Educational Origami

Yesterday I had the privilage of attending and presenting at the Waimarino Cluster Conference, held at Bethlehem College in Tauranga. Overall I found the experience to be a positive one.

The evening before we had a very pleasant meal out with Richard, Sharon, Rocky, Allanah and Jamin. Having time to network with other enthusiasts is very beneficial.

The conference itself was well organised. I enjoyed Michael Pohl’s Keynote, but I did think that there was too much for one keynote and to get real benefit, I would have needed to attend the other workshop. In spite of this being aimed at a primary audience I did find much of the material interesting and applicable.

One concern I had, and I have seen it a number of times with presenters who are also authors or product vendors, was the self promotion. I feel that if your presentation is up to speed and engaging, this will be promotion enough. Make your materials available after the session, people always come and talk to you. Slipping slides of your latest publications into the keynote or shamelessly refering to your learning management product etc is a little tacky.

I was also rather glad that I had the afternoon session rather than the morning slot as I had a number of technical hurdles to overcome. The support staff were very helpful and of great assistance. However the key lesson is..

…. go straight to the horses mouth. Many of the issues were infact due to unclear comunications. Had we spoken directly the issues would not have been issues rather just part of the process. I think this is a key for any conference organiser, have the presenters liase directly with technical staff when they are doing a practical session.

Its fair to say I love that presentation, a handful of the best - teachers get PLAY TIME. I spend a little time exploring the tools and highlighting them, then its play time. Teachers need time to experiment, to test and try, to play and have fun. This is part of the learning process.

The other part that I feel is key with this is cost. Most are free and open source, some like comic life are brilliantly priced. Its a great product at a very competitive price.

Overall - I am a happy camper. Lessons learnt, presentation presented, delegates happy. Can’t complain really… Oh and did I mention nice food