Chris Betcher

The Fireside chat took place this morning for the K12 Online Conference. There was a good roll-up of attendees via the Elluminate platform, topping out at one point at about 110 people. David Warlick was on hand to answer some questions from the group, and people were firing questions at him at a rapid pace. The chat stream was like a fast-flowing river, with comment after comment after comment streaming up the screen. Sometimes I wonder how effective these really large chat streams are, as it's so hard to have a deep discussion let alone a coherent conversation! As someone noted in the chat, it was like being ADD on steroids. However, the opportunity to connect with a worldwide group of educators and engaging in discussion and conversation about things that we think matter was wonderful. David did well to field the diverse (and sometimes quite difficult!) questions from members of the group. I even got to throw a question to David myself. Virtual environments like this are ...

You may have heard the story about the penny doublng every day for a month , or the grains of rice on the chessboard . These stories are based on the principle of exponential growth, and exponential growth is a really amazing thing! You can use the same principle to spread information too. You tell a few, and they tell a few. Those few tell a few, who in turn tell a few more. Pretty soon, many know. The organisers of the K12 Onlline Conference would like to use this principle to spread the word about the event. As you may know, the conference kicks off on October 8 with David Warlick's preconference keynote address, delivered like all the other presentations of course... in downloadable digital format. It then has a full 2 weeks of presentations being released at regular intervals between the 15th and the 26th. See the flyer for more details. To help spread the word, we are passing it along in the form of a meme . Here's what you're asked to do... simply create a bl...

As the 2007 K12 Online Conference gets closer, it's time to start getting the word out to everyone about it. You may recall I blogged on it a few weeks ago, but since that time I volunteered to help out on an organising committee for the conference so I'm getting to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes of a conference like this. One of the things we've been working on is a printable flyer that can be copied and stuck on the noticeboards in your schools to help promote the event to your staff. You can get a printable A4-size PDF copy of the flyer here , (or click here for a Letter sized one if you're in the USA or Canada). If you're in a school, here's what you can do to help spread the word about the event... Download and print some copies of the flyer for your staff. Put them on the noticeboard. Put them in teachers' pigeonholes (that's inboxes for you North Americans). Leave them on the staffroom coffee table. Talk about the event ...

As the K12 Online Conference gets closer, it's time to start thinking about how you plan to participate in it. As I mentioned in a previous post, last year's event was amazing and this years is shaping up to be even better, building on the successes and learning from the mistakes of the 2006 event. I've been fortunate enough to be part of the organising team for promoting the conference, and we are currently coming up with a bunch of ideas for getting the word out about it. How do we spread the message to as many teachers as possible that this conference exists and the wonderful benefits of taking part in it? Here's a couple of the main features of the event, as I see it... Our presenters will be some of the world's best, most creative, most current, classroom practitioners using Web2.0. Think of the big ideas you will be exposed to! The presentations will all be in a digital format, enabling you to watch or listen to them, download and save them. You can...

Last year I took part in a very exciting and innovative professional development initiative. I'm referring to the incredible K12 Online Conference. If you were also a participant last year then you'll know how good it was. It you weren't, then for goodness sake, don't miss it this year! This virtual conference is the brainchild of a group of educators (amongst them are Lani Ritter Hall, Darren Kuropatwa, Wes Fryer and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach) and is probably best explained by this short blurb taken from the K12 Online website ... The “K12 Online Conference” is for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! The 2007 conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. The conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” The presenters at the conference use all sorts of dig...