The Student Conference Series is a presentation series dedicated to students presenting topics they are passionate about to a larger audience.  Each week students are scheduled to present on different topics from Minecraft to Fjord Ponies.

The concept for Students Conferences first came from Global 2 blogger, Ben Gallagher.  He and Mel Cashen had organised a year 6 student from his class at Meredith Primary School to speak to her class at Lightning Reef in Bendigo about woodworking skills.  This worked out perfectly for the Lightning Reef class who were learning to make chairs and needed some wood working skills.

Ben was so impressed with how well Harris was able to share and articulate his knowledge he felt this could benefit students all over the world.  If only they could get the opportunities to present to peers. This is where the Student Conference Series was born.

Students use the Webinar program Blackboard Collaborate  which is provided by the DEECD Virtual Conference Centre to present on a topic of their choice.  Based on the idea of a professional learning conference, classrooms from across the world can access the presentations that peak their interest and they can log in.  As each presentation is recorded they can access the blog at anytime and find a link to a variety of presentations.

The Call for presentations opens every term and students are requested to complete an application for their presentation and complete a summary.  Students are then allocated a Thursday or Monday afternoon session where they are given 20 minutes to share their presentation and answer any questions.

A new addition to the blog is a Video presentation section where students can submit a video presentation which can be accessed via the blog.

Already this year the Student Conference Series has had  presentations from schools across the globe and on a variety of subjects such as Chelsea Football Club, Shade sails and Stop Motion animation.

If you would like to listen to any of the presentations you can find the on the Student Conference Series Blog.  Subscribing to the blog will allow you to keep up with any news.

You can also read about the presentation that started it all here.

Post supplied by Mel Cashen – Teacher , Quarry Hills PS, Victoria.