Sunday, October 24, 2010

Presenting: The K12 Online Conference!

This past week was the first of TWO full weeks of presentations and excellent professional development opportunities through the K12 Online Conference 2010.


I have been madly downloading and watching video presentations (mostly on my iPad, love it!) and gathering new ideas and inspiration. The schedule is rich with variety from this week focusing on Leading the Change and Student Voices. Don't forget ALL K12 Online Conference presentations can be downloaded/subscribed to from iTunesU


In this blog post however I wish to feature the two videos that I was involved in co-producing.


Create the Future: Think, Learn, Create!
Presented by Kim Cofino and Julie Lindsay
K12 Online Conference website link
K12 Online Conference Ning link - Join the discussion!
Over the past three years, international educators and global collaboration experts Kim Cofino and Julie Lindsay have together run workshops within schools that are designed to open doors to new modes of teaching and learning and focus on the learner (teacher and student) as a communicator, collaborator and creator. A hands-on approach is emphasized in the workshops with opportunities for learners at all levels to explore, discuss and model 21st Century pedagogy using digital tools. The focus of the workshop is for participants to design an engaging, technology-rich, collaborative project to implement in their classroom. This presentation will share via video the methodology of the ‘Create the Future’ workshop and focus on participants as they work through the challenges presented during the two days.



Discussion questions:
  1. How can we meet the demands of 21st Century learning and professional development for educators and embed action into process?
  2. Is effective professional development about the tools or the learning or both? Why?
  3. How can we take the methods outlined in this workshop and apply them to our classroom pedagogy?


Inside ITGS: Cyber-Students Share their Connected Learning
K12 Conference Ning link - Join the discussion!
Inside ITGS is about classrooms globally coming together to form an online learning community for the IB subject Information Technology in a Global Society. Madeleine Brookes from Western Academy Beijing and Julie Lindsay from Beijing (BISS) International School, both in China, explore the impact of virtual communication and collaboration and feature the students from pioneer classrooms in a rare face-to-face meeting. It is through their eyes, as cyber-students, that we will learn more about how to use emerging technologies and build stronger more effective learning communities.


Discussion questions:

  • In what ways are we able to provide for each individual student? Are we able to differentiate to cater for all needs? 
  • In what ways does a collaborative environment such as this provide wider opportunities for our students?
  • What does it mean to be part of a global community? What are the challenges? 
  • What do you see as some of the impacts of virtual communication and collaboration?
Looking forward to feedback from readers on these presentations!

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