e/merge 2008: Connected Teacher Toolkit

It is interesting to read some of the reflections on the conference and I will try to link it up here from posts. As I follow Nancy’s RSS feed (a great way to keep track of favourite blogs) I stumbled accross her reflection on the conference:

http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/2008/07/17/a-spot-of-reflection-shifting-from-me-to-we/

As for me, I am not quite ready to reflect yet! I still feel as if though I can go and harvest quite a lot of learning from the forums.

So I will be back.

Cannot believe that e/merge 2008 is over! or is it? It does not have to be!!! We can keep the conversations and connections going….

If you have not yet joined our Facebook group, you can wander over there and give us some input: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23363984814

Also, I have been having a great time seeing how people are getting on with their lives in teaching and learning through twitter (www.twitter.com) If you have not started twittering yet…now is the time. Robin Good has been posting some stunning new collarborative tool links in his twitter, which I have tagged in my…

Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/maggiev) is another place where we can follow one another around in learning. Let’s join our learning networks together!

So, three places where we can keep in touch…

I will from time to time trace some of our e/mergers progress on our emerge 2008 blog at edublogs. And just a reminder that it is not to late to join us in blogging…or share where you are blogging…. http://emerge2008.edublogs.org/emerging-people/

Am I the only one who play with the tools, or are you all to busy reading papers and commenting?

Or do you use the tools so seamlessly that you do not even know you are using it?

I heard yesterday afternoon how Howard incorporate the tools into his teaching class- inspirational

Are busy loading RSS feeds onto my Netvibes Universe. We will learn more about Netvibes from Bronwyn today. I use to use igoogle, but I must confess, netvibes is much easier to use and it has a public page that is easy capeasy to set up. Tony says it uses a lot of bandwidth, but I am not really noticing a slowdown here….?????

Seeing that we have been twitteriing, I have done a tweetscan for the word “emerge2008″ to add as an RSS feed to my Netvibes universe. Tweetscan is like a search engine for tweets. I also follow the tag “web 2.0″ and “education” through tweetscan and have chosen to receive it via e-mail (a dumb thing to do actually as my e-mailbox is in desperation mode-I think I should read it through my rss feeds on netvbibes rather)

Maybe I should go and get a real live Feed (breakfast)?

I have recently become a twitterer (or is it a tweeter?) and I am still findng my way. I think it is an easy tool to use. If you can find people with the same interest as you, to follow, there will be great opportunities for learning.

I have not tried to update my staus from my cellphone, but I am sure Maggie will “encourage” me to do that shortly!!!

So just respond to how you use your web 2.0 tools (today and everyday). I will kick off…

• Through twitter I learnt about a teacher in Guguleto who has just created his first blog and went to encourage him with a posting
• Threw  sheep at my kids at home with Facebook (Just to show them I love them even though I am never home) as well as some of the mergers already on my Facebook (to see if they take thebiat and if I can distract them away from reading and commenting on all the papers here……mmmmm)
• Tagged a few resources that I have picked up here in e/merge with emerge2008
• Made a tagcrowd of the discussion in the “connected teacher” thread
  
• Loading video links onto our facebook group for this afternoon’s workshop

I have managed to survive the first day of e/merge 2008, but only just. There are so many papers that grab my interest and I feel tonight that I have not quite done justice to most of them.

As I was in a f2f conference last week, I only now realise the value of an online conference. I do not always peruse my f2f conference papers with such keen interest as I do online papers. The reason being, I think, is that we do not get a chance for proper discussion in a f2f scenario. Here we are kind of forced to focus and the input and enthusiasm of our fellow particpants galvanise us into constructive discussions. It also provide us with a platform to get rid of some of our frustrations and share a few of our successes (as is prevalent in the ICT in schools discussion that I have been following).

I somehow got kicked out of my first live online presentation in the Connect room, but fortunately I had Bronwyn to help me through it and her calm and collected presence (and twitter wisdom) was an inspiration to all of us. Luckily the session will be available to listen to for those who could not get into the room due to technical hitches.

So thank you for sharing and please feel free to add your reflective voice as a comment below!!!  

We have an exciting programme starting on Monday which includes a live keynote at the combined face to face and online opening at University of Cape Town on Monday evening. This will also be available online. Dr Bakary Diallo, Rector of the African Virtual University will present on “Reaching the potential of ICTs in African Higher Education Institutions”.

The Connected Teacher Toolkit workshop led by Bronwyn Stuckey and Maggie Verster is also starting on Monday. Each weekday during the first week of e/merge a live online meeting at 3pm  will focus on a different tool in the toolkit and offer a relaxed and supportive exploration of the tool, its use and benefit to the practices of teachers.On Monday there is an excellent opportunity to learn about Twitter which makes it easy for groups of people to stay in touch in real time. Other tools that you can explore next week include blogging, social tagging, Facebook and newsfeeds. Why not come and sign up for the Connected Teacher Toolkit?