Learning@school 08
Well L@S is over for another year and I have been flat out with presentations, networking, breakouts and mountain biking. The conference was a good one, I applied my 50% rule - if 1/2 the sessions are of benefit then the conference is a success - and this applied here. There were of course some disappointments - Julia’s Key note was too much a personal epiphany, disorganised and a let down. I did not attend her other sessions - the workshops, but I hear that they were of her usual high standard. Everyone is allowed a bad day.
The find of the conference was MARVIN. This is a wow tool. Applicable everywhere and fun. I have long been an advocate of OSS, and have criticised companies that have by market position raked in huge volumes of cash from education, however, on this occasion I must applauded Microsoft’s support of Marvin that has made it FREE for all students at all schools.
As a networking opportunity it was very useful. It was great to catch up with Richard and Kelvin from KatMat Cluster. These schools are lucky to have such talented staff. Another highlight was catching Allanah King in the real world instead of virtually in Alabama or West New York. She is a champion of integration and participation and a pleasure to work with.
Nice work core.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
As it was indeed a pleasure to meet you ‘in the flesh’. I looked for you later at the dinner to tell you the quote of the conference.
I was talking with a woman from my cluster who asked, “Everyone is talking about Web2.0- what’s that?”
I gave my interpretation of what Web2.0 was to me. She said all that sounded great but how much did it all cost?
I told her that it was all pretty much free!
Her eyes lit up as she asked what stand in the trade hall it was on???
We still have a way to go to help teachers of NZ understand the power of using the web.