I thought I'd share with you what Linda and I have been doing this Thursday and Friday at the ICT conference organised by the AIS and held at Knox Grammar this year.
Firstly, for all you tweeters out there, search for and follow the conference hashtag #aisitic11 on Twitter. This is a great way to 'virtually' attend the conference and get access to some of the best ideas, links and discussion generated by the conference attendees. Also, have a look at the conference wiki to get a whole range of resources that are available to anyone.
This morning's Keynote was given by the fantastic Mark Scott - the Managing Director of the ABC. He was a wonderfully engaging presenter who spoke about how he worked to transform the ABC from a traditional broadcaster to and innovative digital media leader. 
The first workshop I attended was given by Megan Bennett from Abbotsleigh. She spoke about how staff are using video conferencing facilities to enrich their professional development. By doing some PD in this way, time and costs are greatly reduced when compared with traditional PD delivery. This could be a great thing for St Paul's staff to investigate and be a truly international school. Here are some of the ways they have used video conferencing:
  • whole school staff meeting with expert educator (international)
  • collaboration between schools
  • teacher librarian conference (AIS)
  • development office fundraising
  • IT managers meeting
  • K-12 team meetings

I also attended a workshop on collecting student feedback to enhance and shape learning activities in the classroom. This was given by Thea van Os and Peter Ellis from St Joseph's College. Using things such as Poll Everywhere and Twiducate teachers can get immediate feedback from students on how they are learning and whether they are understanding and what they think. It encourages student voice, especially those who normally are too shy or scared to say anything in the classroom. This was a really good reminder for me to ask for feedback from students (it's usually not that bad, despite what we might think!).

Lastly there were 'Sandpit' sessions that were open to anything people were interested in. Most people opted for learning about iPads in the classroom but as that's not an option for me, I went with a small group to learn more about OneNote. One of the people in the group shared how he is using the program and it has really inspired me to explore the capabilities of OneNote much more! I think there is a Breakfast Bytes session in this :)

So, after lots of chatting to former colleagues, twitter friends and current colleagues; along with tweeting, listening, thinking and a very long train journey there and back; I am quite tired after all that! I will share what I learn tomorrow and hopefully you will find something that sparks an idea that you can use in the classroom.