Just back from this year's conference ... wow, what a great event we had this year. My mind is spinning with the range and depth of what is possible with setting up and growing effective learning environments and enhancing our school communities through the adoption and use of online social media.
So my first step along the way is to set up a sharing and learning portal (blog) for our group to share our learnings and thoughts as well as what grows from this year's conference.
Thanks to Debbie for organising a fantastic conference. It was great to visit the various schools, be challenged by great speakers but most importantly to reflect with a great team of principals. Thanks Simon for organising a fabulous venue for our conference dinner. Great food, awesome view and great company.
ReplyDeleteWell done Michael for wasting no time in setting up this blog. The informal sharing of apps at the airport this afternoon was great as well! What was the name of the app that holds all the passwords?
I couldn't agree more. I feel now much more equipped to lead contemporary learning in our school. This is a great start for us to use a blog. Thanks Michael for being so proactive and helping us "not so techno" principals.
DeleteSome reflections i have had since our conference -
Collaborative learning can be so powerful.
Quality teaching is more important than the tools used.Important for teachers to be given support and PL.
I need to use the social media tools and familiarise with them more in order to lead the staff
Devices used can be a variety what is important is the learning application and connecting the learning
Learning environments - the importance of suitable, adaptable and flexible furnishings can make a huge difference.
Being creative about learning spaces
I have set up an Pearltrees account now.
Thanks to a great group of people whose company I really valued both socially and professionally. Oh and congrats to Phil very "hand"some.
I had forgotten about Pearltrees. I will have a look this week. It might be worth featuring an online tool every few weeks so thet we can all look at and comment on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the first step is for all of us to set up a Twitter account (or 2, one for school and one for professional).
I've got some stuff ready to load on Facebook as well. So much to look at ...
I think it will be great to feature a different application. There were so many and it would help to keep reminding each other of the ways they can help us. I have set up a twitter account so that I can follow the tweets of the speakers from the conference. I need to check out pearl
DeleteCongratulations to all on our conference last week. I have never seen a group so excited about a topic in a long time. Well done to Deb on her great organisation and keeping tabs on so many! For those who were around the table at the airport thre was lots of open plan learning going on about sites, using the iphone etc. It was all we had seen at all the schools in practice amongst ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWe are twittering at St Peters. Please follow us @spclayton1948 to see what we tweet about.
I love the Zite site and check it every day. We need now to set up the twitter account for our network so we can tweet everyone!
With everything that we heard and saw we need to look at what we can follow up at the next network meeting to keep the momentum up.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts?
I can give a rundown for people on using this blog if you like, or Twitter, but they may not required it. We did talk about protocols for use, perhaps that's something we need to develop.
ReplyDeleteAlso mindful that we don't want to let thirst for technology take the focus off L&T, remembering that it is just the vehicle for quality learning. I also have in the back of my mind Alan November stating that there is a greater response to seeking feedback and questions online than in person. So many things that perhaps we need to sit down at our next meeting and have a round table discussion on where to from here?
But not at the cost of not "doing" anything now so that drive can be maintained.