During my visit to the Scottish Learning Festival I was aware that Martin Jack from Think Different Events was there. We had been in touch regarding Merlin John‘s piece about the TeachMeet community being offered 3 evening slots at the next BETT show.
Category: Teachmeet
TeachMeet Gets BrainPOPPED!
Last Wednesday evening I left school at 3.30pm, jumped on a plane bound for Glasgow at 5.00pm, stepped onto Scottish soil at 6.05pm and arrived at BBC Scotland just in time to see the start of TeachMeet SLF at 6.30pm!
And I was thrilled to see BrainPOP once again showing their support for this unique CPD event with a fantastic animated short, premièred at the beginning of the event.
If you have ever come across BrainPOP then you know that the talented folks behind the scenes have a penchant for clearly explaining things in an engaging way. Ollie Bray wasn’t sure what TeachMeet was so Tim and Moby have helped!
I have also learned from Ollie Bray that the team at BrainPOP UK are willing to change the logo at the end of the movie to match any future TeachMeet. Great news.
If you attended TeachMeet SLF then take some time to leave a message and thank all of the generous sponsors who helped make it happen.
On behalf of Teach Primary magazine I am looking for some people who would be willing to contribute to an article explaining their experience of the TeachMeet SLF event. Steve Bunce is already helping and I would appreciate recruiting a few more people to help tell their story. Just let me know if you would be willing.
TeachMeet Updates
It is exciting times for edtech professional development as the TeachMeet concept goes from strength to strength. This is a post to update you about the range of TeachMeets that have taken place recently and are currently being planned for the near future.
The popular unconference has shown it’s flexibility over the last year as a whole variety of events have been successfully run. My first TeachMeet was at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2008 and I have been privileged enough to be have organised one in the Midlands as well as attend many more. The ethos and atmosphere remains the single most important constant – open, friendly, innovative.
Last Tuesday I headed down to Channel 4 HQ for their Summer Education Conference. It carried the question of “What Comes Next?”, exploring the future of schooling in the UK. As a closing act they invited Ian Usher and I to host a TeachMeet. It was small in scale but not in terms of the ideas and innovation that was shared – as usual this was varied and hugely interesting. Take a look at the Connect recording for a flavour of the event.
TeachMeet North East took place in Tyneside Cinema a couple of weeks ago with about 50 people attending. From all accounts it was a very successful event with a high percentage of people who were attending TeachMeet for the first time. You can catch up with the presentations and the links to the FlashMeeting recordings either on the wiki page or in the Ning for TeachMeetNE.
TeachMeet Student Edition was the first variation of the original concept specifically designed for student teachers and teachers in their probationary year. Run by David Muir from Strathclyde University in early June it attracted around 60 people according to those signed up on the wiki. Once again you can get a full replay of the presentations and the event from the FlashMeeting.
TeachMeet the Islay Variation – education 2020 Conference – In June lots of people packed their bags and headed to the Isle of Islay off the West coast of Scotland to take part in the education 2020 unconference. It explored the theme of what education will look like in 2020 and what challenges might we face. Take a look at the wiki for the way they organised the event and here is a stack of pics and videos from the event in a Flickr group. Here is the Flashmeeting too to catch up.
I really appreciate the archiving of these events through the web conference recording and Leon Cych has also done some great work recording those events he can attend and publishing the presentations on the TeachMeet Blip TV channel. This is sponsored by Futurelab and offers those unable to attend a way to learn from the event.
There is a range of TeachMeets on offer in the remainder of this year, here is the full range that I am aware of. Plenty of choice both in terms of location and the style of the events – I would urge you to attend if you can make it and have never been before.
>TeachMeet SuKe – Sussex and Kent. Tonbridge, Friday 18th September, 7-9pm. Sign up or contact Stephen Lockyer(@mrlockyer)
>TeachMeet SLF09 – 23rd September BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay. Returning to the Scottish Learning Festival for the 4th year I am sure it will be another successful night. Get your name down!
>TeachMeet Skolforum – if you happen to be in Stockholm on the 27th October between 4.30pm and 8pm why not join our Swedish colleagues.
>LeadMeet – Scottish leadership edition. LeadMeet is a variation on the now tried and trusted TeachMeet format. This time we are concentrating on educational leadership. Wednesday 29th July 2009, Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh.
>TeachMeet North West – 22nd October 5-10pm at the BBC 21st Century Classroom, Salford, Manchester. Join the folks who have already signed up.
It is great to see a range of national and regional events springing up and I wish all the organisers all the success for their respective meets.
If you are in a position to support these events through sponsorship I am certain that it will be gratefully received. Small contributions are all that is needed and every event relies upon kind sponsors to help cover the minimal costs involved. Please get in touch with the organisers through their wiki pages or leave a note for me and I can let them know you are interested.
The BETT Show organisers have picked up on the vibrancy of the TeachMeet community and Merlin John recently spoke to Martin Jack of Thinkdifferentevents (who runs the seminars for BETT organisers EMAP) about a generous offer of the Apex room at Olympia for three separate evenings, three separate TeachMeets, during the BETT Show 2010. I hope to find out more about the details of what this offer entails. It will be very interesting to see how the TeachMeet community responds to it and perhaps how over the course of the year 3 separate events unfold.
TeachMeet Midlands Needs Sponsors!
In less than 30 days now we will be holding the TeachMeet Midlands event at the National College for School Leadership in Nottingham.
If you are not familiar with these events they are held at no cost to the people attending, you will be fed and watered and perhaps learn something (with a sprinkling of inspiration) all for free. The NCSL have been amazing with their support via Stuart Sutherland, and have provided us with pre-event drinks, the evening food, all the AV we could wish for and the great venue itself.
But we still need some help.
If you are able to offer a small amount of sponsorship we would be grateful as we are still looking for help with two elements:
- Bar drinks (via tokens)
- Wi-fi: Public wifi at the venue is provided by BT Openzone. We are seeking sponsorship to provide BT Openzone cards (@£10 per person) to participants who need access on the night.
As with all of the previous TeachMeets we are not looking for big donations to cover everything, whatever people can manage to show their support and to keep the momentum going with these great events. If you can help or you know someone who would be willing, just leave a comment or drop me an email using the contact form at the top of the page.
Teachmeet North East London
Last night I attended the North East London Teachmeet held at the Learning and Development Centre in the London borough of Havering.
I was invited to do a mini-note presentation and talked about the use of technology as part of a blended learning environment. My talk was titled “Mr Barrett I Have Got Glue on My Laptop” and I used Prezi for the first time which worked really well.
I was pleased to have an opportunity to meet Dawn Hallybone who talked about Games Based Learning in her school. She talked about using the Nintendo DSs and Pictochat as a way to do shared writing. A lovely idea to engage lots of children with writing. I will be picking her brains some more as we place our order for a class set of Nintendo DSs for our Year 4 children. (Should we get the new DSi though?)
Ollie Bray, the ever present feature of many TeachMeets, was attending and talked through some of his work with Maps, Mashups and Milkfloats. Some of the first person navigation of Google Earth he talked about, using the GE API, would be ideal to enrich a storytelling unit. I also loved the Milkfloat driving which was a lot of fun. Olli never fails to leave me with something to think about and take away to use in my classroom. A great talk.
If you attended I hope you had a fruitful evening learning some new ideas and meeting people. Please let me know what you made of it all. If you you enjoyed it perhaps consider coming to Teachmeet Midlands on the 15th May at the NCSL in Nottingham.