The Naace Annual Strategic Conference and Exhibition opened in Torquay in early March 2008. This is the definitive ICT Conference in the UK for all those involved in advancing education through the use of modern technologies in learning and teaching.

Jim Fanning, Assistant Head at Tideway School, has produced some really interesting ideas for what an online lesson might look like and has created a picture of what a cover teacher/supervisor might need to be aware of. Tideway School is a Specialist Technology College in Newhaven serving 700 students aged 11-16.

Our first 'hot-seat' guest is Phia le Roux. She will be answering your questions from 9 January 2008. Phia has kindly agreed to share an hour per week 'live' at 4-5pm every Wednesday and will pick up and answer any other questions at 8.30am Mondays and Fridays. Please fire all your questions on what podacasting is about, why podcast, how to get started, what you need to get started, potential difficulties, problems encountered etc.

In 1988, while teaching a professional development course for teachers concerning the use of telecommunications in education, I had an experience that changed me irrevocably. I had just finished describing the expectations for the final project, when a student raised her hand and asked if she could produce a video instead of writing a paper. The question caught me totally off guard. As I paused, mouth agape, I could feel old thinking and new paradigms chafing against each other like psychic tectonic plates. Watching a video was easy enough - but evaluating it as a school assignment? In the end, I told her that I would be happy to accept a video. In reality I was troubled by the fact that my print-based education had not prepared me for that moment or for the many moments like it that were sure to come.

There has been much discussion on the value of e-portfolios, their purpose, how they are used, the data they contain and indeed whether they are worth the trouble of setting up, maintaining and developing. In this Article, Ray Tolley outlines in great detail why e-portfolios can provide meaningful evidence to their importance. He believes an e-portfolio has a number of essential characteristics: portable, personal, generic, flexible, lifelong and credible.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It poses the question 'What is braided learning?' in the context of online communities of practice (C0P) with particular reference to the MirandaNet experience.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It develops the question 'What is braided learning?' into a study of collaborative online professional practice. The research considered rhythms and phases of debate, roles of members and barriers to braided learning in the context of a professional community of practice (CoP). The focus of the detailed analysis was a discussion on e-portfolios in NaaceTalk.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It presents a summary analysis of the findings including a list of suggested social networking benefits for professionals, recommendations, conclusions and ideas for further research.

More self-esteem with my e-portfolio (MOSEP) is an innovative European project that started in August 2006 for a two year period and is being funded under the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci programme. The latest report can be read on their website but Ray Tolley takes issue with the current thinking on e-portfolios.

When a student is caught red-handed in school for 'tagging' his own graffiti work around Honywood School he is automatically excluded. For one teacher, however, it was the starting point of encouraging students to develop e-facilitation skills and higher order reading and writing skills.

James Canton in the English department has been particularly keen to develop different styles of teaching and learning. He has found using Frog has allowed him to begin to embed the facilities that will hopefully become the norm within each subject area. James has set up several forums using Frog which have explored a range of strategies to elicit students' views on different subjects whilst also encouraging them to read and respond both synchronously and asynchronously (ie. live and responding immediately to posts and also having time to think carefully about responding). One project involved picking up on a real incident in school where a student had been caught and consequently excluded for writing graffiti around the school and 'tagging' his work. Tagging is a fairly recent 'cult' activity grown out of using graffiti to mark gang territory and is often, but not exclusively, associated with deprived areas and issues relating to abuse of drugs and alcohol as well as bullying, racism and homophobia.