Category Archives: SAMR

Connected Leader, Connected Learner, Interview, Leadership Perspective, OSSEMOOC, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Digging Deeper into Edu and Edtech

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When opportunity knocks,  answer!

I was recently approached by Kristin Frizzell (@71frizzell) who is taking a course with  Brenda Sherry  (@brendasherry)  to do an interview as a component of the course. This sounded like a great opportunity so we worked out a suitable time this week.

I was impressed with the set of questions the class collaboratively developed around the intersection of learning, instructional practice and edtech.  Our Google Hangout on Air meeting was our first “official”  face to face (F2F)  — hmmm, make that virtual F2F  —  meeting and conversation.  Awesome!

I hope our discussion around the question set stimulates your thinking and supports your learning.

I look forward to a continued connection with ongoing learning and sharing with Kristin.

~Mark

Connected Leader, Connected Learner, engagement, Leadership Perspective, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning

Breadcrumbs and Ripples

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The 2015 WRDSB learning carousel day focused on  Innovative Change  was a great day of learning and connecting for me. I was impressed with the quality and quantity of the sharing sessions and loved the energy in the room.  As a reflection,  I wanted to share a few things that resonated with me by bringing together ideas from two conversations.

Each year, we have been purposeful about initiating targeted new projects to model change, inform our collective practice and leverage opportunities to share and role model.  Some of our projects from the last few years are captured in this whiteboard ‘clip’.

TELT-01

Along this journey, we have learned some important items or “breadcrumbs” as I like to call them,  that should be applied to new projects and scaling up strategies as we move our innovative change agenda forward.

Some of our breadcrumbs include:

  • learning IS messy. We need to accept this and continue to play in this space.
  • co-learning between teachers, and teachers & students is a really important element.  It is OK to fail.
  • shifting writing from paper to digital spaces makes a difference
  • student voice and choice are motivators in the learning process
  • using technology as an enabler creates new possibilities  to be explored in the context of the C’s and the  SAMR model.  Think about boundless and joyful learning.

breadcrumbs

In my view, as we look at a path forward, each of us has to own our piece of the collective through our own actions.  I like the question,  what is your next?  Creating a culture where:

  • conversations of change and identifying entry points are ongoing and natural
  • we celebrate small steps forward with joy and encouragement
  • the process of nudge, encourage, give/have  permission and expect is openly explored
  • we continue to be intentional and
  • we share our experiences in open and  easy to access ways

are all important elements in sustaining the synergy and  energy of forward movement.

ripple effect

Join the move to  innovative change and add to the ripple effect.  Learn, connect, reflect and share.

~Mark

Related Resources

The storify of the days twitter stream.

The ongoing twitter discussion at  #wrdsbchange.

The  Innovative Change  blog.

Digital Citizenship, GAFE, OSAPAC, OSSEMOOC, Presentation Resource, SAMR, Social Media, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

English Association Presentation Resources

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This post combines the slide decks and resources from the 2 English Association sessions on the April 17th professional learning session into one presentation.

~Mark

Connected Leader, Connected Learning, Leadership Perspective, OSAPAC, Presentation Resource, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Virtual Sharing with ADSB

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I experienced a wonderful virtual learning opportunity this week with some fantastic educators from ADSB.  Donna Fry, who was leading the learning sessions on site, invited me to provide a kick off presentation to their day.  My task was to ignite some change thinking by linking the areas of technology enabled learning, technology change and bringing collaboration into eLearning.

virtual keynote

virtualkeynotescreen

I loved the idea of doing a virtual keynote – what a perfect way to “walk the talk” in terms of connected learning and modelling what we need our students to do.

While there are a variety of tools one could use for this type of activity, we settled on Google Hangouts (GHO) for our session.

 

Of course, the technology all worked flawlessly <big grin!> – a good demonstration of technology creating a natural flow of sharing.

 

I really enjoyed being able to participate in a timed table talk opportunity following my presentation as Donna kindly relocated me from the “big screen” to the table.

I was certainly struck by the power of this. We collectively decided that this was a virtual F2F learning session.

ADSB_table_talk

Linking back to the theme of the day and my task with the opening kick off, I could envision a day when virtual F2F learning opportunities are normalized into  learning environments.  I look forward to learning with these educators as they develop their connecting and collaborating strategies.

~Mark

Resources:

Learn more about the background of the Futures Forum Project.

On the ground with Futures Forum.

SAMR examples from OSAPAC.

SAMR as a growth model

SAMR on scoop.it

BIT14, Bring It Together, Digital Citizenship, ECOO, OASBO, OSAPAC, SAMR

OSAPAC: Four GREAT Resources

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There is lots of exciting news on the OSAPAC front. The new OSAPAC website  was launched at the recent  Bring IT Together  conference.   In this post, I am highlighting four newsworthy items.

One of the new exciting Ontario provincial licenses is for Mindomo, web based mind mapping software for all educators in Ontario publicly funded schools. Have a look at the handy “get started” poster.

mindomo

You should also check out the new Ontario developed  resources: the SAMR model,  digital citizenship  and  OSSEMOOC,  the  Connected Leadership opportunity.

Enjoy the new digital resources!  Grow your mindset!

Check  [here]  for more details.

~Mark

Connected Learning, OSSEMOOC, Presentation Resource, SAMR, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

WBE workshop session resources

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Thank you to those participants who attended my workshop presentations today. As promised, I am sharing the resources:

Conference Twitter feed  #wbecon14

Enjoy a free,  connected, self directed, professional learning experience through  OSSEMOOC  (blog) and/or connect to the OSSEMOOC  Twitter feed.

Additional resources are listed at the end of the slide deck.  Stay connected and continue to  share your learning.

~Mark

Connected Learner, GAFE, OSAPAC, SAMR, Social Media, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Social Media as a Writing Tool

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The other day I happened to catch a segment of The Current CBC broadcast as I was driving between school appointments. The topic was big data based the book Dataclysm, which certainly captivated my interest for a variety of reasons.

Dataclysm book cover

              Image from Amazon.com

I happened to tune in just at the moment the discussion was focused on analyzing data written in social media, Twitter in this case.   While many view social media communications as somewhat inane,  an in depth analysis reveals some interesting facts.

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  • writing tends to be more sophisticated
  • word length is 20% longer
  • lexical density ,  the proportion  of meaning carrying words, is  higher than in many other forms of writing (email, magazines etc.  – perhaps opposite to what you would think)
  • with a limitation on the number of characters per message or post, 140 in this case,  people learn to improve word choices
  • in turn,  this improves editing skills

In the interview,  Christian commented that this type of analysis can and has been repeated.   This is not an isolated ‘one time’ look at this area.

When one considers the writing benefits summarized here,  I believe there is a strong case to incorporate  the social media writing medium in the school system.   Of course there are natural connections to digital citizenship, engagement, real world audiences etc.

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As a classroom educator,  if you are already doing this, keep going!  If not,  consider giving it a try with an age appropriate system, a collaborative document with simulated limits  or even  offline.

Related Resources

Listen to the  CBC Podcast  with Christian Rudder on Dataclysm

Book:  Dataclysm  by Christian Rudder

Have a comment?   Please share.

~Mark

21st century learning, Digital Citizenship, SAMR, student voice

Digital Citizenship meets SAMR

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Setting aside the debate of whether “digital citizenship” should just be “citizenship”,  I think there continues to be a need for  focus on the digital aspect of citizenship as people learn the in and outs of our rapidly evolving digital world.

DC_Web_cube

I enjoyed an opportunity to have an in depth conversation with the WRDSB student senate and trustee  Kathi Smith  last night on this very topic.  The discussion was lively, and a number of important points were made through the evening.

In the end, we landed on digital citizenship (or D.C. as we ended up abbreviating it):

  • is not a “check box” or single event
  • be  embraced and lived
  • must be relevant
  • role modelled by staff and students
  • experienced with real life tools and contexts

There was agreement that action is needed to continue to raise awareness among students in terms of managing your digital profile, understanding what online information about you is actually ‘out there’  and understanding the impact of your choices and actions.

I look forward to meeting with next year’s senate members to explore options to bring the ideas and action items identified into play.

On the drive home,  I was wondering what approaches to teaching, coaching,  mentoring and role modelling digital citizenship would look like if you applied the 4 stages of the SAMR model.   Hmmm.

SAMRgraphic

There it is:  Digital Citizenship meets the SAMR model.

What do you think this might look like?   Wonder with me and share your ideas.

~Mark

Leadership Perspective, OSSEMOOC, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, Todaysmeet

EOIT2014 resources and reflections

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I enjoyed my recent opportunity to present a session on ever changing EdTech world in K12  education at EOIT2014.  Three points from the various conversations over the day captured my attention.

Limestone DSB,  CIO Wayne Toms described how becoming active on Twitter has “changed his  approach to PD forever”.   He emphasized the importance of having access to a stream of current information and thinking to shape one’s perspective underscoring the importance of connected learning.

If fact,  this coming weekend,  two Ontario based EdCamps  are happening on May 10th as per the  “Tweet captures” below.  Connected learners can participate by following  #edcampsault  and  #edcampisland.

connected_learning

EdCampSault

IT  leaders  Ron Plaizier and James Proulx  openly discussed the challenges of “all the moving pieces” – technology changing at a rate much faster than classroom practices shift and support models can be adapted.  There are no easy answers. The best strategy is to bring people together for conversation and time to play in this “change space”.  Agreed!

The third conversation focused on a notion I would call the  software “power” gap – the difference in capability when comparing a desktop application version against the corresponding web version.  This power gap differential exists in many applications.  In my view, the critical piece of this puzzle is at the intersection of  desktop > mobile, local > cloud and minimal NEEDed functionality vs extra features.  One “crystal ball” question is how long might it take to reach the ideal cloud based offering of a particular application?

I also wanted to share of few highlights from the back channel related to “What is the most important aspect of your work?”

TodaysMeetParticipants stated:

EOIT-1

EOIT-2

EOIT-3

EOIT-4

EOIT-5

Related Resources

View  presentation  file

Twitter chat for  #EOIT2014

Blog articles related to the  Futures Forum  project.

Blog articles on the  SAMR  model.

Scoop.it articles on  SAMR

~Mark

 

21st century learning, OSAPAC, SAMR, TEL

OSAPAC Software: A SAMR Perspective

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Classroom educators working in publicly funded Ontario schools have access to a wide variety of provincially licensed software and digital resources. Full listings are at the OSAPAC web site.

The SAMR model describes four stages of using technology to support student learning as summarized in the chart below.

SAMRgraphic

The SAMR model provides a well researched framework for planning and reflecting on the use of technology to enable new possibilities to support student learning.  To this end, the OSAPAC committee is currently running a project to gather examples of using the  SAMR approach specifically with OSAPAC licensed titles. Click  [here]  to learn about the details.  I hope you will consider being involved in this project.

~Mark

Relate Resources

A list of my SAMR blog posts.