Edtechconf Extended @ Elkanah

The past two days have flown by in a blur! I've been to the first Edtechconf Extended events here in CPT, following their first national conference earlier in the year. Yet again, it's been an exciting time.

I've loved being able to spend time playing with techy stuff without feeling guilty that it's taking me away from my kids, or family. (It did though, because I was away from home for 2 days. Being away, though, means that I can't spend time with them, so it's okay for me to spend that time playing, if you see my logic.)

I've loved spending time with people who have the same passion as me, who know more than me, and less than me. It's been awesome connecting with folk and helping them figure some stuff out. It's been awesome learning stuff from others too.

It's exhausting though - my brain died sometime yesterday, and I'm only just starting to feel like I'm recovering. There is serious information overload involved! But there's coffee on tap, and plenty of good food, which means that at least you can feed ALL of you, not just your brain.

The challenge with all of these sorts of experiences though, is two-fold. Firstly, to sort through all the info you've received, and secondly, to work out which thing/ things you're going to implement. It's pointless going on a conference like this and coming away with nothing to implement.

I think the thing I've decided to try to implement is a PLN. It's something we've looked at in the past, and it's something I had hoped to build into our website redesign. It didn't happen though, and there isn't really money to design our own thing, so I was interested to really investigate what else is out there. Now that I have a better idea of what is possible, I want to really have a good think and play with them, to decide which one will best suit our purposes. Then, I want to implement it next year. (See, I'm trying to be realistic, and not an Ambitious Alice! :))

My current projects for the 4th term are to set up some forms on SurveyMonkey, to design a webquest and to look at putting together a geocaching activity around the school for my Gd 11s. So I figure that's plenty to be getting on with (especially as I have exams to set, a project report to write and some consultancy work to do as well!)

Only 3 days to relax though before I'm back at "work" - taking a school group up to Jo'burg for Eskom Expo. I hope it's worth it, because I will be really cheesed off if it's not enjoyable. I am going to be tired at the start of term as it is. I'm debating taking my laptop with me to try and squeeze some work in at other times to try and relieve the burden a bit once term starts. We'll see. I might be too tired.

Speaking of which - time for bed now. Sleep tight, Tweeties.