Today I attended an online conference that was happening at the british Council in Khartoum, Sudan! Our convener and discussion leader was my virtual colleague and friend, webhead facilitator Hala Fawzi. Hala is a Sudanese teacher of English, now studying her Ph.D about teacher online professional development. Webheads friends from 16 nationalities were present online!

I think that Hala's illustrative slides and other material could serve as an inspiration for educator all over the world.

For those who are really interested there will also be a recording of the audio and chat with slides available at the alado.net server. Here's the link: http://www.alado.net/webheads

Slides at Slideshare here http://www.slideshare.net/halafawzi/ppp-final

Presentation wiki and handout material at http://halafawzi.wikispaces.com

The unorganized internet has a huge potential for learning and professional development. Sewing, planting, growing, cultivating and harvesting the streams of information has become a collaboration trend among journalists, librarians, educators and consultants who wish to explore and promote collective intelligence.  Today I read an "unarticle" in the online journal for English language teachers, tesl-ej.org by the editor, Vance Stevens. He recently arranged and co-orchestrated the WIAOC conference. Vance is a true multitasker, He named this an unarticle because he is "unleashing a stream of consciousness on the many convergences I'm playing with there at the moment. I'm not sure if you'll feel enlightened or inflicted upon after reading". I did the first. And I often do when I get to have a look into Vance's multiverse, and follow his breadcrumb trajectory of unconference, podcasts, wikis, blogs and more. As he explains wbout the WIAOC conference, "This is a free online conference where pretty much anything goes. Whereas the organizers try to make things as clear as possible for attendees, participants and presenters are encouraged to explore as many modalities for communication and interaction as possible in an effort to help each other learn the tools, so there is a tolerance for experimentation at the expense of a simple one-stop interface. But part of what there is to learn about Internet literacy is how to personally organize the morass of information accessible online through efficient aggregation. So the conference will attempt also to show participants how order can be gleaned from what what would otherwise seem chaotic on the Internet by utilizing many of the social networking features so appropriately employed at the K-12 Online conference while carrying on the work of the community largely associated with the annual EVO events." I will need to dig deeper into this amazing stream of conscious knowledge and experience sharing. But I'll need to log into a conference call on Skype, so this is just a note.

with the headline: Connect. conversations about 

In an Open Weekend workshop at Knowplace, with Cristina Costa and Ramona Dietrich on Blogging Across the Curriculum, Ramona is suggesting that teachers whoi adapt computers will repalce those who are resistant to change.

My answer will be shared below  unedited - as  I'm short of time; the train for Hjallese near Odense will be leaving in just 29 minutes and I need a shower :-)

well, in some cases the computer with relevant content could simulate that extra teacher so often needed in a one teacher classroom.

Without being prophetic, I would love to point to a recent example on how global collaboration among teachers can lead to innovative ways of communication lessons. A dear friend of mine, Teresa d'Eca (Webheads in Action) is teaching computer assisted English language to young learners in Portugal. She has adapted the idea of having Mystery guests for an online interview, doing well prepared synchronous interviews with three of her online colleagues (in Australia, Sudan and the UK - Cristina Costa). Five years ago I visited Teresa's school for a whole day, learning about her resistant colleagues and enthusiast children - and I can imagine how these sessions last week must have been very intense and rewarding for both students and their teacher - the three guests included.

Using the blog Teresa manages to give students the news, outline the rules for the game, and report back to her virtual community, some of these educating fellows will in turn, will give feedback in the comments, together  with some local students as a natural part of the community. http://call05-06.motime.com/

Some years ago, I also had the opportunity to be a Virtual guest and to meet with students from a distant university class online - in a blog workshop followed by a synchronous session that was thought provoking and heart warming, genuine conversation. They were adults, living in an isolated east European country, Belarus, and for most of them this was their very first meeting with someone abroad. I strongly believe this sort of global outreaching projects may have strong potential for building a better world. And the ruture belongs to teachers like the Webheads (so often mentioned in this context and also strongly represented in this weekend)

I am short of time this weekend but also wanted to contribute. Too bad I will probabaly not get online until tomorrow evening when the whole Open Weekend workshop will be closed down, and hidden from acccess. Do save anything you want to get back to, somewhere else!

yours, Sus Nyrop in Denmark

http://worldofwebheads.blogspot.com (not very updated)
and another blog at http://eduspaces.net/netopnyrop/weblog/