Welcome back to another academic year and our first issue of the 2012-2013 academic year. A lot of great Professional Development opportunities are on offer in our region, do have a look below at the links and information. Special thank you to the schools and their IT Teams who are supporting these events. Always a huge task to take on on top of the regular support services we all provide to our respective school communities.
This month’s blog is called “Come Together” as a way to honor all the collaboration that goes on in the ECIS region between schools and individuals. To have a network of learners connected via digital tools/environments and face to face moments provides a rich set of resources and opportunities to learn from each other. In our busy days, often one can forget how there is a network there to tap into for support, ideas, conversations and collaboration. Social Networks and environments now give us a new capacity to reach out, and connect within minutes. Developing these connections and sustaining them now are a key part of increasing our ability to problem solve issues that we encounter in our own schools. The power of sharing information is so easily done nowadays, that maybe the biggest hurdle is finding time, or what social media is best suited for this collaboration. The following video ( Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team) is a nice vignette of how groups collaborate and “Come Together“. The process of working as a group is complex but when things click it is amazing how far groups can get in achieving goals….. I very much look forward with the ECIS ICT Committee members to “Come Together” with our community.
ECIS ICT Committee members 2012-2013
John Mikton (Chair) International School of Prague
Warren Apel International School of Amsterdam
Leah Treesh LT Learning Technologies
Mariam Mathew American School in London
Chelsea Woods Anglo-American School of Moscow
Alan Preis Atlanta International School
Professional Development
1 to 1 Laptop Institute Frankfurt International School September 27, 28 and 29/9/12 2012
Leadership event on the afternoon September 27th: Keynote speakers Ian Jukes, Scott Klososky and Jeff Utecht will each present a 20-30 minute session ,Full day September 28th, half day September 29th of workshopsRegister : http://www.fis.edu/page.cfm?p=695For those interested in presenting at the conference, please check back to our website for information as it’s posted, or email: euro1-1learning@fis.edu.
Google Apps for Education European Summit will be at the International School of Prague
Saturday and Sunday October 13-14 2012
For full details : http://www.praguesummit.org/
Registration: http://www.praguesummit.org/Learning 2.012
October 11-13, 2012 – Western Academy of Beijing What will Learning 2.012 look like?
Learning 2.0 is a trans-formative, challenging experience for all participants; it is the conference that leads the change. We want to ensure that the learning continues after the conference is over by facilitating network-building opportunities through both face-to-face experiences which are then extended, sustained and supported on-line through this site.
http://www.learning2.asia/blog/conference/learning-2-012
ECIS Conference Nice, France: 21-25 November 2012
http://www.ecis.org/page.cfm?p=558
Pre-Conference and Conference Program
Flat Classroom® Conference Europe 2012
It’s time to put your plans into place to attend the very next Flat Classroom® Conference to be held on December 6-8, 2012, at the International School of Düsseldorf e.V. (ISD). Flat Classroom® co-founders, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis and conference organizers have put together another magnificent program and invite YOU to REGISTER now. The Flat Classroom® Conference is a unique event that includes students and educators to envision the future of education as they use leading technology tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking and digital storytelling.
ACS Cobham to host ECIS Tech Conference 2013
We are delighted to announce that ACS International Schools will be hosting the next ECIS Tech Conference at their Cobham campus, west of London, from 14 to 16 March, 2013.
The theme of the conference is ‘Learning to love the iGeneration – Is education ready to embrace the irresistible IT vision of tomorrow’s classroom.’ In developing the theme the ACS team felt it was important to provoke and engage delegates into thinking beyond the accepted. In return, attendees will find an event where powerful keynote speakers, collaborative breakout sessions, and hands-on experiences collide to further the integration of IT in education.
“We want to provide an arena to inspire future thinking,” asserts Steven Cliff, Head of IT at the ACS group of schools. “We chose our theme carefully, and only after considerable deliberation with colleagues from across our four schools. For us, the ECIS Tech Conference provides an invaluable opportunity for delegates to share ideas freely, while building valuable partnerships with colleagues from across Europe and further afield.
Registration for this prestigious event will open in September, with early bird discounts available until the end of October. Please visit the ECIS website to register and take advantage of the significant savings on offer.
Bytes of the Month
Digital Passport by Common Sense Media | Digital Passport
https://www.digitalpassport.org/educator-registration
Parents’ Guide to Protecting Kids’ Privacy Online | Common Sense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/parents-guide-to-protecting-kids-privacy-online?utm_source=newsletter062112&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=advice
The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Manual
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39495302/The-Very-Unofficial-Facebook-Privacy-Manual
Digitally Doctored Photos- What should we do? – Digital Citizenship Adventures
https://sites.google.com/site/digcitizenshipadventures/digitally-doctored-photos–what-should-we-do-1
ECIS iTunes U Introduces Courses and More
You probably have heard the buzz about iTunes U courses. Schools such as Stanford University have a prolific collection of comprehensive courses complete with items such as eBooks, podcasts, documents, outlines, course lists, calendars and much more. Now this opportunity is available to ECIS member schools.
This is exciting for several reasons. One is that ECIS is providing its member schools the yet another opportunity to keep with current pedagogical practices. Another is that iTunes U courses provides the opportunity for the most basic to advanced users to publish a course. One could simply begin with existing course documents or populate a course with eBooks, videos, links to podcasts and much more. This leads to another reason, which is one can develop courses over time before and after publication.
This is just one of the many recent ECIS iTunes U developments. To learn more, click here for our latest newsletter. If you find it interesting and would like to subscribe, feel free to email me to be added to the list. The newsletter is published quarterly and you can unsubscribe at anytime.
Also, please take the time to visit the all new ECIS iTunes U Course All About ECIS iTunes U. There you will find a comprehensive guide to publishing podcasts and courses to our iTunes site as well as helpful links and support materials such as pedagogical podcasting tips.
If you are interested in learning how to podcast and publish podcasts with ECIS iTunes U, why not sign up for the two day ECIS pre-conference session: Podcasting Like a Pro: An introductory hands-on experience? You will walk away with the technical skills and pedagogical framework to publish with ECIS and even help your colleagues to take the plunge as well.
For more information on any of the above, don’t hesitate to contact me at Leah.Treesh@1to1LT.com. Best wishes for a great school year!
Your words, your input…..
Please remember your links, your thoughts, your resources are important to this blog if you have something you wish to have featured drop me a note jmikton@isp.cz a week before the first day of the month, I will make sure it is featured in our October issue edition.
have a good month!
John Mikton
http://beyonddigital.org/