creating Your Own Online Identity," at the NABJ convention in Philadelphia. Moments after the session, Jesse texted me, asking to meet so we could catch up. Minutes later, he and another friend of mine, Austin Fenner, chatted some more about branding and how to create a personal branding website. I showed them this site on Jesse's iPad and recounted how easy it was to build using Weebly.com. I could tell Jesse was feeling it.

The next week I shared the "Brand You" Storify I did with Jesse. Urged him in no uncertain terms to get a website ASAP after only finding online about him a short story on USA Today's site. The story is very inadequate considering Jesse's career. He assured me his site was soon to go live. Hence, the tweeted shout out this week!

Jesse's site looks very good, very distinctive. I really like his home page, especially how he is explicit about what he does and what he doesn't do. Looking forward to reading the articles he has posted as well as his blog. I'm sure that when I do, he'll be schooling me – and my students – about great storytelling about what he calls "real people."