I’d like to re-invigorate this blog, originally created for the ELEVATE conference in August 2008, as a tool for a personal learning journey that I invite you all to take part in.  This year with the VCRLN, we’ve done a pretty good job of getting a lot of teachers new to VC to take part in our sessions by creating a lot of multi-point events:

  • Expert guest presenters that kids ask questions to
  • Student-led VC events where kids prepare something to share in a scheduled, multi-point event around a topic
  • Teacher professional development sessions around a variety of topics
One area we haven’t explored as much as I’d like are supporting class-to-class collaborations.  I see the great work that people like Janine Lim and Roxanne Glaser are doing in this area, and it’s an area I’d like to focus a lot more on for next year.  We learned early – when we tried our first Monster Match last fall – that teachers new to VC really like the ‘easy’ VC sessions – those where they simply bring their students, take part in something, and leave.  Not highly engaging or immersive, but quick, easy, and interesting.  Those teachers, in theory, should have a bit more of a comfort level with the technology now, and for that reason we’d like to challenge them a bit more to go a bit ‘further’ with the technology for meaningful student learning taking place.
Any suggestions or comments you have along the way are very much appreciated!