The First Bloggers Feast

After much talking and planning and tweeting we had our first Bloggers Feast in Melbourne on May 14th.Those present were Helen Otway, Howard Errey,Lauren O'Grady,Jo McLeay, John Pearce,Jenny Luca, Tony Richards, Al Upton, Pam Arvanitakis and myself.It was like a meeting of old friends as we finally got to meet those who are part of our networks and chat about issues which were surprisingly (or not) very common in our experiences as bloggers in schools. John is about to publish his book, written with Gary Bass- 'The Technology Toolkit, Helen was discussing being an Ultranet coach, Lauren changing work to keep growing her passion for it, Tony was interviewing all present, Jenny recovering from the highs of her SLAV presentation and new twitter follower, Al was talking about the 'Learning by Design'Conference he was attending,Pam and Jo and Howard were chatting with lots of new friends and me- I was playing with my new gadgets and just enjoying the fact that it was all actually happening.
The waiting staff were very amused by this group of strangers with lots of technology and were asking questions about what we were doing. It flew by, and we made plans for a bigger meeting on May 24th after the ICTEV conference at Melb. Grammar.

What to write?

It has been a sad few weeks since my last post. The situation with Al Upton and his mini-legends drags on and because we are in holidays, little has been resolved. In a skype conversation with Al and Sue Waters and Anne Murchison, he was understandably dispirited. It is such a blow to someone who is a devoted professional, such a slight to his good judgement of what is safe and appropriate for his students- in consultation with parents that it is.What concerns me greatly is that Al should not be the pinup boy for this cause. There are so many of us attempting to wrestle with the new technology, with a new way of seeing ourselves as educators that Al should not be bearing the brunt of all this considerable backlash in the light of the hysteria generated by the media about fears of 'The Internet'.I know if it were me facing such a questioning of my judgement, I would have given up and run-I am not of the same strong stuff as Al, but it is an issue that has to be dealt with and government departments and schools and parents cannot hide their heads in the sand and hope it will go away. It won't.
The picture I have added to this post is my attempt to finally respond to the Passion Quilt meme started by Miguel Guhlin.
What is my passion in teaching? To help students to find their own voice in writing and to glow with pride and happiness when they write.The lights are on in so many classes, students are starting to be heard, but it is decisions like that of the Sth Australian dept of Education that make it seem a very distant possibility to have classes where students can raise their voices beyond the small pond of the class and doing busy work for the teacher, to actually engage in writing for real authentic tasks to a wide audience.
It is interesting that when I started to write this post, I felt I had little of value to say. I have been reading some of the blogs mentioned in Clay Burell's post about favorite blogs and felt I had so much to learn and nothing to add to the discussions which are flowing past me on twitter all the time. Maybe I have little of great academic worth to contribute, but I feel better for exploring what has made me feel so down all week.

The train moves on....

I haven't been at the keyboard blogging for a while but that doesn't mean things aren't happening. Sometimes I have a whole set of things on the go that come together at a certain time and it is time to write. This has been a positive week in many ways .
My year 8 bloggers are all writing more confidently and in a more sustained way and bubbling with enthusiasm when we have a blogging lesson. Many are doing lots of extra entries at home and are really proud of their blogs.I am trying to make it fun and they are able to have some input into what the posts are about. As time passes hopefully the tasks will involve deeper thinking and reflection and exploration of ideas, but for now confidence is building!
Unfortunately there has been some disappointing news; one student had his blog hacked by someone who knew his password. I found the damage and dumped the blog and we were able to find who did it and deal with them. It was initially a moment of disappointment for me and the student involved, but also a 'teachable moment' where he realised the importance of a unique password for the blog. As he is the most techno-savvy student in the class, it was interesting for him to see how he was opening himself up to problems with some of his silly mates. He now has a new blog and we move on, but we had a good class discussion on the issue.
On another continent however a teacher has lost his job for having a link to a personal blog on the class blog. He had to resign and this has been a great concern and disappointment among twitterers this week.The reactions of his students were really heartfelt and I hope that he can move on and see it as a learning experience too ,no matter how hurt and bruised he may feel at the moment.
As I write, a teacher in Adelaide Australia, Al Upton,has been instructed by his department to shut down his student blogs after organising to have adult educator bloggers - including me- be mentors and readers of their blogs. He is shattered and the discussion and dismay on twitter is quite powerful and disturbing.This new technology is not going to go away, and this teacher is trying to teach these kids how to live in the tech-rich world safely but instead of being recognised for his pioneering efforts , he is pilloried. Change comes so slowly and at times it is almost imperceptible, but I believe it does happen- it must.
On a happier note my network continues to build and the screencast above is from a trial session of Twiddla. I have enrolled for the Constructivist conference in San Antonio before NECC and have paid my deposit for the trip. On Wednesday I hope to go to a conference /demo session at Coburg Senior Secondary college to see a fully linked school using macs and lots of integrated software. I will take photos.I am also going to the ICTEV annual conference which should be really interesting as it is all about success stories using IT.
The final thing I want to reflect on is a post by Tom Barrett about his use of twitter to tech the idea of probability to grade 5's in Wales. His post about his lesson on a global scale just blew me away and I have been trying to explain it to others all day, with many bored or confused expressions on peoples faces in response. Ah well the train goes on. I WILL keep trying.