Time 6.30 p.m,

Presentation of conference themes is just over and I, though an incorrigible sceptic, can't wait for the unConference to start.

The friendly ambience and the tempting topics for tomorrow's discussion suggest to me that it would be a huge mistake for a teacher, budding or mature, to miss this event.

Here are a few eye-catching points about the themes to be discussed over the 3 days.

August, 27th 10 a.m. - 12 a.m.

Mobile Learning. Facilitators Neil Ballantyne, Nicky Hockly

This discussion is going to put you wise up to how a teacher can make the most of their mobile phone, sophisticated or time-tested one.

Applications you can use, ways to facilitate teaching and preparation for such and many other things you will need to effectively use your mobile device.

Be you a seasoned mobile phone user, or just a newbie making their first steps, you will leave the conference room loaded full with useful new information.

Networking and personal learning networks. Facilitators - Gavin Dudeney, Olga Rotko

Ever go online to chat with more knowledgeable colleagues or give some advice to those hankering after it? Then you are bound to have an account with this or another social network. If you indeed do, then you are most welcome to join this discussion to contribute some measure of your personal experience with professional communication online.

• How to stay safe online?
• How to keep your Internet identity?
• Come along and we will together work out answers to these and many other questions.

Teaching Young Learners with Technology. Facilitators - Vera Bobkova, Maureen McGarvey

Vera and Maureen will be trying, with you lending them help all along, to answer the questions
"How can technology tame little children in the classroom?" and "How to make teaching young kids easier?"

They will start to work from big things and go on to very small things leaving no problem out.

The motto of this discussion is "We are better together". Which holds true, indeed.

2.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.

Online Teacher Development. Facilitators - Maureen Mcgarvey, Rena Penna

Keep wondering over what the subject is about? Natalia, Maureen and Rena will give you a comprehensive insight
into what stands behind these words as well as they will try to show where you can go if you wish to hone your
teaching skills to perfection online.

This discussion aims to bring to light general issues and complication teachers face from day to day and ways to properly contend with those tapping wisdom off the Internet.

E-projects
Facilitators -
Neil Ballantyne
Tatyana Kuznetsova

The discussion will be based around the three key words

- creativity
- collaboration
- communication

applied to interschool cooperation.

School links projects, collaborative projects and webquests, you will not want to miss this discussion
if the above words are part of your everyday work.

Also, there will be some ample open space provided for those wishing to share their positive or negative experience on the subject and learn something valuable  from your colleagues engaged in this sort of work.

Corpora and Concordancers

Facilitators -
Wayne Rimmer
Olga Rotko

If you have been using corpora to improve your learning experience or in-class instruction for a while now,
or are just planning to, then be sure to put in an appearance. You will miss out on a lot of things, if you don't.

Contents:
-Frequency statistics
-Comparative data
-Typical Russian errors
-practical concordancing
-changes in the language over time

Saturday, August, 28th
10 a.m. - 0-30 p.m.

Motivation and Creativity with Technology

Facilitators -
Gavin Dudeney
Tatyana Kuznetsova

This discussion aims to find the ways how to get technology to motivate learners
and find the right sort of materials for that.

If you stop by for awhile, you will learn what generally motivates and what demotivates learners
and what kind of role the teacher wants to assume to couple his instruction with technology.

Input from participants: you are equally welcome to share your experience on the subject, be it positive or negative.

Online Language Learning
Facilitators -
Vera Bobkova
Nicky Hockly

Vera and Nicky will be using their contagious vigour to elicit from participants the names of their favourite web-sites,
and how they work to incorporate online elements into their teaching.

What sort of skills you need to teach online with fair success, do's and dont's. Come by and learn up on online teaching with
Vera and Nicky.

 
Interactive White Boards
Facilitators -
Rena Penna
Natalia Shlyakhtina

- Are interative white boards just a fashion or do they really open up for you possiblities previously unheard of?

- Will the advent of interactive boards make the lesson more teacher centered or student centered?

- Benefits and drawbacks of using them.

- Interactive tasks
 
- where you can get this tempting thingie online

The 5 points above are pretty much what this particular discussion will be aimed at.

The opening unParty is in full swing and everyone around me is enjoying themselves. I think I'll rob myself of a nice opportunity to accost pretty girls around if I stay at my computer any longer.

That will do for today. See ya