Conversations and Collaborations

Educamps.
A fairly common word now in New Zealand education, but one that doesn't lose any of it's stamina as the years go by.  This year saw my 5th year of attending Educamps and I love them.  It's such an awesome chance to catch up with amazing tweeps, bloggers and educators from around New Zealand.

Christchurch - Burnside High
This year I travelled to Christchurch for their first educamp run by Pauline and Anne.  It was great to be surrounded by a new set of faces and people.  They are such strong educators who have been pushing through some pretty hard times.  It was hard to be in the centre of town and see the devastation that has occurred in Christchurch.  Being there was so much more than seeing it on the nightly news.  But the educators that were in the room were passionate, keen and had a great sense of humour.  The conversations that went on ranged from BYOD, Daily 5 through to iPads and mobile technologies.  It was great to finally get to meet awesome edutweeps like Judykmck who has helped me a lot with Daily 5/CAFE understanding and ideas through her sharing.  Paulinehendog and many others!  I had the chance to take along a educamp newbie from Christchurch Aimee and converted her to the educamp way.  She's already looked to sign up her husband and a few others for padcamp in a few weeks time!  Find out more and see some more pics about eduCamp Chch here in a post from Anne.


Auckland - Stonefields School
I arrived a bit late and educamp was in full swing.  A packed room, in fact so packed that the participants were listening from the outside of the room.  It started with a full on smackdown with a list of people to share that got bigger as people were standing up to present.  From here we broke off into each of the different areas.  It was nice to have a chance to have a look around Stonefields and see a new school.  Some nice spaces and areas and a fabulous play area for the kids.  We had a great bounce on the bouncey floor in the playground at the end of the day (who said they were made for kids!)

There was another huge array of conversations of offer in Auckland.  BYOD, iPads, Daily 5, Minecraft... just to name a small array of topics.  For more information check out the shared Google Doc that gets created at each eduCamp to help capture the day.

I had the chance to be involved in another great round of discussion about Daily 5 and CAFE with a bunch of teachers who are already using it and those that are keen to use it.  It was great to talk to some other teachers who had been implementing it in their class and look at how they adapt and change elements to work for them.  This year Daily 5 has unfolded into different parts in my class and the CAFE element has as well.  I've been able to pick the best of the best from last year and am using it to suit the students I have in front of me.  One of the great things I love about the management and set up of Daily 5.

The day was another great chance to network and catch up with another round of fabulous bloggers and edutweeps.  I had a chance to meet some new ones too and form some new twitter connections.  One of the best things about this day is the people.  There is something powerful about being in a room full of passionate and keen educators and being a part of those conversations.  So, if you are interested... or just curious... check out the educamp wiki to see when the next one near you is happening!

Long live Educamps!

Just a couple of the reasons I go to eduCamp - amazing educators!

Anne K, Fiona Grant and I

EduCamp Akl - 21st July

Tomorrow - or today - depending when you are reading this is EduCamp Auckland 2012.  If it is Saturday the 21st July and you are reading this... it is not too late!

This is the 5th year of EduCamp Auckland and having attended from the start I can honestly say that every year exceeds the year before.  More people attend, meaning more conversations and connections are created.  Whether you can come for the whole day or just an hour... I promise you will meet some like minded people and learn something fantastic!

Head down to Stonefields School in Mt Wellington to join in with EduCamp.  It's a unique and vibrant unconference - where nothing is set in timetables and the conference is connected and created by the participants on the day.  It's a tremendous day of conversations, connections and learning.

So - come meet and make connections with some like minded, passionate and inspiring people.

Stonefields School
10am - 3pm

To find out more information click here for the EduCamp Wikispace.

EduCamp Welly

EduCamp Welly was an amazing experience and well worth the flight to Wellington (not that I ever need an excuse to go to Wellington!) It's not just about the learning that goes on but also about the connections that you make. EduCamps continue to provide a range of experiences and teachers where the conversations can be dynamic and broad.

From the smackdown at the beginning through to the end there were many people to listen to and conversations to be had. The first session that I attended was looking at cloud computing and how different schools/classes/teachers are using the cloud to base their ever increasing digital lives. The conversations in this session involved sharing each of our experiences of what we are doing. For some it mean being consoled as the changes they wanted to make couldn't be undertaken. I guess what I find baffling about this is that 1 person can ultimately change the outlook for an entire school because of what they don't understand.

The second session saw me sharing some resources with a new teacher who has a class with 5 Interactive Whiteboards.... yes 5! Teachers struggle to get their head around utilising one IWB in a fashion past a glorified overhead projector, let alone 5 of them. But it sounds like he is making an awesome start in his journey and what better place to start that heading along to an EduCamp!

While this conversation was happening Tim was running a session on Scratch with one of his students SkyGecko. I'd heard about Scratch at a previous conference and had a go at it, didn't 'get it' and left it. After EduCamp this was the first thing I downloaded and attacked. I am now a full blown Scratch enthusiast! Scratch is simple programming software that allows kids to make animations and games. The layout is easy to use and once you get used to commands, scripts and sprites the opportunities are endless! This week we had a PINs session (more about this later) where I worked with a group of kids to create a game - kids that weren't even in the session want to use Scratch after seeing the games!

All in all it was a fabulous day - great to catch up with the tribe of EduCamp followers from Hamilton and with the ever wonderful Allanahk. There are several more EduCamps to come in 2011 including a new one in Dunedin! So check them out and head along. Don't fret if you're by yourself - there's always a smile and a group of awesome educators there to meet you!

Photo by Fiona Grant from Flickr

EduCamp Welly, Auckland & More!

EduCamp time is nearly upon us again and with even more excitement than normal because this year there are FOUR, yes... FOUR EduCamp opportunities for you to get involved in!!

EduCampWelly: Wellington College, Saturday 21st May

EduCampTaiTokerau: Whangarei, Saturday 2nd July

EduCampAKL: Epsom Girls Grammar, Saturday 6th August
EduCamp BOP: Taurange School Support Services, Saturday 13 August

There is the EduCamp wiki where you can find out all the details and register your attendance on the day. It is such an amazing opportunity to be involved in to set your own PD for the day and network with a range of brilliant minds. So head over to the wiki and sign yourself up for at least one!

Image Source: Fiona Grant Flickr

e-Portfolio Reflection

Over the last 6 months there has been a vast number of aha! moments and questions that have been raised for me in regards to e-portfolios. In the last post on our Learning Links I skimmed across a few of these concepts. After having a few discussions with people at EduCamp it gave me a chance to think through these concepts a bit more. In this post I want to reflect on these concepts and look at a few of the big questions I have floating around.

Tech vs Reflect When we put the technical needs in front the of the student needs are we then creating barriers for the students to overcome? From moving away from a Learning Management System for student e-Portfolios to a free relatively low-tech portfolio system has allowed me to see students completing tasks in a range of situations.

Transference Across Sectors One of the key concepts for me that make an e-Portfolio powerful throughout a learners life is the ability for it to be transferred across all age levels. The MOE acknowledges that the lack of interoperability between systems and schools is a major barrier to the use and advancement of Managed Learning Environments (MLE).

At EduCamp I had the opportunity to talk again to one of the ex-teachers from Manaia Kindergarten about what they have been doing with their Blogger based e-portfolios. Their system seems like a powerful way of allowing the learning to be owned by the family and then transferred on throughout that child's learning. NaketaNZ talks more about this in her post on EduCamp. A few years ago I had the chance to present at an Early Childhood Conference and then talking to some of the same EC educators at EduCamp, it reinforced that there needs to be an eye kept on what is happening for our students that enter our schools from ECE through to where our kids go at the end of their primary schooling. When we are talking about e-portfolios it's all that learning that comes and goes with them and how is it going to go with them?

Continuuing on the path of moving on with the e-Portfolios (Learning Links) that we are developing within our classes I am becoming more interested in the pathway of creating individual blogs for each student to track their learning through. At the moment there are a few ways of creating and maintaining them that would work effectively and safely for the students and families. This will be part of the ongoing development.

Whanau/Family Knowledge
Through a range of conversations we have already identified that a large portion of time needs to be placed to upskill and develop our parents knowledge and understanding of e-learning. The change from paper portfolios to digital portfolios was received well by the majority of my parents - who were really keen to see the variety of learning their children were involved in. But this opened the door for more questions and new knowledge that parents realised they need to keep up with what their students are doing in class. A next step is to run a series of workshops along with another teacher to develop our parents understanding. I can see that if we move to blogs as a primary way of sharing learning that for them to be highly successful we will need to run a series of workshops/sessions in varying formats for parents. I would be interested to know how those utilising e-portfolios to share student learning are informing and upskilling their parents to use and respond within them also?

EduCamp

Summerland Primary hosted EduCamp 2010, which is an unconference styled day where participants who turn up decide on the content and direction of the day as it rolls through. It's an event that has been on my calendar for a while and it didn't fail to disappoint. The day was filled with lots of learning, collaborations, conversations and definite Aha! moments for all involved. It was great getting to meet more edutwitterers face 2 face and have some brilliant conversations.

The morning started with the Smackdown sessions - 3 minute presentations from a range of people all sharing tools, good practice and inspiration. Wallwisher provided a starting point to collate each of the ideas which people then stood up to talk about. As the Smackdown progressed more and more people participated in the sharing. A fantastic way to connect with people as it gave you a view of who was around and available to talk to on the day. Some amazing ideas were shared and the Wallwisher remains as a fantastic resource.

The day then broke up in to a range of sessions and workshops all decided on the day by the people who were there. There was a fantastic range of people across all the education sectors from Early Childhood to Tertiary, which is one of the reasons that EduCamp is such a fantastic day. No limits and No boundaries to who can be there and be involved! It was also great to see that there were many followers via the hashtag (#EduCampNZ) on Twitter.

Over the course of the day people had the chance to geocache, digistore, google, blog, wiki, RSS, discuss, share, collaborate on a range of tools and so much more. A group of junior teachers have established a wiki were they are going to share resources and ideas for the junior class.

A BIG thank you needs to go out to ACES and also Fiona Grant and Dorothy for organising and plotting a lot of the big ideas that got the day up and running.

Here's an AnswerGarden about the day that Cheesynz created!

What did you think of Educampnz 2010... at AnswerGarden.ch.

EduCamp 2010

EduCamp 2010 is coming up - it's the must attend event for those with an interest in ICT in education! Saturday July the 24th at Summerland Primary School is EduCamp 2010 - a day where you can come share ideas and learn in an open space with a variety of people and educators.

EduCamp is based on Unconference and Open-Space meeting philosophies:

• We are all learners AND teachers.
  
• The agenda is not set prior to event, those that attend are the right people and they will set the agenda on the day!
• There is no set time for events - they begin and end as they are needed.
  
• If you arrive at a session and it's not quite what you want, you are welcome to move on to another session! (The law of the feet!)
  

It's a great idea to sign up prior to the day so that people can link in with you and see what it is that you are interested in also. Helps with networking and finding people who may help you with what you want to learn and get from the day at EduCamp. For more information check out the Wiki and sign yourself up if you are going to attend - it's going to be another awesome day!

Speed Geeking at Unconference 2009
Image Courtesy of Fiona Grant