Scottish Learning Festival 2008 - Its going to be hectic!

Bookings for the Scottish Learning Festival are now on line, it takes place on the 24 and 25 September 2008 at the SECC in Glasgow. This year you can book all four key notes in advance as well as up to two seminars on each of the days. After really having the year off last year this one is shaping up to be a busy one for me. I’m presenting two educational briefings on Language, Learners and the Power of New Technologies (in association with Promethean) and seminar on Internet Safety and Responsible Use: for Pupils, Parents and Staff on the Wednesday. On the Thursday I’m running a session in the Scottish Educational Village on Breaking down the walls with Google Earth.

I’ll also be at Teachmeet on the Wednesday night – where, if I am picked to speak, will be talking (I think) about some of the work we have been doing on Games Based Learning at Musselburgh and in the Musselburgh Cluster. I hope to also be involved in the Discovery Hour, in association with Teachmeet, on the Thursday and the Consolarium Challenge on one of the days.

I have pasted details of my main seminars below for anyone who might be interested:

Title: Language, Learners and the Power of New Technologies

Venue: Forth 

Time: 12.30 and repeated at 13.30 (if I have any energy left!)

Seminar Description: Children love using interactive voting systems. They motivate and inspire young people and when used effectively, can even help teachers reduce their workload. They can be used to stimulate discussion, encourage debate, gather ideas and share opinions. Most importantly they are fun, rewarding to use and encourage the pupil’s voice.

Scotland’s learners are to aspire to be effective contributors, but how can teachers find new ways to ensure the participation and confidence of even the most reluctant communicators? New technologies are simply not worth the investment if they can’t deliver the aspirations embodied within Curriculum for Excellence. Learner response technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and through the use of Promethean’s new technology, you will see examples of practice highlighting pupils’ response with text and numbers, as well as multiple-choice answers. Developments of this kind have created a whole new learning environment.

 

Participants will be included in a hands-on session, allowing them to experience learner response technology in a real-class lesson. We will also showcase a variety of case studies linking to different outcomes within the Scottish curriculum; including literacy, numeracy, expressive arts and science. There will be a particular emphasis on the use of technology to improve formative assessment. Data can be saved allowing teachers to review past lessons at any time and uploaded to a VLE for teachers, pupils and parents to view.

We believe that good teachers use good resources and a learner response system should be in every 21st century Teachers toolbox.

Title: Internet Safety and Responsible Use: for Pupils, Parents and Staff

Venue: Carron 2

Time: 15:45

Seminar Description: In October 2007 Musselburgh Grammar School became the first school in Scotland to run an Internet Safety Evening for parents using the 'Purely for Parents' resources produced by the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency (CEOP - www.ceop.gov.uk). The event was a great success and staff from the school have been asked to deliver the training in a number of other authorities in both the public and private sector. The school also has comprehensive programme for delivering Internet Safety and Responsible Use Training to staff and students.

This presentation will briefly talk about how the training was delivered within the Musselburgh area for parents, school staff, secondary and primary children. It will also offer advice on how you could set up your own learning community for sustainable responsible use training.

The main focus of the presentation will be showing the audience the various resources produced by CEOP so that they can get a real feel for the types of issues surrounding internet safety and responsible use. During the presentation the audience will be taken inside a number of websites including Bebo, MSN Messenger, Chatrooms, Habbo Hotel and other popular sites where young people like to hang out. These websites will be used to discuss various safety and responsible use messages. This presentation will be eye opening for teachers and educators who are unfamiliar with how some children behave on-line.

 

Title: Breaking down the walls with Google Earth

Time: 14:30–15:00

Venue: Scottish Education Village

Description: Simple ways and ideas to use Google Earth in the classroom, even if you have never used it before! This session is aimed at both primary and secondary practitioners.

Comments

[Ian Stuart]

Your almost making me regret that I am not going this year