Report from Plymouth E-Learning Conference 2011

The Plymouth Elearning conference punches well above its weight. This year the school kids stole the show.

My conference highlight, offering us (HE) real food for thought, were the contributions from school students. I came across this quote ahead of the conference while preparing for my own session on blogging:

I love our blog, it’s so fun to go on. I learn lots of new things in our blog. I especially liked working with the other P5 class from Tannochside Primary on the rainforest. It’s awesome, I hope I get to come on tomorrow.

Chloe F, Year 5, Chapelside Primary School

Many of the sessions at pelc11 were great but the Student Voice Technology Showcase organised by Dan Roberts was my standout session. In all of the examples the students are active learners, creating and being creative.

Computer Game Developers

Jamie, Mark & Humphrey from Saltash Community School spoke about the the game they are developing for the Xbox. It’s for local primary school students to explore and learn about Saltash before they arrive. The game will be open source allowing others to reproduce it for their own schools.

Primary Bloggers

The Year 6 bloggers from Heathfield School had sent a pre-recorded video explaining what they had been doing. Some of the students joined us via Skype and their personal favourite tools were Coveritlive, Voicethreads & YouTube. They have been engaging with people around the world.

TV Producers

The kids from Broadclyst Primary School wowed us with their TV Studio project.  You really had to be there to appreciate the talent, enthusiasm and confidence of these kids. They have researched, storyboarded, scripted, filmed and starred in their TV shows.

Social Networkers

Beth, Emma, Megan & Ellie from talked about the school’s private social network St james Voice which uses Elgg, while at Lampton School the students have been using Facebook & Twitter for sharing ideas and group discussions.  They saw it as being vital for participating from home (particularly on ‘snow days’). Lampton students had also been involved in designing their own classrooms.

I gave two presentations at Plymouth:

Writing for the Web

Considering I was up against the sexier web 2.0, Xbox, mobile web, @chickensaltash, @jamesclay @markpower I was delighted to get 15 people.  Writing for the Web, as I said in my short talk, isn’t rocket science; it’s mainly commonsense. My key Writing for the Web tips

 

Creating Blogs & Websites for Education

9:30 the morning-after-the-conference-dinner is not the slot you hope for. Many thanks to Roberto, Simon & Yasir for joining me!

 

If you interested in blogging please visit my new LSE Blogging Support & Help blog & sign up for updates (feed or email).

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