Another One For The Books... #wttw

Wow, we had a great time the other night! It was nice to have an opportunity to chat with others in the room, and it was exciting to be able to bring so many talented educators into the room virtually from around the world. some of our online participants came from as far away as the UK and Australia :-)

One of the first things that took place during this event was the creation of a wiki (thanks, @charbeck) to record the Twitter usernames of a few Manitoba educators - http://mbteacherswhotweet.wikispaces.com/ - if you're in Manitoba and on Twitter, please add yourself to the list :-)

You can catch many of the evening's festivities by watching our Windows To The World uStream recording here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1388826

Many thanks go out to everyone who participated in this unique event...

We'd love your feedback about this event, so that we can continue to provide quality professional learning opportunities for educators around the province, and around the world :-)

Please feel free to leave us a note,
Andy

Opening up the Windows (to the World)

ManACE's next event, Windows To The World, is just around the corner. If you're not already signed up to attend this event in person, please register soon by e-mailing me: andy@mckiel.ca

If you're planning to attend Windows To The World, you're in for a treat! You'll have an opportunity to network with the people in the room, and then we'll be inviting guests in virtually so that we can connect with a few members of our professional learning networks, including Ryan Maksymchuk, Rodd Lucier, Liz Kolb and Ben Hazzard.

While we'd like to get as many people participating face-to-face as we can, we're also encouraging the participation of our online audience at this event. The backchannel will be coming to the forefront for this unique event.

Windows To The World will be broadcast out to virtual participants through uStream at the following URL:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/windows-to-the-world

In addition, Twitter users are asked to tag their tweets with #wttw so that we can monitor backchannel conversations.

Please join ManACE for Windows To The World :-)
April 15th
7-9pm CST

Windows To The World - An open invitation...

Adapted from: 'BCE Toronto' - http://www.flickr.com/photos/7578081@N07/2409088184

Over the last couple of years, ManACE has organized a variety of forward thinking events. You may have participated in 2007's Manitoba Edubloggercon. Or you may have heard about the innovative approach that we took with presenting 2008's Awakening Possibilities. These events were all about bringing together educators from around the province of Manitoba (and around the world) to showcase some of the many talents that exist in the vast region of Canada where we are situated.

Enter 'Windows To The World'. This event aims to throw the windows open a little wider in an effort to connect with more people in even more meaningful ways. Windows To The World will provide a greater opportunity for face to face networking with educators from around the province. For participants in the room, there will be opportunities to connect and collaborate with the other like-minded educators who are in attendance.

In addition to bringing people together, we'll turn our own walls into windows by sharing what we're doing with other educators from around the world. Using a variety of video conferencing tools and techniques, many distinguished guests will join us throughout the evening. We will have an opportunity to ask questions, highlight successful collaborative projects and connect with our own circle of experts by showcasing the benefits of being a connected learner. We will also broadcast the live video feed from this event out to our global audience, to facilitate increased virtual participation.
If you plan to be in or around Manitoba the evening of April 15th, we hope that you'll consider joining us in person for 'Windows To The World'. If you'll be in another province, country or continent, we hope that you'll join us online for this event to help us demonstrate the power of networked learning.

There is no cost to participate in Windows To The World. Everyone is welcome to attend, and refreshments will be provided for participants in this event. Virtual participants --> BYOB :-)

Register to attend this event in person by emailing: andy@mckiel.ca

Please help ManACE spread the word about Windows To The World by posting, printing and sharing this open invitation:

WindowsToTheWorld.pdf

We look forward to having you join us for Windows To The World :-)

As always, please feel free to leave us a note,
Andy

Another Page in The Book

Thank you to everyone who came out last week for another very successful ManACE TIN!
And a special thanks to all of our presenters!

Phil Taylor demonstrated the many ways that he's been using Diigo to further develop his own personal learning network. Not only does he love Diigo's ability to share bookmarks with other educators, he regularly annotates websites to share information with his students and he subscribes to many different groups within Diigo to ensure that relevent web content is dropped off in his mailbox on a daily basis :-)

Shawn Kleebaum demonstrated Google Apps, and showcased how his school has been using many of the applications that Google offers free for educators. Not only did he share some great content about Google Apps, but his presentation was delivered using Prezi, a new online presentation tool that is currently accepting beta testers. If you haven't yet had the opportunity to experience Prezi, you should check out their site and consider subscribing for your own account.

The final presenter of the evening was Steve Dudar, who shared MARVIN. Steve demonstrated some of the many ways that MARVIN avatars can be programmed to add a variety of media to any desktop application. MARVIN utilizes a simple scripting language, so that users of all ages can easily adapt their avatars' voices and languages. If you're interested in finding out more about getting started with MARVIN, stay tuned to this blog to find out more upcoming training events...

To cap off the evening, Andy McKiel offered a quick demonstration of GE's Smart Grid. If you haven't yet seen the Smart Grid in action, you should check it out :-)

We're almost ready to release the details of our next event, 'Windows To The World'. This event will be a follow-up to the 2007 Manitoba Edubloggercon and 2008's Awakening Possibilities. Mark your calendar for the evening of April 15th, as this is one event you won't want to miss. Also, if you're not already subscribed to the ManACE blog, simply click the link below the ClustrMap on the right to make sure that you get updates about future ManACE events :-)

Please feel free to leave us a note,
Andy

ManACE March TIN: The Next Steps...

Please join us on March 11th, 2009:
3 sessions + dinner = $5
Why not?

Diigo - Develop / Expand your PLN
Presented by: Phil Taylor
Did you miss 'Getting Connected' at the end of January? John Evans & Andy McKiel, hosted a wonderful hands-on session on two social networking tools, Twitter & Diigo. This TIN session will explore some of the powerful features of Diigo from a new user perspective. Diigo is an exciting social bookmarking tool to develop/expand your presonal learning network. Diigo offers two services in one: a research and collaborative research, and a knowledge tool with a focus on sharing community and social content.

Google Apps Education Edition
Presented by: Shawn Kleebaum
Ask not what you can do for Google but what Google Apps can do for you! Google Apps Education Edition offers free communication, collaboration and publishing tools, including email accounts on your school's domain. Google Apps Education Edition includes Start Page, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, and Google Docs. You can select any combination of the available tools and services and customise them with your school's logo, colour scheme and content. Manage your users through a web-based control panel. Best of all, it's all hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain. This session will demonstrate the benefits of getting started with Google Apps Education Edition.

MARVIN - Bringing Your Stories To Life
Presented by: Steve Dudar
Marvin is an award winning training, education and presentation authoring application using 3D Avatars to communicate important information and stories to audiences. Marvin uses a multi-sensory approach, integrating real voice, computer generated voice, written text, images, video and PowerPoint presentations to quickly create presentations that reflect cultural, lingual and social attributes of the audience. This demonstration will show how easy it is to create basic Marvin scripts, change the language and the character in order to customize the message for the audience.

When?
Wednesday, March 11th @ 5:30 p.m.

Where?
Ecole Robert H. Smith
315 Oak Street, Winnipeg
*click here for the location and directions*

Cost?
$5.00, to cover the cost of dinner (pizza and salad)

How do I register?
E-mail: andy@mckiel.ca
*please register ASAP so that we can plan accordingly*

We hope to see you at our upcoming TIN :-)

Upcoming Events...

It's a busy time of the year, with many technology workshops and conferences taking place across the province. We're just a week away from Minnedosa's annual BYTE Conference, and there are several other major conferences on the horizon, including Riding The Wave (in Gimli) and the MaDLAT Conference (in Winnipeg).

ManACE is pleased to offer a host of workshops and sessions throughout the next few months. Mark your calendars for our next Winnipeg TIN, taking place the evening of March 11th. Details about the presentations will follow before the end of February. ManACE is also planning to host a second March TIN in Brandon. Details will be posted here to the blog and distributed through the ManACE mailing list when available. If you're not currently subscribed to our mailing list, you can sign up for our mailing list now :-)

Thanks to the positive response to our 'Getting Connected' event held at the end of January, ManACE is planning a series of follow-up events to assist Manitoba educators with continuing the journey of getting connected with their own professional learning networks. Participants in our January 29th event found the focused play time with Twitter and Diigo to be very useful in beginning the journey to get connected to like-minded educators. Visit the wiki that was used for our session to access some of the resources that were shared.

Another opportunity worth noting is the upcoming 'Game On Manitoba' conference. Click on the following link to view and share a .pdf with details of this event:

Game%3Dbased%20Learning%20and%20Simulations.pdf

Lastly, the Board of ManACE is working toward offering several 'Winter Workshops' (...or Spring Workshops) this year. If you have any suggestions for topics that you'd like to see included, please feel free to share them through comments to this blog post :-)

Feel free to leave us a note,
Andy

'Getting Connected'

Photo credit - Get Connected - http://franksblog.edublogs.org/2009/01/16/get-connected/

Getting Connected

What does it mean to have your own professional learning network?
How can you start building your own circle of experts?
Find out what it takes by 'Getting Connected'...

Getting Connected takes place 6:30pm - 7:30pm on January 29th in M.E.C.Y.'s Professional Learning Lab (1567 Dublin, Winnipeg).

Your hosts, John Evans & Andy McKiel, will show you how easy it is to get connected with other like-minded educators. Participants will be introduced to two social networking tools (Twitter & Diigo) that will help you get connected. There is no cost to attend this event, but registration is limited to 30 participants. Everyone who participates is guaranteed to get connected.

Please register early to avoid disappointment.

E-mail andy@mckiel.ca to register...