It was a thrill to have the opportunity to present the CATC camp opening address to this year’s learners and staff. I believe in the importance of growth mindset, pushing the envelope and maintaining relevance. The theme for this presentation is centred around ROI from a classroom perspective.
Keynote Slides
Audio recording of presentation:
Direct link to interview with Charlotte: http://bit.ly/CATC_interview_Charlotte
Connect with Charlotte via twitter: @charcarbone
~Mark
Once again our annual summer computer camp, CATC By the Water, was a great learning experience. You can check out some of the learning and innovating thinking at: CATC Camp learning and sharing or CATC innovators.
One of my favourite conversations this year happened when I took the time to sit down with George Couros and Donna Fry to revisit a conversation from a year ago, where we debated why educators look to one well known lead or theory to follow rather than leveraging the room – the educators who are learning, changing, innovating and sharing publicly. After all, the smartest person in the room, is the room!
Personal photo
Digging deeper into the conversation this year we talked about another angle that I believe is important in this discussion. Perhaps the most important element is not if fact “the one” vs “the room”, but each of us recognizing which one of these causes the personal disruption needed to learn, change, grow and share. After all, we each have a responsibility for owning our professional learning journey. Perhaps a good term for this would be “differentiated disruption“.
Personal photo
Where do you stand: the one, or the room? What does it take to shake up or clarify your practice?
~Mark
As a relatively new GoPro user, taking advantage of the opportunities at CATC Camp seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment and learn.
After some trial and error over the afternoon actually wearing the device to take some time lapse photo sequences, I decided to experiment with capturing the magnificent sunset view at Kempenfelt Centre.
After capturing the sunset with photos every 5 seconds over a 20 minute period of time, I imported the photo sequence into iMovie to render the sequence into a movie. Next, I re-imported the movie and added a “speed up” effect at a factor of x20 to produce this silent “one minute sunset” video.
Great learning for me. I wonder what I will do with the GoPro today?
~Mark
I have been a longtime believer in a self directed job embedded approach to staff development. For several years I have had the privilege of working with a dedicated team in IT Services at the Waterloo Region District School Board to design and deliver staff development programs fitting this ideal.
Last fall I participated in the 2013 Connected Educator Month activities which included an opportunity to complete an interview and submit documentation about our CATC Camp and CATC connections programs along with information about the WRDSB Futures Forum Program.
I am honoured and thrilled that our WRDSB submission been selected as a part of the Future Ready program as an international case study and is published on the US government Tech Ed website as a one of six case studies selected.
A special announcement was shared with over 12,000 US based school superintendents.
Learn more about the Future Ready program.
The case studies, including our WRDSB submission are online here.
View the Future Ready professional learning toolkit.
I want to acknowledge the team of Rebecca Rouse, Harry Niezen and recent retirees Ron Millar and Anita Brooks-Kirkland for their insightful and collaborative work with me in on our ITS staff development program. I also appreciate the on going support and collaborative work of Mary Sue Meredith and Ken Whytock.
~Mark
~ Mark's Musings ~ blog.markwcarbone.ca 