What a day! I’m sitting here together with a bunch of educators from NSW (and even Don from Victoria) learning from each other as we talk about a whole range of topics related to learning and technology! … a few of us got to enjoy a dinner up at Journeys Cafe in Katoomba!
All up the TALO Swap/Meet was an excellent day of learning, swapping ideas, creating ideas and reflecting on what we do. As per usual, Leigh did an unreal job of creating discussion, mixing it with some fun relaxation (like a double-decker bus trip around Katoomba, dinner at Journeys Cafe, and a walk along the National Pass at Wentworth Falls the next day) and most importantly, getting people together to learn!
I was pretty excited after some of the discussions earlier on in the day about the use of games in our classes - almost made me think that I should buy an XBox to do some research! Another great conversation that got me thinking was about encouraging collaboration inside and outside our organisations - it seems it’s easier to collaborate with people around the globe than within our own organisations!
Most of all, I loved meeting up with people that I’ve been learning with on the TALO email group… always nice to get to know the person behind the keyboard! Thanks to Leigh for all the work behind the scenes to pull off the TALO Swap/Meet!
Thanks Mike, for making time away from your classes to come, and talking to us about your efforts in using blogs and wikis in your classes. You are the proof that all this talk is worth it and works.
HI Michael, I want to say how much I enjoyed the day and how much I got out of it all. I was really impressed by everything that was said and done on the day and I ma only sorry I could not stay overnight. I hope we can do it all again next year.
Hi Tony! Yeah I enjoyed it too! (make sure you let Leigh know how much you enjoyed it too, as he organised the whole shebang!) I’m still thinking through the idea you mentioned about a 3D game for learning (that a teacher at your college tried?).
I was talking with some of the people from our Web class today, and they were pretty enthusiastic about the idea too… more to come soon hopefully!
Michael,
I am learning all the time when I work with Leigh and yourself - you can see the evidence of this in the way my projects are developing, although much of this can be credited to Alex. However, I am pleased to say I get it! - I get why networked and distributed learning is the infrastructure of the new educational paradigm. My next project is to get our podcast experts Sean Fitzgerald and Stephan Ridgeway to podcast some engaging ways to get teachers to engage with the technology in engaging their students - thats a lot of engaging. Will post on engageme blog and broadcast to mobiles of teachers who subscribe!