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.

The talk lists have provided some really interesting and varied responses regarding VLEs. This week Roger Broadie and Martin Owen share their views ....

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.

We return to the topic of 'personalisation' as a direct result of flurry of responses initiated by John Cuthell from the MirandaNet 'MirandaLink' asking what personalisation meant to them. Below are several statements from John which Geoff has responded to. Underneath are some points I picked out as particularly relevant to the idea of 'personalisation' - with Doug Highall from Kirklees reponding to the points I made.

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.

For the September 'hotseat' we welcome Shaun Knight who has worked for Manchester City Council throughout his career both as a teacher and as an adviser across the city in primary, secondary and special schools. Manchester has recently undergone a restructuring programme and Shaun currently works as a Learning Strategy Officer with schools in the central district of the city.

Shaun will be live in the hotseat from 4-5pm on Wednesday 17th and Wednesday 24th September. Please leave questions for Shaun before during and after the live sessions.