I’m really looking forward to the PLE Conference 11-13 July 2012. The conference continues to innovate in many ways. Organisationally we’ve expanded the conference to two locations, Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia and Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal, spreading the opportunity for sharing scholarship around the PLN and PLE topics and effectively making this a blended conference. How neat! (Of course, one of the venue organisers for Melbourne is yours truly so I’m a little bias…;-))
The two locations have a joint Call for Papers out with the closing date for abstracts on 16 March 2012, and the deadline for final papers on 13 May 2012. I’m hoping to encourage you all to write an abstract, submit it and join us!
So why should you go to the PLE Conference?
I was very lucky to attend the first PLE Conference in Barcelona and some firsts are simply things which cannot be guaranteed for subsequent events. This first iteration was a veritable who’s who of networked learning with Alec Couros, Steve Wheeler, Graham Atwell, Ilona Buchem and many others in the field attending. Besides the excitement of this, it being the first conference, it also meant that much of the PLE work presented, was completely new to the other attendees. So it was like finding a treasure trove of PLE/PLN research. Also Ricardo Torres Kompen was just the best venue organiser/host, his attention to detail and calmness without peer.
So what are elements of the PLE Conference that continue to make it THE event for any networked scholar/educator to attend? Continue reading »
Well this is the first day at the eLearn 2011 conference in Hawaii. It’s a large conference with a very full program. So I thought I’d set up a CoverItLive event to try to capture as much as I can. It’s capturing tweets with the hashtag #elearnconf and #elearn11.
The Australian Taxation Office has said that the iPad, and equivalent e-readers or tablets, are deemed to be equivalent to a laptop and it will attract a 50 per cent education rebate. This will make iPads popular with schools.
Find the food safety hazards in a virtual commercial kitchen! This is an educational pilot project of the eXtension Food Safety Community of Practice.Continue reading »
Tomorrow I’m doing a show ‘n tell presentation at our institution about Blended Learning. I will demonstrate some courses, resources and learning approaches we have designed and developed at EIT. I’ll also show some work from other institutions. And then I’m keen to make my audience go: Wow! Show a few high-end examples, courses, resources or learning approaches, that show just what’s possible.
Currently I’m thinking about TED Talks, showcasing the sheer awesomeness of content already out there and available:
Key insights and understanding of what makes a PLE, from personal experience, through individual analysis and with thoughtful speculations on the future directions of this important field. Each of our four keynotes will offer a slightly different perspective on Personal Learning Environments and each guarantees to ensure that their sessions attain the high level of interactions and audience engagement which was established with the first conference in Barcelona.
This is a collection of 2 Minute Moodles – an attempt to simplify and show how to use a range of Moodle features to a busy teacher.
The tutorials try not to assume too much previous knowledge and are presented for the pragmatical and not necessarily tech-savy users (Moodle purists please excuse). They are a bit like that product I got the pun from – something quick and simple to get you going.
It’s December 3rd and that means I’m getting my Edublog Award nominations in just in the nick of time. I was tickled pink when both Mark Drechsler and Michael Verhaart nominated my Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers post. It’s a neat feeling to be recognised by peers and I felt I should take some time to pay it forward.
So without further ado…
Best individual blog
Well, let’s start with one of the hardest categories. Being a terrible blogger myself, I’m constantly amazed by the consistently high output, both in volume and quality, of bloggers like David Hopkins, Mark Drechsler, Alec Couros, George Couros, Danah Boyd, to name just a few. I just read and learn and thank all of you edubloggers out there for so generously sharing your insights & learning.
Gidday! I’d love your help in explaining the use of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) for an educator – whether you’re a teacher, librarian, manager or educational technologist.
What is this project about?
This project started in 2009 when we combined our annual e-learning conference eFest with the recently established teaching & learning conference. One of the themes was the changing role of the teacher in the 21st century and us education technologists were eager to show that e-learning is all about teaching & learning, just with technology & access to the web. Of course this can be daunting, overwhelming, scary, uncomfortable, risky…. So we wanted to let educators new to these exciting possibilities, know that they’re not alone. That others have gone before them and are willing to help. Besides introducing the audience to various existing communities of practice out there (like Classroom2.0), I also introduced the Personal Learning Network concept to them.
So here at #converge10, I’m asking you to answer the question: “What does my PLN mean to me?” and share your thoughts in a short video/animation/slidecast, about 2-3 minutes. If you work in education, I’d love to hear from you – teachers, librarians, educational technologists and managers. Feel free to answer as you will. However if you get stuck, here are some suggestions to include (use these as guidelines only – remember this has got to be personal!!!):
Who you are, where you are & what you do
How your PLN has affected your own learning?
How your PLN has affected your practice?
Something really neat you learned through your PLN recently
Which tools you use in your PLN?
How you use technology in your teaching or educational practice
How you’re adapting your teaching or practice for the 21st century?
Your most ‘fruitful’ connection made through your PLN
Any words of encouragement for educators new to this 21st century, ‘techie’ way of teaching & learning
After you’ve posted your video/animation/slidecast somewhere on the web, please also embed it on the What My PLN Means – wiki here. And send me (@catspyjamasnz) a tweet to let me know – include the hashtag #mypln. That way I can thank you.
Your task
1. Think about your PLN/PLE and what it means to you. Work together with a partner if it helps. You can then record each other
2. Record your video/screencast. You can do this alone, but probably handier in a pair. Use Flip videos which you can borrow from me, or any iPhones, Flip Videos, digital camera’s etc you’ve got on you.
3. Upload your video to YouTube. Use a title like this: What My PLN Means To Me – @twittername or real name – #converge10.
Hola! I’d love your help in explaining the use of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) for an educator – whether you’re a teacher, librarian, manager or educational technologist.
What is this project about?
This project started last year when we combined our annual e-learning conference eFest with the recently established teaching & learning conference. One of the themes was the changing role of the teacher in the 21st century and us education technologists were eager to show that e-learning is all about teaching & learning, just with technology & access to the web. Of course this can be daunting, overwhelming, scary, uncomfortable, risky…. So we wanted to let educators new to these exciting possibilities, know that they’re not alone. That others have gone before them and are willing to help. Besides introducing the audience to various existing communities of practice out there (like Classroom2.0), I also introduced the Personal Learning Network concept to them.
I’m asking you to answer the question: “What does my PLN mean to me?” and share your thoughts in a short video/animation/slidecast, about 2-3 minutes. If you work in education, I’d love to hear from you – teachers, librarians, educational technologists and managers. Feel free to answer as you will. However if you get stuck, here are some suggestions to include (use these as guidelines only – remember this has got to be personal!!!):
Who you are, where you are & what you do
How your PLN has affected your own learning?
How your PLN has affected your practice?
Something really neat you learned through your PLN recently
Which tools you use in your PLN?
How you use technology in your teaching or educational practice
How you’re adapting your teaching or practice for the 21st century?
Your most ‘fruitful’ connection made through your PLN
Any words of encouragement for educators new to this 21st century, ‘techie’ way of teaching & learning
After you’ve posted your video/animation/slidecast somewhere on the web, please also embed it on the What My PLN Means – wiki here. And send me (@catspyjamasnz) a tweet to let me know – include the hashtag #mypln. That way I can thank you.
Your task
1. Think about your PLN/PLE and what it means to you. Work together in group of 3-5 to have brief discussion about this.
2. Record your video/screencast. You can do this alone, but probably handier in a group. Use Flip videos available (3), the iMacs provided by Citilab, your own recording devices (iPhones, Flips, digital camera’s) or…. go to the professional Citilab recording studio where Jordi will be operating the professional equipment!
3. Upload your video to YouTube. Use a title like this: What My PLN Means To Me – @twittername or real name – #PLE_BCN.
A few weeks ago, I ran an online facilitation workshop with a group of teachers & their managers. Together they run a programme that is taught entirely online. As part of this, a draft of some online course protocols was on the table. Most of these had to do with the updating & editing of the courses, but one of the protocols had to do with teaching the courses. It proposed that teachers should use the Course Announcements forum (a News forum in Moodle, our LMS) at least once a week. In the past, some courses (certainly not all, don’t want you to get the wrong idea…) had underused the Course Announcements (and other forums). A rather heated discussion followed this proposal.
The opponents to this protocol seemed to have 2 main objections:
I love serendipitous learning. This week I followed the ASCILITE Conference held in Auckland on Twitter (am still kicking myself for not being there). There’s many thoughts, links & ideas I need to follow up on with regards to education technology in higher education. But what I love about the powered up information exchange between people who share a passion that builds around an event like this, is the accidental or perhaps offhand tips that get shared that otherwise you’d never find out about.
An example of this today was a Twitter exchange between James Clay & Mark Smithers. Although they were discussing the role of IT departments in higher education, in passing James suggested that Mark install WPTouch for WordPress so his blog would render better on an iPhone.
I hadn’t optimised my blog yet so decided to install WPTouch as well. It took me about 5 seconds to install and it makes my site look just shiny on the iPhone. Thanks James!
Over the next few months I will be testing an iPhone for work. They’ve asked me to make a project out of it, so I’ll blog about issues & opportunities I encounter in iPhone use here. This is now my first post for this project – check!
I’m really looking forward to the PLE Conference 11-13 July 2012. The conference continues to innovate in many ways. Organisationally we’ve expanded the conference to two locations, Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia and Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal, spreading the opportunity for sharing scholarship around the PLN and PLE topics and effectively making this a blended conference. How neat! (Of course, one of the venue organisers for Melbourne is yours truly so I’m a little bias…;-))
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