This is a review of some of the sessions at ACEC2010 that stood out to me that I went to and a bit of a run down on what it was like to present my first ever presentation at a conference!

Participant Comfort, Social Networking and Communities of Practice: The presenter was Wendy Fasso and this session I ended up in by accident as I had to chair the room. It was not one that I had chosen but I am very glad that I went as it was incredibly interesting to see how the social isolation that some people can encounter both on line when groups of people already know each other through other projects was handled in an online learning situation. The strategies that they used to help participants to feel welcome and liked they belonged involved creating a buddy system based on personality types to create a working partnership. It was really good to see that someone has considered that for those of us who may not necessarily be socially great!

Using Learning Management Systems (Moodle) to enhance PD in schools: The presenter was Chris Woldhuis from Northern Beaches Christian School. This was a great session about how NBCS runs their staff PD program, which was pretty impressive, using a LMS to share the resources that teachers develop to run the PD. The PD section of the LMS became a one stop shop for all PD related resources for the school. An excellent idea as it is so easy with many PD’s so that no knowledge is lost!

Building a model of effective and personalised teacher Professional development in schools with an action research framework: Yep another Chris Woldhuis session. This time it was focussing on the Action Research projects that NBCS run as part of there PD program for staff. Which allows staff to run workshops, research areas of relevance to their current teaching and Learning environments. Again an really interesting program in a school that has a culture of learning and innovation.

Student Voice: The presenter was Lois Smethurst and she took us on a journey through the variety of ways that she and her staff allow students to have a voice using technology tools. It was great to see all the various projects and hear the student voice coming through loud and clear. I love what Lois is doing at her school!

Game Maker for Beginners: The presenter was Tony Forster. I had not used Game Maker before and was very much looking forward to having a go at it. I was not disappointed. It was lots of fun making a bear that shot fire shaped bullets at ghosts! If I had that much fun imagine what the kids would do! Definite one to take back to school and show our IT teacher.

Personalised Learning for Z gen Kids: The presenters were Jenni Leditschke and Natalya Milne. What these two teachers are doing is excellent. The students are peer assessing within their class and with others OS. They have completely transformed the classroom into a vibrant learning space filled with all sorts of interactive technology including iPhones. The students set their own timetable for the week within guidelines and have a student directed project as part of their learning. All the images and videos showed really vibrant engaged learners. Students used laptop as the presenters liked computer labs to looking like pokies venues! Hehehe I love that comment!

Stager keynote: This was a very interesting keynote which I am still trying to decide if I liked it or not. Some thing that I did like was his obvious passion and great presentation style. He was from that point of view very easy to listen to. His premise was to dispense some tough love. Which he certainly made some controversial statements and certainly provoked much discussion amongst attendees and the twitterverse. Which guess is his whole aim. To have your audience talking, thinking, debating discussing. What more could a presenter want??

Betcher Keynote: I really liked this keynote. Chris had a very similar message to Gary Stager said but in a slightly gentler manner He had some very interesting, up to date facts and examples. I really enjoyed his presenting style and ist was great to see in the flesh someone I had been following via his blog and Oz Teachernet

Adam Elliot: Oscar winner, Adam Elliot, was a very slick entertaining presenter which I enjoyed immenselyy. He was very funny and endearing. It made me think how many Adam’s have we got in schools, where the way we do school just doesn’t fit for them but whom have such incredible talent bundled inside them. his talked just highlighted the need for schools to be really thinking about what we do, why and how.

Teachers beliefs on tech integration: Michael Phillips gave a really insightful presentation on his research into how teachers core beliefs about teaching, their planning and tech integration are all related. As this is the area I work with directly in my job it was interesting to see some research into the thinking of teachers.

Geocaching in Education: (Of course!)I presented this one and it was the first time for me presenting at a conference. I think it went well although it is hard to tell. I got some good questions at the end and no one walked out! I had to do the presentation without my notes as I was going to use keynote presenter but it only works if the laptop and iPhone are on the same wifi network which of course at ACEC they weren’t. Fortunately I had rehearsed it enough times in the mirror that I knew what I was going to say so it didn’t affect me too much! If I get an opportunity to do another geocaching presentation again I would like to do something more hands on and get the participants using a GPS to find a cache! It was an incredibly valuable experience and really worthwhile doing!

Twitter: Twitter back channel was amazing! All sorts of great stats about #1 trending topics etc was great. But more importantly was the value adding to the presentations especially the keynotes where good questions were raised, information disseminated and conversations held. It added and incredible richness to the conference. See the tweet stream here. Thanks to @ackygirl for bring that to my attention.

Overall this was an incredibly valuable conference that I enjoyed immensely. thank-you to all who organised the conference. It is very much appreciated.