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.

Here is my latest Storify, sharing ideas and online resources for using Twitter, Storify and other social media in the classroom. Presented this in part during my show-and-share, titled by Al Tompkins as "Using Twitter and Storify for Good Not Evil," during the "Teachapalooza" seminar for journalism educators at the Poynter Institute in Florida. The positive feedback from that presentation coupled with interest from my fellow educators at the recent NABJ convention in Philadelphia inspired me to look for even more such resources online. Let's continue to "teach it!"

Presenting my latest Storify, recounting a panel discussion on online personal branding at the NABJ convention. The standing-room-only session's moderator – Benet Wilson, online managing editor, Aviation Week-McGraw Hill – and panelists – Natalie McNeal, creator, The Frugalista Files; Jesse Washington, national writer on race and ethnicity for The Associated Press; and Mario Armstrong, chief content editor, Mario Armstrong Media – were top-notch. The tweets from attendees demonstrate how much everyone present appreciated the session.

Here's another Storify. (Does it seem I like doing these?) It focuses on my niece and her friend and their weeklong visit to Chicago. Appreciated the chance to show teenagers how Twitter can be used for more than just chatter, and how curating social media preserves memories. One other thing: a colleague tweeted, after it was published, for me to include video. So I added a very cute 15-second clip of Andrea and Keturah playing their part on cue. Enjoy.

This is my next Storify, about Michelle Michael, the 2010 National Press Photographers Association's Solo Journalist of the Year, and her presentation to Diederich College of Communication faculty on Day 3 of a weeklong Platypus workshop in which we learned to shoot high-quality video and edit it with Apple's new Final Cut Pro X. 

I loved how journalism educators from elsewhere and Marquette students following me on Twitter and Facebook responded to Michelle's offerings as I was tweeting. Definitely demonstrating the power of curating social media.

Presenting my next Storify, about how my wife and I spent our Fourth of July cleaning up her late parents' home in North Carolina. Especially enjoyed curating this story because it shows that good storytelling doesn't always have to involve life-and-death circumstances or impact a great many people. They can just be about those closest to us.

This Storify marks progress in that it includes my first two times sharing photos via Twitter and also gave me a new chance to share three audio slideshows that celebrate the life and times of Mira's parents, Allen and Clara Thomas. Another case of using those close to me to practice digital storytelling and learn new software – in this case, iMovie.

This is my first attempt at Storify, a new digital tool to make stories by curating social media and to which I was introduced while attending the "Teaching the Craft of Writing (in the Age of Twitter)" seminar at Poynter in May.

It involves my first attempt at live tweeting, and its from the 2011 convention of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (aka Black Press of America) at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. Taken from the Rev. Al Sharpton's luncheon keynote and a discussion between Sharpton and noted academic Cornel West about the state of Black America and having the first black president in the White House.

Absolutely amazed by the feedback to this first Storify attempt, especially from the NABJ Digital Task Force and it getting cited on Richard Prince's Journal-isms, a blog about diversity in the media. All that has led me to seek to do more Storifys and even to update this attempt as coverage warrants. (See the added content at the end.)