Monday 19 December 2011

Two For The Price Of None

Where were you last Saturday 17th December 2011 from about 09:00 until 15:00 GMT? Seriously, if you were not doing anything you couldn't postpone such as looking after the sick or the young, or earning your daily bread, and you're a so-called educator, unless you are already a top-notch guru, I really don't understand why you weren't present at one, if not both, of the two free webinars held that day. Did you miss my post on The Lonely Teacher Blues? Oh, all right, include being in the "wrong" time zone as a good excuse, too, although there were a few dedicated attendees from the other side of the ocean, such as Ecuador and Brazil, where even the birds and the roosters were still asleep.

This is apart from the omnipresent Shelly Terrell, who was moderating the iTDi webinar in spite of it starting at 4am, her time! She has trouble saying 'no' at the best of times, but I guess it would have been even more difficult to refuse the chance of moderating such great thinkers and motivators as Luke Meddings, Chuck Sandy, Marcos Benevides, Scott Thornbury, John F. Fanselow, and Steven Herder, who was also co-moderator.

So, if you weren't there, and have no valid excuse, I repeat, I really don't understand you. However, there just might exist the possibility for you to redeem yourself, and learn something in the process - take a look here for a link to the recording of what you missed.

Right after the iTDi, which stands for the International Teacher Development Institute, came the first ever online version of Teach Meet. A total of 27 teachers (including a significant number of iTDi associates) from all around the globe spoke for about 3 minutes each, sharing their ideas, their projects, and their passion, with those present. Again, I don't understand how you could let such an opportunity pass you by. But, since these educators are so generous and selfless, visit the site for the chance of seeing the recording.

For a taste of what happened that day, watch this super summary compiled by Bart Verswijvel.




My presentation was basically a potpourri of ideas for using Wordle in the classroom, quite difficult to do in 3 minutes, but the bicycle arrived unscathed...I think. The tutorial on how to do what I did, and parts of the slides I used, can be found here. In any case, especially for Marijana Smolcec, I'm sharing the full presentation here.

There is sound, so turn your speakers on! Unfortunately, there is a slight problem - the world isn't perfect, is it? The version you see below is from Author Stream - you can simply press play, and the presentation starts with my voice-over plus you get to see the animations. However, the synchronization is not as it ought to be and some layering effect is lost.

The version below the Author Stream's is on Slideshare - there's no play option, no animations, no sound, but you get to see the background effect as it was meant to be seen! :-)

Were you there? What did you learn from the two webinars? Weren't you there? Why not?



   

9 comments:

  1. Thx Chiew, not just for me, but for my collegue who came to join us on TeachMeet, even though her three 2 year old kids, where siting ih her lap, during the session. She was a great support and she told me she really enjoyed the TeachMeet and how valuable resource and idea your Wordle presentation was. I had mentioned Wordle to her before. She is as enthusiastic as I am! :)

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  2. Well, it's for you, for her, and for everyone else! :-) It's a shame they can't be reproduced here as it was meant to be, but I hope you can see it all right!

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  3. I was there, Chiew, I was! Both places, all day long, in the two virtual rooms at the same time, locked up in my own real study-bedroom! Missing family celebrations of mom's bday!))
    What I learnt from the webinars you ask! A million of ideas filled me, the talks at iTDi Thrilled me! I learnt that teachers are poets, thinkers, agents for change, artists, inventors, and so much more..!
    I learnt that being passionate about what you do is the key to being successful in it..!
    I learnt that 3 minutes is not long but has to be enough..!)
    I learnt that I'd love to have MORE such Saturdays))

    @AnnLoseva

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  4. Hi Chiew!

    I loved your presentation on Worrdle - it has become one of my favourite tools : )

    It is unbelievable what happened on Saturday with two webinars one after the other! So much creativity, enthusiasm and so many ideas! And the great thing was for example in TeachMeet, how much information we managed to get from each other in only three minutes : )

    Thanks for ths Post!

    Hugs,
    Vicky

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  5. Thanks for dropping by, Vicky, and, yes, sometimes less means more :)

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  6. Very cool. Merci 4 sharing, Chiew... too bad I was busy all day but nice 2 catch a quick taste for the next one !

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  7. Thanks for popping in, Brad! I'm sure the next one will be soon!

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  8. Anna Loseva wrote a comment, but for some reasons, it never appeared. Here it is, anyway:

    I was there, Chiew, I was! Both places, all day long, in the two virtual rooms at the same time, locked up in my own real study-bedroom! Missing family celebrations of mom's bday!)) What I learnt from the webinars you ask! A million of ideas filled me, the talks at iTDi Thrilled me! I learnt that teachers are poets, thinkers, agents for change, artists, inventors, and so much more..! I learnt that being passionate about what you do is the key to being successful in it..! I learnt that 3 minutes is not long but has to be enough..!) I learnt that I'd love to have MORE such Saturdays))

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  9. Anna, thanks so much for trying so hard to get this comment through! I really don't understand what happened, but they're not going to beat me! The comment is up now for the world to see what someone can get out of these online conferences.
    Thanks again, Anna!

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