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I just finished watching the unparalleled Ian Usher present (in just 7 minutes!) the work we did on the Game Design course via FlashMeeting. Ian presented at the TeachMeet Midlands. What’s a TeachMeet? The TeachMeet wiki describes it as an “unconference,” or a meeting that takes all of the icky parts out of a conference and sticks to the good stuff, like socializing, networking, discussion and presentations that are short and stick to point. They try to make it so not the same three people ate talking and asking questions every time by randomizing presentation schedules and making Q&A a big part of the meeting. Those who can’t go in person scan show up online. These TeachMeets are all centered around effective uses of technology in education and are broken into regional meetings. The thing is that these TeachMeets are a UK thing. So why don’t we have these here in the US? Or Illinois? Or Chicago? Or the Northside? Am I missing something? I only see people in my field at conferences, which are not always the best time to get to know one another and hash out the projects we’re working on and get some feedback, or even develop partnerships. Is there a TeachMeet equivalent I don’t know about?

Follow TeachMeet Midlands on Twitter.

Tomorrow morning at 11:30, I will be speaking at the 2009 Chicago Math & Science Initiative Annual Conference.  I’ll be speaking about the IDNR Biodiversity projects I’ve done at the Collaboratory, and how science teachers can integrate (free!) technology into their curriculum to give their students an engaging and hands-on experience with science.  I will [...]