TeachIT+2011

__**TeachIT at Tanglin Trust School Singapore**__
19 November 2011

This is the third time I have attended this conference. It gets better all the time (and that has nothing to do with the fact that I won an external hard drive this time). This is a brief outline of my day at TeachIt. I am happy to discuss any of the sessions in more detail with anyone who may be interested.

The sessions I attended were: Sean Thomas Moroney : The GoogleApp Empowered Classroom

Keri-Lee Beasley: iCreate, Therefore I am

Jamie McKenzie: Teaching Media Literacy

The Google App workshop covered gmail, google docs, google calendar, sites, forms and labs The presenters notes are here This workshop was for google beginners and served as a refresher for people who are already using google apps.

Keri-Lee Beasley and Louise Phinney are always good value. In spite of having seen them present several times I returned to their session on ipads because I was confident that they would show me something new. They did not disappoint.

Their weebly lists the specific apps we were shown to participants. Each participant had an ipad enabling them to experience the apps themselves. Louise & Keri-Lee are Technology Integrators at UWCSEA East Campus. They have 70 ipads in their primary library. Participants were given examples of how the apps shown were being used to support the curriculum. The full list of ipad apps that they are currently using can be found on appolicious listed by subject area.

Whilst Jamie McKenzie's presentation targeted secondary teachers the techniques would also be useful in the primary classroom. Jamie demonstrated ways to make students question things that they see in the media. He deconstructed advertisements and news websites. He discussed how to make students aware of the techniques used to convince viewers of the authors point of view.

Aside from the 3 workshops I attended there were considerable networking opportunities with librarians in particular with Monica from The British International School in Phuket, Linda from The Australian International School, Singapore and Katie from United World College SEA (East Campus). We discussed eBooks, library catalogues, ipads, itouches, FOBISSEA and a multitude of other library related issues.