Tag Archives: WRDSB

coding, sphero, WRDSB

Evolving the Sphero Challenge

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A year ago, I attended my first WRDSB hosted sphero programming challenge. At this event, students worked in teams to program their sphero ball to travel on a predetermined “track” created with large sheets of chart paper taped down on a gymnasium floor. The focus was on a team approach to solving the path through coding. The excitement and collaboration levels were high as the students worked away at solving the puzzle. Have a look at the video to get a sense of the action.

Original sphero challenge

 

The next iteration of the WRDSB sphero challenge took a approach. Teams were provided a set of criteria to create a sphero track, which they would then solve using the collaborative approach as was done in the first challenge. I liked the concept behind this new approach combining creativity, differentiation and problem solving. Given the time constraints of running an after school event that involves teams from different schools, and therefore transportation etc. I thought this first attempt went well, although I did observe that some teams struggled with time management in the creation phase so there was less time available to solve the puzzle – good learning on the time management front, but some teams were not able to show their coding skills to the fullest. Check out the action captured in this short video.

Shero challenge 2

I certainly left each of these events on a positive note and pondered “what next”?  In terms of track design, I wonder if a mid range approach might work – perhaps having a common start to a track and parameters to complete it to help with the time efficiency element. I applaud the efforts to create a coding challenge that requires collaboration to solve the problem. Over time, it would be great to see more students have this type of opportunity and also have students experience different roles within the team functions.

Related Resources:
STEM sphero guide:
http://stemeducationguide.com/classroom-activities-sphero/

Coding with spheros with  Scott McKenzie  and  Megan Lowe: (workshop summary)

Coding with spheros (full):

~Mark

CATC, Presentation Resource, Technology in Education, Uncategorized

CATC Camp 2017

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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

student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, WRDSB

un musée virtuel

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In this post, I am pleased to share the work of Mme Rosemary Berndt and her grade nine French classes.  This year they pushed their approach to “un musée virtuel” to a  new multi media and collaborative approach in making their learning visible.  It was a pleasure to work with Mme Berndt and her students in providing support to the project.

This audio clip by Mmd Berndt provides a project overview and professional reflection.  (Note: this is also included in the video introduction).

Video (overview and student work)

~Mark

student voice, TED-Ed

Student Voice: WRDSB TED-ED Clubs Online

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The  WRDSB Ted-Ed clubs presentation archive from  June 7, 2017 at Vista Hills Public School in Waterloo, Ontario is now online.

Enjoy these “ideas worth spreading” !!!  #studentvoice 

A special thanks to organizers Megan Lowe,  Tania Bumstead and Elke Baumgartner, Andrew Bieronski and also Stephen Hurley for his support to broadcast the live event on  on  VoicEd Radio .

~Mark

student voice, TED-Ed

Student Voice: WRDSB TED-Ed Club Live

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WRDSB Ted-Ed clubs is excited to host the very first live TED-Ed clubs event, featuring great talks by students in grades 3-8 on June 7, 2017 from 12:30 – 2 pm at Vista Hills Public School in Waterloo, Ontario. Learn more about the  event.

The event will be live streamed on YouTube

and broadcast on  VoicEd Radio 

~Mark

Presentation Resource, ProfessionalLearning, scaling change, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Scaling EDU Change – final update

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This post is an update to an earlier post:  Scaling Edu Change, with resources 18 through 25 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
  18. Growth Mindset Through the Dance & Drama Learning Cycle
  19. Inspiring Learning with TED Ed Clubs
  20. Genius Hour
  21. Google Apps in the Primary Classroom
  22. Pixel Art with Spreadsheets
  23. Flipping Out in Math
  24. A Problem Driven Approach to Learning
  25. Teaching-Coding-Swiftly

I have enjoyed being involved in this project.

Tacheles stairs, Berlin

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

~Mark
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Note:  Creative Commons image by Flickr user Paolo Margari

Presentation Resource, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

The Journey to 1-1 – ConnectEd17

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Resources prepared for the Journey to 1 : 1  presentation at ConnectEd 2017 are shared in this post.   Many thanks to instructional leader  Jamie Reaburn Weir  for teaming up with me for this session.

Note:  This video was prepared from the  Livestream  archive.

~Mark

Leadership Perspective, Presentation Resource, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL, WRDSB

Going 1 to 1 Panel Discussion

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Last week I had the privilege of attending the 2017 Educational Technology Strategy Summit to share the WRDSB “going 1:1” journey in a panel discussion presentation.

The discussion was moderated by teacher  Andrew Bieronski.  I was joined on the panel by  Ed Doadt (Principal),  Jamie Reaburn (teacher), students Tara and Brooke.

The discussion was well received, noting that there were many positive comments about the journey, the sharing of research and observations and including student voices in the session.

Have a listen: 

Session sketchnote: 

Resources:

Conference Twitter Stream:  #edutech17

~Mark

ProfessionalLearning, scaling change, WRDSB

Scaling EDU Change

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Last fall the Waterloo Region District School Board held their third Digital Learning Symposium.  Each symposium has focused on sharing effective classroom practice,  changing practice and promoting innovative practices.

The series of events has provided an opportunity for educators to come together, share, network and talk about next steps to pushing the envelope, building synergy and scaling change at the system level.

One of the strategies used at this recent symposium was to capture the best practices shared through video recording and create a WRDSB system blog to share the learnings and innovative approaches through other initiatives such as meetings of system leaders, school staff meetings and subject association sessions.  It is important to keep the momentum of the change conversation going.  This public blog also supports open learning for all educators.
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 

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
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Note 1:  The blogging project calls for a post week through until May, so the sharing will continue through to May. 

Note 2: Creative Commons image by Flickr user Paolo Margari

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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