Building Your Digital Literacy Tickle Trunk – BYTE Conference 2016

Three years after my first presentation at BYTE (with the wonderful Tyler) I was back at it again today sharing about digital literacy and citizenship at the 12th Annual BYTE Conference (which has now moved to Brandon after calling Neepawa home for many years). It was so energizing to be back in a classroom setting after almost 8 months and connecting and sharing with so many enthusiastic and inspiring educators! It was a very busy day but I was happy to reconnect with many of my favourite Tweeps like Andy, John, Zoe, John, and probably many more that I can’t remember now (sorry; I love all of you!).

If you are not in the loop, the sessions at BYTE cover everything ed-tech-related: including tutorials on specific tech tools, trouble shooting tips, professional learning networks, specific learning activities hosted online and much much more. This year had a Digital Citizenship/Literacy theme and featured over 60 sessions! If you’d like to see some of the awesome sessions that were offered, the schedule is available on the BYTE Conference website.

Now, to be honest, this year I attended the conference strictly as a presenter and did not take in the amazing sessions that were offered by my colleagues. Being that this was my first time “back” since going on maternity leave and considering my mom had to attend with me to care for Jaxson during my sessions (he is still nursing and can’t get too far from me yet!) it was just easier for me to focus on my own presentations and spend time with him during my off-session time. With that in mind, a big shout-out goes out to my mom for all of her help and for taking off work to travel to Brandon with me 🙂

Building Your Digital Literacy Tickle Trunk

digital literacy tools, digital citizenship tools, teaching digital literacy, teaching digital citizenship, kirsten thompson

Setup is done, coffee is here, it’s going to be a good morning 👍 #Byte2016 #DLtickletrunk pic.twitter.com/I9jfPHpVji

— Kirsten Thompson (@MissLwbt) February 26, 2016

I presented directly following the KeyNote speaker as well as during the last slot of the day. My first session had a larger attendance than the second but I feel like that was to be expected during the last slot on a Friday afternoon; oh well! In both sessions I had a relatively good mixture of elementary, middle, and high school teachers but they fell all over the spectrum in regards to their comfort level with digital literacy. Some were incorporating a few activities/conversations, some had explored resources but hadn’t started anything officially, and some were completely brand new to the idea. One exciting thing was that I had one attendee who was a regular reader of my original blog, Miss L’s Whole Brain Teaching, and was very enthusiastic when she realized I was the author of it 🙂 I felt pretty happy about that!

Overall I feel that both of my sessions went really well. Participants seemed receptive to the information that was shared and I am very confident that everyone left with at least one tool that they connected with and can share with their students! I’ve embedded my slides below, each resource features:
– an introduction slide summarizing important information
– a screenshot of the homepage
– 1-2 additional screenshots of important features
*Let me know if you have any questions/comments/etc!

Building Your Digital Literacy Tickle Trunk from MissLwbt

Yes, it’s @MissLwbt rocking it at #BYTE2016! Check the tag for more #edtech tweets. via https://t.co/QYKtAh3NR7 pic.twitter.com/HO2bheqNwJ

— MB Teachers’ Society (@mbteachers) February 26, 2016