Up Pompey (again)

I attended an excellent conference today at the University of Portsmouth, and it was the second time in as many months I have spoken there. There were 28 workshops and seminars in addition to my keynote speech. Just over 100 people attended from 3 of the faculties at the university, and there were several lively sessions to take part in. Martin Weller from the OU came in live via a webcast to talk about the intriguing topic of 'Academic output as collateral damage'. Also there from the OU was Tony Hirst, and it was a pleasure to meet him face to face for the first time, and talk about issues ranging from Google to assessment. His presentation was fittingly entitled: 'Making the most of Google'.

I also attended a session presented by Emma Duke Williams and her colleagues called 'Twispering in class' which explored the history, usefulness and application of Twitter as a tool for communication and reflection in formal learning contexts. Stewart Milton from Blue Orange Consulting gave an excellent, wideranging session on how to reach students through social media, which also covered the use of mobile handheld technologies. Both sessions drew quite a crowd, and provokes some good discussion. Manish Malik's session on 'Exam revision using Examopedia Wiki and Google Talk' was also well received, and prompted some quick fire questions from all those present.

I had the honour of kicking off the event with a 45 minute keynote that I entitled: 'Lifelong learning in a digital age: Inspiration and innovation through social media', in which I covered a lot of ground from disruptive technologies, through personal learning environments to the use of mobile phones in education, all of which seemed to be well received. All of the sessions were recorded through Camtasia and should be available for viewing soon on the conference website. Here is the link to my own keynote presentation on Camtasia with full audio. The slideset accompanying my keynote speech is below. Thanks to all those who organised such a great event, and also to all those who took part.

Lifelong learning in a digital age

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