Introduction #edtechccp1

Start as you mean to go on....

So I'm late in posting this, and I didn't want to be. And I told myself that I wouldn't and I have. This is the last time I will do anything late for the Educational Technology Creative Collective. I promise.

About me...

Funnily enough, one of the reasons this is late is because I have been "playing". Helen Morgan, the course leader for the Creative Media BTEC I teach on has got me into lots of creativey stuff. So yesterday, for the first time ever, I got my head around Illustrator. Check out my strawberry...

Having spent five years at a high school, I am now in my third year at Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College teaching A Level Media and BTEC Interactive Media. It has been the move to here that has got me thinking much more about bringing technology into the classroom. Studying journalism at university, there were few technical things I had to get my head around....
...Then I found Final Cut.... and then Photoshop... and I'm now on Dreamweaver and Illustrator. And I love it! But most importantly, so do my students.

I also bought my first Mac. And I love it. But not as much as I love my dog. Well, nearly.

Why am I doing this...


I stumbled across Sir Ken Robinson a couple of years ago discussing creativity in education and remember feeling completely blown away by his words. Amazing, I thought. This man has eloquently and, at times, quite comically communicated everything I believe. It worries me that young people may not have the opportunities to share their talent, that creative subjects are considered by some as less important, and that young people are frightened of getting things wrong and therefore won't even try to be creative:

"...Creativity now is as important in education as literacy."
"If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original"
Sir Ken Robinson


So... here goes. I am off to think about my first assignment. Oh, and to re-familiarise myself with Twitter!