A New Year

I guess I have taken enough time since my last post. With the holidays over and getting back into the right frame of mind, I thought I owed you the 1^st update of the New Year. The 1st half of FY 12-13 has been very busy and very rewarding. As you will have noted from my earlier posts, we had our most successful WW Global Forum, our most successful Innovative Schools campaign and the biggest launch of new and updated products in the history of Microsoft. There was also the biggest upgrade to date on the Partners in Learning Network with plenty of new resources, discussions, tutorials, training and much more. Make sure you visit the site often and if you haven’t joined, be sure to make that an easy to-do New Year resolution. Instructions can be found HERE

There was plenty more that went on but that’s all on this site and you can catch up at your leisure J

So what’s in store for the rest of the year? The biggest event on the horizon is BETT 2013. Microsoft and Partners in Learning will be very active and involved at this year’s event. The Microsoft Education Team from the UK manage this on behalf of the company and always do an amazing so be sure to stop by and visit if you get over there. The PiLs programme will also be very busy that week.

 

We will hopefully have guests at the following events:

• Education World Forum on the 28^th 29^th and 30^th -Ministers and Senior Department of Education Advisors
• PiLs Leadership Workshop on the 28^th – Pathfinder and Mentor Schools will be attending
• PiL School Tour on the 29^th – Pathfinder and Mentor School invited to visit Cornwallis Academy. Other schools invited on request
• PiL Training Affiliates Workshop on the 29^th, 30^th and 31^st – Partners invited on request
• Education Leaders Briefing on the 30^th– by invite only
• School Technology Innovation Workshop on the 31^st– invited ICT Leads- contact me if interested
• Playful Learning Workshop on the 1^st– invited ICT Leads- contact me if interested (PS- I will be doing a demo at this event J )
• Windows 8 Appathon on the 28^th and 29^th – by invitation following invited submissions

Following BETT there will be the 3^rd
TeachMeet in NI taking place in Derry in the NW. It will be on Friday Feb. 8^th. Make sure you register or join online on the night. You can find the details for registration HERE. They also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account

Following up to these, in the coming weeks I will be announcing the:

• Launch of this year’s Innovative Educators Competition. The competition is changing this year in that there will not be a European Competition in March. The winner from Northern Ireland and Ireland will automatically be invited to the next Partners in Learning Worldwide Global Forum (venue TBD). This should take place around March so make sure you check in to keep updated and don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re interested.
• Launch of this year’s Innovative Schools Invitation. This year there will be a limit to the number of schools wishing to apply as only 1 school can be selected from NI and 1 from RoI. Please contact me in advance if you are interested to discuss your eligibility. This should kick off in late February/early March. All Innovative School selections are expected to attend the WW Global Forum next November (venue TBD)
• Re-launch of the Partners in Learning School Research. The survey site is being integrated into the PiLs Network site to enable a more joined up and easier to access experience. Details will follow. I will be working in partnership with the Regional Training Unit of NI to deliver and support this programme.

Still loads more to come, but that’s enough for the 1^st post in the New Year J