The SchoolTube team was on the road once again, this time traveling to Anaheim, California for the Student Television Network national convention.  Thousands of students and teachers, coming as far as Maine and Hawaii, made the trip to Disneyland for the weekend long convention.

SchoolTube kicked off the convention Friday morning with staffers throwing beads and t-shirts into the crowd while music blared. Students yelled and cheered as dozens of cameras captured the energy flooding through the room.

Afterwards, students had the unique opportunity to listen to Bob Dotson, a reporter for NBC's Today Show, speak about the importance of story telling. After inspiration and encouragement from Dotson, students were turned loose to put their journalism skills to the test.

One of the more unique contests (even at STN) was the Sweet Sixteen, a challenge that pushes schools to their limits as they rush to create an entire news show or short film in 16 hours (that's from their assignment to entry drop off). "It's inevitable that some schools won't make the deadline. It's sad to see kids who worked so hard all day to miss out in the awards process, but everyone admits this is the contest where they learn the most. Besides, this is a great opportunity to see what a classroom can do when they work together as a real team." said Erin Neal, a former student of the STN Convention founder, Dave Davis.

While some students were busy competing in contests or attending the educational breakout classes, other students visited the numerous booths. The most popular booth destination was SchoolTube's! Students had the chance to anchor newscasts, play SchoolTube Games, report live, and even say hi to their friends and family back home via a live feed from the booth. "We were definitely a hot spot", said SchoolTube staffer Christina Xamis. "We had kids lined up most of the day either waiting to participate in one of the booth activities, or watching others interact with the SchoolTube employees."

In addition to all the fun, SchoolTube also offered a reporters assignment desk. The Assignment Desk gave students the chance to take their broadcast journalism skills to a national audience, as official reporters for SchoolTube.com.  

Although the STN Convention leans more towards a journalism focus, students interested in film making were not left out. As well as producing movies on site, these students had the opportunity to receive feedback and critiques from Hollywood filmmakers like former DreamWorks employees Chet Thomas and Hollywood writer Darrin "Fletch" Fletcher. Both Thomas and Fletcher have worked on many Hollywood films such as, Minority Report, Meet the Parents, and Saving Private Ryan, just to name a few. In more recent years, Thomas and Fletcher founded ISM Films.com, a company that focuses on teaching film making fundamentals to middle and high school students.

The ISM Films team took on many roles at their first STN Convention, including teaching several breakouts, judging film contests, personally critiquing student films, and hosting the STN Showcase.

By Saturday night the red carpet was heating up as SchoolTube teamed up with ISM Films and STN to host the STN Showcase (an awards show where the top student produced music videos and films were recognized). Along with Chet and Fletch, Christina Xamis and Andrew Arizpe, two of SchoolTube's own, co-hosted the event.  Students and teachers were treated like Hollywood stars as they were interviewed in front of a camera underneath the bright lights for SchoolTube's live broadcast.

After the contest deadlines finally came to a close, and with a long night of judging completed, the fun filled weekend came to a close on Sunday morning with the closing ceremonies. Awards were handed out to the winners for the remaining on-site contests and several STN contests from earlier in the school year.

According to the comments from the students and teachers who attended the event, the 2008 Student Television Network Convention blew past years out of the water. "The STN Convention staff has an unbelievable amount of work ahead of them if they think they can beat this year's convention." said Erin Neal. "This year was just amazing!"