Good Morning, Sunshines!

I just finished the three-day digital storytelling workshop for educators at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, CA. It was a good workshop. I was able to put together another (#3 for me) story. This one was a letter to my students in Hungary. As I say in the video, I said “Good Morning, Sunshines” every day as I walked in. It’s a memoir of things that were said and experienced in our class. I used a lot of hungarian in the story. Since it’s meant for the students, I don’t think some of it needs translation.

I haven’t shared it with them yet. I’ll probably upload it to Facebook and the Ning.com site that one of the classes has.

I don’t know how much I really learned during this workshop. But I did like the collaborative environment of the workshop. Some great ideas came from the other participants. I pretty much knew the application. I even used garage band to create a drum beat for another lady’s story. There were 6 of us in the workshop. From all over the country. In higher ed as well as secondary. We really seemed to enjoy each other.

There was also some good discussion about using DS in schools, as an alternative or addition to research papers and essays. It will be interesting to see how this workshop will be helpful in the future.

 

Digital Storytelling for Educators

I’m in Berkeley, CA for a three-day workshop on digital story telling for educators. Follow the link to read more about it. I’ll be updating about the workshop and the process.

I think I want to do a story about my “ah-ha” cell phone moment with students in Hungary. Or I could just do a reflective piece on my teaching experience in Hungary. I’m leaning towards the “ah-ha” but we’ll see. Part of the workshop includes a story circle where we will talk about each others’ story ideas and process and feedback about them.

 

NECC Pre-conference

I’ve spent most of this pre-conference day catching up on web stuff since we don’t have wifi access in the hotel! I did pop into edubloggercon for a bit, but was late, so of course I didn’t really know what was going on.

I’ve found the Second Life playground and have been sitting here, hooked up to power, for about an hour and a half. I’m frequently checking Twitter and UStream posts.

It’s my first NECC. I know there’s lots to do and see, so I’m looking forward to more in the days to come. Will blog more…..

 

ePortfolios 2009, London, England

I’ve just finished a three day conference in London. It was sponsored by the European Institute for eLearning (EIfEL), based in France.

It was three days of discussing current practices of ePortfolios, various uses of ePortfolios and the future of ePortfolios.

My favorite session was about the Europass Language Passport, and the plan to “overhaul” it and make it more relevant. So exciting! That’s something I wanted to do years ago, but didn’t know how (or have to the time) to do. We’ll keep in touch as far as how I can be involved as part of my graduate work.

So, it’s over. Not sure if we’ll make it for next year since they’re talking about having it a week later and that would interfere with NECC.

So, off to DC for NECC tomorrow. The conference starts on Saturday, so we’ll have one day to recover from jetlag and get a bit of a lay of the city.

There’s so much I want to blog about the conference, but the session on the Europass Language Passport was the highlight for me…especially since my passion is language learning and technology.

One thing I am learning about blogging, is that you DO have to blog right away. Gotta find my niche in blogging. I’m not a natural writer. When I write a paper or essay, I can do drafts and edit, etc. But blogging shouldn’t take that long. Gotta see what works for me. Twitter micro-blogging seems good, but also taking notes during sessions helps too. But then, I seem to be typing things twice. That could definitely work if I don’t have an internet connection.

 

Hello world!

This is the first blog entry around my eLearning in Educational Technology. It’s by no means my FIRST blog, but the first for this specific purpose.

Comments are welcomed!