A CPD opportunity listed at CPDFind

I'll be attending this great looking opportunity next weekend, it is covering Using the Social Web to develop the Four Capacities and lead by David Noble who of course produces the great Booruch podcast.

I've two reasons for posting this information:

Firstly I think this is a great cpd opportunity, the Booruch podcast is the one podcast I have religiously stuck with, David keeps his listeners up to date with a vast amount of new technology as it emerges, but more importantly he has a realistic, classroom based understanding of how to use the technology in teaching and how it fits in with Scottish educational initiatives. Personally I keep up with some of the new tech arriving in my feed reader every day, often have ideas of how to use these in the class (quite a few fail, but Ewan lets me know this is ok). What I am hoping to get from the CPD is more of an idea of how the Social web links to a Curriculum for Excellence. Of couse I can see the links, but I know from listening to Booruch that David will dot the i's and cross the t's.

The second interesting this is the CPDFind website (or subsite of LTS). CPDfind is

a database of CPD opportunities from providers all over Scotland.where you can:

• search for CPD using keywords and/or key categories such as leadership and professional skills
• make a wish list of opportunities for your CPD plan
• search for different types of CPD such as professional reading and action research.

I know that it is only a week away but if you are interested in Web 2.0/Social Web in education I think this is a opportunity that is to good to miss.

ScotEduBlogs is a great site which aggregates Scottish educational blogs.  I was having a browse today and found some really impressive examples of useful blogging in action and I thought I'd post a few.

I've chosen six different blogs which represent three different approaches to/uses for blogging.

Children reflecting on their learning:

• Sandaig Otters (the children of Sandaig PS)
• Kirklandneuk Primary School

Teachers reflecting on their learning and teaching:

• Alan Coady's Musical Blog (an instrumental instructor in East Lothian)
• Dave Cain's Primary Ponderings (a probationer teacher)

Publishing school news:

• Broughton High School News
• Clunbury CE School Pupil Blog (a bit of news and a bit of reflection) 

Christopher D. Sessums is, among other things, a blogger extraordinaire on the topic of social software in education.

In January this year he posted a request for responses from teachers to 5 questions about blogging.  One of the questions was "How has blogging helped you?".  A couple of answers:

"Blogging has been the best professional development opportunity of my life. It has greatly affected my view of pedagogy, media, schooling and society in general. It has been a huge catalyst for my own education."

Alec Couros, University of Regina, Canada 

"Blogging helps me to reflect on things that I have done,  ways that I have taught, methods I have used that have worked or have not worked.  It helps me to document successes and then return to those things the following year, when I'm teaching and I get into a tough spot, and don't remember what I have done to remedy the situation before, I usually go back to my blog and see what I was doing the year before and it all comes back to me. "

Lynn (otherwise anonymous)