I have a confession – it’s been nearly three months since my last blog post. I’m not sure how that happened. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand the concept of time, I’m just not sure how I’ve neglected the privileged position of N4L blogger for so long. What can I say, I’ve made mistakes.

I’m sure you’re dying to know what I’ve been up to during this period of radio [/blog] silence. Well, the truth is I’ve been anything but silent; I’ve been eventing. And it’s time I tell you all about it, so buckle in, it’s about to get informative…

New Zealand Principals Federation (#Queenstown4thewin)

In September I attended my first NZPF conference. It was in Queenstown so it was a win before the event even began. Of course I’m not here to go on about how awesome the place is. I’m certainly not going to go on about its picturesque vistas, restaurants, or the unbelievable weather we experienced during the event. That wouldn’t be a) surprising or b) kind to those who were unable to attend.

I digress.

This year the focus of the event was hauora and stressed the importance of personal wellbeing. It was a really successful event with speakers covering topics such as resiliency, having confidence in not knowing (a lesson worth learning), and finding your work-life satisfaction. The event also included such distinguished speakers as Children’s Commissioner – Judge Andrew Becroft, NZ entertainer – Mike King, and former All Blacks coach – Graham Henry.

So why were we there? Good question. While it’s true we were there in an exhibitor role, we weren’t there selling anything. Quite simply, we’re in the business of supporting schools’ wider wellbeing because we provide tools that support positive online access. Our (funded) service empowers principals to create and maintain positive online learning environments via our web filtering and firewall tools.

I was also fortunate enough to gain some principal bandwidth during the event via a brief presentation (for those interested, see below). The central message: schools are not alone!

NZPF Presentation (Queenstown, 2017)

The event was also a great opportunity to hear directly from schools – so that we continue to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Thankfully, the feedback was largely positive! Not only because we sponsored the ‘Come in from the Cold’ welcome event, we also received plenty of comments that confirm what we do “just works”.

100% of the team agree, NZPF: 5 stars – we’ll see you next time (even if it’s not in Queenstown)

#pleasebeinqueenstown    

uLearn 2017

Next stop, Hamilton and the behemoth that is uLearn.

This year we collaborated with our partners at the Connected Learning Advisory (CLA) and Netsafe to create the ‘Digital Hub’. As complementary services, we joined forces to provide schools with a clear understanding of what we do, and how we can help.

It was all very Captain Planet, as our powers combined to support the delivery of digital learning; safely and securely for schools. The Digital Hub was a consolidated effort to demystify the (funded) support schools are offered. The theory goes that when a school needs help, they should know who to turn to. To this end we’ve also put together a Digital Hub poster that schools can print out and put in offices/staff rooms that details (at a high level) the circumstances under which you might call.

(Click to get a ‘call us when’ Digital Hub poster)

The Hub also combined for a Q&A panel workshop that gave delegates an opportunity to ask questions of organisation representatives. It’s fair to say that Netsafe bore the brunt of the questions (thanks Sean Lyons!) but feedback so far suggests it was a useful session. Don’t just take my word for it, here’s some feedback taken directly from the evaluation:

“Good to see the 3 agencies together. I enjoyed the group discussion, made me realise we all have the same issues”.

But uLearn isn’t about N4L, the CLA or Netsafe – we’re firmly on the sidelines. uLearn is for educators across New Zealand to come together and feel supported pedagogically, technically, culturally, and professionally. And they did. The buzz of the exhibitor hall, the enthusiasm in keynotes, the activity during breakout sessions and the conversations participated in (including Thursday night’s ‘Unravel’ gala event), suggest that the conference delivered on its key themes of connection, collaboration and innovation. So much so, you probably needed a week to recover from it – I know I did.

Giveaways

Across both events, we ran competitions to give away Raspberry Pi packs (a plug and play computer) to delegates. The lucky recipients were:

NZPF

• Aaron Vercoe, Redwoodtown School
• Deirdre Senior, Waitaki Valley School
• Ngatai Walker, Puketapu School
• Peter Kemp, Coley Street School
• Shannon McDougall, Tokoiti School
• Simon Green, Amberley School

uLearn

• Denise Barrington, Kerikeri Primary School
• Erin Gribble, St Patrick’s Catholic School (Taupo)
• Philippa Cowper, Papatoetoe East Primary
• Richard Kearney, Westlake Boys High School
• Ros Lee, Otumoetai College
• Victoria Kerr, New Plymouth Girls’ School

Congratulations to our Raspberry Pi Winners – we’d love to hear what you did with them…

That’s a wrap

Did you attend one of the events? Did you visit us? Leave us a comment to let us know how you found the event and/or give us feedback.

Events done and dusted for 2017.