Manitoba Edubloggercon November 22, 2007

I am at the Academy Bar and Grill attending the first Manitoba Edubloggercon. There are approximately 50 people attending. The chatter is very interesting, sharing info, blog addresses, meeting people whose name I know but have never met….my network? How do I play a You Tube video on my Powerpoint presentation?
Someone from Frontier School Division brought an Asus EEE PC, it has a 7 inch screen and runs off flash memory.

Andy Kiel – pres elect of ManAce starts the evening off. We are using Dean Shareski’s twitter feed and are UStreaming the event. You can watch us right now!

Chris Harbeck – teacher at Sargeant Park, blog – Making It Interesting! Chris read a poem, thinking of William Shatner, I am Canadian…..I am a teacher(will create a slidecast). Release the Hounds wiki. He is an edublogger.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mb-edubloggercon – This is the UStream broadcast. There is a lot of chatter on the UStream -someone from Pert, Australia.
Clarence Fisher – from Snow Lake, drove his new truck down to Winnipeg. Even though he lives in a remote area, he is able to do everything he wants to do via web 2.0 tools. He blogs to dump the ideas out of his head, it is also a selfish act, people will comment on his block and say, have you thought of this? Talking about his professional blog – Remote Access. And his classroom blogs – Upload. He has started an international project – Thin Walls – not called a project. Matched with a classroom in California, they spend time working with the other class everyday. This project will not be completed in 4 weeks, it will continue all year. Clarence is taking about the tools that the teachers decided to use, however, the students have used the technology that they are familiar with. It works! The two classes have just finished reading The Outsiders, they are creating a wiki to hold a project that they have decided upon. They are using Google Docs, Google Presentations. Clarence will be introducing Twitter next week. Referred to Teen Life Project Wiki – loaded with brainstorming, chats, and collaboration.

John Evans – principal St Francis Xavier – Daniel Pink – A Whole New Mind = a good presentation has levity, and brevity. He is showing us through his wiki. John is highly recommending RSS feeds as the best PD Learning Experience. John loves wikis, he is using a wiki for his school webpage, so are several school in his division. Also developed a wiki on Wellness, he has travelled across the province making presentations. John also contributes to a blog called “Leader Talk”. John is using technology to share with teachers around the world.

Dean Shareski – Moose Jaw – bleeds green – go Saskatchewan! Has a research team that works for him all of the time. They do all of the work and he shares it. His network! Who is on your research team? RSS!! Everything new comes to him. Delicious, social bookmarks shares what people are reading. Thinks of Twitter as a personalizing of his network. Asks Darren, what his problem was last night? Demonstrated Skype with Alex Couros from Regina, prof of educational technology. Now connecting with Jeff Utrecht from Shanghai, he shows Jeff the room when he say….”Where are you?” What does the network mean to you? Jeff says that this is it…..he is talking to his network in Winnipeg. If a teacher asks him for a resource he goes to Twitter and ask the question and has an answer. Large resource team! Learning happens everywhere. Brian Crosby – What does your network mean to you? He also answers – This is it! Think about where we can go with this technology!

Darren Kuropatwa – shared his blog – A Difference. Was at parent-teacher interviews, told us a story using his Consumer Math 20S Blog. Darren asks his students to reflect on their learning at the end of every unit. Pretest assessment worth one mark on a test – Blogging on Blogging- BOB. Darren uses a Smartboard in his classroom, nothing is ever erased. He saves the information from his Smartboard and then puts it into slideshare and embeds on math blog. Slides and scribe posts are available to students at anytime. He also attaches podcasts of lessons. Once a unit the students have to add one website that has really been helpful for that unit, those links are put into Delicious. Convenor for K12 Online Conference, all the podcasts are still available, don’t miss them.