Over on ScotEduBlogs news, posts about what bloggers will be doing at the Scottish Learning Festival are starting to popup. It’s got me thinking about what makes the Festival special for me.

Andrew tells us what he is doing and challenges us to do the same, Mr Hood and Stuart have responded and Ewan gives a timetable, so here are my thoughts on what I want to do and what I want to get out of the Festival.

I’ve been going to The Festival (or SETT as it used to be) for a few years now. The first time was when Glasgow rolled out its network and had an inservice day to coincide with SETT. After that I enrolled in Masterclass which meant that I got to go every year until last time. This year I am speaking which will be a change. I’ve signed up for some seminars and a keynote on the Wednesday, I didn’t know until this week if I would be there on Thursday so I will probably make my mind up on the hoof then.

On thing I’ll be doing is posting here. Blogging has come a long way in Scotland over the last couple of years, I blogged a bit in 2005, from home and from various computers available around the floor, I discovered there were more than three Scottish edubloggers and started thinking about listing and aggregating them, that is , pulling all their posts together into one place.

In 2006 I had a laptop and there were a lot more folk blogging, and the photos still linger on photo-sharing site Flickr.

After Andrew’s post I started thinking about what I want to get from the Festival, and what I have gained from previous ones. The first time I went, I don’t think I even went to a seminar, just up and down the floor, and in later festivals I’ve not spent much time on the floor but to go to as many seminars as possible. Highlights for me have included:

• 2004 I saw Radiowaves and got the idea for Radio Sandaig.
• The 2005 Podcasting round table, which made me feel as if I was in a community.
• Stephen Heppell has always been a favourite, his gentle delivery (and, in the past, Hypercard presentation) is always inspiring.
• TeachMeet06

I’ve always enjoyed the seminars given by teachers rather than the big gun keynotes. Even ones I’ve wandered into to get away from the hustle on the floor have given me nuggets and ideas to take away, ponder and use.

But the best thing about the Festival has always been the in between bits, chatting and playing with other teachers and meeting online friends. The feeling of being in a community is great. There can be a feeling of isolation in the classroom, online communication helps, but it is the face-to-face that really gets exciting. It is great to meet those you have only talked to online for the first time or meet up with people you have not seen for a year. My main target this session is to meet up with Glasgow teachers, masterclassers and bloggers and have a chat.

My blogging will try to reflect that, I might live blog a seminar or keynote but I am hoping to concentrate on connections, snippets links and ideas, tech and classroom tips that will be the highlights I want to take away with me.
Photo Credit DavidDMuir

Categories: ScotLearnFest07, TeachMeet07