I wanted to bring this little guy home from Edutech

Six of us went to Edutech Australia 2014 this week and I got a little attached to this little guy. Edutech is Australia's premier conference on learning technologies and the latest thinking in education. Four of us went last year and in all my years as a Principal I have never seen so much value from one professional development event. The teachers that came with me transformed their learning environments, talked excitedly with kids about learning and the future and were constantly at my door with the refrain 'I've got this idea... this is what we want to do now'.

Sure, Edutech showcases all the shiny new toys and the latest gadgets to engage students in their learning...and last year we walked around the product displays round eyed and wistful (and I was desperately trying to keep the credit card in my wallet.) We bought a couple of things - a 3D printer and some 'light' reading. And we also raided all the free stuff to bring back to school. We raided all the free stuff this year too! But what was different was that we just wanted the ideas. The ideas are the most valuable commodity for our teachers and their students.

We were treated to the likes of Ken Robinson, Sugata Mitra, Ian Dukes (21st Century Fluency Project) and Yong Zhao and the ideas were flowing. The messages about educating for creativity and fluency with technology rang loud and clear and was music to our ears. We have a ton of things we want to do to ensure our children retain their innate curiosity and develop their ability to be creative problem solvers and creative opportunity finders - essential skills of our world now and in the future. We learned about concepts that will feed our creativity as educators for the next 12 months and more.

(Having said that I was still a bit keen on the little robot. I'm sure I could think of some way he could further creativity in our school!)

Bring on Edutech Australia 2015. We want to take a whole new team next year and I'm excited already!