Over the past 36 hours, I have had several profound learning experiences. First, I have been trying to experience as much of the Learning 2.0 conference which was going on in Shanghai on both Friday and Saturday evenings. Like members of my learning community, Carolyn Foote, Jennifer Wagner, Clarence Fisher, and David Jakes, I have been trying to follow the forums on the Ning which has been set up at the conference, following the messages on twitter, and trying to catch rides in the Elluminate rooms so that I could connect and learn. On Saturday morning, after reading a twitter message from Jeff Utecht, I raced to downloaded the opening session podcast before I jumped in the car, shaking off the sleep on a very cool, autumnal morning to do my Saturday morning errands, going to the bank and grocery shopping. For over an hour and a half, I hung on nearly every word, soaking it in.
On Saturday afternoon, I participated in a FlashMeeting hosted by Paul Harrington from the UK. There were between 8 and 11 participants from the UK, the United States, and Australia talking about best practice. The conversation centered on developing students spoken voice through podcasting. I got a number of great ideas on why this is important for elementary school students and found out about a great new project, Voices of the World, which I am hoping to integrate into somewhere into my school.
So while some may consider me slightly pathetic, since I spend my Friday and Saturday evenings at home, in front of my computer (flipping between the Cubs-Cardinals and Brewers-Reds baseball games and the Diamondbacks-Dodgers on Friday night, not a complete waste of time), I am happy that I invested the time and energy to continue with my learning. I will be better for it in the long run.
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I’m so jealous. I been hanging on to any thing I could glean too. Seems you got more than I did. But I have some of the same feelings as you, so i can relate.
Did you know that Elluminate also offers free 3-user rooms called vRooms? You can use these rooms as much as you’d like, for as long as you’d like. They offer all of the same features as an Elluminate session but they are free! They may be a great opportunity to engage in a discussion concerning best practices or even Friday night’s baseball game. You can sign up for your free vRoom at getvroom.com!
I hope this helps!
Amber Koskela
It’s not “pathetic” to carve time out for yourself on a Friday night!
That Voices of the World thing looks like a neat thing to do with the 3rd grade maybe? I will try to pitch it to my cohort.
Amy