Singapore Workshop (MOE)

Welcome

Hi ... my name is Chris Smith, or "Shamblesguru Voom" if you meet my avatar in Second Life, the 3D online virtual world.

There are links to lots of different information about me in the column on the right.

I've lived in Thailand since 2002 and before that I was in Hong Kong for a very long time, working with a group of International Schools as the Technology Director and Head of a Teacher Professional Development facility.

How would I describe myself now? .... probably the titles "Educational Consultant" and "Web 2.0 Evangelist" would cover much of my work ... but Shamblesguru likes to be thought of as a "Digital Nomad Scavenger" ... but that's another story.

The name "Shambles" comes from a website I founded and manage www.shambles.net

I'm looking forward to our time togeather, I'm planning to be a learner myself as well as a facilitator and hope we all benefit from each others sharing of experiences and skills.
Listen to an audio welcome message from me (Podcast)

OPS ... I think I said the wrong dates in the Podcast

... it is 19th and 20th March 2009

NOTE:

... this Blog is not only for organisational and information purposes

but also to model some of the tools available to use with students.

Introduce Yourself

This is where you can introduce yourself ... click on the "COMMENTS" below and just type.

What should you write ...

Well, there are the obvious of name, school, curriculum areas you teach and age group ... but what would be of great help to me with the planning and running of our two days is to get an idea of what your expectations are for our time togeather.

So what would YOU also like to get out of the two days.?

I hope you can write this earlier rather than later so that I can more easily take into account your own specific needs in the planning.

> if you don't want to put your full name here, online, then please just use your first name

> it is adviseable NOT to put your email address here

Survey

I should be grateful if you would complete this survey

One per workshop participant .. it should take less than 5 minutes

It is completely anonymous

Click Here to take the survey

Organisation and Housekeeping

The liaison between myself and the MOE is a Singapore company, Synergyst, their website and contact details are in the column to the right of this.

Venue:

Anderson Junior College, IT Lab

Times each day

Start at 9:00 End 5:30

Lunch 12:30

What to Bring .. and Resources

What should you bring

"a traditional chalk-and-talk lesson" that you have previously done or have planned specifically for this session
originally you were being asked to bring a laptop but I understand now that the venue is a computer lab .... so it is not essential to bring your laptop ... but if you wanted to bring it then please do ! ... I would be very happy if you did and it is a machine you already feel comfortable with.
also bring a headset with microphone if you have one.

If the "traditional chalk-and-talk lesson" is an old one you did then if you had created a PowerPoint (or your students created one) then it could save time if you could bring a copy.

May also be helpful if you could bring a thumb drive (portable storage) if you have one.

Handouts

It's not possible for me to give you Handouts of a PowerPoint that I have done for this workshop... simply because I've not done one, difficult to do as I do not yet know your own invidual needs.

But I will be giving you copies of handouts from two other workshops I've run "Internet Survival Skills for Teachers" and "Beyond PowerPoint" ... we will not be going through these linearly but are likely to 'dip' into them.

The Wiki http://singaporeworkshop.wikispaces.com

We shall be using a Wiki as an organisational tool during the two days ... I'll be showing you how to drive it if you don't already know .. it is already live so you can go and look now ... although nothing too exciting .. yet ;-)

TAG

I'm not sure if we should agree on a TAG for all the materials related to this workshop ... what do you think? ... I'll go over the pros and cons of this in more detail when we meet..

Help for Me
Anyone know any good websites to get more information about Sg General Paper ... if so then please put into 'comments' here

Aims and Goals

Our challenge is to take a "traditional chalk-and-talk lesson" that you bring with you to the workshop ... throw it in a blender with some web 2.0 tools, have a lot of discussion, share our experiences ....

and the outcome is "a new lesson using ICT to enhance the learning experience for your students"

Oh yes ... also hope to have a fun and enjoyable professional development experience with the opportunity to ask lots of questions.

Day 1

The organisation of the two days are still very flexible ... as I'm waiting to hear more about your own specific needs ... but first thoughts are ....
Keep in mind this is going to be a collaborative event ... the process is going to be a mixtue of whole group presentation (not necessarily me presenting) whole group discussion, discussion in small groups and 'hands-on'.
The 2 days will not just be about content but also modelling teaching/learning strategies and classroom management techniques that may or may not be relevant to your own individual style.