Tag Archives: GAFE

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

Learning Together with GHO

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

Students Thinking Mobile and Cloud

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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
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GAFE, Presentation Resource, ProfessionalLearning

GAFE Learning in Ontario – Resources

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There has been two awesome GAFE learning events in Ontario (Waterloo Region and Thunder Bay) over the last two weekends. I appreciated the opportunity to team up with Donna Fry, Provincial Capacity Building Lead to present workshops at each summit.

The presentation slides from our sessions are published below along with links to  resources developed by the OSAPAC committee.

OSAPAC Resources:

a)  Digital Citizenship Resources for Educators
b)  Digital Leadership Resources for Administrators
c)  Digital Leadership Support for Education Leaders

~Mark
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GAFE, Leadership Perspective, ProfessionalLearning

Learning GAFE Summit Style

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On behalf of the Waterloo Region District School Board, welcome to the 4th annual Ontario GAFE Summit. In reflecting back on our 1st summit, this has been an absolutely amazing journey – still going strong with sellout participation each year.

EdTechLogo

Before we begin, I want to extend a sincere thank you to ECI Principal Jeff Klinck and his staff for their efforts and openness to support this event. I also want to thank the many people in IT Services and the EdTech team who have contributed to the preparations for the weekend.

And, thank YOU for giving your time this weekend. Not just any weekend – a historic weekend. Why?  Last night SpaceX landed a stage one Falcon rocket on a floating drone barge.  Wow!  When I watched the recording on YouTube I couldn’t help but make a couple of connections to our Summit event today.  One – this is mathematics and problem solving at its best, and two, watching the rockets trajectory reminded me of the many conversations I have had with Donna Fry about the importance of professional learning  to fuel opportunities to change the trajectory of a student.

SpaceX1 SpaceX2 SpaceX3

I have a hope for this weekend.

My hope is that as you participate, learn, network, make new connections, discuss and trade ideas that you will  TAKE ACTION  with what you learn this weekend.  I challenge you to share and make your learning visible. Please start conversations, participate in online sharing, and blog about your experiences to support the learning of others.  Become part of the Ontario Wave of Change by keeping the ripples moving in positive directions.

Enjoy your learning experience!!!

Ready!
WRDSBSpeedTest

Watch the SpaceX webcast

~Mark
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OSSEMOOC, Presentation Resource, sharing learning

EdCampWR 2016 Resources

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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
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Note: cross post from OSSEMOOC

GAFE, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, The Virtual Coffee Shop

Leveraging the Clipboard

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On a recent school visit, I had a wonderful opportunity to meet teacher Kim Clegg and see her classroom in action.  One tip Kim shared with me was the benefits of leveraging the google docs permanent clipboard to facilitate providing better descriptive feedback to students.

Permanent clipboard

Kim’s thoughts on changing practice:

~Mark

GAFE, OSAPAC, Presentation Resource, Technology Enabled Learning

Changing Practice with GAFE

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Using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) offers many opportunities to develop new ways to approach curriculum delivery, instructional design, providing feedback, assessment … well, you get the picture – OPPORTUNITY!

At 2:30 p.m. EDT (today, October 17th, 2015)  Andrew Bieronski  and I team up to deliver a session at the  Ottawa GAFE Summit  to dig into this topic from a WRDSB perspective.

If you would like to join us remotely, we will be sharing our session via  @Livestream  (free account needed to view)
Note: the stream will be activated approximately 15 minutes before the session.

Slide Deck:

Video recording of our presentation:

~Mark

ProfessionalLearning, Technology Enabled Learning, WRDSB

New School Year, New Opportunities

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A new school year brings new opportunities.  Last Thursday I enjoyed attending the professional learning sessions at  Huron Heights Secondary School  and  Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary School  in preparation for our 1:1 chromebook launches this week. The energy was high and collaboration was benefitting all – awesome.

chromebook121

Image adapted from: 
http://schools.wrdsb.ca/jam/files/2015/07/chromebook1to1project.jpg

In conversations with principals  Ed Doadt  (HHSS) and  Kathy Young  (SJAM),  I think we all agree that this project serves as a catalyst for visible change, new thinking, kicking the tires on ideas, exploring new practices and sharing our learning collectively and collaboratively. I am very excited to see what opportunity brings.

I thought I would share some of the excitement and conversation from my sites visits Thursday.

I look forward to phasing  Jacob Hespeler Secondary School  into the project in October.

Make it a great year – innovate, learn, collaborate and share.

Related Resources

Check out the twitter stream at #121wrdsb
Project Resource site: 121wrdsb

~Mark

PD, PLN, reflection, Technology Enabled Learning, Technology in Education

We Dared to Dream

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Five years ago, we dared to dream – created our first teacher support role dedicated to focusing on in servicing and supporting elementary teachers to use educational technology in the most effective ways.   It seemed like the right approach, at the right time to forge a new path forward, create interest, synergy, and impact the future.  Susan Watt was the successful candidate for the position – and the journey began!

palmtrees

Standing now in 2015, and looking back,  what a journey it has been.  A new path was definitely forged.  I look back fondly on all of the annual “system tours” as they were affectionately known – professional learning for staff at each school — using a dual boot Mac, what can I do with an iPad, we have wifi hotspots – now what, wifi in the classroom, GAFE, chromebooks, dropbox and more.   Another important project was migrating our acceptable use procedure (AUP) to the responsible use procedure (RUP) where our initial thinking about staff as digital citizenship role models and use of social media for positive purposes was captured.  I could of course, list many more highlights, but you have the idea of system impact.

SWatt

In her retirement speech, Susan challenged her colleagues:  “ So, I have some advice for our retiree supporters tonight: go off script, listen and respond to your students’ spontaneous questions and observations. Understand that every moment is teachable. Don’t settle for the status quo. If it doesn’t feel good for kids, challenge it. If it’s being done a certain way just because it’s always been done that way – question that rationale. Follow your heart and intuition.  Explore new options. Take a risk. Embrace change.”

Susan, it has been a privilege to work with you.  Thank you for your creativity, determination, enthusiasm, ability to see a big picture, having a huge positive impact, and, perhaps most of all,  daring to dream.

planewing

I look forward to staying connected and following along your life journey via your  new blog:  Watts Up Next. Thank YOU!

~Mark

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