Some days are just an absolute joy to be at work.  Wednesday was one of those days.  Wednesday was the day the doors of our classroom got wide open and in streamed a little bit of Iceland.

I was really lucky to meet and get to know Alan Levine (aka CogDogBlog) at the Learning2.0 Conference back in September this year, in Shanghai, China.  During one of our many meet ups with fellow conference goers staying at the Forte Hotel, Alan happened to mention that he was going to be spending a month looking after the house and animals of an Architect, in Iceland.  My ears and my “cheekyness” levels immediately perked up – so I asked him if he would skype with us when he was in Iceland.

On Wednesday we did just that.  At 7.30am Thai time and 12.30pm am Icelandic time, these two vastly different places in the world  connected.  One blasted by heat, the other being buffeted by wind, rain and snow.  Today my students got another piece of the “exploration and how/where does that fit into the world I’m living in right now” puzzle.  And it was such a simple thing to arrange.  All you have to do is ask. (Nicely of course).

My students were great participants.  They watched the skype conversation via our smartboard if they weren’t up at the laptop asking questions.  We’d prepared our questions before hand and that helped the conversation flow.  Even when we’d gone through all of our original questions, more questions followed and I was impressed with the thought and maturity that they all displayed.

When talking with students at the end of the day most talked about how Mr Levine helped them believe that each and everyone of us really is an explorer,  that you don’t even have to find a place that hasn’t been discovered yet.  If you’ve never done it or been there then you ARE exploring it.  Even some places can be explored many times over and you still find things you never found the first time.  Of course meeting Skinna was a definite highlight for the girls – and everyone will not forget that a meal of reindeer meat is coming up next week for Mr Levine to try.

Thank you Alan, for letting us ask you all those questions.  Enjoy the rest of your time in Iceland and I’m looking forward to seeing what Strawberry, Arizona looks like through the lens of a skype call!

I was just curious to check (visually) what words I’m using most frequently at the moment. Interestingly, K-12 Online Conference Presentations makes a substantial showing.

Image atttribution: http://www.wordle.net/

How cool is this?

Need to plan?  Need to collaborate but can’t seem to find a time when you’re all free at once?

Invite one colleague over for dinner, skype in your other colleague who lives an hour away and open google docs.  One collaboratively planned project ready to start with students.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Simple? – YES!

Collaborative? – YES!

Fun? YES!

Seemed like work?  NO – well, not to me.

I love the play on words for LAN – traditionally known as Local Area Network – and it’s use lately for local educators getting together to watch and discuss the K-12 Online Conference offerings.

The extremely wonderful Kim Cofino, graciously hosted ISB’s first K-12 Online Conference LAN party last Saturday morning, in downtown Bangkok. She’d already downloaded most of the videos, set up the TV and sound-system AND had breakfast on the table with helpful supplies from us all.  Of course I must mention that Kim has a presentation along with another fabulous educator, Jen Wagner in this years K-12 Online Conference.  “Connecting Classroom Across Continents: Planning and Implementing Globally Collaborative Projects” in the Kicking It Up a Notch strand.

The conversation was flowing, rich and authentic as we shared with our fellow colleagues what we thought might be of interest to them to watch.  The two presentations decided upon were Chris Betcher’s  and Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle and Cheryl Oak’s Keynote in the Getting Started strand.  This was to be the 3rd time I’d seen Chris Betcher’s presentation “I Like Delicious Things: an introduction to tagging and folksonomies“ and STILL I learnt more tips from it.  The amazing Silvia Tolisano skyped in from Jacksonville, Florida and did a fabulous job of explaining the difference between delicious and tagging to one very keen teacher sitting in the room who really wanted to understandwhat she’d just witnessed in a presentation.

Our LAN party was so successful and so authentic that it was decided we just could leave it at one party.  This format is now set to become a regular occurrence, rotating between venues close to school and venues downtown.  It will always be open for everyone, anytime they feel they can make it. There’s a wealth of talent and knowledge and ideas out there just waiting for us to tap into. And the conversations that arise out of just watching a presentation for 12- 15 minutes is phenomenal! I really can’t think of a better way to receive personal Professional Development.  What’s even better is the  K-12 Online Conference is available anytime convenient to you.  Heck, there’s still K-12 Online Conference 2006 and 2007 presentations on my list to watch that I still have access to!

Here’s to the next LAN party in two weeks time – if you live in Bangkok – hope to  see you there – if not, and you think you might want to skype in and be part of the conversation, we’d love to hear from you!

I wonder which presentations we’ll watch this time?