Five spotlight videos are now available for viewing on the ULearn08 website. You can view spotlight presentations by Julia Atkin, Westley Field, Greg Gebhart, Nicola Yelland, and Mark Treadwell. The final two spotlights, and those of our keynotes, will be available shortly.
Please note that the synchronising of video and presenter slides while editing the video may result in some variance from the conference session. Also, some presenters used media files which we have not been able to include in these video versions.
Presenters have given permission for these presentations to be made available online for 4 months to conference attendees by login access to this ULearn08 website, for the purpose of further professional discussion in ICT PD cluster schools. We do not have permission to provide DVD copies of the presentations.
Supporting materials for some spotlight presentations can be accessed from the Find presenters’ material knowledge base.
Our second spotlight presentation will be given by Westley Field. Westley is Director of Online Learning and Manager of IT at MLC School in Sydney. He is also is Director of the ‘Skoolaborate’ Initiative.
Skoolaborate is a global initiative which uses a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wikis, and ‘virtual worlds’ to transform learning. These tools are combined to provide collaborative blended learning experiences which make learning more meaningful and engaging. The projects integrate curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative global actions. This video provides an introduction to Skoolaborate:
Westley’s spotlight is about emerging technologies and their implication for learning and the abstract is as follows:
Technologies change the way we work and live. The rate of change with technology and the types of technologies that are emerging have tremendous implications for the future of education. Schools will need to adopt new practices including new skills for teachers if they are to remain competitive.
In this presentation, participants will explore new directions with emerging technologies as well as learn the strategies that worked in establishing a successful global collaborative initiative in teen SecondLife - from admin to practice.
This presentation will explore the learning and subsequent heuristics used to make this project a success. Participants will learn about practical strategies and administrative considerations that make these projects work. Participants will view video footage of student experiences as well as interact with students and partners during the presentation.
Westley Field presents around the world on topics such as education in virtual worlds, making 1 to 1 work, heuristics of implementing e-learning, educational technology, connecting students in a web 2.0 world, and leading in a flat world.
In 2008, Westley received the ASLA John Lee Award for innovative us of IT in learning. Westley has previously received a Churchill Fellowship, Computerworld Honours (Smithsonian), Apple Distinguished Educator, Macromedia Ed Leader, and Adobe Ed Leader for his work with schools and communities. Westley is also on the Board for the NSW and Sydney branches of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.
Westley will also give two interactive presentations during breakouts 3 and 4. One-to-One: 10 years of ideas will allow participants the opportunity to work collaboratively to develop a vision for learning, then explore strategies and successful working models and for a one-to-one learning environment.
One of the things that we can rely on at ULearn is that some of our firmly held beliefs about teaching and learning will be challenged, often in surprising ways. I am particularly looking forward to Nicola Yelland’s spotlight. Having come across her in the reference lists of several academic papers by other researchers, and then discovering the work she has done in the Mapping MultiLiteracies research in South Australia, I am excited at the prospect of hearing her speak. She will provide exactly the kind of challenge that I look forward to at the conference.
The framework that she has been involved in developing for mapping children’s literacies, her view of teaching and learning (which crosses both ECE and early primary sectors) and the challenges that she throws at us in terms of our role as teachers of young children give us the opportunity to look at some of our own beliefs and practices with a new lens. As a primary-trained teacher now working in the ECE sector I know that there are practices and perspectives from both sectors that would enrich the other.
I am certain that I will hear comments after her spotlight that her focus on the ‘other’ sector meant that “she isn’t relevant for the sector I work in”. My challenge to you is to suspend your attachment to your own sector, and listen carefully and critically to what she is saying about children, teaching and learning, and our roles and responsibilities as teachers.
I really look forward to some lively debate after her session.
Get to know ULearn08’s keynotes and spotlight presenters before the conference by reading and subscribing to their blogs. They are listed in the ULearn08 blogroll (to the left of this post).
Our seven spotlight sessions feature recognised leaders in education and will be held during each breakout in the Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium. This year we have invited presenters from Australia and New Zealand.
Julia Atkin, from Australia, returns to provide some clarity on collected and distributed leadership in relation to the curriculum.
Westley Field, from the MLC School in Sydney, will talk about the Skoolaborate initiative, emerging technologies, and their implication for learning.
Greg Gebhart, from IT Vision in Australia, will focus on the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 tools, highlighting a range of free and engaging applications that can enhance student learning.
Nicola Yelland, Research Professor of Education at Victoria University in Melbourne, will discuss what it means to be literate in new times and the ways in which teachers can provide relevant contexts that support children to become multi-literate by extending their modalities of learning. This spotlight is particularly relevant for early childhood educators.
Mark Treadwell, from Dataview in New Zealand, will take you on a nationwide tour looking at innovative practices surrounding curriculum, including school and centre management, assessment, the use of ICT, and transformational leadership.
Cheryl Doig, from Think Beyond, will round off our local contribution by asking leaders to “walk the talk!”.
Joan Dalton, from Australia, returns again to focus on 21st century learning in a digital, networked world, and asks us what this shifting landscape will mean for teachers.
One of the things that we can rely on at ULearn is that some of our firmly held beliefs about teaching and learning will be challenged, often in surprising ways. I am particularly looking forward to
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