Learning 2.0 Overload

In the past 3 months I have attended 3 big conferences on the use of Learning Technologies.... today I hit complete overload... my cup runneth over as my Dad used to say. Where to start... I have to start articulating my ideas after my own self imposed 'quarantine' as the ideas for workshops for teachers just keep flowing - and I'm bound to forget them if I don't get them down on 'paper' soon.
This weekend I'm in Shanghai for Learning 2.0 08. Great invited speakers, great attendees, lots of conversations. This conference is a little different as it is very informal and the focus is on having conversations and jump-starting our own learning. So far I've been impressed with the following on twitter - people from Australia, US and across SE Asia are participating - not just the 570 here in Shanghai.
What has my mind in overdrive?
David Jakes and Visual Literacy... now I'm thinking about how this can be linked to the IB Learner Profile and helping students develop their skills as communicators. Students need to be able to articulate their thoughts and the concepts that they are trying to convey in a powerful way - and the informed use of visuals can make this so much more effective.
Brian Lockwood - the use of Web 2.0 tools to improve the way that we work in schools. Should we limit the tools that students use or model ourselves more on Google and the way that they allow employees to choose their tools... should we be using mobile devices such as iPhones, gaming consoles, laptops etc. What affordances do online applications like Drop Box, Evernote, Skitch, wikis, twitter, facebook and self directed blogs give us as teachers.
Chris Smith - good to see Chris again after all these years - his work with Shambles is inspiring for life after The ESF. His International School Island in Second Life is fantastic - the possibilities for education are great, however what to do about the age restriction on Second Life and Teen Grid make things a little difficult. Virtual field trips, extension materials for older students.... this needs much more thinking about and inquiry to see the validity. I don't want to be encouraging students to enter Second Life under false pretenses and this is a valid fear given the number of underage students in Facebook.
Ewan McIntosh - Thinking out of the (x)Box - the use of gaming as stimulus for creative writing. This was an amazing presentation - the possibilities for MFL, English, SEN and EAL are there for the picking. The work that has been done by Tim Ryland with Myst and Kim Pericles with Samorost. Linking this to DeBono's Thinking Hats is a great way to start lessons.
So where to start? I'm still looking for a 'fool-proof' way to distribute my Learning Technology Newsletter to staff - I refuse to go paper based, I need to make these workshops catchy, linked to the Learner Profile and relevant... not a big ask.... really!!

Getting the Quarantine Right!

Dangerously Irrelevant in his recent blog is talking about how those of us in the ed tech field should place ourselves into self imposed quarantine whilst we 'get it right'. As someone who has been guilty of launching the latest great thing before it was ready I have to whole-heartedly agree with this concept.

Recently I've been flat out working on 2 major projects. One is an interface for our SEN department so that they can integrate IEPs onto our learning platform. The other is consolidating the work I've been doing on podcasting via our learning platform and the affordances this brings to learning and teaching. I finally feel that now this is where it needs to be. Our SEN co presented the IEP interface at a conference here in HK recently and it's generated so much enthusiasm that I'll be training most schools next term in this. Did another pilot/test with a primary school today and I'm now confident that this is a scalable use of the technology... my big test.... because in the end if it requires people like me to do all of the implementation the projects won't out last me... which is what they're supposed to do.

I think that I'm nearly ready to come out of quarantine!

Safe Havens

The love of my teaching life at the moment is my Learning Platform. I love it because it encompasses everything that I believe a platform should be. It enables me to create that "Safe Haven" for my students to explore and utilise the new Web2.0 technologies that abound on the internet.
How am I doing this? Those lovely words "embed code". We have a Learning Platform that is flexible enough that it allows us to embed much of the internet - without taking students outside of the classroom. Yes it is easy to hyper link to websites like YouTube - but they have so many distractions for students that it is so much better to embed the YouTube video inside a classroom activity page.
What can I do with my Learning Platform - well the list keeps on expanding but so far we've been able to:

• Blog - students can create their own blogs and decide who their audience (within the school community) will be. We are using blogs for students to reflect on their learning and extend their learning
• Podcast - the latest discovery is that our Learning Platform can broadcast a Podcast - both publicly and privately. Yeh!!! no ftp, no file size limits, no format limits and the students can also create their own podcasts - it doesn't have to be teacher centred-- very satisfying. I've also discovered a wonderful web2.0 application called Feedburner that enables me to make a lovely interface for all of this
• ePortfolio - yes it's a catchphrase at the moment but we've been working on digital portfolios at a district level and come up with some templates for both primary and secondary students. One of our main findings is that the tools you use need to be flexible and allow students to direct the outcomes (with guidance) - we're incorporating blogs and web pages as part of the reflection and analysis process.
• wikis are coming to our learning platform - great!!! just in time for next terms project with Year 7!! Again they are within our school community so security is not an issue and you can allocate different wikis to different groups of students to create... I'm so looking forward to experimenting with these.
• Tasks - you can assign tasks to a group of students, they can share their work, you can have private or public conversations with students about their work, you can see what and when they uploaded files. No more emailing work, no more saving and filing documents from students!! Love it. The best thing is that you can create a task that has embedded internet content, add a couple of files and also has teacher notes so if you share the task with several classes the teachers can have instructions or support materials that the students don't see!

My aim this year was NOT to use the photocopier - I think so far I've only made about 100 copies - the Learning Platform is not only letting me create the safe learning haven for my students - but is helping me to stay green!