My final conversation of ULearn08 was with the Editor of Interface Magazine . They were promoting the magazine for teachers and announcing the winners of the Best Blog awards. When I spoke to Greg he filled me in on what’s been happening with the magazine and the direction for the future. Have a listen .
Also go ahead and register your blog. Help them keep in touch.
Don’t forget to register for your free magazine – Put your home address and you won’t be looking for it under a pile of other guff on the staffroom table.
ULearn08 was a great opportunity to talk with a variety of folk. I was delighted to be trialing the Easi-Speak for Sitech Systems. As part of that trial I was interviewing a number of delegates and vendors in a variety of situations. My interview with Mike from Learnz was conducted in the busy entrance way to the Expo area. I have to say I was delighted with the clarity of this microphone but let me talk about Mike for a moment.
He is one of the Learnz team who have just secured funding to ensure free subscription to the Learnz project. I could type for hours about Learnz. I’m hoping to tap into the resource on my next teaching assignment next year. I let Mike do the explaining .
I wondered around with a Easispeak mp3 recorder for a while and caught peoples initial thoughts and reactions to ULearn. Below is a list of links that I gleaned from my conversations. Have a listen .
http://www.mogulus.com/
http://kpetv.blogspot.com/
Met up, purely by accident, with someone who always get’s me thinking. I’m thinking now, and it kinda made me sad.
It total surprised me that they had put their hand up for attending ULearn08. Gosh, i thought, this is the stuff of ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for….”. I was excited to think of the opportunities in session for thoughtful consideration of the mirad of technological possibilites for classroom use.
I caught up with this person and I asked how the conference had been for them. The answer went something like this:
” Well, I managed to avoid all the technology stuff. I went to a few things on leadership. I took away some interesting stuff.”
I nodded politely, as you do in situations like that. But I thought, much later, how sad. What a wasted opportunity?
One of the most over powering feelings I get from ULearn this time is the importance and power in the connectedness.
You are not alone
So often I feeling disconnected from the people, colleagues and friends, who really get it. I feel like the lone voice calling the desert of apathy. And although it is great to read everyone’s blogs, keep up with Twitter, skype from time to time. I do miss the F2F time.
When I think back through the year just gone, where many of us have shifted schools, moved out of classrooms or are considering some such. I guess it is how life moves on or perhaps its more to do with wanting to affect change in the biggest and boldest possible way.
However, as Steven Carden reminds us it is the ‘powerfulness’ of the teachers in the classroom and what they are doing that has the biggest impact on the shape of society fo the future.
Classroom teachers need that ongoing PD, support and encouragement. We have our PLNs, our ongoing mix of connections through the web.
How are we going to ‘plug’ everyone in. Everyone needs learning network… ICTPD cluisters and EHSAS clusters are going some way to encourage that learning and sharing environment, however there has to be value in sharing with others from around the country, around the globe.
