Ivan
That's right this was my first TM. I headed up to BETT by myself with a meeting scheduled with a few virtual colleagues. I'd never met them, they've never met me..I was breaking all e-safety advice and even forgot to ring my parents and let them know where I was! Anyway, the meeting took place and I had the pleasure of actually seeing and chatting to real people, not virtual tweeters. Chris, Gideon, Zoe, Mary, Nathan, Dan, Zoe.
So, I knew a bit about the process of a TM and had even (very late) signed up for doing a presentation. On entering, there were shedloads of people. Lots of twitter royalty and loads of other tweeters... tables were filling up, my phone was going flat, so started looking for a power source. Met Zoe at the plugs and had a good chat. Felt like we became the 2 muppets commenting on the whole process. She was presenting, and by then I found out that not only was I not in the handout, I had been missed off the spinny thing...oh what joy. The audience was massive and the presentations were good... I could relax, watch, drink and not worry about presenting now... how lucky was I. Every time that fruit machine spun, Zoe's heart would jump into her mouth...she was missed at least 3 times by one. Was so glad I wasn't in the process now...
I confidently posted on twitter that I was absent from the spinner and therefore didn't need to present. @daibarnes (who wasn't there in person) had other ideas and after the break the 'random' spinny thing not only had my name but also somehow managed to pick me...go figure that one out!
I didn't realise how ambitious presentation was going to be...how wrong can a live demo go? Well:
- would help if I gave people enough time to login
- would help if the wifi let them login
Anyway, got 2 people logged in and I proceeded to present. More info on presentation here. Even caught the camel, although not sure that was what I was supposed to do with it.
But the real thing about TM that I will take away with me is that no matter how much I have used twitter in the past, meeting real people, talking to real people and seeing real presentations is so important. My 'PLN' is now 3D. I have met some great people, shared ideas that went beyond 140 characters, I understand them better, their personalities, their sense of humour. This enables me to add humour and fun to tweets without the fear of causing unintentional offence...hopefully. Still might be in a bit of trouble over the washing machine joke.
I now know a group of people a lot better than I did before. I have met some of the twitter greats, the ones who's 'twitter personalities' are larger than life. In reality they are like me, but just better and getting their message across.
Prior to this meeting I was approached to do a TM at Bude. Now I will definitely host one..I'm looking forward to it. Anyone interested in popping down to N. Cornwall please let me know. I am also aware that the secondary ICT teachers are looking for a common goal and bond that isn't as well developed as our Primary counterparts...the hashtag #ICTCurric needs to be more prevalent. We need to share more resources. We need to be more supportive and we need to meet more...have a laugh and chat.
So there it is, a great first TM. Fantastic people, fantastic presentations and interesting use of a camel. I enjoyed it immensely and cannot wait for the next one. Thanks to all who organised, created and allowed me the opportunity to be there.
