Drape's Takes

Last week I was privileged to attend the first day of the fourth annual Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange, an "open conference that encourages free access to presentation information and materials, and facilitates the sharing of knowledge."


As I have written about this conference before, I must now report on how pleased I am with a number of small additions that have been made to the conference experience - implementations that all conference organizers would do well to incorporate:

1. Every session was video-taped and made available online in a mere matter of minutes after the sessions were completed. Video was streamed and archived using Apple's free Quicktime Broadcaster. Quick, easy, free, and an instantly available archive. What's not to like?
2. TTIX now has its own blog to which conference presenters and participants can contribute. Great idea that could be improved upon with a simpler registration process and a larger pool of writers.
   
3. Every session has it's own web page with a dedicated chat room (back-channel). Included is a brief evaluation form for participants to give their feedback regarding the presentation. Here's an example. This kind of instant, participant-driven feedback will define 21st Century learning.
   
4. The lunch-time speed demos, presented by any willing participant, were an excellent opportunity for anyone willing to share.
5. Conference organizers utilized and encouraged Twitter use as a way to further collaborate.
6. The entire conference was FREE. Including LUNCH and a free USB thumb-drive. All provided by conference sponsors.
   

If TTIX can do it, why can't others?

Technorati Tags: ttix08 twitter blogosphere quicktime,

Well, here we go. I just finished setting up the video/audio stream with our district tech gurus (yeah, even smarter than I am) and holy crap: I'm starting to think that this thing is actually going to work.

Here are the details for this Wednesday's "open professional development session" entitled Social Software in the Classroom:

• Class will be held once a week (for five weeks) beginning Wednesday, September 19.
• Class will be held from 4:30-7:15 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Click here to translate these times to your time zone.
• If you don't have a Skype account, you will want to create one ahead of time (free), as Robin Ellis will be moderating a Skype chatroom throughout the class. To join in, send her a quick message through Skype: robin.ellis1
• Our class wiki (with schedule and future participant portfolios) will be available here: http://socialsoftware07.wikispaces.com/
• A quicktime audio/video stream will be available here: rtsp://163.248.25.133/socialsoftware07.sdp. Because we will be using Quicktime to stream, you will want to ensure that your Quicktime software is up to date ahead of time. Visit this site to get the latest version (free).

If you are a teacher, administrator, or technology specialist that would like to learn more about the many free, online tools that can be used to enhance your teaching, then consider yourself personally invited to join us. We'd love to have you and look forward to an exciting, open, and collaborative experience.

Update:

• To join in on the action, please join the wiki we'll be using for the class.
• For teachers not receiving in-service credit, perfect attendance is not required.
• While this class is intended to help newbies learn more about the educational uses of Web 2.0 technologies, experienced users are equally welcome (and appreciated, as the sum of our knowledge is what truly makes these new technologies so appealing).

Technorati Tags: socialsoftware07 education technology wikis quicktime skype professional_development