How quickly I forget the effect of sitting down most of the day listening to presentations that provide me with new tangents to explore and people/ideas to follow up. Then there’s the busy time during breaks when you find something to eat and drink, talk to exhibitors and meet strangers. I think that’s what school was like (for both student and teacher) – It’s tiring. Anyway lots of good stuff to digest, notes taken, things learned, tweets twittered, conversations had, connections made, and that’s what I’m here for.
The theme of the conference is Learning Connections, and I’ve enjoyed the format with a few keynote presentations as well as presentations of case studies that demonstrate the application of learning technologies in specific situations. I’ll post a summary of these in a future post.
The last session of the day was concerned with a group activity discussing how learning technologies might revolutionise (or not) education. A useful exercise that got us in groups to think about how:
1. Technology can revolutionise education through expanding classroom horizons and enabling students to engage in new learning environments.
2. Technology can revolutionise education by enabling students to engage in learning through social networking.
3. Technology can revolutionise education if we move away from the chalk and talk mode of teaching.
4. Technology can revolutionise education if we stop focusing on how to use IT and begin questioning why and where our students need IT.
5. Technology can revolutionise education if teachers are empowered to make choices about access.
6. Technology can revolutionise education if teachers are supported through on-going PD.
7. Technology can revolutionise education if students don’t have to power down at the classroom door.
Some interesting discussion and outcomes as each group had to report back with a 25 word ‘pitch’ to an audience to convince them to implement change.
We also had a number of product showcases where vendors had 15 minutes to ply their wares. Mostly focused on video conferencing hardware and software, we saw some neat applications that I’ll want to follow up: Integrated Vision spoke about Videolinq, Tandberg, and Broadreach Services demonstrated Vidyo.
… I was also able to make more (real life) connections during the day and at the Conference Dinner – particularly with fellow Tweeps such as; @mollybob, @gsiemens, @mikecogh, @jokay, @skytrystsjoy and @caroldaunt.
