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ULearn09 will now be held in Christchurch, instead of in Auckland as originally advertised. ULearn conferences have been held annually since 2005, and previously had alternated between Christchurch and Auckland. With the number of delegates and presentations continuing to grow each year, there are sometimes up to fifty sessions happening concurrently at different venues. The number of venues available for workshops within a close vicinity is considerably greater in Christchurch. While Auckland venues offer excellent facilities for keynotes and spotlights, limited venues available for workshops close by means that numbers need to be significantly restricted. Also, the Westpac Arena in Christchurch is able to comfortably seat around 2000 guests for dinner, whereas seating at the Sky City Convention Centre is limited to 1000, meaning that many delegates will miss out the opportunity to attend the conference dinner.

In addition, the development of the advanced network allowed excellent connectivity across almost all conference venues in Christchurch, and we are keen to exploit these opportunities again in the future. Therefore, with these factors in mind, it has been decided to once again hold ULearn in Christchurch in 2009.

Ulearn has started with a bang. Many teachers attended Pre-Conference workshops prior to the conference starting. Workshops were run on topics such as Inquiry learning, curriculum, Kidpix, Podcasting and Web 2 tools. I had a wonderful day with 20 switched on teachers ranging from Early Childhood, primary, secondary to tertiary. We spent the day looking at the importance of giving student voice in the classroom and the many ways you can help that happen. In the afternoon participants were given the chance to script and create their own podcasts and I thought I would share one with you.

Simon from Educating the Dragon created this vidcast inspired by the Show With Zefrank. Take a look for a bit of fun. This link will take you to podcast entitled “Can I go to Uloin?”.

Invite a colleague to one of the 9 preconference workshops on 2 October

Leadership Strand
Curriculum Implementation; Local curriculum design (Julia Atkin & Christina Ward);
Powerful Professional Learning Communities, (Cheryl Doig & Rob Clarke, Christchurch);
Hard Fun: Fostering An Inquiring Mind (Sharon Friesen, Canada).

Classroom Practice Strand
The social web and the social classroom (Ewan McIntosh, Scotland)
Sometimes the Technology, but Always the Thinking, (Jill Hammonds, CORE)
Designing and Developing Effective Content for Online Environments (Derek Wenmoth et al)
Adventures in Podcasting (Jane Nichols, CORE)
KidPix to the Max (Innes Kennard, VUW)
Movie Making for Secondary.(Nathan Kerr and Robert Douglas, Onehunga)

If you would like to attend a pre-conference workshop ONLY and are not attending the Ulearn07 conference, please write to gdavis@paradise.net.nz with your preferred option and your school or billing address.

If you have registered for the conference and the preconference workshop as well, you can select the preconference workshop of your choice