Newsletter Day Two

Today at

ULearn08 Thursday 9 October 8.00am Early bird session in the Exhibition Hall 9.00am Microsoft partners in Learning Innovative Teachers Awards Ceremony 9.15am Keynote – Steven Carden 10.15am Morning Tea 11.00am Breakout Round 3 12.30pm Lunch 1.45pm Breakout Round 4 3.15pm Afternoon Tea 4.00pm Breakout Round 5 7.30pm Conference Dinner

Dinner Westpac Centre Time: 7.30 Theme: Rouge

WE DN ES DA Y’ S K EY NOT E Yesterday’s keynote, delivered by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, and Will Richardson, concerned itself with the way the school system (not only New Zealand, but all of the developed world), needs to understand the way in which youth of today share themselves over the internet, so they can better educate the kids on how to do so appropriately and wisely. This understanding is necessary for children’s safety, to ensure they are not damaged by future employer’s rejection and other hazards of misinformed release of their image. Will concerned himself with the filtering of the internet in schools, and how protecting children from the internet doesn’t teach them anything, and leaves them unprepared for the real world. While Sheryl talked about the benefits of positive distribution of oneself over the net. As the internet becomes an increasingly sheltered place for children in school, they do not learn how to deal with the responsibilities and hazards of being publicly searchable, and are not educated in how to be safe and courteous online. The keynote concluded with Sheryl noting that coming to an understanding of new networking technology ‘will be hard’, but that teachers had to comprehend the technology so as to learn how to teach safety in its use to kids. ‘Change for the children’, she asked the audience. And indeed, to protect the youth, we must.

OPINI ONS O N KEY NOTE SES SIO N I talked to Simon, a secondary school teacher, on his opinions on yesterday morning’s keynote session. “There were a lot of things in there I’m going to take back to school.” When asked on his opinion of the views and ideas expressed by the keynote, he had this to say. “We [secondary school teachers] tend to be a little constrained when you [students] get into NCEA levels one, two and three … some of the ideas coming out seemed to be ‘oh, let the students go, just give them a topic and let them go off and evolve their learning, but NCEA is a little constraining in that you have to have them just answer the exam papers … but then I thought that I quite like the idea of students creating blogs, not so much about what they’re doing, but about answering exam questions, and then other students can look at what other people are thinking and comment on that, using the blogs.”

Take the opportunity to visit the D-Link stand and enter the draw to win a two bay storage enclo sure. Stand #43 and #44. Win a Leg o© Educati o n intro to NXT Robotics Pack valued at over $500 for your school. See the Mindstorms Educatio n Stand #16.

FOOD From fabulous coffee to lovely fruit, yesterday’s food had quite a good rep, as the media team found out. ‘The best thing was, it was all healthy.’ One woman said when interviewed. Whatever today’s food is - after the divine lunches and teas everyone had yesterday, expectations will doubtlessly be high, so let’s hope it delivers.

ULearn08 Workshops From yesterday’s morning breakouts, delegates have taken in the new concepts and ideas to implement them in a classroom environment. Connecting and bringing people together online is a concept that has been discussed also in the keynotes yesterday morning. Jane Nicholls, who co-presented “Collaborate!” in Breakout 1, talked briefly about her views on how her topic effects the educational community and also what she hopes delegates will take away from the presentation. She feels that it is important to embrace the new curriculum as well as to listen to the student voice. But mostly she hopes that delegates can leave her breakouts with lots of resources and ideas. One of the delegates talked about how, from what she’s learnt, she would like to create an online community. She plans to use this concept to create a community with people that have a similar purpose and interest; otherwise it will be harder to keep it running. When interviewing several conference participants, there was a pleasing similarity between the delegates’ responses. Independently they agree that it would be effective to transfer ideas and practices into their classroom as soon as they return to their prospective educational environments.

TRADE HALL

MINISTRY SPEAK Behind the scenes of the e-learning clusters are the e-principals – a group of hard working, talented and often innovative leaders who support, manage, coordinate and drive these clusters to meet the demands and expectations of their member schools, principals and communities. It’s a challenging job in largely uncharted territory. For interviews and a more detailed look at this role, see tomorrow’s newsletter and the media team wiki.

From the outside looking in, the trades hall looks rather intimidating; large stalls filled with interactive media, trade representatives in their smart suits looking enthusiastic and delegates by the hundreds exploring different stalls. But as Becky from the media team found out, the trades hall holds much more than intimidation. Talking to two different stall holders gave another perspective on the conference. Check out the full interviews on the media team wiki at: http://ulearn08media.wikispaces.com/Trade+Hall

MEDIA TEAM Meet the friendly faces of the Ulearn08 media team. Our team is made up of a group of students that have a strong passion for computer technology and we are willing to put our skills to the test. As the media team, our main task is to collect information about every event that occurs during the Ulearn08 conference and present it in the form of a pod/vod cast, newsletter and blog. Due to limited amount of time and very strict deadlines, we have been working furiously in our home base. This includes rushing around the convention centre and the town hall with camera gear, interview sheets and a friendly smile, gathering personal viewpoints from delegates and any extra information that may appeal to you. We are constantly heading out and looking for delegates to interview, also I might add that with every interview you also go in a draw to win an iPod Shuffle. Some of our interview questions involve personal viewpoints towards the Ulearn08 conference, what you want to achieve form being apart of the Ulearn08 Conference and how technology has affected you personally through your career. Our home base is located outside Hall B and is always welcome to add any advertisements, promotions to our daily newsletter. So the next time you see us around with our bright blue T-Shirts, please give a warm friendly smile if you are interested in being interviewed. We would love to get to know you.

YEST ERDAY ’S PRIZE WINN ERS

ALL IE D TELES IS • Craig Steed • Gavin He squa • Bernette Peters • Heather Greaves • Gay Hay EYEPOWER GAMES • Andrew Wood

HO US EK E E PIN G N O TICE S •

This week is Breast Cancer Awarene s s Week and to show our support we have organised an event just outside the Convention Centre at morning tea time tomorrow - Friday. o

Tim Danko 's work shop called "Flash: Introduction to Action script" will now not be run ning in breakout three tomorrow morning in CCC HP meeting Room 4 . Delegate s can select another available work shop for this breakout or go to the spotlight in the Auditorium or the Showcase to the future in the James Hay Theatre.

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There is an opportunity for all Hamilton Schools to be con nected to a high speed fibre optic loop. This would be a joint project between the Ministry of Economic Development, Velocity Network s, Schools and partners. To find out about this project, meet Dave Winter for information at Town Hall Conference Room 1&2 at 1pm today This will take only ten minutes of your time.

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Please note that the " showcase to the future se s sion s " are advertised in the handbook as starting at incorrect time s. They begin at the same times as the normal breakout se s s io n s.

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There will be a cash bar at the din ner tonight. please read the din ner information in your handbook

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The buse s for the Crowne Plaza will go up the ramp to the posh entrance and NOT round the back through Victoria Square as stated in the handbook. Starting point s for all other buse s are shown in the handbook.

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Want to hear more from Sheryl Nus sbaum-Beach? Listen to Kim Hill, National Radio, 9pm Saturday or download the podcast from the Radio NZ Website

http://w w w .radionz.co.nz/