Innovation and Learning
Start with clarity of intent.
Now build it out with an evocative vision. Improvise progress by tinkering: with lots of trial and lots of error. The not knowing is the best bit: the mysteries the surprises, and from time to time the windfalls!
Hello there, I'm Steve Collis!
Click on "contact", won't you, and wave right back at me?
Welcome dear fellow educators. I am @steve_collis. I teach at an amazing school in Sydney, Australia, in awe of the sheer potential of young minds.
We're living in scary and exciting times, a time where humility, and LEARNING is needed - for teachers, for leaders, for our young people.
Follow me on Twitter. Subscribe to my blog. Hear the voices of our students. Visit us!
I'm posting here with people who did not attend the recent Australian Computers in Education Conference - which I imagine will be most people reading this.If you didn't pick up on it on Twitter, I tried to broadcast as many of the presentations over my webcam as I could - with the kind permission of the presenters involved.
Gary Stager was not only enthusiastic about me broadcasting his talk, he was enthusiastic about me recording it too. I am delighted at the new culture of sharing, and delighted at the idea that you don't have to spend money and travel and a week's worth of time to get the benefits of a big national conference.
The highlight of any conference for me is meeting like minded educators, but at most conferences there is a talk or two I can really get my teeth into - in this case:
Stager's presentation was another major highlight for me. He is intelligent and he is sincere. If he is not exactly the epitome of gentle diplomacy, well, I don't really care.
I found his talk to be insightful in some very particular ways.
For one, he is insightful about the importance of 'expectations'. Our expectations of ourselves, and of our students.
For another, he is insightful about the importance of language. We create reality with our words, right? I appreciated his remarks about banal words like 'content'. It has been a New Year's Resolution for me to expand my vocabulary - not so much for how I speak but for how I think, because I think with terms that betray wrong assumptions.
Ok I will now shut up about the insights I found in Stager's talk. It comes very highly recommended. I am watching it back over and over!
This is my post for a conference presentation at the ACEC conference in Melbourne. If there is a video stream you can watch it here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/technology-in-education-show
Below you will find the 'main bits', an embedded chat system for use during the session, a link to an 'etherpad' where you can add your own links and other insights, and hopefully even a video transmission of the presentation itself.
SOME ACTIONS TO TAKE DURING PRESENTATION (OR AFTERWARDS):
Explore the links at the bottom of this post, text chat with attendees & virtual attendees.
Leave a comment on this blog post giving your perspective or story, or introducing yourself.
Connect with me! Subscribe to my blog using the link in the right margin, or send me a twitter message to @steve_collis, or come visit my school: http://scil.nsw.edu.au/pd/ Also I am running a free online seminar myself in a few days. Please email me at scollis then the @ sign, then nbcs.nsw.edu.au to get an invite.
Click here and add to the resources contributed by others related to this presentation: etherpad
Get a Twitter account, then go to: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=acec2010 and click on people's names and click "follow" to connect to other ACEC attendees. Send a tweet to them and say "hello, I am at ACEC too!"
Go to http://edublogs.org/ and start your own blog now!
Go to www.secondlife.com and join up, install Second Life software. enter the virtual world, then go to the educators spaces: Jokaydia or RezEd
The Live Chat System: (sent tweets including the text #acecpd and they will be included)
The Main Bits:
Twitter:
Explanation: http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter
How to get started: there are heaps of tutorial videos, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0xbjIE8cPM (google "Twitter Tutorial")
Twitter Etiquette: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/a-brief-and-informal-twitter-etiquette-guide/ and plenty of others (google "Twitter Etiquette")
I recommend using Tweetdeck (download here: http://www.tweetdeck.com/download/)
Blogging:
Explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI
Start a blog by going to:http://edublogs.org/, www.blogger.com, www.wordpress.com, or www.typepad.com - they're all free.
Some Teacher Social Networks:
http://oznzeducators.ning.com/ - especially for Australian and New Zealand teachers
http://www.classroom20.com/ - big worldwide network with a lot of activity!
http://acec2010.ning.com/ - for ACEC attendees (and anyone else too, I think!)
http://rezedhub.ning.com/ - focussing on virtual worlds for learning
http://technolanguages.ning.com/ focussing on language teaching and learning.
Live Webinars:
Past meetings of the OZ/NZ Teachers Network: http://edhouse.wikispaces.com/Meeting+topics
Classroom 2.0 Events: http://live.classroom20.com/archive-and-resources.html
The Educators PLN: http://edupln.ning.com
Meetings/Communities in 3D Virtual Worlds:
Jokaydia - http://jokaydia.com/ (a community that spans various 3D environments, with lots of Australian teachers)
http://www.rezed.org/ - a thriving international community of educators with regular get togethers in 'Second Life' - scroll down to the bottom of their page for lots of useful links.
To travel to these spaces, log into Second Life and then search for "Jokaydia" and "RezEd" locations and teleport there.
This is my post for a conference presentation at the ACEC conference in Melbourne. If there is a video stream you can watch it here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/technology-in-education-show
Below you will find the 'main bits', an embedded chat system for use during the session, a link to an 'etherpad' where you can add your own links and other insights, and hopefully even a video transmission of the presentation itself.
SOME ACTIONS TO TAKE DURING PRESENTATION (OR AFTERWARDS):
Explore the links at the bottom of this post, text chat with attendees & virtual attendees.
Leave a comment on this blog post giving your perspective or story, or introducing yourself.
Connect with me! Subscribe to my blog using the link in the right margin, or send me a twitter message to @steve_collis, or come visit my school: http://scil.nsw.edu.au/pd/ Also I am running a free online seminar myself in a few days. Please email me at scollis then the @ sign, then nbcs.nsw.edu.au to get an invite.
Click here and add to the resources contributed by others related to this presentation: http://ietherpad.com/moodle
Go to http://demo.moodle.net/ and play with Moodle right now.
Go to my school's portal: http://portal.nbcs.nsw.edu.au and look at the front page of our various installations of Moodle by clicking on the icons.
Visit http://beyondborders.edu.au which is a Moodle site I run to allow teachers to have their students collaborate with students from other schools.
The Live Chat System: (sent tweets including the text #acecmoodle and they will be included)