Festival of Laptop Learning

It's been going for 3 days now and I am blown away by the incredible talents of so many of the presenters. The stats are unbelievable. Over 1000 teachers and students from about 233 schools so far. The range of information and support that has been provided has been fantastic. Every presenter has spent considerable time developing comprehensive sessions that demonstrate deep knowledge and understanding across a broad range of curricula.
The teachers and schools that have attended have embraced the variety of different delivery modes and been enthusiastic participants. I have sat in on quite a few of the sessions and am in awe of the creativity. Just for example, on Monday I participated in the session run by students from Cherrybrook Technology High School. They were facilitating a discussion on the benefits and pitfalls of laptops in classrooms. It was a balanced and well-presented session, with opportunities for thought-provoking discussions where students offered their delights and concerns about a range of issues around laptops in the classroom.
Today I participated in a very interactive session where teachers brought their laptops (or computers) to the session and learnt some basics about Photoshop Elements from Katy Lumkin the presenter. While she was delivering instructions, Vince and I were facilitating a chatroom in Edmodo to help the participants keep up, repeat instructions and advise Katy on her pace and its suitability to the learners. So much fun! There were 12 schools involved, all up about 45 teachers. 7 out of the 12 schools used Edmodo to multitask. We decided to manage the size of this session by limiting it to the 12 schools only. And it became clear to us that this is very important when you are 'teaching' a new skill AND using 2 applications at once.
Another interesting session I participated in was Sharon Starkey's PDHPE session. Her content was so useful and her delivery, using Bridgit to share her notebook to interact with the participants was just fantastic. Her attitude that we are all learning these new skills together, that it is OK to not know it all and to make mistakes, and that it is a shared journey that will hopefully lead us to transform the way we teach was very inspiring! Her sense of humour was refreshing.
Finally, I have to congratulate my team of teachers working on this project. Concetta has been UNBELIEVABLE!! Her skills with collaborative tools and her uncanny ability to take all of us along with her on this 'risky' journey has been so exciting. And her partner in crime, Anne-Maree without whom this festival would not have been so popular. Her networks have helped to get this festival out there to the masses.
To all my staff who have volunteered their time out of normal duties to support them both, by facilitating a total of 50 sessions, I thank you all sincerely.
We have really tested the technology in the last few days (and there's still 8 more days to go). Lisa Harmer's team have been great, and all the presenters of course, to you I say a big thank you!! Your work is invaluable.