Ada Lovelace Day

I remember learning about Ada Lovelace some 25 years ago. She was such a pioneer both as a woman and a thinker. As, really, the first programmer for Babbage's difference engine, she was an innovator.

As part of Ada Lovelace Day, I am helping to celebrate by honouring some women who, I feel, have helped to advance the role of computing in education. I am privileged to work with some women who have been on the forefront for many years.

I first met Bev in the 80s when we were members of ALICE (Association for Leadership in Computers in Education) which brought together the early adopters in the English school boards in Quebec. She always championed the aspects of computer integration which encouraged critical thinking, creativity and communication - those skills which we now refer to as 21st century skills. She was and continues to be forward thinking. Bev has pulled together a team of people who have worked for many years to achieve those goals. What started as a grass roots effort has evolved through several incarnations into LEARN. I have learned so much being part of that team for the last six years.

One member of the team, with whom I work closely is Christiane. She has been involved for many years with telecollaborative projects. In addition to initiating a number of projects which enabled teachers to learn to use technology for collaboration in a secure and nurturing environment, she found ways to help teachers make connections when they were ready to initiate projects of their own. The most recent development has been the launch of a project registry. Now teachers from Quebec and from anywhere in the world can advertise their projects and find partners for collaborative knowledge building. She is helping to open classroom walls to let the world in.

I have the fortune to be involved in online communities that put me in touch with many forward-thinking educators who push my thinking and learning. The third person I want to honour is my fellow webcaster, Lisa Parisi who has embraced the possibilities of technology to reach every child in her class. She involves them in authentic learning situations, reaching out to other teachers to offer collaborators and audience for her students. Like my colleagues, she is a life-long learner whose enthusiasm for what she does is contagious.

Ada Lovelace was ahead of her time - the early adopter extraordinaire. I think if she were alive today she would be astounded by what computing has evolved to. And I think she would be thrilled to be part of the social networks that have evolved that support communication, learning, relationships, collaboration and problem-solving.

Technology Buzz

I try to stay up to date - take occasional vacations from the fast pace of shared learning - but yesterday threw me into superspeed. Not for the faint of heart. Last night I settled in for the Fireside Chat with David Warlick only to be pulled into warp speed as I tried to follow David's talk, the chat which flew by and various Skype messages Twitters that chirped and pinged at me. It was hard to ignore the chat when it was peopled by some of the top tech people in the world. Too bad there wasn't a Clustr map to show where everyone was from.

Fortunately, David's talk and the questions only elaborated on what he had said in his keynote - as it was difficult to concentrate on what he was saying (it will be archived). On the chat someone announced that Will Richardson was going to be doing a Ustream - so that was my next stop (trouble-shooting with my webcast partner on Skype simultaneously). If you want to see some of what Will is doing, have a look at weblogg-ed-tv So much to learn - and one of my webcast partners is gung-ho to try it all out.

After a brief interlude with my webcast partner and a successful attempt at streaming and recording on the Webcast Academy sandbox, I turned my attention to Women of Web 2.0 and an interesting discussion with David Jakes and Ewan Macintosh. I'm now feeling both exhilarated and brain dead.

So I'm living life in the fast lane. Trying to learn faster than my brain likes - but it's a great feeling. I'm living what I would like the teachers I work with to live - taking risks, but in a protected and secure community and feeling the support that all offer. My Skype friends, webcast cohort and Twitter community make it possible for me to learn. It's an amazing experience.