I don’t want to worry you but I really like it when people come to these sessions with a Google account already made.

I gave some ideas HERE and another great video from Demo Girl has come up since. Molly created it for her Mom (sic) so we all should be able to understand it. Watch it on Molly’s Post.

Session 1:

Keeping Up – Don’t look for it, let it come to you!

Educational Leaders need to be open to new ideas if they are to keep their vision alive. Two things conspire against this: everything changes so quickly these days AND no one has any time. This session will focus on using Google Reader which is an “aggregation tool” that brings stuff to you (one of several). (We will travel via Delicious and maybe emerge through YouTube). You will be shown a few tricks about finding, evaluating (quickly) and selecting stuff to follow up.

Aimed particularly at Educational Administrators who really want to know what is being said as soon as it is published or just at people who want to know what their favourite blogger has said. This is also a great way to keep up with conferences (without actually going!); “follow” people whose ideas you respect or gather current information for research or study. Remember: “Email is for old people!”

In this session I’ll mainly look at

Google Reader (A feed reader or RSS aggregator),

Delicious (A popular Social Bookmarking site)

Itunes (One of the simplest ways to get Podcasts)

If you want to follow-up later at home this is a good place to start.

Session 2:

Lifestyle Computing – Web 2.0 is not a thing, it’s a state of mind!

Most of the decision makers in education are “serious” people who have never downloaded a funny video to their IPod; made a podcast; morphed a photo; uploaded from their phone or “poked” a friend on Facebook. Most of the kids who suffer/gain from these decisions just have fun on their computers and are receptive to whatever comes along. And we are surprised by disengagement!!

Mick contends that if educational decision makers had more fun, the educational outcomes for the kids would be better!

This workshop will take you into the world of Web 2.0 and then invite you to play with something that interests you. Skype your daughter in the UK (with video!); collaborate on a Mindmeister mindmap; download a podcast; make a blog – try Edublogs for school or Blogger for yourself – my holiday again!; share stuff on Delicious or play with something that wasn’t invented when this was written. When you have had some fun you will be invited to do what you are already very good at – work out how to use these tools to produce better educational outcomes for kids!

Other possibilities are Google Docs & Maps, Voicethread, Video Sites (like Youtube – it isn’t the only one – Teachertube), Photosites like Flickr (I use Picasa – have a look at my recent holiday snaps!), Gmail – the group will determine the agenda.

If you want to follow-up later at home this is a good place to start.

References:   Places I rely on.

Lee & Sachi LeFever  http://www.commoncraft.com/show