On Tuesday evening Drew Buddie and I ran our first Teachshare, in which we talked about what we were hoping to achieve in the planned series of talks. We were joined by Steve Bunce, of Vital, Shelly Terrell and Ashley Allain, each of whom said a few words about what they were going to be talking about in their guest slots over the course of the next few weeks – because, you see, one of our aims is to bring along people you might not otherwise come across, and who can throw a different light on the issues facing those of us who are involved in educational technology and passionate about kids getting the best educational experience possible.

Because of technical difficulties, people found it difficult to get into the session at first – including Drew and myself! Not an ideal start, because it meant that both of us were slightly flustered and not as prepared as we would have preferred. It also meant that some people were not able to enter the room at all, and I for one was bounced out of it at one stage, and had to crawl back in.

Nevertheless, 27 people took part, and the feedback so far has been that people enjoyed it and found it useful. The participants came from, literally, all over the world. One thing we discussed, prompted by one of the people in the room, was the problem of ICT (Information & Communications Technology, = ed tech) Co-ordinators feeling undervalued in their school situation. Perhaps we’ll be able to build in a discussion issue each week, and provide a supportive environment: the other participants in the room were fantastic.

OK, with no more ado, here are some links you will need:

The recording of the first session, the one I have just been talking about.

The room for the second session. This takes place at 7pm UK time on Tuesday 9th November. Use the world clock to work out what time it is where you are. Please note that our clocks went back an hour last week, so we are no longer on British Summertime. Shelly Terrell will be looking at how to encourage non-specialists to use technology in their lessons, especially given that they may not even want to or feel the need to. She will be drawing on the work of Seth Godin, so it should be an interesting session.

Please let everyone know about this – tell all your friends and non-friends If you tweet about it, please use the hashtags #vitalcpd and #sictco – thank you!

In the meantime, enjoy this video by Chris Smith. Chris was unable to join us because it was 2 am where he is. A feeble excuse, I think you’d agree, but clearly overwhelmed with guilt, Chris (who is also on our guest speaker list), very kindly made a short video to say “Hi”, and to give us a preview of a presentation in Second Life. Great stuff!

Don’t forget: Monday, 7pm. Miss supper if necessary! If you can't wait that long to hear my dulcet tones, Steve Bunce has kindly invited me to talk about spreadsheets across the curriculum on Monday 8th November, at 8pm UK time. Here's the link.