I am a big fan of Kevin’s blog & also his Delicious feed so I thought it would be neat to allow Kevin to speak in Singapore during his current homecoming visit from the University of Buffalo where he has recently completed his PhD. Congratulations Kevin!

Kevin and I at Starbucks, Holland Village, Singapore

Last Saturday morning Kevin and I met up for a drink at Starbucks in Holland Village and synthesized a number of ideas for our talk. Individually our ideas have been gestating for some years now and they have come together in a manner of speaking and this Wednesday I guess an offspring will be generated in the form of our talk. Please feel welcome to join the talk and if you can spread the word. Kevin has been doing a great job already!

What are the details? Taken from the Nanyang Technological University web site…

Date/Time
14 October 2009 (Wednesday) · 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm (2hrs)

Location
NTU Lecture Theatre 6, Level 2, Academic Complex North, Singapore (PDF map)

Overview

The democratic nature of the social web means that the ability to learn and produce meaningful work can now happen at any level – from the independent student, to the individual teacher, to the entire education institution. Now, more than ever, instructors are able to motivate active learning among students, by empowering them with relevant online tools that allow for more creative approaches to go beyond the traditional class-based education.

In this two hour session, learn how you can…

~ cultivate learning beyond the classroom
~ encourage participation in the class conversation
~ inspire student pride through greater sense of ownership of their work
~ include new literacies in research, organization, and synthesis of ideas
~ support multiple learning styles
~ create exemplars by raising the bar of student achievement
~ archive learning by creating a record for both you and the students

And much more…

In this international presentation brought to you by educators John Larkin (Australia) and Kevin Lim (United States), the first part of the session will provide a general state of education on the social web, while the second part will demonstrate tactical approaches to meeting your students’ learning objectives through the appropriate use of social web tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks. The ultimate vision of this session would be to situate student learning in a more familiar and communal environment.

Speakers

Dr Kevin Lim studies and shares his interest in the wide-ranging cultural affordances of information communication technology, particularly on the self-organizing and pedagogical quality of the social web. With his academic background in communication, his research has ranged from Internet censorship and civil sovereignty in China, to social capital among online non-profit organizations. He also conducts social web-related workshops and produces instructional guides at the Teaching & Learning Center, located in the University at Buffalo (SUNY). Kevin has been fortunate to be featured on the Buffalo News (New York), CBC News (Canada), Zaobao Weekly (Singapore), Channel News Asia (Singapore), commandN.tv (Canada), as well as several prominent blogs.

Mr John Larkin is an educator and instructional designer presently living in Australia. He has vast experience in the development and application of educational technologies in primary, secondary, tertiary and corporate educational fields. John is constantly researching the latest trends in educational technologies and as a result he has established linkages with like-minded educators across the globe. He is constantly seeking new tools and technologies that will allow educators of all backgrounds to converge teaching and technology in a manner that is both practical and productive. He has worked on a significant number of web-based and CD-ROM projects. John has led the design on corporate, tertiary and school based web-learning projects. His skill set is enriched with a keen eye for design and a practical approach towards instructional technologies.

Course Fee
Thanks to NTU the presentation is now free to attend.

Registration Link
http://edutorium.ntu.edu.sg/courses_detail.php?course_id=138

Kevin strikes a pose near Sultan Gate

A number of their friends were there as well as John’s father and sister. The food was great, the weather was perfect and life is good.

We imbibed somewhat as well. We all conversed on topics as diverse as TESOL, university days, astronomy, the fortunate demise of John Howard, the disappointing performance of Kevin Rudd, immature employees, ice ages, project management, working overseas, happy coincidences, birth, coping strategies, murders in our streets, losing your mojo and more.

We had a great day! Thanks John and Pauline!

A very Happy New Year to you all, in particular my loyal band of readers! All aboard for 2009!

The view from Circular Quay

Shao Ping and I jumped in the car and drove to Allawah in Sydney, parked the car and hopped on a train to the city. We changed trains at Central Station, alighted at Circular Quay and caught a ferry to Manly across the majestic Sydney Harbour. We then walked along the Corso to the beach at Manly. We were a little early so we wandered about a bit.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House and the city in the background

Manly Beach

Tom found us first and then Steve turned up. Excellent! Interesting Tom looked more Australian then either Steve and myself. We all made our way to a local cafe for lunch. It was a bit like a blind date really. I had never met Tom or Steve in the flesh before. Have you ever been on a blind date? My wife and I were joking about this on the way to the meetup. Perhaps I might fall for Steve or Tom! Nothing quite like an each way bet, eh?

Three men on a blind date. Tom, John and Steve.

We ordered drinks and a meal and the conversation began. We carried on for about 2.5 hours. We covered all sorts of territory from practical, down to earth blog posts, the effectiveness of Twitter as a source of immediacy and connectedness in the classroom, through to innovative teaching and learning practices, teaching second languages and emigrating to a different country.

Life is good. Holidays, travel, freedom, drinks with friends.

We compared our actual teaching situations and spoke of future plans. Steve’s recent trip to the United States was a source of interesting discoveries. My wife and I took a few photographs including the obligatory hardware snap. In fact the  hardware surfaced for all of about 2 minutes. I do not own a mobile phone so I played with a small camera for the benefit of the shot.

Mini unconference. NECC watch out!

We adjourned to Manly Beach after the meal and we also took a few photographs with the Santa hats I had brought along for the meeting.

Steve in a jovial mood

Tom by the beach in a festive setting

We all had a jolly good time and I am glad I made the trip to Sydney. The weather held off and it was just a great experience to meet up with Tom and Steve. Two great blokes, both hard-working and innovative teachers and each a source of support and inspiration. Thanks Tom! Thanks Steve!

PS. Tom is on his way to Adelaide now to catch up with his dad and perhaps Graham Wegner, another gentleman on the blogwaves.