Category Archives: sharing learning

21st century learning, change, scaling change, sharing learning

Update to Scaling EDU Change

Leave a comment

This post is an update to an earlier post:  Scaling Edu Change, with resources 10 through 17 being new since the previous post.

innovative-change

    1. Student Produced Learning Objects
    2. Project Greenlight 
    3. Leveraging Technology for Inquiry Based Learning
    4. Deepening Mathematics Understanding with Coding
    5. STEM in a Globally Connected Classroom 
    6. Digital Work Flow  
    7. Student Writing With Storybird 
    8. Helping Little Brown Bats 
    9. Tangling With Triangulation 
    10. Improving Collaboration For Learning
    11. Learning Through Hyper Docs
    12. Deepening Math Learning
    13. 20% Time Project
    14. Coding in the Elementary Curriculum
    15. The Journey to Classroom Learning Communities
    16. Technology Tools for Teachers
    17. A Perspective on Inquiry Based Learning

I have enjoyed being involved in this project and look forward to working on the next phase.
Tacheles stairs, Berlin

Join in!!!.   How will you participate in open learning by scaling up?

~Mark
markicon2

 

 

 

Note:  Creative Commons image by Flickr user Paolo Margari

sharing learning, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, The Virtual Coffee Shop

Saving Paw Prints

1 Comment

I enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to participate in and present at the inaugural  Learn By Design  conference hosted at the International School of Brussels. This was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed meeting so many fantastic educators and students.

I want to take a moment to introduce two new friends, Peter (centre) and Fred (left), who are undertaking an interesting project to provide real help to dogs with disabilities.

In this video, recorded at the conference,  Peter and Fred share their vision,  research and action plan to date.  I am sure you will be impressed with their vision.

Peter and Fred pitch their idea to the Learn By Design attendees.

You can connect with Peter and Fred via their twitter account or website.

Twitter:  @savingpawprints
Website: https://1geep8.wixsite.com/savingpawprints

I look forward to our continued dialog as they move their plan into action.

~Mark

PLN, sharing learning

Revisiting Participatory Culture

Leave a comment

One of the best elements of the web is the ongoing learning and sharing that takes place.  While in many ways, you never really know what impact you will have with a tweet, retweet, participation in a chat, a blog post,  commenting , creating a podcast, video etc.   I like the notion of the ripple effect.

ripple effect

More and more though, I am thinking about levels of learning.  Even though all of the examples above can be classified as participating, contributing, sharing and learning.  I wonder though,  what is it that  actually triggers one to find the PLN that will help you learn, challenge you, push you, and follow through to grow and change your practice?

I am sure that many web users enjoy the variety of ways to participate.  I do too, but I find both the enjoyment and learning that comes from reading blogs and the related comments to be a great experience.

Here are a few highlights from my web travels this week:

Comments on a  CBC podcast 

Do you live in a bubble? by  Donna Fry (@fryed) 

The 10 day blogging challenge

The nudge from @tina_zita 

An invitation to participate from Heather (@HTheijsmeijer)

Why not join in?  Are you up for the challenge?  How will you participate this week?

~Mark
markicon2

GAFE, ProfessionalLearning, sharing learning, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, WRDSB

Learning Together with GHO

Leave a comment

One of the highlights from my week was participating in a “mystery hangout”.   This particular (Google) hangout had an interesting twist with teachers and students learning together and collaboratively.

The Plan:   leveraged her PLN twitter connections with  Donna Fry and me to develop a plan to give the G Suite (Google Apps) lead teachers in  Rainbow DSB  a hands on experience with Google Hangouts to demonstrate the learning, collaboration and problem solving that can occur in this setting.  After a call for participants, we firmed up the the Rainbow DSB GAFE lead teachers as one team, and  Tania Bumstead’s  Vista Hills P. S. class as the other team.  Alison Bullock  and I played an online support role in the process as fact checkers and communication with each team lead.

Team Vista Hills

Team Rainbow (screen capture)
ghomystery

The task was for each team to determine the location of the other team through a series of yes/no questions.

The experience:  When it came time for he actual event, Heather connected everyone into the Google Hangout, and we were ready for a 45 minute learning situation, beginning with some introductions.  The Vista Hills class worked in groups to tackle the tasks – receiving answers from team Rainbow, interpreting them and tracking them on Google maps.  Another team generated potential questions and determined which question should be asked next. A third team interacted with team Rainbow and posed the questions.  The excitement in the room was high, and there was a steady buzz throughout the session.

I was fascinated with the ingenious yes/no questions asked by the two teams as they working through the process of solving the geography puzzle in front of them.   Are you located

  • in Canada
  • east of the Manitoba/Ontario border
  • in the eastern standard time zone
  • within 100 km of Algonquin Park
  • west of the GTA
  • located north of the 402/403 highway corridor
  • east of the escarpment
  • in a city with a population over 100,000
  • within 50 km of Lake Huron
  • …

and finally, team Rainbow asked: are you located in KW?  Team Vista Hills pressed on and with a couple more questions and one hint, determined team Rainbow was on Manitoulin Island.

It was evident to me that a great learning experience had been enjoyed by all, and that more mystery hangouts will occur in the future. Thanks to all the learners who participated in this event!

~Mark
markicon2

21st century learning, Interview, Library Learning Commons, sharing learning, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, The Virtual Coffee Shop, WRDSB

Future Orienting Libraries

1 Comment

Today I spent some time with WCI librarians Carlo Fusco and Leah Crowell discussion how they have Future Oriented the school library.  In our discussion, we explored 5 areas of interest and impact which were determined in a previous visit.

  1. Transforming Libraries
  2. Leveraging Multi Media
  3. The impact of 1:1
  4. Visioning the changing world of the teacher
  5. Shifting to device agnostic spaces

Carlo and Leah, thank you for sharing your learning, visioning, and change process.

Interview in 3D video:

Interview in 2D video:

Audio Podcast:

Students I chatted with at the school were very positive about the continued evolvement and current status of the future oriented thinking about the library space to service student learning needs.

Connect on twitter: @mrfusco  and  @WCILibrary.

~Mark
markicon2

Presentation Resource, sharing learning

WRDSB Learns 2016

Leave a comment

This has been an amazing week of learning and sharing at WRDSB. Under the leadership of the Digital Learning Steering committee a 3 day event was planned to involve a team from each school attending one of the six half day events to reflect on current status, attend breakout sessions to look at new, innovative and engaging practices, and consider next best steps on a site by site basis.

I invite you to check out the learning captured through the  Storify  of the twitter stream from the 3 days.

I will be sharing my learning through a series of upcoming blog posts. Additional events will be planned in the WRDSB Learns series this year.

~Mark
markicon2

coding, sharing learning, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Learning with Spheros

1 Comment

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 9.06.51 PM

I intended to share this blog post much sooner than today, but life has been a little crazy.

 

On a recent (March)  visit to Ryerson P.S. I had an opportunity to visit the grade 1 classroom of teacher Jenni van Rees.  The excitement in the room was obvious as it was coding day!  Learning goals for the session were clearly laid out and reviewed with the students.

coding_chart

Students were clearly comfortable using both iPads and Chromebooks as they worked in groups of 2 or 3 for collaborative learning and problem solving.

CB&S

 

 

Tickle

 

 

 

 

The students really did work collaboratively, and it was great to see their joy in planning, testing, reviewing results and determining next steps.

Fast foward to April where I had an opportunity to attend a Sphero Challenge event organized by teachers Scott Dickie and Chad Lloyd from Westmount P. S. 

I arrived early to see the first of 4 sphero tracks being marked out in the gym. The remaining tracks were laid down as teams from a variety of schools began to arrive.

IMG_0459

As was evidenced in Jenni’s  classroom, the energy and excitement was in abundance.  Teams were eager to embrace the challenge: planning, measuring, calculating, comparing, testing, observing, collaborating, communicating, iterating … “all in” problem solving for sure. 

I hope this highlights video give you a good sense of the  Sphero Challenge event.

I am already looking forward to the next one!

~Mark
markicon2

OSSEMOOC, Presentation Resource, sharing learning

EdCampWR 2016 Resources

Leave a comment

Today’s post shares the recordings of two streamed conversations from EdCamp Waterloo (2016).  Many thanks to the event organizers for a rich day of learning and sharing.

EdCamp Waterloo: Learning Spaces

EdCamp Waterloo: Google Apps

Enjoy the learning.

~Mark
markicon2

 

 

Note: cross post from OSSEMOOC