Reform Symposium: The Final Countdown

Comics and Cartoons
The excitement is mounting, the pressure is building up and it's time for me to pull my socks up and put the final touches to my Reform Symposium virtual presentation on Using Comics and Cartoons in Lessons.

I am currently teaching 24 delightful primary school teachers of EFL at the Lake School of English, Oxford, and as a group we are analysing and incorporating the use of comics wherever possible.

Below is a MakeBeliefsComix created by Group A to practise collocations with HAVE. Please click on it to enlarge it.

A Writecomics example to practise the use of 2 phrasal verbs is below:

I have gradually created and built up a store of comics to use in class and I now need to organise them to present them in the session in a logical manner. I only have 30 minutes approximately to get my message across and there is so much information available that it's difficult to know how to condense it all.

I still have a dilemma. How can I be truly original when everything has already been published on this subject? Well, I guess I have to create some original comics and cartoons to convey my meaning.

A Young Learner's View on Comics
My 8-year-old niece was able to create the following Marvel Superhero comic in a matter of minutes. She grasped how to use the tool very quickly and she planned how she wanted the comic to look before she created the comic. She told me that she used comics at school to help in literacy classes and for storybuilding. She was very enthusiastic about them and she explained how much she enjoyed learning French via the use of comics. Comics contain few words which are easy to work out the meanings of and they are memorable and engaging for younger learners in particular. I was very impressed with the result.

She enjoyed the whole process very much and the final outcome was that I emailed the comic to her parents to show them what she had done. They then simply printed it off and had the option of making it into a poster.

I have been burning the midnight oil recently and I hope I won't be dog tired by next Saturday. I am as keen as mustard to present at this unique e-conference and I am over the moon to be presenting. Below is a recording of me practising with my webcam. I want to record a short introduction to my session and put it on Youtube. Other RSCON3 presenters have already uploaded their lovely introductions on the site.

Below is an introduction from Eva Densiger, who is going to present on Using Web 2.0 Tools in the Primary Classroom. The session looks very interesting, and maybe my group of Primary school teachers can watch the presentation if they are still around.



The Power of a Twitter PLN
I had no idea how to delete a video (to introduce myself for the Reform Symposium) from my newly created Youtube channel! The video recording had somehow got completely out of synch and I wasn't happy with it. I went onto Twitter and posted a plea for help. Within moments Ron Hautman aka EduTechGeek had very kindly done a screen tutorial to show me how it was done and posted the link on Twitter for me. I was able to follow the very clear instructions and so I immediately removed the video. Many thanks to Ron for helping me in my hour of need!

Below is a new Youtube video presentation I uploaded tonight straight from my webcam. It's much better than the previous one I did!!

Click on the link to view lots of other presenters introducing their topics on the Reform Symposium Conference 3 Youtube channel.

RSCON3 Information

In a few days, nearly 8000 educators from over 40 different countries are expected to attend a free 3 day virtual conference, The Reform Symposium, #RSCON3. This free award-nominated e-conference is going to take place on July 29-31st, 2011. Participants can attend this online conference from the comfort of their homes or anywhere that has Internet access. This amazing conference provides educators new or currently active on social networks the opportunity to connect with educators and professionals in the field of education worldwide. With over 12 Keynotes, 80 presenters, and 3 keynote panel discussions you are bound to be inspired!

• View the schedule to plan which presentations you will attend!
• Download the flyer to share with your school!
• Watch this Youtube video of January 2011's conference!
• See if your school will count this as continuing education credit!
• Consider hosting a viewing party!

We would like to thank the incredible organizers- Shelly Terrell, Kelly Tenkely, Chris Rogers, Lisa Dabbs, Melissa Tran, Clive Elsmore, Mark Barnes, Ian Chia, Cecilia Lemos, Jerry Blumengarten, and Kyle Pace- and Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 and The Future of Education online communities for making this incredible conference possible.

We hope you can join us for this incredible professional development experience!