I’ve listened to most of the NECC conference material. But mainly I listen in the car and although I have intended to go back and blog about some of the best ones, to share with my PGCE cohort (and my new school) I haven’t got round to it yet.
Karl Fisch at The FischBowl blog has saved me some work. I will flag two sessions here with links to the audio and to Karl’s excellent notes.
Will Richardson – A Web of Connections: Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything (Audio – Karl’s Notes)
If you aren’t familiar with Podcasts or the Read/Write Web (Web 2.0) and what it means for eduacation, here would be a good place to start.
Gary Stager – Preventing Your 1 to 1 Dreams From Becoming Nightmares
(Audio – Karl’s Notes )
This was one of my favourite sessions. Unfashionably I think, Gary tells us not to get too hung up on the Internet (and the read/write web) and reminds us of Papert’s vision of the computer as the ultimate creativity machine. Get them to do things with the machine (create music, program robots, political activism) not just use it as an information terminal.
I’m glad you found my posts helpful. I told myself I was doing them for the teachers in my staff development (although I’m not sure how many of them consistently read them), but I sometimes wonder if maybe I do them more to make myself think about the sessions again. Sometimes I think my blogging is self-assigned professional development – forcing myself to take the time to think more deeply about certain ideas.
Re: Self-assigned professional development I know the feeling Karl, you do a lot of work which isn’t acknowledged at the time, you ask yourself why?, But let me say that your blog, with its focus on staff develpment and being written by a practising teacher has certainly given me ideas for the way I want my blog AND my role in school to develop. So thanks for that and I look to following the conversation at your school.
[...] followed Karl Fisch at the Fischbowl as he went to NECC in San Diego and we traded blog comments. Close to that time, Karl produced a Powerpoint called entitled “Did you know?” [...]