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=Welcome to the Advanced PD Sessions with Sharon Friesen and Ewan McIntosh.=

Dr Sharon Friesen is a Founding Partner, with Dr Patricia Clifford, in the Galileo Educational Network in Calgary, Canada. The Galileo project ([|www.galileo.org]) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting systemic change in education through technology integration. Sharon has been teaching for nine years including grades one to eight, as well as graduate and undergraduate courses in education. The Canadian Education Association (CEA) recognised Patricia and Sharon for their award-winning book (written with Dr Jardine) "Back to the Basics of Teaching and Learning: Thinking the World Together. Time Canada reviewed their book (written with Brenda Gladstone) entitled “Enquiring Minds”: “Patricia and Sharon are on education’s front lines, leading a team of tech-savvy mentors dedicated to the professional development of classroom teachers on a long-term basis. The Galileo-trained teachers fuse technology with learning, to guide students in creating knowledge rather than regurgitating received information.” The heart of Galileo is inquiry-based learning. Teachers fuel students’ curiosity by pursuing their questions in the context of curriculum. “You learn how to listen to questions kids bring collectively to you, to say, ‘How do I open this up in a way that everybody in the class can find something to be interested in?’” Clifford says. “The rule is that everybody has to sweat the same so there’s a dignity, and everybody’s work contributes to a larger understanding of the subject.”

Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area he frequently gives talks and workshops around the world, trying to find new and better ways of using emerging technologies in education.

Ewan currently works as a new technologies consultant for various groups, including the BBC, British Council, General Teaching Council of Scotland, the national press and Learning and Teaching Scotland. In particular, Ewan advises on how social media can be harnessed for public service and education management and used to improve learning. He will also bring to Ulearn07 his knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies in education across stages and curricular areas.

More information and previous talks are available on his regularly updated blog: [|http://edu.blogs.com].