The day began with.....

Tuesday began with a longer than usual journey. Instead of the short drive from East Linton to Haddington, today I ventured further afield through the Edinburgh morning rush hour traffic to Murrayfield stadium to attend - no, not rugby training - but eLIVE! 2006, an event which highlights the very best in using ICT in Learning and Teaching. The Keynote Address entitled, ‘Creating a new Culture of Teaching and Learning’, was delivered by Alan November, a thought provoking and motivational speaker whose website is www.novemberlearning.com Alan’s talk began by comparing pupils’ home use of computers with their use in schools. He suggested that schools ‘use’ the internet and pupils ‘do’ the internet, making the point that pupils do far more with computers at home than at school and as long as we hold on to the model in education of ‘teacher based dependency’ then technology won’t make a difference. He went on to describe a school in San Diego where each student has an office and has ownership of their own learning. A school where the children are self directed and self motivated. As I said thought provoking stuff.

The next session was a Masterclass summit for Authority personnel where Karen and I heard about developments in the Masterclass communities – Heads Together, Leadership for Learning, Masterclass and Early Years Masterclass. We also heard about some developments within SSDN, a name which we are going to hear more about in the next few years. A very exciting initiative and a first for Scotland worldwide.

Next up was a very lively and interesting seminar on ‘Blogs and Podcasting’ given by Euan Macintosh and whilst there the assembled group made a Podcast ably helped by some P4 and P5 children from an Edinburgh school.

There is also an exhibition at this event where companies involved with Educational ICT display their hardware and software giving an opportunity for hands on experience. Time was spent catching up with developments in hardware and software particularly in the area of Additional Support Needs.

The final seminar I attended was entitled A Curriculum for Excellence meets SSDN which was delivered by Stuart Robertson. This seminar gave a useful insight into developments within SSDN and how they relate to A Curriculum for Excellence and how SSDN will empower teachers to exploit the new curriculum in ways not previously possible.

A very full day but very worthwhile and then I was heading back to East Lothian through the Edinburgh rush hour traffic again. I’m glad I don’t have to do this journey every day.

But more exciting journeys to come, watch this space…..