Internet for Educators had a special guest speaker visit their classroom today (Jan. 13, 2009). His name is John Evans and from the look of his badge, he's probably an employee with the Provincial government or working with them. He had a lot to say about Literacy with Internet Communication Technology (ICT), PLN (Professional/Personal Learning Networks and RSS feeds. Before his presentation I had no idea what a PLN and RSS feed were, really. Some of the tutorials and webpages he placed before the classes eyes were useful and helpful and geared towards teaching. John mentioned he was a teacher for the last 29 years or so and it shows. He was knowledgable in the content area, well-prepared and kept the class focused (for the most part).
What I enjoyed about John's presentation was that he allowed the class to follow along with him on our computers while he browsed on the web showing us various websites. At one moment during his speech he said loudly, "okay everyone I want you to put your keyboards upside down on your towers, and turn off the monitors..." then I realized he was just demonstrating to the class that in the past that is what some teachers did to make sure that the students were paying attention. I was typing notes into Microsoft Word when he was saying this and thought he was getting mad at us.
Overall, I enjoyed the presentation because there were hands-on activities to do as well. I would like to read what my classmates wrote and see their thoughts.
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I also enjoyed his presentation, he was very knowledgable in the subject area which is important in a guest speaker.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what PLN's were before his presentation either, now that I know what they are I feel they can be a super useful tool and am definitely going to be setting one up for myself.
I really enjoyed this presentation and am looking forward to our future presenters.