Posts Tagged "Conferences"

Learning Without Frontiers 2012 #lwf2012

Posted on Jan 28, 2012 in Conferences | 0 comments

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Learning Without Frontiers conference in London. I’ve wanted to go to this before but it’s clashed with other things. It’s always a little too close to BETT for my liking, I’d prefer a little bit of breathing space between the two, to be honest.

I arrived early, thanks to an invitation to attend the launch of a new book by Charles Leadbeater “Innovation in Education” written for WISE and published by Bloomsbury.  I’ll blog a review of the book another time, but it’s a study of some amazing education projects around the world, in some very challenging regions. I can’t find a link to it for sale online yet, but when I do, I’ll add it here.

After the book launch I made my way to the main theatre for the speakers, and there was an impressive list of names on show.

The day was kicked off with a video presentation by MIT Professor Noam Chomsky who made some very interesting points. He compared technology to a hammer;  “It doesn’t care if you use it to build a house or crush someone’s skull. The Web is valuable if you know what you’re looking for, if you have a framework of understanding. But you always have to be willing to question whether your framework is the right one.” Technology is a tool, and we need to make sure we harness it for good.

Next up was technology guru Ray Kurzweil, who has an impressive CV but was a slightly disppointing speaker if I’m honest. He spent a lot of time telling us about how much technology has changed over the years and how good 3D printers would one day be. He obviously knows his stuff but he spent a long time telling us that computer power is increasing exponentially, something that most of the room, tapping away on their iPads already knew.

Jaron Lanier was up next, and he gave a rather off-the-cuff talk about various projects he’d been involved in, namely early virtual reality experiments, working on Minority Report and helping produce the Kinect for Microsoft. I was interested by his claim that to use technology well you need to hate it. That “intelligence” built into products such as Word try and work out what you want to do (Clippy the paperclip anyone?) and auto-format for you – which is invariably useless. So we learn to interact with the software in a way that we avoid that happening in the first place. We adapt our use of the software to make it do what we want.

Highlight of the morning session was Dame Elen MacArthur who literally bounded onto the stage and had an amazing energy about her. I was fascinated by her Ellen MacArthur Foundation project working on creating a more cyclical global economy, which makes perfect sense – watch a video here. The education section of her website has good resources and scope for including in Science and Design/Technology classes.

After Ellen I took a break from the speakers and headed off to explore the exhibition. I loved the inflatable pods that were being used to house each of the exhibitors. Gave the exhibition space a much different feel to the BETT show. There was much less focus on sales too, which was another interesting change from BETT.

I made my way to one of these pods for a debate by Steve Wheeler, Ian Addison, Drew Buddy and Dughall McCormick about whether the VLE is Dead, ably hosted by Michael Shaw of the TES. It was a fun lively debate, which pretty much summed up the arguments for and against the VLE. Myself, I’m still not a fan of the VLE because I don’t think schools know what to do with them. It’s not a fault of the VLE itself, although I do think many are badly designed especially for primary age children.

There were some interesting things on show in the pods – I loved the old computers on show in the BBC pod, and the National Museum of Computing (which I must go visit). The BBC looks like it’s making a move to get invovled in promoting coding again, in a similar way that it did in the 80′s when it helped to push a generation of bedroom coders with the BBC model B computer. Perhaps pushing a product such as Scratch?

I couldn’t stay late, so missed some of the afternoon speakers, but they have been covered elsewhere I’m sure.

I enjoyed the day at the conference, and am glad I attended. I did think, to paraphrase Mark Kermode that there was a lot of “without frontiers” before we got to the “learning”, especially with the speakers that I was able to see. I wish I could have attended the second day as the speakers seemed to be a lot more relevant to education – Steven Heppell, Sir Ken Robinson etc but I had to teach so couldn’t make it.

I’m not sure of the dates for the LWF13 conference yet, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the shifted date for the BETT show next year as well. But I’ll definitely try to attend.

BETT Show 2012 Roundup Part 2

Posted on Jan 17, 2012 in Conferences, Hardware, Interactive Whiteboards | 0 comments

Here’s the second part of my BETT 2012 roundup, taking a look at the things that caught my eye in addition to the Interactive Whiteboards which I talked about in Part 1.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the things I saw:

BrainPop UK : BrainPop were showing their excellent range of videos which are perfect for the classroom. Moby was there for photo opportunities as always. They were also demonstrating the various new ways to access the BrainPop resources, including on a Playstation 3 and iPad – even more ways to make the BrainPop resources accessible at home. Also check out their free BrainPop Featured movie iPhone and iPad apps. Now you don’t need to have a PC at home to be able to use BrainPop.

2Simple – Purple Mash : 2Simple were there in force again this year showcasing their superb software range. The highlight of course was their Purple Mash online package which has an amazing selection of tools. If you teach in a primary school and haven’t seen what Purple Mash can do, then you must take a look!

I Am Learning :  I Am Learning is a games-based revision and homework system which encourages learners both in and out of school. Students take park in games and quizzes with their scores tracked and stored for teacher assessment. I’ll be taking a look at this in more detail in a later blogpost but I liked what I saw, and it could prove to be a very useful resource for teachers.

Play Brighter : This is another website that allows teachers to set up games for their students. On PlayBrighter, you set your students ‘missions’.  The games are designed so that success (which might be releasing a Number One single, or becoming a millionaire) is a clear goal that really means something to the student, not just a score that has to reached. It’s free, and looks like quite a fun tool. Like I Am Learning I think I’ll need to come back to this in a later blog post and have a proper play with the resources.

PoraOra: Pora Ora is a FREE 3D world designed to make learning fun, where primary school children are rewarded for completing educational tasks that are linked to the national curriculum. The educational content is embedded in games and quests throughout the world, so children really are learning while playing. Pora Ora is also a safe and supervised social networking site where children can learn how to interact safely online with parents gradually relaxing security settings as they get older. Looks interesting.

Primary Games : Mark Cogan at the Interactive Resources website has always produced some superb interactive games for maths, and other subjects. The online version allows teachers to subscribe and make the resources available across the school and the wider community. This year he was also showing off the new range of Primary Games apps for the iPhone and iPad which look great.

Zu3d - The Zu3D animation software was on show with a new version and animation kit. Owners of the older version can upgrade for a small fee. It’s a fun easy-to-use piece of software for making stop-motion animation and I highly recommend it. In a similar vein, also check out I Can Animate from Kudlian.

Skoog Music : I loved the look of this. A Skoog is an exciting new musical instrument designed to empower those unable to play traditional instruments.  The Skoog is a soft, squeezable object that simply plugs straight into your computer or laptop’s USB port.  By touching, pressing, squashing, twisting or tapping the Skoog you can play a wide range of instruments, intuitively. Designed for people with any degree or combination of physical, mental or behavioral difficulties. Looks like fun, especially for the musically-challenged such as myself.

Turning Point : The Turning Point range of response ware/voting systems has been expanded with the ResponseCard NXT which has a larger screen and a mobile phone style texting keyboard to respond to questions with full text or numerical answers. There was also the Presenter Card which is a radio device that allows teachers to physically move around a classroom while controlling their TurningPoint session. Teachers can start/stop polling as well as move forwards and back in a presentation, letting them ove away from the IWB.

I was also able to attend the launch of a book written by my good friend and colleague Angie McGlashon. Her book “Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Inclusive Classroom” is an excellent guide to using ICT in the SEN classroom,but has lots of ideas for teachers in mainstream schools tool. You can buy a copy on Amazon, and I highly recommend you do!

And briefly: Word Wall were demonstrating their advanced student response system, which had quite a rugged feel to it, with a screen in the middle. Looked interesting. I also liked the look of AVerMedia’s wireless visualiser which has great potential in freeing up the visualiser so that it doesn’t have to be right next to the computer. Will make using it in science practical demonstrations much easier. Twig Science were proudly showing off their BETT award for their excellent science video collection – well worth a look. Oddizi also won an award for their primary digital content for geography.

So that’s it for BETT 2012. Next year it will be leaving Olympia and heading for the Excel centre in Docklands – for me this is a good move as it’s much easier to get to but it will be interesting to see how being at the new venue shakes up the exhibition. BETT 2013 is also a few weeks later in the year, giving me more time to recover from the ASE conference which is usually the week before.

See you next year!

BETT Show 2012 Roundup Part 1

Posted on Jan 16, 2012 in Conferences, Interactive Whiteboards | 2 comments

So last week saw the annual trip to the BETT Show – one of the biggest educational technology shows in the world, for the last time at the Kensington Olympia venue. As always anyone who is anyone in the world of educational technology was here, showing off their latest products. You can see my photos from the show here.

Like last year I was slightly underwhelmed by some aspects of the show. There was very little that was totally new and there wasn’t much of a “wow” factor. I guess that’s the downside of attending every single year for the last few years. Everything was the same as last year, but slightly updated. There were lots of interactive whiteboards, interactive projectors, visualisers, voting systems, learning platforms, iPads on show, but all just slightly bigger/faster/shinier than they were at BETT 2011 (and 2010 to be honest). Many of the people I spoke to felt the same way.

In terms of interactive whiteboards the major players of SMART and Promethean were both there in force with massive stands while there were lots of other smaller players trying to get into the market.

Promethean had many products on show, the one that caught my eye was their new ActivProgress system which looks like a move into a coordinated platform for assessment and student tracking. It provides a web-based system that is linked up with their ActivExpression student voting handsets (as well as paper-based tests) to collect and collate test scores. It should also link to SIMs and other school management systems.

Promethean were also demonstrating their ActivTable, a 46″ interactive monitor with multitouch to allow 6 students to use it simultaneously. It looks nice. Time will tell how easy the development kit is to produce your own materials. I’m still not sure if the money would be better spent on 10 iPads.

SMART were demonstrating Smart Notebook 11 which did look very good. It’s due out “in the Spring” and the version on show still had a few bugs to iron out. The ability to embed whole webpages was interesting, although sadly it won’t do embed codes – although that could be covered by some of the new html5 widgets. Directly embedding a YouTube video for instance would be a handy feature. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy when it’s released later this year.

Notebook 11 will be a free upgrade for existing users, and the rumour is that there will be an option to buy licences for the Notebook software separately to run on any system you wish – which if true is a big change in Smart’s approach.

I also spent some time on the Polyvision and eInstruction stands, being shown their latest IWB systems, both of which were interesting.

Polyvision were showing off their latest ēno whiteboard which has no need for additional speakers or amplifier. The board itself acts as a loudspeaker, which is quite a cool idea. The Polyvision board can also be written on with regular pens for those “plan B” moments when the technology fails. Polyvision boards use a magnetic strip with icons on it which control the features of the board. Polyvision don’t provide their own generic software, instead bundling the board with Easiteach or Wizteach software.

eInstruction were demonstrating their Insight 360 interactive whiteboard systems. The Mobi system incorporates a wireless slate that can be used to control the lesson and write/annotate on the PC. It also has its own touch screen for adding teacher notes or storing bookmarks and other links. It’s an interesting idea, and gives teachers the freedom to move around the classroom (and pass the slate around the class). It could also be used to control assessments using their voting systems, and store/view scores.

An interesting development is the Mobi360 for iPad which allows teachers to control their lesson via an iPad. They can write/annotate like they could on a slate, as well as interact with other devices such as the voting handsets. For those teachers who often ask if they can use their iPad like an IWB, this might be the solution for you! More info here.

 In part 2 I’ll move away from the interactive whiteboards and look at some of the other products that were on show.

Let me know what you thought of the BETT show in the comments below.

TeachMeet Essex 2012 Announced

Posted on Nov 15, 2011 in Conferences | 0 comments

Following on from the successful first Teachmeet Essex in 2010, we’re putting on another free event to showcase the excellent teaching and learning that is taking place the schools in Essex as well as the breakaway people’s republics of Southend and Thurrock. Teachers and friends from other areas are obviously more than welcome too!

Please sign up to give a 2 minute talk, or a 7 minute talk, or just to attend and network. You can see video from the previous event here.

Teachmeet Essex 2012 will take place on Tuesday 7th February 2012 at Wickford CLC. 5pm – 7pm

How to attend:
Sign up for free tickets here / Add your name to the Wiki here

Or follow on Twitter at #tmessex

What is a TeachMeet?

TeachMeets are FREE, informal “unconferences”, all about creating opportunities for those interested in education to take the lead, share practice, discover new ideas, network and be inspired all during the course of one CPD fuelled evening! Anyone can get involved, share great ideas they’ve trialled in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations. All are welcome.

How can I sign up?

Please sign up to attend via our EventBrite site here. Please also Add your name to the Wiki here:

More information : www.teachmeetessex.co.uk

Collaborate for Change 17th Nov #c84c

Posted on Oct 7, 2011 in Conferences | 0 comments

Collabor8 4 Change is an innovative ‘unconference’ event with a clear focus on leadership of ICT, use of hardware and software, with an emphasis on the impact on pupil outcomes, making effective use of existing ICT resources – as well as demonstrating innovative products that benefit school improvement through ICT.

The format for the evening includes up to 15 concurrent table discussions running for 20 minutes. This will be repeated up to 4 times. The purpose of these discussions is to give colleagues the opportunity to toss around ideas, share information or suggestions, get feedback on initiatives and so on. The emphasis is on discussion.

There will also be a series of brief talks of up to 10 minutes each. These might consist of sharing details of a class project, useful information about websites you’ve come across or simply a rant to get something off your chest!

I’m going to be running table discussions on ideas for using your interactive whiteboards, plus another on digital media/Flickr in the classroom. I’ll also be giving a 10 minute talk too on the topic of Digital Storytelling in Science.

The event is taking place in Rainham, Essex on17th November. You will need a ticket to attend the event, available for free from the C84C website.

Hope to see you there!

Oh Canada

Posted on Mar 14, 2011 in Site Stuff | 0 comments

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last week. I’m in Canada!

I’m talking at the Teacher to Teacher conference in Bow Island, AB. I headed out a week early to check out the skiing in Banff first. Which was rather excellent.

I’ll be back in a week, so apologies for the lack of blogging until then.

Teacher2Teacher Conference 2011

Posted on Jan 24, 2011 in Conferences | 2 comments

It’s very nearly time for the Teacher2Teacher conference in Bow Island, Alberta again. Like last year I will be heading over to Canada to run several sessions. Last years conference was a blast and I’m really looking forward to going back. I’m taking the advice of the Banff Squirrel and heading to Banff for a weeks skiing before the conference which I’m also quite excited about.

This conference is for the classroom teacher to explore the many uses of technology for lessons, student learning and communication with teachers, students and parents. The conference will be held at Senator Gershaw School in Bow Island (home of Pinto McBean!) on March 17 and  18th, 2011. Registration is restricted to 300 so please don’t wait to register.

I’ll be running 4 different sessions over the two days:

• Interactive Whiteboards and Junior High Science
• Getting Digital Resources for your Interactive Whiteboard
• Smartboard Lesson Starters
• Using Espresso Education

You can get more information about the conference over at the Teacher2Teacher website here, plus find out how to register. Full details on the speakers and sessions will be available shortly.

If any blog readers do attend the conference – please make sure you say hello!

Hope to see you there!

TeachMeet Essex 2010

Posted on Sep 4, 2010 in Conferences | 0 comments

Now that schools are back, and teachers have a better idea of their diaries for this term, it’s time for a reminder about TeachMeet Essex 2010.

It will be taking place at the Pioneer School, Basildon on the evening of Tuesday 19th October.

The event is open to anyone interested in education in the Essex area, as well as the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock. Plus anyone outside the area who is interested is also more than welcome.

Since I announced this back in July we’ve had some excellent companies get in touch to sponsor the event and provide goody bags and prizes. The talks that have already signed up sound very interesting – and there’s plenty of space for more!

You can find out more information at the TMEssex Wiki here: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/TeachMeetEssex

Spread the word - tell your colleagues. If you are part of a local cluster of schools please let them know! Please print out this flyer and post it up on your staffroom noticeboard.

Australian IWB Conference Aug 2010

Posted on Jun 15, 2010 in Conferences | 2 comments

If you are in Australia then this conference may well be of interest to you!

IWBNet invites teachers to attend the Seventh National Interactive Teaching and Learning Conference (formerly IWB Conference) at St Stephens College, Upper Coomera, Gold Coast, QLD on 12, 13 and 14 August 2010. Register by 30 June 2010 to secure the early bird rate and go into the draw to have a chance of winning an Apple iPad.

Are you in the market for an IWB?
See a diverse range of IWB brands in the conference exhibition and conference sessions and network with other delegates to get their recommendations about the various brands

Are you new to using an IWB in the classroom?
Select your level from the 170+ conference sessions – there is plenty for you to help you progress with your IWB teaching

Are you looking for new ideas to advance your current IWB skills?
Engage in some high quality professional development by selecting sessions to meet your needs from the following categories: beginner; intermediate; competent; advanced; suitable for all

Are you motivated to use other digital technologies to complement your IWB teaching?
See an impressive range of other digital technologies in action. IWBs bring these technologies to life!

The Keynote Speakers – don’t miss out!
Greg Gebhart and Chris Betcher will be known to many of you. They are exciting speakers with contemporary perspectives, knowledge and skills.

They always have something new and challenging to say.

For further information about the Conference and to register go to: http://www.iwb.net.au/conferences/australian10/default.htm

Sadly, this is a little too far for me to get to this year… maybe next year. Would love to get down to an Oz conference sometime, they do sound like fun.