Ironically 'Seismic'

Blogging again today from Rotorua, following the first day of the Learning@Schools Conference. A sombre start to the day as the team from Christchurch based Core Education, who run the conference, acknowledged the devastation in the Mainland. And while we were all focussed on the learning today, I know I was not the only one who was constantly flitting between media sources, getting updates on the situation in Christchurch. You can do that at an ICT based conference. Generally a 'lurker' on Twitter, today I found my voice, and also thrived on the instantaneous information available. I have to admit to feeling very emotional about the whole situation, needing to be careful not to tear up as new information or accounts were shared. This account particularly touched me.

But we are here in Rotorua for a purpose, and emotions aside, there were some interesting concepts explored today. I won't share them in this forum, but will enjoying sharing my learning with staff when the conference is over and I return to school. I know the learning that will occur over these three days will be meaningful and useful, and will influence my work and challenge my thinking for quite some time to come.

But like all significant events that become etched in our memories and psyches, in reality it is likely that what I will remember most about L@S 2011 is that this is where I was when a disaster of seismic proportions unfolded.

These photos were taken at a gathering of our ICT cluster. We had pre-arranged last week to meet at this bar, ironically named "Seismic". Who was to know that this meeting place would be paralleled with the worst disaster in our country's living memory.