Connecting People

Am 2. März nahm ich am “Thematic Workshop on Social Software - Connecting People” in Wien teil.

Das Vormittagsprogramm mit internationalen Keynotes war für mich sehr anregend und brachte mir neue Impulse und Ideen.
Bruce Hardys Vortrag blieb mir gut in Erinnerung, vor allem seine bilderreiche Darstellung unseres Jagens hinter immer neuen Softwareentwicklungen und der Schwierigkeit nicht nur zeitlich sondern auch technisch mit sich selbst aber auch mit den Partnern der Social Community „compatibel“ zu bleiben.

Am Nachmittag beeindruckte mich während des Workshops für Lehrer vor allem Klaus Himpsls Beispiel von einem Wiki Projekt an seiner Schule, das durch die didaktisch überzeugende Einbettung in eine gut geplante Lernungebung überzeugte.

foto: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/294495748_109172ebb7.jpg?v=0

eTwinning Brussels February 2007

Last week I partecipated in the ETWINNING CONFERENCE 2007 (“eTwinning Past, Present and Future”, Brussels, 23 - 25 February 2007)

Ján Figel, Member of the Commission in charge of education, training, culture and youth announced the eTwinning Prize winners and runners-up for 2007.

Stephen Heppell and Eugenio Rivière keynote adresses underlined new learning and teaching paradigms and the role of eTwinning in the past and in the future to foster the changes.

On Saturday morning I myself gave a presentation at the “eTwinning and Professional Development” Workshop and in the afternoon I was impressed by Oscar Stringer’ s Animation Workshop, were we could watch him creating little animated videos with plasticine and stop motion programms.

Several coffee brakes and the Gala Dinner Saturday Evening gave us the possibiliy to make new friends and to meet “old collegues”. I was very happy to meet my eTwinning Partner from Italy, Dino Iarussi. We are running the “e-buddy language learning” - Isernia - Vienna project this year.

Even if eTwinning is mainly based on online collaboration and communication, face to face meetings give new impulses and “fresh” motivation.

foto: Anne Gilleram, our etwinning „mom“