One door closes..... and another opens!

Today marks the change in career for Ddraig Goch. (31st December is my last day working for my LEA - yup I even have my P45!!)
It was a very strange experience to be leaving a job (vocation) that one has tried your best at for 19 years...... but it definitely felt like the right time to change.
It is really only in the past 2 years that my horizons have been broadened. I well remember when I began to podcast myself, before introducing it to my pupils, that I left a comment on Ewan McIntosh's EduBlog asking whether there was anyone in my locality doing the same stuff. Ewan's reply that you will find people in many locations interested in the same ideas, started me on a journey that has not yet stopped..... yet.
Many have said that collaborations within the edublogger community have given them the best CPD ( Continuous Professional Development) they have ever had, are not wrong...... the chance to sound ideas out with colleagues on a global scale is truly liberating..... plus you get to meet ( in my case 99% virtually) such a wonderful group of teachers and administrators who are always pushing the boundaries of what the technology can achieve.
I for one certainly didn't expect to be meeting and collaborating with the edublogger community on such a scale when I started..... and I have certainly met more educators in the past 18 months than during the rest of my career.... and they are everywhere from right here in the UK to USA, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai..... the list goes on.
There have been some strange experiences such as taking part in Educational 'Speed Dating sessions with teachers in the US and New Zealand, and taking part virtually in conference presentations for friends.... indeed I was able on a few occasions to bring those same friends into my presentations for teachers here in Wales. I was asked by another friend, to be a peer assessor for her strand of the K12 Online 2007 UnConference, which was a huge honour.
All of this networking does begin to take over from the daily tasks of teaching, it is very seductive and draws you in - very like the debate over 'how hooked we are to social networking?' ( today I received requests to collaborate with people in both LinkedIn and Pownce).
When the opportunity came along to be more involved in online activities with the International Baccalaureate, it was time for me to weigh up, whether to continue with more of the same or to take that step into the unknown, and face a new challenge...... it was time for change.
I looked recently at the 'Did You Know?' series of presentations started by Karl Fisch, where he looks at the fact that our 7 and 8 year olds are being prepared for a future where the jobs they will do, haven't been invented yet..... there are educators all around the globe who have been involved in Web 2.0 projects who are also at this time considering what the future is for themselves.... changing career or just changing roles?..... many looking at jobs which probably 2 or 3 years ago didn't exist..................in the end you just have to go with your gut feeling.... I think that 99% of the time your first reaction is the right one.
I fully intend to stay fully involved in the Web2.0 edublogger community, looking at new ways for integrating the tools into learning, but from a slightly different perspective, that of looking for ways to enhance the Professional Development of teachers..... yo don't get rid of this Welshman that easily.
I am also really looking forward to meeting many UK colleagues at the TeachMeet08 on Friday January 11th at the BETT Show in Olympia, London ( for those not lucky enough to be there look out for a live stream either in FlashMeeting or possibly UStream.TV .......)

Further Update on File Converters

As you may know dear reader I have been roadtesting file converters over the past week or so, mainly to try to get YouTube, TeacherTube and Blip.Tv videos onto the recently acquired 30GB iPod.
I am grateful to firstly Ewan McIntosh for tweeting about something ( no Ewan I haven't forgotten - honest!) which linked to Allan Ogg's tech-logg blog, I had a look around Allan's blog (like you do - nosy lot these Web 2.0 people he he!), and came across Movavi, a file converter very similar in design to Zamzar, which I had previously recommended.
I gave Movavi a try out today with file transfers of videos to convert for iPod, and I must say my experience was better than recent experiences with Zamzar (does tend to produce pop-up advertising!) - so the new (to me) kid on the block which is the winner ...so far is..... Movavi, give it a try :)
As they say - "It does what it says on the tin"

Skitch

There was a flurry of activity over at Ewan's blog the other day as members of the blogosphere tried to get their hands on free invitation to Skitch. As you can see below Skitch offers a whole range of options for not only working with your saved photo's, (in flickr or other places) and adding various effects and finishes to them. But for me the best part of the software so far is the excellent - quick and easy screen capture, in addition to the very user friendly drag and drop aspect of working with your digital images.

I found that by the time I had got to Ewan, many others had been there before me, however I had read a post about Skitch on Allanah King's blog, so I tried the route of 'phoning a friend' ( well Skyping a friend actually!!), nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was almost as if we were working without the blogosphere - as Allanah had very kindly sent me an invitation to Skitch ( thanks Allanah - what friends there are here in the blogosphere!)
I thought that I would dedicate this evening to giving it a go, and having a 'Twitter' about it later...

Uploaded with Skitch!

Above is my desktop captured and posted very quickly (in around 2 minutes - capture to post)... sadly for many Skitch will only run on Mac at present, watch this space for developments - thanks to Ewan and Allanah for information on this program :)
By the way I now have 2 invites to give out for Skitch (yay!) so if you want to give it a try (mac) let me know your e-mail address...

Ewan has started the conversation...

Following my earlier blog re Ewan McIntosh's visit to the University of Glamorgan today... the conversation between Welsh Bloggers ( a strange breed) has begun. I had a comment dropped in from the person sitting next to me this afternoon ...... the first time in over 17 months of blogging that there has been a comment from here in the principality - now look what you have done young McIntosh !!!! link to Jimpow blog... now we have a dialogue.

Ewan Mcintosh at Glamorgan University

It was great to have the opportunity to touch base in the 'real' world with Ewan McIntosh at the Glamorgan Business School, Treforest.... yes in Wales. Ewan had been invited by CELT ( Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching) as part of their Blended Learning Project. It was actually a seminar on Post 16 Blended Learning in schools that Ddraig-Goch , a year 3 Primary Teacher had stumbled into... ( in with the big fish!!!).
However as Ewan's presentation progressed no one would or should be surprised that many of his points chimed very much with my thoughts. Ewan's main message I guess was to use the tools we now have at our disposal to motivate our learners... whatever their age.

From my point of view even though topics visited by Ewan in his 90 minute seminar were expected it is as always great to hear these things put over in Ewan's easy but hugely enthusiastic way. In the room as well there were actually 5 of us confirmed bloggers in the room, which perhaps shows that the tools are being used by a growing group of educators.
Ewan ranged over :
Blogging
Podcasting
Aggregators
Flickr
Digital Video
Mobile Phones
Use of Gaming
phew!!!! quite a bit in the time allowed, but the presentation seemed anything but rushed, there was ample time for Ewan to take questions from the assembled group.
I have come away feeling re-invigourated thanks to the afternoon, it was brilliant to actually meet finally face to face ( yes Ewan I am a bit greyer in real life!!! well I am getting on!).
I have to say a big thank you to the University of Glamorgan for being far sighted in arranging Ewan's visit - even though it was quite literally a flying visit. I hope Ewan managed to get to Bristol Airport in time for his flight back to Scotland..... thank you Ewan for an inspiring afternoon.
It was also good to catch up with Haydn Blackey from the CELT Blended Learning Project team.

I will finish with this last shot with the question WHY bother? All of us convinced of the need to use new technology and embrace the changes it will make to the way in which we teach know well that there are a myriad of reasons why.... I hope and expect that most people in this afternoons lecture will go away with plenty of reasons why..... thank you Ewan.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 27th June at 3pm a certain Mr E McIntosh will be giving a Seminar at the Glamorgan Business School on the campus of University of Glamorgan, on the use of Social Media in Further and Higher Education... And guess who will be going to hear Ewan's words - yes yours truly Ddraig-Goch.

It is very fortunate that for me Wednesday afternoon is my Planning, Preparation and Assessment time, and with a little bit of good will and timetable juggling ( thank you very much to my Y3 colleague who is helping out for 30 minutes ), I find myself free to travel up to Treforest to listen to Ewan speak live for the first time.

I must say now that when I began blogging and podcasting well over 15 months ago it was Ewan who I went to, following my calls around Wales for other like minded Web 2.0 users in education. (and getting little or no response!!!).
Ewan was very helpful giving excellent advice and support, as he does for anyone who is weird enough to travel this path of ours, into blogging podcasting and wiki-crafting. Thanks to Ewan I stuck with it, began trying out different Web 2.0 tools in school and the rest as they say is history.

I was giving a seminar myself on Podcasting in Primary and Secondary Education at the WITS 07 conference at Ty Dysgu, in Nantgarw on Friday of last week ( where I has Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Allanah King and Jane Nicholls skype in to talk to my audience - thank you ladies very much). When I met Ian Morgan from NGFLCymru who told me of Ewan's visit this coming week ( he also kindly e-mailed me the details )...... as you can imagine when I got home after a hectic but excellent day, I filled in my registration and fired it off to the University at great speed.

It will be interesting to see/ hear and perhaps meet Ewan after all this time in 1st Life!!!!

This year has been good for me in that I have been able to speak globally to many colleagues, however it is only recently that I have actually managed 1st life contacts with people such as Joe Dale ( Integrating MFL into my Classroom ) and Chris Fuller ( Edgehill College Spanish Podcasts). I look forward to being able to more friends in the 'real world' as well as virtually.

Look out for a report and photos to follow later....

Blogged with Flock

** Stephen Heppell chats **

I came across this chat with the extremely inspiring Stephen Heppell via a link from Ewan McIntosh, LTA Scotland have just developed a space on YouTube and this video was a recently posted example.
Stephen is an exciting person to hear speak, I first heard him 5 years ago speaking at an E-Learning Conference at the Celtic Manor near Newport, and I guess a lot of the directions I have gone in since are partly down to what he said on that day. Now I hadn't thought about that until very recently - it goes to show how the influence of people to ' not be afraid to think outside the classroom walls' does bear fruit in the future, enjoy the video I did...

**Revision to post Joe Dale's FlashMeeting session will start at 8.00GMT to allow more people to take part **

E-Twinning seems to be quite in vogue at the moment and we at Cefn Fforest Primary are flying the flag for Wales in Europe with the 2 projects with which we are involved.
Joe Dale a blogging and skype buddy of ours had the opportunity to visit the recent E-Twinning Conference in Brussels - along with people such as Ewan McIntosh, Jeff Howson (follow the link to projects and e-twinning) and Stephen Heppell amongst of course many others from around Europe. As Joe said ' it really brings home to you what E-Twinning is all about when you visit these events and see the networking of teachers from across the Community.
Joe managed to get an interview with Jeff and his colleague John Warwick on FlashMeeting
which is an excellent means of videoconferencing between schools in Europe ( I particularly recommend it for my partners around Europe to try it out). Unlike Skype which is well known to me, FlashMeeting does not require any software to be downloaded you simply make sure that you have your webcam and microphone set up and log on to the system and join your discussion area ( the administrator pre-books the time and likely number of participants). All schools who have joined the e-twinning webzone from the UK has automatically be allocated a FlashMeeting account, a fact not widely appreciated as far as I am aware.
In order to promote the use of FlashMeeting specifically amongst the MFL community Joe has organised a FlashMeeting get together online on March 8th at 7.00 GMT with the Theme 'Blogging and Podcasting: Creative and personalised ways of engaging and extending your pupils in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom' he has given a link to visit just prior to the start of the hour long session. It will be an excellent way for some of us novices to check out the potential of FlashMeeting in our European Projects... see you there on Thursday!!!!
Why not take a look at Joe's other thought s by following the links on the sidebar to Joe's blog site.

A big thank you to Ewan McIntosh ( follow link on Blogroll on the right ), for putting me onto Keith's blog . Keith who is based in/near Bristol has worked tirelessly to accumulate information on a range of ICT topics, including a wide and very easy to use -Links Section- (take a look), in addition to the thrust towards Digital Video work which Ewan mentioned in his blog this week from Film Street, who have information on their site for those about to get involved in dv work ( also worth a look for their resources and ideas)

** Look also at Ewan's Blog regarding the need for creating Networks of various types from your immediate local ( school perhaps ) network out to a Worldwide Network. It is also worth reading what Ewan has to say about an authority's need to be proactive in the use of New Web 2.0 Technologies in education. **