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OASBO Workshop: Apps for iPad

Posted on May 12, 2012 by markwcarbone

At last week’s Ontario Association of School Board Officials  (OASBO) conference, I had the pleasure of presenting a demonstration of iPad apps with Mary Hingley and  Wayne Toms.  As promised to our workshop attendees,  I am posting the list, and links to, the apps that were demonstrated on behalf of the presentation team.

Personalized Magazines

Note Taking and Storage Tools

OSAPAC

Phone Alternative

Related Resources

iPad writing tools

~Mark

Filed under: OASBO | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Skinny Down Your Technology

Posted on May 4, 2012 by markwcarbone

The other day I was reviewing some draft system communications with @maryhingley and she commented that we should “skinny this down” to a cleaner more streamlined document.  While the comment regarding the document  we were reviewing was bang on,  it also made a connection for me to an earlier conversation that day about the constant evolution of technology tools. The context of the technology tools dialogue was around the challenge of building capacity in teaching when the tools evolve so quickly.

Fact:  We are all on a continuous  learning curve, new technology,  new apps, new potential to improve improve learning. There is certainly plenty of discussion around the notion of welcoming teachers with this new ‘technology enabled learning’ world – online, web 2.0, anytime, anywhere, digital, shared documents, authentic audience (etc.).

As we become more thoughtful about professional learning, determining the best point(s) of entry and consider learning continuums for staff, there is a greater realization that it is too easy to overwhelm.  People need safe and doable entry points with high success rates.  The fact is, people do not need 100′s of tools to start on their journey.

Challenge:  a call to experienced teachers using web 2.0 and social media tools – skinny down your tool list

Categorize the software, apps and web 2.0 tools you use into the following categories:

a) must have, use daily, addresses some important need

b) use regularly (a few times a week but not daily)

c) once in a while (a few times per month)

d) tried it, don’t use it regularly at all

Skinny down your list and share your suite of must have tools in this google doc.  Include your name, twitter ID, blog/web site and must have list.

Thanks in advance for sharing.

Related Resources:

I just can’t imagine teaching without ….

Cross posted to VoicEd.ca

~Mark

Filed under: 21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Social Media, Web20 | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

OntCL Twitter Chat Highlights from 20120404

Posted on April 5, 2012 by markwcarbone

Highlights from the 20120404 Ontario ConnectEd Leaders chat on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for learning.

Additional Resources

OntCL Twitter Chat Stream

Keep leading and supporting change!

~Mark

Filed under: OntCL | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

OntCL Twitter Chat primer

Posted on April 3, 2012 by markwcarbone

On Wednesday April 4th, the Ontario ConnectED Leaders will host their monthly Twitter chat at 8:00 p.m. (eastern daylight time). The topic will be BYOD: leveraging the benefits, getting ready.

Here are a very resources that might help prepare you for the chat topic. I hope to see you in the Twitter chat. Join in with hashtag #ontcl

Leveraging the ‘Instrumented’ Pocket & Backpack by @lisaneale

Intel: Teachers Engage

BYOD in primary

BYOD: What’s in a device?

From Scoopit: A Principal’s memo

From Scoopit: Using student owned devices in the classroom

Chat with PLP’s Periwinkle

~Mark

Note: Cross posted to OntCLC.ca

Filed under: Leadership Perspective, OntCL, Technology in Education | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Two Years, One change

Posted on April 2, 2012 by markwcarbone

The question: Imagine one change in our education system that you feel would be both valuable and “do-able” in the next two years was posted on the VoicEd website, featuring voices in Canadian education. I have cross posted my thoughts on this question here and on the  VoicEd Blog

This is a great question to contemplate. After mulling this around for a few days, I keep circling back to 2 points.

1. How online engagement has changed my own learning and professional growth.

2. While the ideals of education and the qualities of graduates that should be produced by an educational system have, and may remain constant for the foreseeable future, what HAS changed is tools available to support learning and personal growth.

There is growing and strong evidence that students should be online for valuable and positive learning reasons: write, reflect, share, collaborate and establish, cultivate and maintain an appropriate online profile and participate in learning that involves an authentic audience.

Educators need to develop their own personal learning networks beyond their own schools and districts. Educators must experience learning in the same way our students should by role modelling: learning and collaborating online, sharing, reflecting and leveraging the tools of NOW.

This is the world in which we live – a technology enabled world. We need to leverage this to address critical questioning and thinking, engagement, collaborating in a more global sense and writing for a real world audience. Educational experiences need to be personalized and address the ‘anys’ – anytime, anywhere, anything learning for anyone.

As one considers the challenges of moving through stages of change: from the explorers, to early adopters to adoption by the masses and applying the educational context, I think this important shift is for everyone in education, not just the ones who choose this path. The path forward must include being online and connected.

My ‘one change’ would be for Boards of Education to establish personal growth frameworks to engage educators in this environment within the next two years.

~Mark

Note: Cross posted to VoicEd.ca

Filed under: 21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, VoicEd | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

OASBO IMPAC: The Cloud meets K12 Learning

Posted on March 30, 2012 by markwcarbone

I was invited to speak, along with Todd Wright and  Bill MacKenzie, at the March 30th OASBO IMPAC committee meeting on the topic of cloud computing and K12 education. My task was to kick off the session with a cloud computing 101 session. Todd (YRDSB) and Bill (UGDSB) followed with their Board’s experiences with online office suites. Their conversation framed the benefits of using online office suites as key tools in writing and collaboration.  Using tools of this type need to have good back end functions to make them worth while for teachers: ease of login (active directory integration), class management tools, the ability for the board to manage both the accounts and content as needed. Built into the strategy are the advantages of learning in the real world with an authentic audience.  The need to teach, embrace and role model good online ethics and digital citizenship were also highlighted.

Part of our role today was to set the stage for the important discussion of privacy and information management as it related to online student learning:

  • legal requirements
  • informed consent
  • protection of personal data
  • teaching students best practice for operating in these environments
  • training staff about the types of data suitable for authoring and storing in the cloud
  • raising awareness
All in all today’s session was a great conversation, with good discussion and excellent questions being asked and explored.  Finding that balance between legal, practical and leveraging the strengths of these online authoring and collaboration tools will be the goal as the IMPAC group looks at guiding the creation of appropriate board policies and/or guidelines.

My slide deck and presentation audio file are available below for your reference.


Presentation Voice File

Other Resources:

Google Terms of Service for Education
How iCloud Works
Evernote
Dropbox
Calgary DSB Web 2.0 Guidelines
UGDSB Cloud Video (youtube)
Google Security Video
IPC: Privacy in the Cloud
Learning in public online

~Mark

Filed under: 21st century learning, Leadership Perspective | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Helping the Shift

Posted on March 24, 2012 by markwcarbone

Overview:  The Connected Educators is based on connected learning communities. Connected learning communities are a three-pronged approach to effective professional development using the local (professional learning community), contextual (personal learning network), and global (community of practice) environments. Connected learners take responsibility for their own professional development. They figure out what they need to learn and then collaborate with others to construct the knowledge they need. Connected learners contribute, interact, share ideas, and reflect.  The book draws heavily on the experience of the authors as members and leaders of connected learning communities.

An inside peak at the chapters:

1: sets the stage for understanding what it is to be a connected learner.
2: makes a case for connected learning in communities.
3: explores the importance of being a learner first, educator second.
4: looks at developing a collaborative culture and a mindset that supports connected learning.
5: invites readers to explore free and affordable technologies and virtual environments that support collaborative learning.
6: guides readers through the steps of implementing a connected learning community.
7: examines how to sustain the momentum of professional learning using scale as a strategy for co-creating and improving a learning community.
8: focuses on leadership system, school, and teacher leadership in a distributive
model.
9: looks at what the future holds for the connected learner and what being a
connected learner means for each reader.

I recently arranged to purchase a copy of this wonderful new resource for each of our (120) school libraries as a resource for all staff as we continue our journey of ‘shift’ along the technology enabled learning path.

Periwinkle sighting: PLP’s  Periwinkle with my Connected Educator book order.

Related Resources

Learn more

Buy a copy

Happy learning and connecting!

~Mark

Filed under: 21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, PLP | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Google Chromebook: first impressions

Posted on March 12, 2012 by markwcarbone

Last week I felt a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas. I knew our shipment of Google Chromebooks was on the way, and very soon I would finally get a chance to try one out myself.  ”Chrome Day” has now  happened, I have have spent a couple of sessions with a Chromebook.

Out of the box, the Chromebook was dead easy to setup up – no written instructions needed. Simply power up the device, answer a handful of setup questions, connect to wifi and presto. I logged into my Google account and everything was there: bookmarks, docs etc. – easy.  I must admit I was impressed with the ease of this process. I think I was online in less than 5 minutes.

The screen is clear and easy to read. (12″ diameter or roughly 7″ x 10″). Processor speed seems decent, and the battery life is solid so far.

Now that I have tried this ‘unmanaged’ approach, I need to investigate setup this up through the managed interface for comparison. It will be interesting to use a device where literally EVERYTHING is online. My testing will be with an eye to classroom applications and ease of use. Certainly from an IT perspective, the devices offers the browser interface for access to web content and web 2.0 tools for writing, communicating and collaboration with minimal maintenance.  I look forward to learning more about file management in this web only environment.

I will share my learnings and observations in a future post.

Related Resources

Google Chromebook
Samsung
Wikipedia

~Mark

Filed under: Tech, Technology in Education, Web20 | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Blearning: #OntCL on Blended Learning

Posted on March 10, 2012 by markwcarbone

Technology and learning keep evolving, and at a rapid pace these days. As educators, this means there is always something new to explore, new ways to engage students, collaborate and make learning an authentic experience.

The OntCLC live Twitter Chat las Wednesday (March 7th, 2012) provided a great opportunity to share current thinking on Blearning.

What’s Blearning?  Blearning seems to be the evolving new term to mean Blended Learning.  Lisa Neale prepare this blog post as a backgrounder for the discussion:  The What and Why of Blended Learning.

As anticipated, it the live Twitter discussion, yielded some great sharing of ideas, insights and reflections. You can check out the discussion stream at  #OntCL Blended Learning Twitter Stream (March 7, 2012 portion). This is also a great chance to meet and connect with some new educators and build your PLN.

Related Resources:   Ontario ConnectED Leaders Consortium

Next #OntCL Twitter Chat:  April 4th, 2012

Filed under: Leadership Perspective, OntCL, Technology in Education | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Leadership: Points of Reflection

Posted on February 29, 2012 by markwcarbone

At a recent learning opportunity through the Abel program, I had the opportunity to hear Mary Jean Gallagher speak about leadership. As anticipated, it was a great presentation.

The session began with Mary Jean comparing developments from different time periods and the relative impact. She recalled the first main frame computers, and  Commodore 64′s on the scene and wonderment people had about how things would change. What would happen?

Technology is in a constant state of flux. How will leadership respond to technological change: Does a new technology present a promise  or a threat?

Questions to consider:  How do we embrace new technology in a time when people are concerned about ubiquitous  access and equity, AND  in the same context of parent concerns of  access, identity and privacy AND in the same context of: it is easier to be risk averse rather than push ahead.

It is human nature to pull back. How do we get people engaged in the change process? Perhaps a key role of a leader is to distress the comfortable, and comfort the distressed.  Todays leaders need to add disonance to our organizations sometimes and be less risk averse. Leaders don’t have to know everything, and that is OK. Leaders do need to model in visible ways. Leaders need to help organizations set policies that help organizations move forward by enabling rather than avoiding.

Her presentation concluded by identifying points for leaders to ponder:

  • Are you intentional about what you do?
  • Do you role model in visible ways?
  • Do you intentionally position things for change?
  • Where do you lean: towards anchors or change?
  • Are you reflective?
  • Do you engage with wider collaboration?
  • Do you model learning and inquiry?

I hope you find these points for reflection valuable. Enjoy your reflecting and learning — and happy leap year day.

~Mark

Filed under: 21st century learning, Leadership Perspective | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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