ICT in my Classroom

During my visit to the Scottish Learning Festival I was aware that Martin Jack from Think Different Events was there. We had been in touch regarding Merlin John’s piece about the TeachMeet community being offered 3 evening slots at the next BETT show. I thought it was important I took the opportunity to track him down.

Scanning the corridors of the SECC, ably assisted I might add by Con Morris, we were able to find Martin and although he was very busy he gave me a few minutes of his time to confirm some arrangements.

Martin explained that the offer from EMAP for the BETT show is:

1. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night use of the Apex room (FREE)
2. Security for each of those evenings (FREE)
3. AV and technical support for the three events (FREE)

It just so happened that whilst we were outside the SECC talking, we bumped into Keith Clifford the Marketing Director from EMAP in charge of BETT. He was in a hurry but quickly said hello and  also confirmed the above arrangements.

Martin was keen to impress on me that if we were able to clearly state the default setting for the AV setup then it would be arranged for us and be ready for the event. This year we had a large screen and a smaller one to the side for the back channel. To take advantage of this, each event, each night will need to confirm the technical requirements well beforehand.

I think that it is a great offer from EMAP whatever occurs over the course of those three nights. TeachMeet at BETT this year was thronged and in my opinion 3 separate events gives scope for development, an opportunity for smaller more intimate events and illustrates how important TeachMeet CPD is.

What is missing? What will be needed? I questioned Martin about a few other arrangements just to be clear about what is on offer. The TeachMeet community will need to organise or through sponsorship arrange for:

1. The tables will not be in a cabaret style as they were this year. We will need to cover the costs of that switcheroo. Or pitch in ourselves!
2. Wi-fi was not covered in the above offer. I asked and it seems it will need to be paid for from sponsorship, but can be arranged with EMAP.
3. Food, nibbles and drinks will need to be covered as usual through sponsorship.

There it is. We have the APEX room for three nights if we want to use it. I think that as this is unprecedented territory for TeachMeet the sooner we begin to plan the better. That is the next question really and one which I now throw out to the TeachMeet community as a whole.

What would you like to do with three different TeachMeet style events?

Please feel free to cross post this and help to get the message out as much as possible so that the ball begins to roll and we can quickly decide upon on the nature of the 3 nights.

Last Wednesday evening I left school at 3.30pm, jumped on a plane bound for Glasgow at 5.00pm, stepped onto Scottish soil at 6.05pm and arrived at BBC Scotland just in time to see the start of TeachMeet SLF at 6.30pm!

And I was thrilled to see BrainPOP once again showing their support for this unique CPD event with a fantastic animated short, premièred at the beginning of the event.

If you have ever come across BrainPOP then you know that the talented folks behind the scenes have a penchant for clearly explaining things in an engaging way. Ollie Bray wasn’t sure what TeachMeet was so Tim and Moby have helped!

I have also learned from Ollie Bray that the team at BrainPOP UK are willing to change the logo at the end of the movie to match any future TeachMeet. Great news.

If you attended TeachMeet SLF then take some time to leave a message and thank all of the generous sponsors who helped make it happen.

On behalf of Teach Primary magazine I am looking for some people who would be willing to contribute to an article explaining their experience of the TeachMeet SLF event. Steve Bunce is already helping and I would appreciate recruiting a few more people to help tell their story. Just let me know if you would be willing.

It is exciting times for edtech professional development as the TeachMeet concept goes from strength to strength. This is a post to update you about the range of TeachMeets that have taken place recently and are currently being planned for the near future.

The popular unconference has shown it’s flexibility over the last year as a whole variety of events have been successfully run. My first TeachMeet was at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2008 and I have been privileged enough to be have organised one in the Midlands as well as attend many more. The ethos and atmosphere remains the single most important constant – open, friendly, innovative.

Last Tuesday I headed down to Channel 4 HQ for their Summer Education Conference. It carried the question of “What Comes Next?”, exploring the future of schooling in the UK. As a closing act they invited Ian Usher and I to host a TeachMeet. It was small in scale but not in terms of the ideas and innovation that was shared – as usual this was varied and hugely interesting. Take a look at the Connect recording for a flavour of the event.

TeachMeet North East took place in Tyneside Cinema a couple of weeks ago with about 50 people attending. From all accounts it was a very successful event with a high percentage of people who were attending TeachMeet for the first time. You can catch up with the presentations and the links to the FlashMeeting recordings either on the wiki page or in the Ning for TeachMeetNE.

TeachMeet Student Edition was the first variation of the original concept specifically designed for student teachers and teachers in their probationary year. Run by David Muir from Strathclyde University in early June it attracted around 60 people according to those signed up on the wiki. Once again you can get a full replay of the presentations and the event from the FlashMeeting.

TeachMeet the Islay Variation – education 2020 Conference – In June lots of people packed their bags and headed to the Isle of Islay off the West coast of Scotland to take part in the education 2020 unconference. It explored the theme of what education will look like in 2020 and what challenges might we face. Take a look at the wiki for the way they organised the event and here is a stack of pics and videos from the event in a Flickr group. Here is the Flashmeeting too to catch up.

I really appreciate the archiving of these events through the web conference recording and Leon Cych has also done some great work recording those events he can attend and publishing the presentations on the TeachMeet Blip TV channel. This is sponsored by Futurelab and offers those unable to attend a way to learn from the event.

There is a range of TeachMeets on offer in the remainder of this year, here is the full range that I am aware of. Plenty of choice both in terms of location and the style of the events – I would urge you to attend if you can make it and have never been before.

>TeachMeet SuKe – Sussex and Kent. Tonbridge, Friday 18th September, 7-9pm. Sign up or contact Stephen Lockyer(@mrlockyer)

>TeachMeet SLF09 – 23rd September BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay. Returning to the Scottish Learning Festival for the 4th year I am sure it will be another successful night. Get your name down!

>TeachMeet Skolforum – if you happen to be in Stockholm on the 27th October between 4.30pm and 8pm why not join our Swedish colleagues.

>LeadMeet - Scottish leadership edition. LeadMeet is a variation on the now tried and trusted TeachMeet format. This time we are concentrating on educational leadership. Wednesday 29th July 2009, Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh.

>TeachMeet North West – 22nd October 5-10pm at the BBC 21st Century Classroom, Salford, Manchester. Join the folks who have already signed up.

It is great to see a range of national and regional events springing up and I wish all the organisers all the success for their respective meets.

If you are in a position to support these events through sponsorship I am certain that it will be gratefully received. Small contributions are all that is needed and every event relies upon kind sponsors to help cover the minimal costs involved. Please get in touch with the organisers through their wiki pages or leave a note for me and I can let them know you are interested.

The BETT Show organisers have picked up on the vibrancy of the TeachMeet community and Merlin John recently spoke to Martin Jack of Thinkdifferentevents (who runs the seminars for BETT organisers EMAP) about a generous offer of the Apex room at Olympia for three separate evenings, three separate TeachMeets, during the BETT Show 2010. I hope to find out more about the details of what this offer entails. It will be very interesting to see how the TeachMeet community responds to it and perhaps how over the course of the year 3 separate events unfold.

In less than 30 days now we will be holding the TeachMeet Midlands event at the National College for School Leadership in Nottingham.

If you are not familiar with these events they are held at no cost to the people attending, you will be fed and watered and perhaps learn something (with a sprinkling of inspiration) all for free. The NCSL have been amazing with their support via Stuart Sutherland, and have provided us with pre-event drinks, the evening food, all the AV we could wish for and the great venue itself.

But we still need some help.

If you are able to offer a small amount of sponsorship we would be grateful as we are still looking for help with two elements:

• Bar drinks (via tokens)
• Wi-fi: Public wifi at the venue is provided by BT Openzone. We are seeking sponsorship to provide BT Openzone cards (@£10 per person) to participants who need access on the night.

As with all of the previous TeachMeets we are not looking for big donations to cover everything, whatever people can manage to show their support and to keep the momentum going with these great events. If you can help or you know someone who would be willing, just leave a comment or drop me an email using the contact form at the top of the page.

Last night I attended the North East London Teachmeet held at the Learning and Development Centre in the London borough of Havering.

I was invited to do a mini-note presentation and talked about the use of technology as part of a blended learning environment. My talk was titled “Mr Barrett I Have Got Glue on My Laptop” and I used Prezi for the first time which worked really well. 

I was pleased to have an opportunity to meet Dawn Hallybone who talked about Games Based Learning in her school. She talked about using the Nintendo DSs and Pictochat as a way to do shared writing. A lovely idea to engage lots of children with writing. I will be picking her brains some more as we place our order for a class set of Nintendo DSs for our Year 4 children. (Should we get the new DSi though?)

Ollie Bray, the ever present feature of many TeachMeets, was attending and talked through some of his work with Maps, Mashups and Milkfloats. Some of the first person navigation of Google Earth he talked about, using the GE API, would be ideal to enrich a storytelling unit. I also loved the Milkfloat driving which was a lot of fun. Olli never fails to leave me with something to think about and take away to use in my classroom. A great talk.

If you attended I hope you had a fruitful evening learning some new ideas and meeting people. Please let me know what you made of it all. If you you enjoyed it perhaps consider coming to Teachmeet Midlands on the 15th May at the NCSL in Nottingham.

This year has been wonderful for me in terms of meeting people face to face who I have either followed on Twitter or who have even inspired me to begin writing this blog in the first place. TeachMeet at the Scottish Learning Festival allowed me to meet a whole bunch of brilliant Scots amongst others, which was a great pleasure. With Amplified’08 and MirandoMod2 still to look forward to I hope that 2009 will be just as fruitful in terms of matching avatars to real faces.

TweetMeet Nottingham on Saturday 6th December 2008 is another opportunity to meet fellow edubloggers and teachers making the most of technology in their classroom. Perhaps TweetMeet could be classed as the informal younger brother of TeachMeet, but we are meeting in a pub so it has much the same origins. Take a look at the site and sign-up if you can make it. I am pleased that Doug Belshaw, Lisa Stevens and Jose Picardo are already enscribed on the list so I won’t be talking to myself.

Back in September I was fortunate enough to attend both the Scottish Learning Festival and the most recent TeachMeet. A TeachMeet is an unconference, there is no organising committee and anyone could arrange one or attend – all it takes is a date on the wiki. People sign up to talk about technology in classrooms and it’s free. It is driven by the passion and enthusiasm of those participating.

Learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about technologies. Anyone can share cool ideas they have or great ideas they’ve trialled in their classrooms.

Participants can talk about any topic, following some simple rules (defined by the participants of course) in 7 minute or 2 minute (nano) slots. My first TeachMeet in Glasgow saw me open the show with the first 7 minute presentation. In January of this year I took part in the FlashMeeting (online coverage) for the TeachMeet at BETT 2008, however the experience of meeting people face to face has no substitute. 

It was such a positive and inspiring experience in Glasgow that I decided to try and organise something closer to home. I enquired with Stuart Sutherland about whether we could host a midlands TeachMeet at the National College for School Leadership in Nottingham. In my opinion this is a venue that is befitting the inspiring nature of TeachMeet and I am thrilled that the NCSL have agreed to support TeachMeet Midlands which will take place on the 15th May 2009. Just pop your name on the wiki if you can make it.

It seems that there has never been a more abundant time for TeachMeets and if you cannot come along to Nottingham in May then you may be able to attend one of the others in the pipeline.

• TeachMeet BETT’09 – January, Olympia, London
• TeachMeet Netherlands - 29th January 2009 - NOT 09 - Media Plaza, Utrecht, NL
• TeachMeet Borders – 20th February 2009 – venue TBC
• TeachMeet Physics - Thursday 19th or 26th March 2009 – venue TBC
• TeachMeet Midlands 2009 – 15th May 2009, NCSL, Nottingham
• TeachMeet Orlando - 14th March 2009 7.30-9.30pm EDT @ASCD Conference, Orlando, FL.  Venue tbc
• TeachMeet Dublin – TBC
• TeachMeet Islay – TBC

I have even mentioned the idea of taking it to Australia with me at Christmas and organising a TeachMeet Adelaide and Sydney, but I think I might just enjoy my holidays (Unless someone wants to help!)

In my opinion nothing comes close to the energy and passion for learning technologies you experience at a TeachMeet and in every way it is as Ollie Bray once said ”My best continuing professional development”.

All of the TeachMeets are dependant on support from sponsors for food, drink, venues, wifi etc. If you think you can help with any of the events above and would like to partner the most inspiring professional development events currently available, then your support would be appreciated.

Sign up and be inspired.