Every Friday I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. This Friday I would like to reintroduce you to Michele Eaton. Michele shares about Blended Learning and her resources are fantastic for those working with remote students, split-classrooms, or any type of hybrid scenario. You may find Michele’s name familiar as I summarized her blended learning discussions in July 2020 when she spoke at the ISTE Summer Learning Academy as well as at ISTE LIVE. You can check out an excerpt of… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – MVSD Tech Kits
Every Tuesday I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Before we discuss the tech kits I wanted to share about the PD Resource Centre as it is a fantastic resource being offered in MVSD. Located at the division office, the PD Resource Centre serves as the primary contact for our divisional library services. In addition to maintaining all libraries across the division, the PD Resource Centre also plays host to our divisional library that includes: professional development material curriculum documents curricular supports (ex: levelled… Read More
Maintaining Tech Routines
As we start a new week Manitobans are in the midst of the third-wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of writing we have seen schools in multiple communities move to remote learning due to outbreaks and the inability to provide staffing due to isolation requirements. While MVSD has been fortunate to have experienced low levels of cases (13 total cases during the 20/21 school year so far) we are cognizant of the fact that this can change at any time. With the vast majority of our students attending face-to-face classes everyday, some of our familiarity with our digital… Read More
Follow Friday – Alec Couros
Every Friday I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. This Friday I would like to introduce you to Dr. Alec Couros. My first experience working with Dr. Couros stems back to 2012 when I participated in the #ETMOOC experience he shared out via Twitter. From that point our paths have crossed at the Riding the Wave conference in which we both presented, him as keynote, and during a panel discussion for the BU CARES Research Connection podcast in which we discussed the digital inequity presented during the Covid-19 pandemic. As of the fall… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Smith Jackson Staff
Every Wednesday I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Everyday our staff are using tech in new and exciting ways, are learning new skills, and are sharing ways in which ed tech is assisting them in their practice. In September of 2020, the staff of Smith-Jackson Ukrainian Bilingual School decided to move forward with a Seesaw for Schools subscription for their students. The use of Seesaw as an LMS was incorporated in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to allow for: consistent access to programming in the event students, cohorts, and/or staff could not be in… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Transparent Whiteboard for Virtual Lessons
Every Tuesday I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. At our most recent MAETL meeting, Andy McKiel shared how you can use Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to make a transparent whiteboard for use during virtual lessons. OBS is a tool that is new to me this spring and I have been experimenting with it a bit for use during virtual presentations (see BYTE example below): I know that many of our staff could utilize this option for their classes so I started experimenting and… Read More
Follow Friday – Kelly Christopherson
Every Friday I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. This Friday I would like to introduce you to Dr. Kelly Christopherson. I began following Kelly on Twitter through his work with #SaskEdChat (the Saskatchewan equivalent of our #MBEdChat). From there I became a regular follower of his work due our shared interest in social media and the fact that he was finishing up his PhD with Dr. Alec Couros (a goal I am just beginning). Kelly does a fantastic job at… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – IT Help in MVSD
Every Tuesday I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. This past month I started working with a group of colleagues in the creation of an MVSD ICT PLN. One of our first tasks was completing a survey of our PLN members to gain feedback on the relationship between our department and teaching staff and how we can refine our practice to best support schools. Our survey results revealed that more information should be shared regarding: how our department operates within the context of the… Read More
Why “Snow Days” Should Not Be Turned Into Remote Learning Days
At the beginning of November we experienced our first weather-related closure since the onset of remote learning. At that time I shared out the following graphic: The importance of relationship building in education has always been framed as a high priority. When I was in the classroom I found that “snow days” provided an opportunity to get to know my students as people and not just learners. It allowed us to connect, play, and work on important tasks that sometimes get pushed to the back-burner. For those who don’t attend classes during “snow days” they were able to connect with… Read More
What Should Students Share Online?
If you are reading this blog then you already know my stance when it comes to sharing online. I strongly believe that we have a large demographic of consumers and that our students need to be provided with opportunities to share online and develop a positive digital footprint. Unfortunately, I often hear of schools who feature guest speakers discussing the “dangers” of social media and threatening about how what students share online will haunt them in their future endeavors. While I do believe that these types of conversations, when framed productively, are important I don’t believe they should happen in… Read More