digitalmaverick

 In just over a week the BETT Show starts in the hallowed halls of Olympia.  This is the biggest educational ‘trade’ show in Europe.  Despite many cynical views of the BETT Show as an event (many people see it as becoming less essential every year), I have fond memories of a BETT show a few years ago when I and the other members of the HUGToB team helped set up a stand for Moodle by raising sponsorship.  It had been unheard of for teachers such as us ever to have funded a stand for a product we just used and did not have financial interest in.

Anyway, with this sort of grassroots, bottom-up spirit in mind it is rewarding to note that a range of unConference models have been adopted in educational circles - Joe Dale’s ‘Show and Tell’ at his brilliant Isle of Wight conferences spring to mind.

The TeachMeet model is one which encourages anyone with something of interest regarding the use of technology in the classroom to talk about,  to speak to a gathered audience of people who (in a nutshell)want to be inspired.  It makes for an excellent antidote to the BETT Show which is effectively a showcase for hundreds of companies trying to sell teachers their products.  This is because you know that the people talking are genuinely talking about THEIR classroom practice, as opposed to a salesman peddling their latest tool or software package. 

This year’s event is being organised bu an underground team of volunteer helpers (mainly triggered by Ian Usher & Leon Cych - two great catalysts)  trying to ensure things go without a hitch. 

You can sign up to attend to:

• speak
• listen & be inspired  within the venue or remotely using our online access
• lurk
• or attend an informal meal afterwards.

Signing up for this FREE event is done via this Wiki and it’s open to ANYONE - and did I say it was FREE?  At the time of writing over 100 top educationalists have signed up to attend and there’s still space for many more; and over 20 people have bravely put themselves forward to speak about topics covering a wide range of exciting topics - here’s an example of a presentation (my talk from last year’s TeachMeetBett). Talks can be either 7 or 2 minutes long and should try NOT to make use of PowerPoint, nor should they be a blatant attempt to promote merchandise.

Here’s a cross-section of some of the talks to be heard:

1. Tom Barrett (Twitter) An update on Multi-Touch desks.
2. Neil Winton (Twitter)- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - What is Lesson 7 anyway?
3. Leon Cych (twitter) - ‘Why the government doesn’t get it about digital culture and learning‘ - a brief polemic.
4. John d’Abbro - Digital Creativity with children experiencing Behavioural Emotional and/or Social Difficulties (BESD)  
5. Doug Belshaw (Twitter) Would also like to give update on EdTechRoundup after launching it officially at last year’s TeachMeet
6. John Connell The view from the emerging markets: seven countries in seven minutes!
7. Theo Kuechel (Twitter) Seven places with valuable (free) content.
8. Drew Buddie - (twitter) - Scatterlings No More - building a Personal Learning Network across the world and how it can impinge in the classroom
9. Mark Mullis - (twitter) - B(v)SF ischool project - building virtual schools for the future in Second Life.
10. John Cuthell - (twitter) Project Learning, 21st Century Skills, and embedded ICT.
11. Christina Preston (Twitter) Just social networking? or creating new knowledge and influencing change trajectories.
12. Josie Fraser (twitter) DCSF’s new cyberbullying advice for teachers who are victims of cyberbullying behaviour & online identity management
13. Ian Grove-Stephensen (twitter) some of the amazing resources teachers have created on Yacapaca in the last year.
14. Ollie Bray - (twitter) Mobile Phones in Education or Google Earth or Graphic Novels in the Classroom or Computer Games Based Learning in Secondary Schools. I’ll probably decide on the day!
15. Dughall McCormick - E-Learning Consultant - ’Henri’ - How to exploit VLE tools in a cross curricular way with Primary children.

In keeping with the switched-on nature of the event there is are Facebook , Twitter & Flickr groups and a Ustream feed (the latter won’t be active till the night) already set up for the event and there’s plans afoot to have all videos hosted on a TEDTalks-like portal so that the talks can be used to inspire others once the event is over.  There’s also going to be a Flashmeeting providing a backchannel which will run throughout the event so that attendees all around the world can participate in the event. An example of the support we’ve been offered by 2 non-educationalists is by Toby & Phil who are voluntarily setting up a Rezpondr site to handle all RSS feeds as the event happens.  This shows that the wider community can be involved in TeachMeetBett, not just educationalists.

So to attend TeachMeetBett09:

• Sign up for the BETT Show here
• Sign up on the Wiki here
• Make sure you arrive at Olympia’s Apex Hall (its directly above the Pizza Express on the Corner of Olympia) BEFORE 6:00pm or you won’t be allowed in
• And prepare to be AMAZED!

The organisers are still looking for people to help sponsor the event, as this is a non-profitmaking event every single penny helps and  some large costs have to be paid, especially to make the conference available to online attendees.  In addition we’re looking for prizes that can be donated to our charity raffle and items that could be included in our ‘Schwag Bags’ (we’d need 100 or more of whatever you’ve got if everyone is to receive one).  If you can help in any of these capacities, please add your details to the wiki in the appropriate section. [A previous TeachMeet offered THREE visualisers as just some of the prizes, lets see if we can do just as well this time.] It’s a great opportunity to get you or your company promoted and be seen to be supporting this event being run by teachers for teachers. I promise to acknowledge all those that support the event on the night and in this blog.

I hope I’ve provided enough information to make you think about attending and hope to see you there.

Today’s Bob Dylan song is ‘Visions of Johanna’which is often described as one of his greatest works.  Dylan biographer Mike Marqusee stated that in ‘Visions of Johanna’ Dylan was “stranded between extremes - total freedom and abject slavery.” And it’s fair to say that today’s educationalists often feel that way in terms of the tools they are able to use in school.  Thank goodness trailblazers such as those speaking at the TeachMeetBett 2009 are doing what they can to break the shackles of ‘abject slavery’ to traditional software packages.