Posts Tagged ‘Conference’

Learning@School Conference Rotorua

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

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It took four hours on the bus from Auckland to Rotorua through some amazing scenery.  My first impression was that it was a pretty cool little town but once I’d had a look around Rotorua I was pretty dumbstruck. It is absolutely stunning here……so what if  it’s a little pongy from all the sulpher.  It totally rocks!

In the evening I experienced a Polynesian Spa and I’m pretty convinced that my joints, hair, nails and skin have benefited from all the minerals in the water.  From my hotel I practically step outside my front door and step into the hot baths unlike a priest named Father Mahoney who trekked 80 Kilometers in 1878 from Tauranga to Rotorua to bathe in a hand-dug, fern and manuka-fringed thermal pool exactly where the beautiful Polynesian Spa is now.

Father Mahoneys’ arthritis was greatly alleviated from bathing regularly in the pool so the hot mineral spring water now have quite a ‘therapeutic’ reputation.  All I can say is that the view from the pool took my breath away and I felt wonderful afterwards :0)

I was delighted to run two breakout sessions at the Rotorua Convention Centre for the Learning@School Conference #latsconf.  My first session was ‘Google Earth in a Social Science Context‘ and my second was ‘Use of Online Games in Primary‘ (with a bit of Web 2.0 flung in).

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Full course outline here…Do Be Rotarua

The teachers that came to both sessions were lovely and reaffirmed to me that Kiwi’s are the nicest people on this earth.  Nothing is ever a problem, they always seem to be laughing and having fun and I can honestly say I’ve witnessed more random acts of kindness in these two short weeks than in my whole life.

There were a couple of moments that stood out for me this trip and get a special mention.  The first was drinking an AWESOME smoothie at lunchtime – the sweetest, most yummiest thing ever.  The second was taking my shoes off at the end of the day and walking back to my hotel in my bare feet.  There was something so comforting about doing that.

I LOVE that the pavements here have no dog poo on them.  How amazing is that eh?  Clean streets.

Looking forward to my two sessions tomorrow then the real fun starts – I’m going backpacking from Friday.

My Prezi can be viewed here: Lou Zealand Prezi

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Posted in Conference, Education, Eduvation, Ideas, NZEdu, New Zealand, Rotorua, Teach-It, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Do Be @ the Education Show

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

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As you all know Do Be have been selected to take part in ‘Innovation Alley’ at this years Education Show in Birmingham.

There’s only 21 days left until Do Be hit Birmingham. It’s all very exciting at Do Be HQ. We are just about to unveil our new logo and launch into England at the same time.

You can find us at stand Q7OJ. If you are attending please come along to visit us. We would love to see you.

We are also running a competition involving the Nintendo DS games consoles. This is your chance to play with one of these systems and use your gaming skills to win a Teach-It by achieving the fastest times, highest scores and youngest brain age! Each day we will be giving away a Teach-It to one lucky winner for use within the school of your choice. In the words of Dale Winton ‘You have to be in it to win it’ so get over to Q7O7 and take up this years Do Be DS challenge.

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Posted in Conference, Education, Education Show, Eduvation, Games Based Learning, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation | No Comments »

DoBeLou in Rotorua NZ

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

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It’s confirmed…Louise will be speaking at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua, New Zealand on 24th and 25th February!

We have been invited to speak about 21st Century Learning and how we approach the use of technology in the classrooms of Britain.

There are a great many people who have been involved in professional development programmes throughout New Zealand in the past few years. The Learning@School conference provides a wonderful opportunity for practitioners to share what has been happening for them as well as an opportunity for the international education community to take part too.

The Ministry of Education sponsors this annual Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICTPD) conference at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua, to be held from 23-26 February 2010. There will be a powhiri and a special reception for all of our conference presenters on 23rd February.

Aptly named ‘Embedding New Technologies across the National Curriculum‘ Louise’s presentation will promote what we call ‘Eduvation‘, combining Education with Innovation, Inspiration and Application.

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Course Aims Include:

- Explore a variety of ICT technologies and apply them in a classroom context

- To develop lesson ideas using ICT to engage learners

- Experience ‘Eduvation’ through the eyes of the learner

- Practice and apply Games-Based-Learning, Social Media and ICT to the curriculum

Technologies explored:

- Google Earth

- Digital Media

- MP3/MP4

- Games Platforms – Guitar Hero/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii

- Web 2.0 technologies

A complete course outline can be viewed here: Eduvation NZ Rotorua

Follow Louise’s adventures in New Zealand at www.do-be.co.uk/nzedu

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Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, Games Based Learning, Lesson Ideas, NZEdu, New Zealand, Rotarua, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Do Be visit Redbridge – London

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

I had a great time down in London on Friday.  My first presentation was at Redbridge Teacher Centre in Ilford.  The teachers I met in Redbridge were doing some amazing stuff using technology to engage and enhance learning.

Anthony Evans (amazing guy) or follow him on Twitter @skinnyboyevans organised the day so BIG thank you Anthony.  You can check out Anthony’s blogpost on my presentation.

Feedback from teachers on Teach-It was really positive even though most of them were into ICT in a big way. Wordle, Picnik and of-course Google Earth were some of the favourite applications.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Del Singh from Woodlands Primary in Redbridge.  Del has introduced Teach-It to all staff in his school to enrich the teaching of their ICT scheme.  Del described how he gave the pupils a photocopy of the skills they were learning which included steps on how to meet the learning objective.  He said that pupils worked at their own pace to complete the activity in the Digital Image Section (Idea 2).  Pupils then applied their new skills of saving images from sites such as Google, Flickr and DeviantArt into a PowerPoint presentations on their topic this term – Ancient Egypt.

Here is just one of a huge number of positive quotes from Del’s students:

‘The only place I knew I could search for images was Google Images….now I know about flikr and deviantart’ – Yr 5 pupil

Here is an example of the staff feedback:

‘A good resource that also get pupils reading and following instructions’ – Caroline Jones

‘All in all I think this is an innovative resource that supports pupils learning of current technologies’ – Del Singh

Here is an example of the feedback sent so far on how the pilot is going:

Teacher led learning at Woodlands - Redbridge

Teacher led learning at Woodlands - Redbridge

Check out more of these images here.

Thanks everyone :0)

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Posted in Classroom, Education, Eduvation, ICT Subject Leader Conference, Lesson Ideas, London, Redbridge, Resources, Teach-It, Technology, Technovation | No Comments »