Sydney Edtech Summit Day Two

Day Two of the Edtech Summit was great.  We started with an inspirational talk from Kim Pollishuke about believing in the possibilities of the impossible.  One example which appealed to me was Carly and Charley's odd sock project, where two ten year old girls took their own distinctive style and turned it into a fun, ethical and successful business.

I went to a session by Dan Jackson on Flipping with Edpuzzle, and another by Kim Pollishuke on Flipgrid.  Both offered me some new tools and helped me in my thinking about my Term Three project with 10QI.

Then it was time for me to present.  Despite all those nerves as I juggled the busy-ness of Term Two school life, I had a great time with a fabulous group of teachers from (mostly New South Wales) as we all explored the possibilities of Socrative.  I focused on sharing how it can work as a teaching sequence in the classroom, including how we can use it to gauge well-being and strategies to lift confidence on feedback.  I'm pleased about this part for me personally as it reflects a big focus for me in my inquiry this year.

I've got my feedback on the session and have thought about the tweaks I would make if I was doing it again.  I would add some more information on Space Race and importing other people's quizzes in the notes section, and the part where I read everyone's answers out, I would just give a sample and then explain how I do this to build up student confidence in the classroom.  I'm realising just now that I didn't put a link to my blog on my presentation, and that if I was fully thinking about giving people a way to link to my teaching and reflection work beyond the presentation, that is what I would have done.  I don't think I had that kind of confidence before the session!

After that, one more ignite presentation, some prize draws and then we were done!  Twelve fabulous people who had been supporting each other, learning and laughing over the time of the conference, ready to hit Sydney City.  And what a beautiful city!  Joanne and I walked around the waterfront, checked out a late-opening art gallery, admired the sculptures and then met the rest of our MIT group for dinner.

I've got a sketch of what my tool will look like in terms of making a site to share the process with interested people, and a list of the next jobs on this for Term Three.  The time at the Summit really helped with developing that.

My huge thanks to Dorothy, Anne and Jenny at Maniakalani for giving me this opportunity, to Gerhard and Dave for supporting us on tour and to my MIT colleagues who have made this a really special few days.

Now, it's some more Sandra-the-tourist time!