Virtual Learning Network

We're gearing up for our AGM in Gisborne. My flights are booked, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person. More info on the group calendar at /event_calendar/view/859108/giftednz-agm-at-gisborne-in-association-with-tairawhiti-reap and on our website at http://giftednz.org.nz/.

Great to see some more new members joining our VLN group. For formal giftEDnz membership information, please see our main site at http://giftednz.org.nz/. During the holidays, I will be copying some excerpts of our blog posts to the blog here. I would be more than happy to discuss your thoughts on these posts.

Hello, and welcome to all new members. Gifted Awareness Week is next week, and the #NZGAW Blog Tour has started already. See http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/874/ for the blog tour, and http://giftednz.org.nz/gifted-awareness-week/ for information on Gifted Awareness Week.

Next week, 6-12 August, is the International Week of the Gifted. We'd love to know how you're planning to celebrate it. Several of us will be blogging, ad look out for blog posts from some top international figures too. I know who has said yes. I also know that top international figures who say yes don't always end up having the time, so my lips are sealed.

The mani blogging theme is sharing ideas for the International Year of Giftedness and Creativity next year. I have my classes compiling ideas for me to blog, as does at least one other New Zealand teacher of the gifted. Do you have a class with ideas about how to celebrate creativity and giftedness, too? If you have the ideas and the blog, go for it. Use one of the images at http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/748/ and send me the link. If you have the ideas and no blog, get in touch. I can find a blog to host your post on, with no trouble at all.

Keep in touch, and have a great #ITG12!

In terms of software, it can be said that every tool offers a few seconds of novelty. It cannot be said that every tool requires complex thought, or is suited to expressing complex ideas. I favour software tools that are sufficiently complex to enable adults to produce pleasing creative products with them, that they would be comfortable sharing with a wide audience. If they do not have the potential to be used at this level, they will offer frustration to gifted students who attempt to learn to use them well. 

The other group of tools I favour are those produced by people currently working within a certain domain as stepping stones for children to build up the skills currently used within that domain. Note that when Scratch was designed for enabling children to understand the fundamentals of programming design, it was so good at achieving its goals that it is now used in a number of 100 level university courses. This group of tools ends up overlapping with the first group.

Here are a handful of posts from the blog tour:

Nanaia Mahuta posts on gifted education for the Labour Party - http://www.labour.org.nz/news/government-must-support-our-gifted-children

Rebecca Howell of NAGC UK posts on motivation - http://creatingcurriculum.wordpress.com/2012/06/
17/motivations-of-gifted-children-what-can-you-do/

Anne Sturgess shares a lovely post, including how she got involved in gifted education - http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/profiles/blogs/am-i-missing-something-it-seems-quite-simple-really-anne-sturgess

Elaine LeSueur on creating partnerships - http://worldgifted2013.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/creating-partnerships.html

There are now more than 30 posts, including some on giftEDnz's blog here in the VLN. Do keep an eye out for new posts throughout the coming week, at http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/696/. Many thanks to everyone who has written, read, commented, shared links, or who plans to do so. We could not create awareness without you!

Is it possible for a group owner to schedule posts on the group blog to be published a day or two later? 

Also, it it possible to view stats for views of VLN blog posts?

We have a blog tour starting soon, and some posts will be on the VLN.

The developing blog tour schedule is at http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/696/

#NZGAW starts on 18 June, and the #NZGAW blog tour starts on 11 June. Are you involved in any activities you'd like to share? Would you like to blog for the blog tour? 

See Hazel's blog post on #NZGAW at http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/profiles/blogs/celebrate-gifted-awareness-week-18-24-june-2012, and find out how to join the blog tour, whether you have a blog or not, at http://creatingcurriculum.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/nzgaw-blog-tour-starts-monday/. Last year the most widely read blog post was the first blog post ever by its writer, so don't hold back if you're new. 

Useful thoughts, thank you. I think that quite a few teachers are moving towards similar views from my reading around teacher blogs, Twitter chats and so on. Is this a majority position yet, do you think?