#notonislay – but flashmeet serves up

Another great gathering of like-minded folk

Earlier this evening I had the pleasure to attend, via flashmeeting, an ‘un-conference’ centered around the question – ‘What is your vision of education in the year 2020?’  For those of us that attended the meeting it would be the only taste of the distillery event that we would have, whilst the visitors to the Isle of Islay would be basking in whisky face to face discussion.

Unfortunately the server on Islay thought better and refused to function leaving us ‘flashmeeters’ with no choice but to continue regardless.

TeachMeetGC’09

(I’m looking for participants to pre record a presentation that I could use during #tmgc09? Let me know if you’re keen on Twitter @kvnmcl or my contact me page)

I have been organising a ‘TeachMeet‘ to be held here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria next week 11th June. A TeachMeet is a place where like minded teachers can get together and find out about the use of new technologies being used in the classroom. I attended TeachMeet Midlands using FlashMeeting and I was excited and inspired enough to try to recreate or at least try to put together a TeachMeet here in Gran Canaria. It hasn’t really been easy but it hasn’t put me off and the event will be held next Thursday from 6pm to 8pm in the comfort of my own flat next to the sea!

Unfortunately due to bandwidth issues I will not be able to hold a FlashMeeting during the event but I do promise to keep everyone informed through Twitter, video highlights, and by posting back here (or hopefully through the TeachMeet  pbworks pages).

Life moves pretty fast, and wallwisher tries to keep it in order.

Today was a day when I decided to let the learning take over the direction of my teaching. At half past three it hit me quite squarely that I don’t let it happen enough.

My class seemed to be in a state of readiness from the start. We’d had our holiday on the previous Friday so I guess they’d had enough of the time off and wanted to get straight in. The pace was brisk and fun, work was been written, words being spoken and questions being asked and answered. By the afternoon I was feeling slightly breathless but ready for the final 90 minutes after lunch. I checked Twitter and saw a few bits and bobs, a couple of links then something caught my eye. A link to wallwisher was posted and I was intrigued. I checked it out and saw the opportunity quite literally grow before my eyes. My carefully crafted, long thought over ICT lesson was going to have to wait.

My class filed in and, excitedly, I explained to them this new application and its possibilities for written work and generating ideas. They soon caught up and then passed my enthusiasm, demonstrating yet again that your class are not the only learners in the room. See link for all the fuss.

summerwish on wallwisher

Thanks to Doug for the tweet.