My 2009

So as we come to the end of the year, I thought, like others, I should look back on what has happened over the past 12 months. Looking back is always scary, because it means you also have to look forward, but it is incredible to see how far we/I have come.

For those that don't know, my day job at the moment involves teaching teachers using Studywiz, the chosen Hampshire VLE. At this stage last year, I had been in post for a term, and we were about to start with the second batch of schools. We had 70ish schools using the VLE across the county and we were slowly finding our feet.
Fast forward to now and we are about to start the final push to bring our total schools to around 420 across the county. We have a VLE conference planned for the end of March and constant comments from teachers about the enthusiasm of their staff and children. This has been a very good year for the VLE! One group on Studywiz has over 600 people in it already. I wonder if we can get this past 1000 before we finish? We have schools using Studywiz to discuss the XFactor results

For me personally, I have learnt a massive amount. Most of this is due to the huge potential of Twitter. I wasn't using it at the start of the year, probably didn't see the point. Now, I can't get enough of it. Whether it is listening to @tombarrett's latest idea, discussing studywiz with @primarypete_, finding out about new ways to use 2DIY from @porchester or listening to @chris1974 tweeting about the xfactor, it has been an enjoyable and very rewarding experience.

With Twitter, it is all about who you follow. Follow the right people and it can bring you a wealth of knowledge. I am constantly being sent new websites or ideas to try. Teachers always say that the best way to share ideas is to talk to other teachers or to visit their classroom. Blogging and Tweeting allows this without having to step outdoors. Very useful indeed. My inset next week will see if I can convince non-ICT people that blogging is useful!

As we sit on the edge of 2010, I am excited about the potential of some new technology that others have been using in class for a while, but because of my secondment, I haven't had chance to use yet. Sites like MyEBook or Animoto keep giving me ideas for sharing ideas with an audience.

I wrote earlier about the problems I had been having organising information for the ICT cluster and I think that I will have this sorted in the next week or so, it's all looking good indeed! I'll write about my professional and personal targets later in the week.

Ian Addison
@ianaddison