uLearn Presenters Materials

I have had some requests about resources from the uLearn conference last month so have posted links here for you. If you attended and have any other recommendations please email through to me and I will post on the cluster wiki page.

Keynotes and presenters material from uLearn 07 can be downloaded here.
To access these you will need to be logged in and have registered to attend the conference. If you did not attend and want to access these resources contact me or ask someone from your school who was at the conference.

Ewan McIntosh Keynote
A video of Ewan's opening Keynote from the conference, including presentation slides, is available for public viewing here.

Helen Baxter - Link to Helen's Mind Map from her Keynote

Derek Wenmoth challenged us to participate in what he called the "conference backchat"... discussions and responses to the conference themes. Here are some posts in response to the conference that have challenged my thinking.

From Tangled up in Purple -
"Thinking about the spaces we exist in"

From Educating the Dragon - Comment and opinion in response to Ewan's Keynote
Ewan’s message rocks
Ewan’s message rocks- Are you sure about that?

From Ewan McIntosh's Blog - A link to uLearn Posts

...and some fun stuff.
Cup stacking world record (referenced in Ewan's Keynote)

Tripod on Gaming

uLearn07 Reflections

For me the conference was primarily about people. My previous 2 posts reflect this…making connections, professional dialogue and learning from each other (including our students).

Additionally some highlights over the three days included:

Ewans McIntosh’s Keynote: Set the tone for the conference, raising even more questions for me and importantly highlighting the importance of being open-minded.

As educational leaders we must continue to take notice of the impact emerging technologies are having on the way our students live and learn and question how this will inform and change our practice.

“Without that lead in the leading edge, then we risk floundering in a bunch of cool stuff but without a sense of direction and the robustness of our convictions and research to know we're doing the right thing.” (McIntosh, 2007)

Ewan’s Keynote will be available through the uLearn website.

Rosemary Hipkins:
What can the key competencies contribute to assessment for learning?
Rosemary’s presentation challenged us to question how both the key competencies and assessment for learning can “contribute to making traditional models of teaching and learning more effective” and consider the role eLearning strategies may play in this transformation. Rosemary explored what Key Competencies and assessment for learning might have in common and supported this with some very enlightened examples of how ICTs can support assessment (backed up with the research). Some key messages:

• Don't rush to assess. There are implications but we don't know enough about the impact yet.
• Look for synergies and connections (means rethinking how we involve students in learning) eg: Key Competencies focus on building dispositions for life long learning & Assessment for Learning, where the learner is monitoring their own learning.
• Adding values questions to assessment: Why is it important to think about more than one piece of evidence? This is a challenge as many traditional assessments measure knowledge gains and sometimes the ability to apply this, not the appropriate use of knowledge in meaningful tasks.
• Assessment is not something we add to the end of learning: Assessment is an inquiry…what does it mean to know? (Delandshere, 2002)

Rosemary’s presentation can be downloaded from the uLearn07 website – recommended.


Apple iWork ‘08 Suite including: Keynote, Pages and Numbers
We were provided with an overview of the suite that now includes Numbers a new spreadsheet application. If you are using MacOS I highly recommend iWork as it integrates with the other packages in iLife. I have been using it for a couple of years now and have found it has sped up my workflow considerably and also through my work with schools have already experienced its potential to add value. There are some great new features including masking and animations and what I saw of Numbers it definitely has potential as a tool for both teachers and students. The MoE will also be funding sessions to support schools updating to iWork ’08.

Sunnybrae Normal - Central North Shore Cluster
More Photos Here

ulearn

F2F is Great!

Have been enjoying meeting all the people I have been connecting with online and catching up with old friends...F2F is great! More Photos on Flickr.

Right: John and I worked together for 6years in IT, now he's at Toshiba.
Below: The Bloggers Cafe. Click the image to view individual blogs (Thanks Jane)
Also see Rachel's ABC of Bloggers



















Finally caught up with Rachel too (Thanks Jamin and Jane)

ulearn

K.U.T.E at uLearn Today!

A huge thank you to all the students and teachers that made K.U.T.E. such a success today. Our goal was to bring student voice to the uLearn conference and as I wandered around the school presentations today the confidence and pride displayed by students sharing their learning and knowledge with teachers was most evident. Participating schools included Summerland Primary, Pt England, Cornwall Park, Baverstock Oaks, Kristin School and MarinaView. Check out the Summerland website for more pics!

Many thanks as well to the ACES committee and the conference organsiers for supporting KUTE at uLearn this year.

uLearn07 PreConfernece Workshop - eXe

Jocelyn and I were learners yesterday attending a pre-conference workshop exploring eXe, an eLearning XHTML editor. The official description...
" an authoring environment to assist teachers and academics in the design, development and publishing of web-based learning and teaching materials without the need to become proficient in HTML or complicated web-publishing applications."

What I liked about eXe is its a free download, easy to use and intuitive, can be accessed offline and while designed for teachers could also be used by students. I had collected some resources around a theme of perseverance including txt, video, images etc and was able to start planning and creating a learning object that I could use to support my teaching as well as have the students access independently. The finished LO can be shared CD, USB etc in a browser and can also be added to a school network or intranet. I could also see LOs being shared amongst teachers too.
The development team were really helpful and have great online support including live chat through their website. eXe is worth exploring if you are interested in developing your own teaching resources.

ulearn

uLearn 07

We have over 30 teachers from The Central North Shore Cluster attending uLearn 07 in Auckland.
Some of you, who have been reading and contributing to blogs, may be interested in the Bloggers Cafe thanks to an initiative by Jane Nicholls. The concept of the bloggers cafe is to most importantly make some F2F connections with NZ bloggers, learn something new and engage in some real time conversation...there will actually be coffee too!

Also the the spotlight for Breakout 1 is Kids Using Technology in Education (KUTE), an annual event organised by The Auckland Computers in Education Society (ACES). This is a highly interactive breakout where you will have the opportunity to talk directly with students from a number of Auckland schools who will be demonstrating, sharing and answering questions about their learning through a variety of ICT supported experiences.

Breakouts are now available on the uLearn website. Recommend you make your selections as soon as you can this week.

Student Voice at uLearn07

Kids Using Technology in Education (KUTE) is an annual event organised by The Auckland Computers in Education Society (ACES). On a Saturday morning every October, students congregate in a central Auckland school hall to share their learning through ICT with their school community. This year KUTE will be held onsite at Sky City during uLearn07. This is a highly interactive breakout where conference attendees will have the opportunity to talk directly with students from a number of Auckland schools who will be demonstrating, sharing and answering questions about their learning through a variety of ICT supported experiences. These include Game Making, Animation, Photo Editing, Blogs, ComicLife, Podcasting, TV Broadcasting, Inquiry Learning and also how students are effectively utilising an LMS to support their learning. Participating schools include Summerland Primary, Marina View Primary, Kristin School, Pt England School, Cornwall Park Primary and Baverstock Oaks School. Read more about KUTE and other ACES events on their website.

As one of the committee members for ACES I am very excited about bringing KUTE to ULearn07 as the conference theme is “Personalising Learning in A Digital World”. Because student voice puts the student at the centre as active participants in their learning it is considered to be at the heart of personalising learning, so it seemed a good idea to include a breakout with student voice. We will be set up for Breakout 1 and conference attendees will be free to visit each of the schools where students will be demonstrating their learning through a variety of eLearning models. Children will be expecting lots of interesting questions and are very excited about this opportunity to share their learning with you and contribute to such a large education conference.