The edtechcc “course” that started in January has come to an end and the final assignment is to reflect on what we have learnt from the experience. #edtechcca8

I found participating in an informal learning and sharing environment like this fantastic. It’s what all this social media stuff is made for! Thank you so much Colin Maxwell for organising it, setting the assignments and arranging for a couple of online meetings about it.

Two of the tools we used for creating stuff have already become integrated into my online life – pixton (cartoonmaker) is such fun. Here’s my latest offering:

I also mastered mixing sound clips in Audacity (a tool I already knew about but hadn’t found time to learn to use) and have since created a soundscape for a storytelling assembly using it.

I don’t think I made the most of the opportunity to comment and share on other participants blogs. By the middle of February I was finding school busy, demanding and tiring and seemed to be chasing my tail with the assignments. But I can’t see any way round this for me – working in an Independent boarding school is an all-consuming business.

However the most valuable thing I learnt from edtechcc was how good this model of learning is for busy practitioners in education. So much so I’m hoping to adapt it to share and learn from other school librarians in the UK.

At the same time as participating in edtechcc I’ve also been sharing my experiences setting up an e- book lending service for my school. Part of this involved speaking at a regional School Library Association networking meeting where I was asked by at least 6 people if I could come and spend a day at their school and help them get to grips with social media, digital publishing and mobile technology! At the end of the meeting I agreed to organise a day’s course for local school librarians about starting a blog. Thanks to the generosity of the headmaster and Kingswood School this is going ahead on the 12th July. There are already 11 takers which is very exciting.

And the next step is where the edtechcc model comes in. I’m setting up a site for those who have created their own blogs on that day to join and continue learning together! It’s going to be called scllt – “School Librarian’s Learning Together”. Here’s to the future