Saturday, October 16, 2010

PD opportunity: Online conferences on now!

The growing trend towards virtual conferences provides opportunities for professional development to many educators around the world. If access to the Internet is available, and connection is adequate the 'world is open' (to quote Curtis Bonk!) and extraordinary people doing amazing things are merely a click away!  Two conferences I want to bring to your attention are on simultaneously over the next two weeks. Both of these I am involved with as a presenter, but each one has its own characteristics.

Free and online and mostly synchronous


The CRSTE (Capital Regions Society for Technology in Education) Global Symposium 2010 starts today, and runs for two weeks. A diverse and global group of educators, including me, have been invited to present via the Elluminate virtual classroom, on topics of global and local importance. I am pleased to see a number of colleagues and cutting edge education leaders also presenting including Shabbi Luthra from Mumbai and Jeff Utecht from Bangkok. This event is free and online and largely synchronous. Consider attending at least one session! My session is Sunday October 24, 7pm EDT, 11pm GMT (7am Beijing time on Monday morning October 25). See the full program for all details.


Free and online and asynchronous - including some synchronous fireside chats 
The K12 Online Conference is now in its 5th year, and this is the 5th year I have been privileged to be presenting. Opening last Monday with the pre-conference keynote by Dean Shareski, the conference goes into full swing Monday October 18 when over the next 2 weeks pre-recorded presentations in the form of videos are released each day (normally 4 each day, each video running for about 20 min).
This online conference is a great opportunity to gather your colleagues into informal what has been termed 'LAN parties' with a view to watching a selection of the presentations in one sitting, discussing and sharing reflections and making sense of new ideas in the context of daily challenges in a current school. The full program shares all presentations and release times. The four strands are 'Student Voices', 'Leading the Change', 'Kicking it Up a Notch' and 'Week in the Classroom'.
This year I am co-presenting with two wonderful colleagues, Kim Cofino and Madeleine Brookes, on two very different themes. Coincidentally both presentations are being released on the same day - Thursday October 21, so watch out for these.

To encourage participation in the K12 Online Conference, here is Dean's opening Keynote, "Sharing: The Moral Imperative". Dean has such a wonderful, friendly, non-threatening presentation style. I always enjoy and learn from him!  I also fully empathize with his message and believe this video should be mandatory viewing at educator PD sessions. Thanks Dean!



In addition, here is the teaser from the 'Inside ITGS' presentation Madeleine and I have put together. I hope you will watch the full video on Thursday next week!

No comments: