Microsoft 2009 European Innovative Teachers Forum (1of10) – The Journey to Vienna

This is the first in a series of ten posts about my experience last week at the 2009 Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum in Vienna.

For me, the journey to Vienna started back in 2005 when I first joined the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network. Back in 2005 I was Head of Geography at Dunbar Grammar School and I took part in the Microsoft / SQA Partners in Learning Initiative and developed the original GEOCASTS (geography podcasts) that are now hosted over on the Do-Be site. At the time I thought this was a very innovative project – in fact I developed some of the first educational Mp4 and Mp3 technology available on the web and we even at one stage got into the top 20 educational podcasts on iTunes.

The Microsoft Innovative Teachers network has been a key part of my personal learning network ever since then and I read with interest the US Innovative Teachers Newsletter as it drops into my inbox bi-monthly.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think the Innovative Teachers Network the only professional learning community out there for teachers. In fact you can find me all over the web collaborating, sharing and borrowing ideas from people. I’m regularly found within Promethean Planet, TES Connect, Google Teacher Forums and Deputes Together. They all serve different purposes and some are better than others - but I’m a big believer that teachers should make use of any resources that are offered to them. Particularly if they are free.

As I’ve explained before since 2005, when I first started to really embrace web 2.0 and its opportunities for learning. I really have become a ‘nomadic learner’ moving between real places and virtual places ‘grazing’ on information and knowledge but most importantly working with other committed teachers and education professionals throughout the globe. 

When it was suggested that I submit our Games Based Learning Transition Project for the UK Innovative Teachers Forum. I jumped at the chance, as it was an opportunity to further share some of the great work going on in East Lothian but also an opportunity to meet some new teachers. Dan Roberts from Saltash.net and Stuart Ball from Microsoft were very encouraging about the project when I want to watch their presentation at BETT. Walter Patterson, who works on some of the Partners in Learning Projects in Scotland, was also instrumental in helping me shape my VCT and being a real critical friend.

Anyway, I submitted the VCT which fully credited all of the teachers from the Musselburgh Cluster and was delighted to be selected to go to Reading in February for the UK Innovative Teachers forum. I was then even more pleased to be one of the four teachers selected to go to the European Innovative Teachers Forum in Vienna.

In Reading I had a good opportunity to see some great work from other UK finalists. I’ve written about my experience here so I won’t repeat myself. But I will say that other three projects that were selected to go to the European Forum really did stand out as being truly innovative.

I loved James Kent’s Asian Tsunami project particularly as he was one of the first educators in the UK that I had come across to effectively use Deep Zoom in the classroom. I also liked the way he had trained up some of the older children from Croseceliog Comprehensive School in Wales to act as peer coaches for his  OneNote to collaborate project work. I also liked the project because you could pick any theme or global event.

I also really liked Chris Henderson’s Interactive Revision. I thought it was a great idea to recreate his science classroom in Photosynth so the children could use it for revision purposes. In fact it’s what gave me the idea to recreate one of the CDT rooms at MGS and we have plans to re-create the whole department. I also liked the way that Chris had sued other new technologies to create engaging content for your people including bubbl.us, audacity and wordle. Again Chris’s project could be replicated by anyone within any subject area.

Mandeep Atwal’s project on Young Voices from Shirelands College was also one that I thought we could re-create within GLOW. Mandeep’s project used a sharepoint online virtual learning platform to increase religious, cultural awareness and sensitivity within the school and local community. The websites that the students created were available to be access by parents at home.  

It was a real pleasure to be with such talented teachers in Vienna last week and over the next year as I travel around Scotland I am going to be encouraging as many teachers as possible to get involved in on-line communities (including GLOW) and, if appropriate, submit VCT’s for next years UK Innovative Teachers Forum. I hope that next year we have a few more Scottish Teachers at the UK event.