On Monday May 20th I attended a Education Technology Forum. This was run by LESC - Local Experts in Schools and Computing, a local company on the Sunshine Coast. This was the first time they had ever run a forum session and hope to continue more in the future.
The three hour session provided participants with a variety of information presented. Firstly Joe Perkins from Apple spoke about Teaching and Learning workflows, showing the audience examples of what this could look like. It was interesting to see his ideas about workflows and pleasing to know that some of the workflows I was already creating in the classroom were on par to what he was presenting. Mark Charge from LESC ran a 'hands on' session about iBooks Author. This was a great opportunity for beginners to get a Mac in their hands, and see how easy it is to create your own iBook. Personally, this session was a little tedious for me as I have already made a few iBooks for myself, both personally and professionally.
The afternoon sessions were a little disappointing, with presenters in this section marketing their products, more than focusing on teaching and learning with technology. I enjoyed listening to Lee Elvy (Head of ICT at St Teresa's Catholic College) share his thoughts on effective teaching since the introduction of technology in the classroom. Although it was interesting to hear about his new software product myLearning, I would love the opportunity to connect and chat more with him about his ideas surrounding teacher effectiveness.
Overall, I think the forum was a great session for beginners in ICT. Although most of the sessions were almost refresher sessions for me, I hope LESC continue to offer these free workshops to keep up-skilling teachers in the different perspectives of eLearning and the need to continually renew and refresh our teaching practices.
The three hour session provided participants with a variety of information presented. Firstly Joe Perkins from Apple spoke about Teaching and Learning workflows, showing the audience examples of what this could look like. It was interesting to see his ideas about workflows and pleasing to know that some of the workflows I was already creating in the classroom were on par to what he was presenting. Mark Charge from LESC ran a 'hands on' session about iBooks Author. This was a great opportunity for beginners to get a Mac in their hands, and see how easy it is to create your own iBook. Personally, this session was a little tedious for me as I have already made a few iBooks for myself, both personally and professionally.
The afternoon sessions were a little disappointing, with presenters in this section marketing their products, more than focusing on teaching and learning with technology. I enjoyed listening to Lee Elvy (Head of ICT at St Teresa's Catholic College) share his thoughts on effective teaching since the introduction of technology in the classroom. Although it was interesting to hear about his new software product myLearning, I would love the opportunity to connect and chat more with him about his ideas surrounding teacher effectiveness.
Overall, I think the forum was a great session for beginners in ICT. Although most of the sessions were almost refresher sessions for me, I hope LESC continue to offer these free workshops to keep up-skilling teachers in the different perspectives of eLearning and the need to continually renew and refresh our teaching practices.