Connecting East

This week we will explore a range of options for you to take control of your own professional development — with the help of Web 2.0.  On offer is a mix of tasks and tools to keep you connected and inspired.

By the way, see this recent article in the Guardian (UK) entitled “Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up”

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

This stuff is coming into schools faster than you might think.

There is only one more week of Connecting East when we return from the break.   So we’re trying to help you consolidate and build on your experiences thus far.

Just because you’ve been a Novice all along doesn’t mean you’re still one.  Please read all four tasks and tackle whatever you feel capable of.  Maybe you’re ready to sign up for Twitter, even if you don’t feel like an Expert.

But everyone above the Novice level will able to follow what Keri-Lee, Louise, and Belinda are experiencing at the EARCOS conference over these last days of term, thanks to Twitter.

Thanks for sticking with us on the journey so far. This week we’re going to be focusing on making the most of technology available to us at school: our Promethean Interactive Whiteboards.

Through hands-on tutorials, Novices will learn the basics of how to get started and Experts will advance their existing skills and create flipcharts to share with others.

We look forward to seeing what you create!

I feel a bit like a magician who is about to reveal his tricks, as we take on image generation and avatars. After this week, you will know how I made the signs at the top of each blog post for example. Or avatars like the one of me below:

You will realise that we’re not amazingly clever people, and rather just people who know some clever websites. Sigh. You’d better click on the link below.