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Welcome to week 1 of iNet's series 3 online conferences
Welcome from Sue Williamson
I am delighted to welcome you to the third series of iNet online conferences. Through the four conferences we aim to explore the question, ‘Are we meeting the needs of the learner?’
The first two series of conferences focused on the nine gateways to personalising learning, and in total attracted over 80 000 ‘visitors’. As a result of the first series of personalising learning pamphlets (PL1–6), and the conferences on which they were based, it became clear that there are advantages to clustering the nine gateways into four concepts: deep learning, deep experience, deep support and deep leadership. The four clusters, the impact of working across them, and the implications for students are explained by Professor David Hargreaves in the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust’s publication, A new shape for schooling?
Generously supported by HSBC, this series will ask educators around the world to consider how we provide students with a climate for deep learning, the necessary support systems and learning experiences, and above all how we nurture school leaders who have the strategic intent of personalising student learning. The four conferences will ask the following questions:
- Creating deep learning: What is deep learning and what conditions are required?
6 November - 14 November 2006 - Supporting the learner: How do we provide support for the 'deep learner'?
4 December - 12 December 2006 - Experiences for the deep learner: School is boring and disengaging. How do we meet the challenge of inspiring learners?
19 March - 27 March 2007 - The 21st century educator: How do we prepare educators for a new role in the 21st century?
4 June - 12 June 2007
We are confident that this series of online conferences will provide stimulating papers from educators and academics from around the world. Along with the discussions, papers will be archived so you can access them after the conferences.
The success of the conferences is always dependent on the contributions from participants and we are hoping for lively debate that challenges us all. We are always looking for new contributors to the writing of papers — if you are interested in doing so, please contact Debra Brydon at brydon@cybertext.net.au
Thank you to all participants - enjoy the conferences.
Sue Williamson
Director of Leadership and Affiliation Networks
Welcome from Debra Brydon
Welcome to the first of the Series 3 of the iNet online conferences. I am very pleased to say that we have 11 papers on deep learning from several countries, as well as a collection of very stimulating questions for you to consider.
Please create the time in your week to join us in our daily (24 hours a day) online discussions. They are a central feature of this professional development opportunity. Reading the papers is only just the beginning. If you didn't have time to write a paper, please share your views and experience with us in this forum. Professional sharing is vital to getting the most you can out of these online conferences. Ask a few questions, and share your own knowledge with education colleagues from all around the world. In this way, we can show our appreciation to those who spent many hours of their precious spare time preparing a paper.
On Tuesday we have a special 3-hour hotseat, which will be hosted by Professor Charles Desforges, who has posed a number of thoughtful questions for you all to reflect upon and discuss, as an online group.
Some of you may not have taken part in an online conference before, so a few guidelines are provided here.
Remember that all the papers and comments on the online discussions have been provided by well-meaning fellow professionals, who have taken the time to publicly share their views and information. When you are online, be friendly, polite and helpful. We welcome both positive and negative views on a paper, or in response to a colleague's comments.
Always enter your name, school and country, so that others know who they are having an online discussion with.
It is vital that you do not share the website address of the online conference with unregistered persons. If you do know of someone who might like to participate, please ask him or her to formally register online.
Comments entered in the online discussions by persons known by the conference organisers to be unregistered will be removed, without notice. Please play your part in keeping the online discussions as private as we can make them, and restricted as much as possible to this registered group of interested professionals. Please do not publicise the website address to unregistered persons under any circumstances.
Finally, I warmly welcome you once again to this first Series 3 conference and look forward to meeting you all online.
Debra J. Brydon
iNet Online Conference Manager
