Category Archives: student voice

21st century learning, Cloud Computing, GAFE, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Students Thinking Mobile and Cloud

June 25, 2016 markwcarbone Leave a comment

You never know what surprise might happen in a day. This was such a great student written letter to receive – forward thinking and action oriented with a vision.

By happenstance, I received this letter during the same week as I completed a number of school visits to converse with Principals about the role of technology in the change process.

It is so awesome to see students thinking about change and signalling a readiness from their perspective. I look forward to responding to this student next week. I am thinking a Google Hangout conversation would be a nice approach if it can be worked out.

scan of letter (with student name removed for privacy)
studentletter1

student_letter2

~Mark
markicon2

Leadership Perspective, Presentation Resource, ProfessionalLearning, student voice

Future Learning with CHCI3UU

November 17, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

I appreciated the opportunity to participate as an online panel member for Jamie Reaburn’s (@msjweir) class hosted discussion about Future Learning with: Dean Shareski, Donna Miller Fry, Brenda Sherry, Karen Beutler and Geoff Williams today.

A context for the discussion:

Future_Learning2

The class led planning for the day allowed for a wonderful opportunity to bring students and a variety of forward thinking educators together for an insightful live broadcast conversation. Hats of to Ms. Weir for facilitating a rich and deep learning experience for her class.

I look forward to further interactions with the class to learn more about their perspective on the event.

Live Twitter stream for #FutureLearning

Storify capture of session tweets by Donna Miller Fry.

Follow @CHCI3uu

Read Jamie’s blog.

Update to original post: This project has since been featured by the Ontario Ministry of Education as exemplary modelling of instructional practice, students voice and technology enabled learning.

~Mark

engagement, reflection, student voice, WRDSB

Remembering and Making a Difference

November 12, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

Today’s post shares the Cameron Height CI staff and student prepared Remembrance Day Service recording of the livestreamed version.

I was impressed with the service because I thought it pushed the boundaries on the traditional service, was relevant to students and provided meaningful options for students to be involved in impacting people’s lives.

Well done CHCI !!!

~Mark

student voice, WRDSB

Remembrance Day Service 2015

November 10, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

This year the WRDSB Education Centre staff will be connecting with Cameron Heights C. I. to view the Remembrance Day service planned by the staff and students.

poppy

The video stream will be active from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for the two assemblies which will run 8:20 – 9:15 and 9:20 – 10:15.

Click [here] to join the stream. (Note: free account needed for viewing.)

~Mark

Connected Learner, engagement, Library Learning Commons, student voice, The Virtual Coffee Shop

Rethinking Learning Spaces

September 26, 2015 markwcarbone 1 Comment

I closed out the week by collaborating with Jamie Reaburn Weir and Alanna King for an insightful conversation on redesigning learning spaces.

I think you will appreciate the viewpoints and early observations they share from their work in this area.

I wonder what you will explore?

~Mark

Connected Learner, Connected Learning, GAFE, PLN, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, Technology in Education, TEL, Things That Caught My Eye

Let Them Choose

July 9, 2015 markwcarbone 7 Comments

During my ongoing curation of articles about learning, digital tools and social media, I recently came across this article exploring perspectives on social media in the lecture theatres. Although the article was primarily examining post secondary perspectives, I would argue the same discussions are relevant in K12. The discussion was centred around various viewpoints on whether or not students:

be allowed (by profs) to bring technology to class
are distracted by having access to social media and
experience benefits?

Two interviewees interviewed commented that “… because the students are most likely taking notes. Many don’t use pen and paper, and rely on their devices. She says students are old enough to decide if they are to learn or not.” and “My view is they are old enough to choose and multitask (and choose to fail too),“. Meanwhile, others choose to dictate “no access”.

Now, if I put a personal perspective on this and let you observe my learning mode, this is what you would see. Typically I use 2 devices … taking notes on my iPad using notability – not just for notes – adding audio recording, and insert photos for context for a more complete package. On the second device I organize lists, todos, ideas and share via social media, typically Twitter but this could easily be a Facebook group, G+ community, LinkedIn or open Google doc. I reiterate – this is MY style. This is how I learn best. Paper and pen doesn’t work for me.

Why not let students choose what works best for them – student voice. To me, letting students choose what tools they use and how they organize shows a strength based approach to student learning. What benefit is there in forcing students to function in a way that may not be self directed and self optimized?

Weigh in: Where do you stand?

~Mark

Connected Learner, Connected Learning, student voice

Learning With Passion

May 28, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

Learn with passion. Follow your dreams. What could be better?

Earlier this week I had the privilege of seeing this in action at my school board. One of our students has always dreamed of working at a technology company – and specifically the Apple Store in this case. The student self initiated the process of how to prepare a resume, researched it, obtained feedback from his teacher and arranged delivery of his resume.

Now, you might think this sounds fairly typical at this point BUT, it is important to know that this particular student is 5!!! Here is a little excerpt from his resume.

Hats off to teacher Aaron Fewkes (@mrfewkes) and our local Apple Store team for pulling together a fabulous afternoon of passion based learning for our student Jack where he received a heartfelt greeting, met staff, toured behind the scenes and had a chance to experience and demonstrate the latest technology.

Aaron had arranged for Jack to skype with his class to share his experience live from the store.

With some collaborative teamwork with the onsite staff, Jack shares his experience.

You can also check out the storify version of the twitter action of #jacksbigday.

Make every day count: Learn with passion. Follow your dreams.

~Mark

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

Breadcrumbs and Ripples

May 8, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

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’.

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.

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.

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.

21st century learning, GAFE, Interview, ProfessionalLearning, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Publishing Makes a Difference

March 10, 2015 markwcarbone 1 Comment

I recently had an opportunity to enjoy a site visit to John Mahood PS, a WRDSB K-5 school to see a their technology use in action.

Under the leadership of principal Tracy Tait, the staff has been working hard over the last 3 years to explore new effective ways to utilize technology to enable student learning in new ways, change and improve practice and share their successes.

The traditional lab at the school has been dismantled and the desktops have been redistributed throughout the school. The mobile technology (iPads and Chromebooks) within the school has been allocated so that each classroom has a minimum of 6 to 8 devices to share among the students. The lab space is now used as a “tech lounge” – more of a flexible creative work space.

In a site walk through, Tracy commented that she expects staff to integrate mobile technology into the learning environment as part of their daily practice. I enjoyed observing a couple of classes during silent reading time and seeing that student had a choice in both what they read and HOW they read it: paper based, via iPads or Chromebooks. Talk about a great example of student voice and choice!

The school focus on choice for students is making a noticeable difference. Several staff commented about technology options providing choice and independence for students. In some cases, the use of technology created benefits in socialization between students both in and out of class. In conversation, it was noted that technology use improves the focus on learning which in turn impacts behaviour in a positive way. In some cases, the use of technology removes frustration when paper and pencil based tasks create an obstacle for students. The result is increased participation through differentiated approaches.

This video captures some of the observations and thinking of students and staff at the school.

[youtube http://youtu.be/eEDd5oOwI4k]

Ethan’s Story

Kyle’s Story

Samuel’s Story

Note: The video and story presentations are published with permission.

~Mark

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

Digital Citizenship meets SAMR

June 5, 2014 markwcarbone 4 Comments

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.

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.