#onandup

After much thought I still have failed to come up with a meaningful reflection that suitably summarises the conference.  There was just to so many amazing ideas that I really couldn't do it justice to the topics in this short space.  So I would like to highlight just one idea that I came away with and that is the use of free tools available on the internet or making better use of software that we already have.  I would encourage any teacher to investigate the possibilities that can be unlocked from products we use everyday, such as Windows and Office, and those available freely on the internet.  I will try and highlight some on them here and update with more post at a later date.

Firstly Twitter
I am a recent convert to twitter, having seen it heavily evangelised at the on and up conference.  I had always been put off Twitter, seeing it as a cross between a constant stream of inane Facebook status updates and the virtual equivalent of speakers corner.  However I can see that it also has some very useful and powerful applications.  It was an excellent vehicle for the back channel chatter at the conference and despite having only used it for a few days I have already begun to develop some useful contacts for networking and professional development purposes.

Microsoft Partners in Learning Network
This I was introduced to at the conference and have to say there is a wealth of useful information and resources on this site.  I have far from exhausted all the possibilities and have already discovered some new features of Microsoft Products as well as some pretty cool ones that I can get for free through the network.

New Tools
This is an interesting site which has some nice tools and intimation.  Something demonstrated at the conference was the random activity generator.  Could see some interesting applications for that in the classroom.

Just a couple of tools and hopefully some ideas.  More to come shortly.
@peterofwinkley