Friday, November 25, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Microsoft introduces TeachMeets into South Africa
Microsoft South Africa recently combined with SchoolNetSA to introduce the first TeachMeet into South Africa. It was great to be part of this historic occasion. These gatherings of teachers are fast becoming a very popular form of professional development in the USA and in many European countries, in the field of technology integration in education. In European countries they are called ‘Teachmeets’ while in the USA they are named ‘Ed Camps’.
Teachers sharing with teachers
Essentially Teachmeets are 'teachers teaching teachers' in a prescribed amount of time, usually 3 minutes, using the provided laptop and a data projector. It’s really a great way to meet teachers from other schools, and there is usually a tea slot provided for interaction and sharing to take place. A Teachmeet definitely produces a sense of community and inspiration. One leaves with many new ideas, and feels a sense of making a contribution to education when presenting an idea. I have written two posts about Teachmeets in this blog in the past:
*http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-not-hold-teachmeet-in-your-area.html
*http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-teachmeet-ideas-from-partners-in.html
Our Teachmeet wiki
Angela Schaerer, the Academic Programmes Manager at Microsoft South Africa, was the instigator of the first Teachmeet in South Africa, and two of us from SchoolNet assisted her in putting together a remarkable and very enjoyable occasion.
To encourage a sense of community in this endeavour we created a TeachMeet wiki http://teachmeet-southafrica.wikispaces.com which we hope teachers around South Africa will make use of should they wish to hold a Teachmeet in their area. This wiki answers all the questions one might have about TeachMeets.
Programme on the day
The TeachMeet was held at the Microsoft Offices in Johannesburg on 13th October 2011. Angela planned a very stimulating programme in addition to the TeachMeet, and everyone left with a copy of the incredible Learning Suite DVD (one of my favourite DVDs).
When Angela advertised the occasion she wrote, “Come and enjoy a TeachMeet…TeachLearn…TeachNetwork and TeachEat with us…” That is a pretty good sumary of what a TeachMeet is all about! Over 100 educators responded to the open invitation. Teachers could choose to respond as 'Keen Beans' and bring along a presentation to share or 'Enthusiastic Lurkers’ and come along to learn and just enjoy the gettogether.
Social media
Maggie Verster, our social networking champion in South Africa, managed the Twitter backchannel, and gave a humorous presentation urging teachers to join Twitter. Twitter is a marvelous platform for teachers to quickly and easily follow one another online to share useful resources.
Teachmeet presentations
Altogether there were twelve presentations. We were each given three minutes to present and were timed with a stop watch.
Here are the presenters with links to their presentations and videos of them sharing their presentations:
1. Shireen Peters from Parkview Junior spoke on designing a 'Shopping and Money using Word' theme for Grade 2 using Microsoft Word.
Fiona's Slideshare presentation can be found here
Fiona's video can be viewed here
3.Daniel Maedi from GW e-Learning spoke on using a 'Spreadsheet Solution' - a drill and practice activity to assist the learners in Mathematics.
Daniel's Slideshare presentation can be found here
Daniel's video can be viewed here
4. Jeneanne Hultzer fromBrescia House School spoke out about using 'Excel in Maths Literacy'.
Jeneanne's Slideshare presentation can be found here:
Jeneanne's video can be viewed here:
5. Helen Robertson from Cornwall Hill College spoke about using 'Boogie Board RIP, e-Reader and cellphone as m-Learning tools'.
Helen's Slideshare presentation can be found here.
Helen's video can be viewed here.
6. Natalie Meerholtz from Holy Rosary called her presentation 'Challenge your students to crack the code – QR codes'.
Natalie's video can be viewed here.
7. Maggie Verster from Pretoria spoke about 'Organising your life in one click' using Diigo for bookmarking.
Maggie's Slideshare presentation can be found here:
Maggie's video can be viewed here.
8. Paul Wilton from the Oprah Winfrey Girls' Academy in Gauteng called his presentation 'Life Sciences Grade 12 on Moodle'. He generously offered to share his multitude of ‘Moodling Life Science' resources with others.
Paul's Slideshare presentation can be found here:
Paul's video can be seen here.
9. Aurelliah Rosenberg, Head of Educator Empowerment at ORT SA named her presentation ‘Camera, action, lights – teaching with movies.”
Aurelliah's Slideshare can be found here.
Aurelliah's video can be viewed here.
10. Linda Bradfield from St John's Prep spoke on Collaboration versus Cooperation versus Coaching.
Linda's Slideshare presentationcan be found here.
Linda's video can be viewed here.
11. Lyneth Crighton from Brescia College had some great ideas for 'Recording with cell phones' in schools.
Lyneth's Slideshare presentation can be found here.
Lyneth's video can be viewed here.
12. Charmaine Hart from Bryandale Primary School Grade 5 showed how she integrates the curriculum in her advertising unit in English First Language She called it 'Advertising in English'.
Charmaine's Slideshare presentation can be found here.
Charmaine's video can be found here.
The audience was enthusiastic and they listened with rapt attention.
After the Teachmeet Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet urged teachers to consider entering the Microsoft Innovative teacher competition next year, and to start planning their projects soon.
Others involved in organising the TeachMeet
The spirit of a TeachMeet is sharing and the beauty of a TeachMeet is that all the participants can access all the presentations. Microsoft has a great website which teachers around the word can join and use to create groups and upload information. This is known as the Partners in Learning Network. I would encourage all teachers to join. It’s free. Microsoft created a TeachMeet group on this Network so that everybody could access all the presentations of the day.
A report was written about the TeachMeet by ITWeb in October. They called it "Teachmeets - 'Speed dating' for teachers". Read it here.
Photos of the day
The videos in this blogpost are hosted in SchoolNetSA's YouTube channel and the Slideshare presentations are mainly hosted in SchoolNetSA's Slideshare channel
More Microsoft TeachMeets coming up in 2012
The good news is that Microsoft is planning more of these around the country in 2012. I would encourage all teachers to keep their ears open for an announcement of a TeachMeet near you. It is a great way to share and hear about the ways technology can enhance learning.
 |
| Microsoft's advertisement of the TeachMeet |
Essentially Teachmeets are 'teachers teaching teachers' in a prescribed amount of time, usually 3 minutes, using the provided laptop and a data projector. It’s really a great way to meet teachers from other schools, and there is usually a tea slot provided for interaction and sharing to take place. A Teachmeet definitely produces a sense of community and inspiration. One leaves with many new ideas, and feels a sense of making a contribution to education when presenting an idea. I have written two posts about Teachmeets in this blog in the past:
*http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-not-hold-teachmeet-in-your-area.html
*http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-teachmeet-ideas-from-partners-in.html
Our Teachmeet wiki
Angela Schaerer, the Academic Programmes Manager at Microsoft South Africa, was the instigator of the first Teachmeet in South Africa, and two of us from SchoolNet assisted her in putting together a remarkable and very enjoyable occasion.
 |
| Angela explaining how a TeachMeet works |
To encourage a sense of community in this endeavour we created a TeachMeet wiki http://teachmeet-southafrica.wikispaces.com which we hope teachers around South Africa will make use of should they wish to hold a Teachmeet in their area. This wiki answers all the questions one might have about TeachMeets.
 |
| Our teachmeet-southafrica wiki home page |
The TeachMeet was held at the Microsoft Offices in Johannesburg on 13th October 2011. Angela planned a very stimulating programme in addition to the TeachMeet, and everyone left with a copy of the incredible Learning Suite DVD (one of my favourite DVDs).
 |
| Microsoft's learning Suite DVD |
Social media
Maggie Verster, our social networking champion in South Africa, managed the Twitter backchannel, and gave a humorous presentation urging teachers to join Twitter. Twitter is a marvelous platform for teachers to quickly and easily follow one another online to share useful resources.
 |
| Maggie Verster (centre) with Angela Schaerer (left) and Megan Rademeyer (right) |
Teachmeet presentations
Altogether there were twelve presentations. We were each given three minutes to present and were timed with a stop watch.
Here are the presenters with links to their presentations and videos of them sharing their presentations:
1. Shireen Peters from Parkview Junior spoke on designing a 'Shopping and Money using Word' theme for Grade 2 using Microsoft Word.
 |
| Shireen Petersen |
Shireen's Slideshare presentation can be found here.
Shireen's video can be viewed here.
Fiona Beal from Fish Hoek spoke on “Making a collaborative e-book” using the free applications iEtherpad.com, Slideboom.com, along with any illustrative programme and Microsoft PowerPoint.
 |
| Fiona Beal |
Fiona's video can be viewed here
3.Daniel Maedi from GW e-Learning spoke on using a 'Spreadsheet Solution' - a drill and practice activity to assist the learners in Mathematics.
 |
| Daniel Maedi |
Daniel's video can be viewed here
4. Jeneanne Hultzer fromBrescia House School spoke out about using 'Excel in Maths Literacy'.
 |
| Jeneanne Hultzer |
Jeneanne's video can be viewed here:
5. Helen Robertson from Cornwall Hill College spoke about using 'Boogie Board RIP, e-Reader and cellphone as m-Learning tools'.
 |
| Helen Robertson |
Helen's video can be viewed here.
 |
| Natalie Meerholtz |
7. Maggie Verster from Pretoria spoke about 'Organising your life in one click' using Diigo for bookmarking.
 |
| Maggie Verster |
Maggie's video can be viewed here.
8. Paul Wilton from the Oprah Winfrey Girls' Academy in Gauteng called his presentation 'Life Sciences Grade 12 on Moodle'. He generously offered to share his multitude of ‘Moodling Life Science' resources with others.
 |
| Paul Wilton |
Paul's video can be seen here.
9. Aurelliah Rosenberg, Head of Educator Empowerment at ORT SA named her presentation ‘Camera, action, lights – teaching with movies.”
 |
| Aurelliah Rosenberg |
Aurelliah's video can be viewed here.
10. Linda Bradfield from St John's Prep spoke on Collaboration versus Cooperation versus Coaching.
 |
| Linda Bradfield |
Linda's video can be viewed here.
11. Lyneth Crighton from Brescia College had some great ideas for 'Recording with cell phones' in schools.
 |
| Lyneth Crighton |
Lyneth's Slideshare presentation can be found here.
Lyneth's video can be viewed here.
12. Charmaine Hart from Bryandale Primary School Grade 5 showed how she integrates the curriculum in her advertising unit in English First Language She called it 'Advertising in English'.
 |
| Charmaine Hart |
Charmaine's video can be found here.
The audience was enthusiastic and they listened with rapt attention.
After the Teachmeet Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet urged teachers to consider entering the Microsoft Innovative teacher competition next year, and to start planning their projects soon.
 |
| Megan Rademeyer |
After that Fiona Beal spoke on Microsoft's free toolsMicrosoft's Free Tools
View more presentations from fionabeal
Others involved in organising the TeachMeet
 |
| Thabile from Microsoft was the contact person for the TeachMeet |
 |
| Partners in Learning Network |
A report was written about the TeachMeet by ITWeb in October. They called it "Teachmeets - 'Speed dating' for teachers". Read it here.
Photos of the day
The videos in this blogpost are hosted in SchoolNetSA's YouTube channel and the Slideshare presentations are mainly hosted in SchoolNetSA's Slideshare channel
More Microsoft TeachMeets coming up in 2012
The good news is that Microsoft is planning more of these around the country in 2012. I would encourage all teachers to keep their ears open for an announcement of a TeachMeet near you. It is a great way to share and hear about the ways technology can enhance learning.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
I love Technology Conferences!
Recently we have had a virtual Global Education Conference taking place which was really great (http://globaleducation.ning.com/), but this led me to to think about other technology face-to-face conferences I have attended this year and how I have benefitted from them. To tell the truth I REALLY love face-to-face technology conferences. There is just nothing that compares with seeing friends and colleagues that you don’t normally get to see at these conferences, shaking their hands and catching up on life and technology matters. One can also ask a myriad of questions and find out so much when it is face-to-face.
There are two face-to-face technology conferences from this year that I haven’t written about yet, so I am going to write about those now. Both of them were held at schools. They used the excellent services of EdTechConf to help them plan their conferences.
Edtechconf Extended @ Elkanah
The first conference was held at Elkanah House in Table View, Cape Town in October. Honestly...what a school! They are leaders in technology integration, of that there is no doubt. That marvellous ICT Department of theirs, under the guidance of EdTechConf, produced a brilliant conference. Their goal was to attract teachers in the classroom who are just starting the journey of integrating technology with the curriculum. They also made a point of using local Cape Town teachers to share what they are doing with technology integration. Here is a photo of four of the six Elkanah House technology team members.
Keynote speakers
Kobus van Wyk (http://www.e4africa.co.za/), of Khanya fame in the Western Cape, set the tone as the opening keynote speaker. He talked about ICT being an add-in and not an add-on. There were three other keynote speakers:
* Arthur Preston (http://headthoughts.co.za/) who is a co-founder of EdTechConf and who has been appointed as the new Elkanah House principal in 2012, spoke on The Technophobe Family,
* Nicholas Hall, a social media candidate attorney, spoke about copyright law etc for educationists
*Tim Keller (http://timk.co.za/), a software developer of ‘Staffroom’ fame and a co-founder of EdTechConf spoke on 'The School of the Future' . All were outstanding presentations.
Presentations and workshops
Maggie Verster, (http://maggiev.edublogs.org/) our own South African social networking expert, ran the Twitter backchannel. She used her bubbly enthusiasm to get as many of the delegates as possible using Twitter since Twitter is a really great educational resource tool. Maggie also created a Conference blog to upload some of the presentations http://elkedtechconf.blogspot.com/ and a Picasa site for all the photos http://bit.ly/sVXqjA . Here is Maggie’s presentation on Bookmarking using Diigo
What I really liked about the conference was the three teacher-panel sessions. These were local teachers who shared what they are doing in the classroom. Each panel had about 3 or 4 teachers and they spoke for about 15 minutes followed by a time of questions from the floor. The conference delegates loved these panels. One of the panels involved the Microsoft Innovative Teacher finalists and winners who happened to live in Cape Town, and wow! did they bring energy and enthusiasm with them. You can just see what that competition does to teachers! (Read here.about the success of these Innovative teacher finalists when they represented South Africa in Jordan at the Partners in Learning Middle East and Africa Innovative Education Forum in Jordan in September). Here is a photo of Maggie with some of the Innovative Teacher finalists.
I must mention that a highlight of the teacher's panels for me (and others) was Nicole Masureik's presentation. She spoke about her project with Grade 11s at Pinelands High School where she is conducting a cell phone trial with two Grade 11 classes - Maths and Life Sciences. This is an incredible project really worth following.
The workshop sessions, of which there were quite a choice, also gave teachers a chance to practise using different tools. I am going to add the presentations that have been made public in this space.
Teachmeets introduced
Elkanah House also announced their intention to start Teachmeets for local teachers (http://teachmeet-southafrica.wikispaces.com) by having a quick demonstration of a Teachmeet. Read about Teachmeets here. In face they are having their second Teachmeet this coming Saturday 26th November. I'll be writing about their Teachmeets in another blogpost.
Conclusion
I think this conference generated a lot of energy and possibly larger numbers of teachers will attend future conferences when they hear about what they missed. But, as Karen Stadler, one of the ICT team at Elkanah House highlighted in her blogpost about the event:
"Key points that came out of this conference were:
* Buy-in from school management is vital (sadly very few principals attended our conference).
* Technology needs to be an integral part of teaching today as our students are born tech savvy (digital natives)
* It must be an add-in not an add-on
* Teachers should start small, choose one aspect/topic and use technology to enhance it
* Baby steps… Take that first step!"
http://karenstadler.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/what-a-conference/
Edtechconf Extended @ Cornwall Hill
This was the second technology conference I attended at a school in October. It was great! Once again it was wonderful to connect face-to-face with friends from around the country for a catch-up time.
The only problem is there is no record of it anywhere that I can find. I think a Conference blog is such a good idea at a conference as the experience lives on through it. The conference followed the same Edtechconf pattern as before. The three highlights for me were:
*a inspirational talk by Pepe Marais http://sharpeningmypencil.tumblr.com/ founder of 'One School at a time')
*Dr Adele Botha on the use of cell phones at school
* The teacher panel sharing their projects.
Well, to close my post let me say - let’s face it – technology is here to stay! We need to embrace it in education. There is no other route.
There are two face-to-face technology conferences from this year that I haven’t written about yet, so I am going to write about those now. Both of them were held at schools. They used the excellent services of EdTechConf to help them plan their conferences.
Edtechconf Extended @ Elkanah
The first conference was held at Elkanah House in Table View, Cape Town in October. Honestly...what a school! They are leaders in technology integration, of that there is no doubt. That marvellous ICT Department of theirs, under the guidance of EdTechConf, produced a brilliant conference. Their goal was to attract teachers in the classroom who are just starting the journey of integrating technology with the curriculum. They also made a point of using local Cape Town teachers to share what they are doing with technology integration. Here is a photo of four of the six Elkanah House technology team members.
 |
| Maryne (left) Karen (third left) Juanita (2nd from right) Linda (3rd from right) |
Keynote speakers
Kobus van Wyk (http://www.e4africa.co.za/), of Khanya fame in the Western Cape, set the tone as the opening keynote speaker. He talked about ICT being an add-in and not an add-on. There were three other keynote speakers:
* Arthur Preston (http://headthoughts.co.za/) who is a co-founder of EdTechConf and who has been appointed as the new Elkanah House principal in 2012, spoke on The Technophobe Family,
* Nicholas Hall, a social media candidate attorney, spoke about copyright law etc for educationists
*Tim Keller (http://timk.co.za/), a software developer of ‘Staffroom’ fame and a co-founder of EdTechConf spoke on 'The School of the Future' . All were outstanding presentations.
 |
| Tim Keller and Kobus van Wyk |
Presentations and workshops
Maggie Verster, (http://maggiev.edublogs.org/) our own South African social networking expert, ran the Twitter backchannel. She used her bubbly enthusiasm to get as many of the delegates as possible using Twitter since Twitter is a really great educational resource tool. Maggie also created a Conference blog to upload some of the presentations http://elkedtechconf.blogspot.com/ and a Picasa site for all the photos http://bit.ly/sVXqjA . Here is Maggie’s presentation on Bookmarking using Diigo
What I really liked about the conference was the three teacher-panel sessions. These were local teachers who shared what they are doing in the classroom. Each panel had about 3 or 4 teachers and they spoke for about 15 minutes followed by a time of questions from the floor. The conference delegates loved these panels. One of the panels involved the Microsoft Innovative Teacher finalists and winners who happened to live in Cape Town, and wow! did they bring energy and enthusiasm with them. You can just see what that competition does to teachers! (Read here.about the success of these Innovative teacher finalists when they represented South Africa in Jordan at the Partners in Learning Middle East and Africa Innovative Education Forum in Jordan in September). Here is a photo of Maggie with some of the Innovative Teacher finalists.
 |
| Maggie (left) Lisa (2nd left) Kim and Louise |
The workshop sessions, of which there were quite a choice, also gave teachers a chance to practise using different tools. I am going to add the presentations that have been made public in this space.
Teachmeets introduced
Elkanah House also announced their intention to start Teachmeets for local teachers (http://teachmeet-southafrica.wikispaces.com) by having a quick demonstration of a Teachmeet. Read about Teachmeets here. In face they are having their second Teachmeet this coming Saturday 26th November. I'll be writing about their Teachmeets in another blogpost.
Conclusion
I think this conference generated a lot of energy and possibly larger numbers of teachers will attend future conferences when they hear about what they missed. But, as Karen Stadler, one of the ICT team at Elkanah House highlighted in her blogpost about the event:
"Key points that came out of this conference were:
* Buy-in from school management is vital (sadly very few principals attended our conference).
* Technology needs to be an integral part of teaching today as our students are born tech savvy (digital natives)
* It must be an add-in not an add-on
* Teachers should start small, choose one aspect/topic and use technology to enhance it
* Baby steps… Take that first step!"
http://karenstadler.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/what-a-conference/
 |
| Kim and Loise sharing about their winning project |
Edtechconf Extended @ Cornwall Hill
This was the second technology conference I attended at a school in October. It was great! Once again it was wonderful to connect face-to-face with friends from around the country for a catch-up time.
 |
| Natalie (left) Linda (2nd left) Fiona (2nd right) and Debbie |
The only problem is there is no record of it anywhere that I can find. I think a Conference blog is such a good idea at a conference as the experience lives on through it. The conference followed the same Edtechconf pattern as before. The three highlights for me were:
*a inspirational talk by Pepe Marais http://sharpeningmypencil.tumblr.com/ founder of 'One School at a time')
*Dr Adele Botha on the use of cell phones at school
* The teacher panel sharing their projects.
Well, to close my post let me say - let’s face it – technology is here to stay! We need to embrace it in education. There is no other route.
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