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REGISTRATION OPEN

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When: September 18th-20th

Where: SCIS-Hongquio

Conference Registration: EARCOS/ACAMIS schools ($250) Non-EARCOS/ACAMIS schools ($350)

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I have a lot of random thoughts about the EARCOS Teacher’s Conference this year….so if these seem like disconnected ideas/ramblings/thoughts….it’s because they are.

The first morning we were here, I picked up the Newspaper that was slipped under our door and flipped through it real quick. The front page had the Prime Minister of Malaysia talking about the general election that they just held here in Malaysia in which the people, according to the paper “acknowledged the unhappiness of the Malaysians” mostly around economic issues.”

Now I don’t know enough about Malaysia to comment but what really struck me was a small article stuck at the bottom of the second page. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if it did not have the word Internet in the title, but I believe this short article copied below sums up a lot of what is happening in societies all over the world right now.

Internet served a painful lesson

Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Barisan Nasional lost the online war in the general election.
“We didn’t think it was important. It was a serious misjudgment,” he said at the opening of Invest Malaysia 2008.
“We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television were important but young people were looking at text messages and blogs.”
Abdullah said the influence of alternative media “was painful. But it came at the right time, not too late”.
The web and SMS allowed parties like DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Pas, which have long complained of bias in the traditional media, to reach voters directly.

What a great way to start the conference. I ended up using the article in two of my sessions to show that this stuff is for real and it’s affecting societies all around the world. It was a great way to show that this isn’t an educational issue, it is a global issue on how we communicate and how younger generations are very much dialed into this changing communication landscape.


I did plan to Ustream all four of my sessions plus do two live podcasts over the three days. But the Internet connection that was set up with the help of ISKL was just not working very well, and worst off it didn’t reach into the room I was presenting in, so I didn’t have access for any of my sessions. Try doing a session on RSS and Wikis without an Internet connection (I don’t recommend it).

I did record a podcast though over two days. You can have a listen to what teachers thought about the conference as well as some more of my ramblings over at the On Deck site.


EARCOS Teacher ConfIt’s been fun (not sure if that’s the right word, but it does bring a smile to my face) to watch teachers here with laptops struggle as I have to connect to the Internet. I use the word fun not because I laugh at their failure but because here they are trying to connect, frustrated that they can’t access the information they want when they want it, getting upset, and yet we do the same to our students day in and day out in our classrooms…we focus them to disconnect! As I write this sitting in an open area I can see 15 teachers with laptops open, most huddled around outlets, talking, checking e-mail, and reading. Some in chairs, some sitting on the floor, but all engaged with whatever task it is they are trying to complete. Wireless is working at the moment, but is slow…funny how people don’t complain about the speed of the Internet when the only other option is not to have it at all. 😉

What we do need though is more technology people at educational conferences. It’s easy for us to stay in our bubble of Ed Tech conferences, but if we want to expand this conversation, we need to go where they are. Teachers that come to an Ed Tech conference have already taken the risk to actually go to that conference, but many teachers would take a teacher conference over a tech conference. So we must go where they are! I have loved that there has been at least one presentation on technology each session here, and everyone that I’ve gone to has been packed. Kim Cofino, Dennis Harter, Paul White just to name a couple of technology presenters who all had great sessions that pushed people to think deep about their teaching, curriculum, and school set up.

We need to get outside the Ed Tech Bubble to expand and influence change.


Kuala Lumpur is a great city that if you are in Asia and have a chance to visit I strongly suggest!

Thank you too to everyone who came to one or more of the four presentations I did at the conference. For some who might be reading for the first time…welcome to the blogosphere, to a connected world of learning! To those who are regular readers…..this is just another rambling post. 🙂

[tags]EARCOS, conference, earcos08[/tags]

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Not sure why I continue to try to do it all. You would think I would learn not to bite off more than I can chew and not leave any time for blog reading or writing. However, I have done it again so bear with me for the next couple of weeks as I try to get things under control.

This Saturday myself and a team of 14 IT guys (most of them out sourced) came into school and installed almost 80 desktop computers in 7 hours into classrooms. These are student use computers that where in classrooms last year.

This year I decided to pull them all partly due to the fact that 62 of our teachers were getting laptops, and we are putting 60 student laptops into ever division (ES, MS, HS). We have a great number of laptops coming and I wanted to make sure that the desktops were placed, where they would be used. Teachers e-mailed their Principals and had to state how many desktops they would like and why they wanted them.

For example, our Middle School newspaper class made a good argument to have four desktop computers and we installed those. The 8th grade team and the Art department also made sound education arguments for their use of desktops and we installed those as well.

In the Elementary school, our 5th grade has gone completely laptop. Every teacher has a laptop with a ceiling mounted projector. We have student laptops that provide a 2:1 student to computer ratio. So we moved those computers out into other rooms.
 
My main goal this year (as laid out by our technology plan) was to get at least two desktop computers into every Pre-k through grade 2 classroom. I really wanted four but we don’t have the space…so two will do. I personally feel this is where desktops need to be. Teachers can make a computer center in their rotation and load educationally appropriate games based on what skills the students are learning 10 or 15 minutes at a computer for a 6 year old is plenty!

So what else is on my plate other than a full time job?

I’m finishing up the PSU class I taught this summer, it has been a great learning experience for me, and I hope the educators in the course got as much out of it as I did. Having to create a podcast, work on a collaborative wiki project, and have 20 blog entries by the end of the course. I used a Google spreadsheet to keep track of each of their assignments, and shared it with them so that they knew what else they needed to accomplish. I think that worked pretty well.

We are also less than 30 days from our Learning 2.0 conference here in Shanghai. Had a 4 hour meeting on Sunday to put the schedule together. This is only going to take more of my time the closer we get.

In October is the K12online conference where I will be hosting my LAN parties again (as well as two presentations). I already have people asking about them…so that is exciting.

In November, I am doing six presentations at the EARCOS Administrative conference in Kuala Lumpur. I still need to prepare for that.

So here we go! Now that computers are in place, I can focus on my real job….helping teachers and students!

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[tags]work, education, conference[/tags]