Traveloteacher

Ever since I was 13 I've had this dream: to live and study in the US! And last Thursday (on Happiness Day)  I was notified that my application for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship was accepted! This means that I'll be living and studying in the US for ten months, starting from August 2014! Every year about 200 fellowships are awarded to working professionals from across the world. They are selected based on their potential for leadership and their commitment to public service. I'm the first high school teacher in Croatia who has been awarded this prestigious honor. I still think I'm dreaming!

eTwinning and Social Media , the learning event that Bart and I are running is in the full swing and tomorrow we're organizing a Twitterathon - a 3-hour Twitter chat for educators. We're going to discuss three  educational topics chosen by teachers from the learning event and beyond. We invite you to join us for the Etwion and vote for the topics. The poll will be open till midnight, March 6. The Twitterathon will take place on March 6, from 7-10 pm CET. (check your time zone here.)

 Over  the past years we have witnessed the transformation of education 1.0 to education 3.0. Not only witnessed! Along the way we – teachers and students – have actively participated in the process of change, we have brought and will continue to bring new ways of learning into our classrooms.  Together we have transformed the roles of teachers and students:      -  from  Education 1:0  where teachers were lecturers and know-it-alls and where students were passive onlookers and receivers of information;       - through  Education 2:0  where teachers were moderators and facilitators who showed the right direction to students who were active participants and consumers of information       - to where we are right now in  Education 3.0 : there where the line between teachers and students is blurred, where we are all learners, discoverers of information, producers of new content and crea...

Last night Sonja and I led the first in this year's series of webinars for senior students. This is the fourth year in a row that we organize webinars aimed at students to help them with their exit exams. We had special guests from the Ministry of Education, the National Centre for External Evaluation of Education, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, the Agency for Science and Higher Education and the Open University Algebra. Technical support was, as always,  given by CARNet. Today Sonja and I received a wonderful thank -you message by Hrvoje Lisac from CARNet, who made this (and many other previous webinars and teachmeets) run smoothly and without any glitches. In his message, Hrvoje said that this was one of the most visited webinars ever - all 200 seat were taken almost as soon as we opened the "door". Live streaming was functioning perfectly, with more than 350 views-  So yes, we proved again that students really want to use new technologi...

I've just finished reading yet another must read by Ollie Bray  -    Using 1:1 to Unlock Learning . It's a fantastic resource on how to deploy 1:1 computing at your school.  It can be downloaded for free on Slideshare and as a pdf. Using 1:1 to Unlock Learning from Microsoft Education UK Ollie gives lots of practical information on what teachers, school administrators and policy makers need to take into consideration if they want to deploy a 1:1 learning environment. I highly recommend this book, even if you don't have any plans for using 1:1 computing whatsoever. Because it's learning and teaching that this great e-Book is about. Or as Ollie says, " Adding technology doesn't mean more learning and adding technology to a boring lesson may not make a lesson more interesting ." With Ollie in Swindon, 2012 

Looking back at 2013, I can say that never before has there been a year with so many ups and downs as this one.  There are both good and bad moments every year, but in 2013 the oscillations between the ups and downs were really huge. But now, at the end of the year, I'm going to leave behind all those disturbing, terrifying and utterly devastating moments, along with all those failures and disappointments and take stock of the good moments only, of achievements, of successes which will hopefully continue in 2014 as well. 1) Academically, it's been a terrific year - my husband got his Masters, my older son is just about to get his Bachelor's and will continue to pursue his Masters and my younger son enrolled at college. And I got a grant for a year-long ELA - eLearning Academy by CARNet, so this year I'm a student again - studying about e-learning and pedagogy, writing papers about it and getting grades for my work! 2) We travelled a lot - on stand by, of course. ...

I've been tagged in a blogging meme by my dear friends  Eva Buyuksimkesyan ,  Janet Bianchini  and  Cristina Silva . The task includes: Acknowledge the nominating blogger. Share 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you. List 11 bloggers. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you. So here I go: 11 random facts about me 1. I'm a proud mom of two boys who are now at university, studying mechanical engineering and ICT. 2. My husband and I swim 2 kilometers every Sunday. We've been doing that  for 12 years now. 3.  I travel a lot, but always on stand-by, which means that we can travel only if there are free seats available on the plane. It can get really nerve-racking, but it's worth it. 4.  Until last year I thought  jogging was not my kind of spor...