On Wednesdays 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. Today is a very exciting day for our department as our team is meeting face-to-face at Division Office to participate in professional development specialized to our department. While MVSD offers division-wide PD regularly, these topics are more general in the scope of our divisional goals and it has been rare that our team gets time for… Read More
Community ICT Outreach in MVSD
We are set to proceed with the third year of our community outreach program. This program kicked-off in the fall of 2019 with the inclusion of “Tech Tip” informational boards that were displayed during parent-teaching interviews (see Instagram post below): When I entered this position in September of 2019 I was pleasantly surprised to realize that although I didn’t have “my kids” (students) anymore, I now had an extended network of over 4000 new “students” to support. This group includes MVSD students, teachers, admin, support staff, and our MVSD families. Regardless of where you fit into that network, everyone has… Read More
March ICT Newsletter
With the start of a new month comes a new monthly ICT newsletter. These newsletters are designed to serve as an outreach to all MVSD staff and provide: general ICT updates (software changes, divisional ICT timelines, tech-themed holidays) upcoming PD for the month tech tips divisional highlights These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared out through our social media pages and divisional website. March 2022 ICT Newsletter by Kirsten Cali
Archiving Old MS Teams
Monday, February 7th will mark the start of second semester here in Manitoba and today sees all of our students at home while staff engage in a variety of administrative and professional development tasks. As we transition into this new calendar cycle it is a perfect opportunity to clean up your digital files, including our learning management system (LMS): Teams. All of our staff, K-12, use Teams in some capacity whether it is for: student programming virtual/remote programming hybrid programming professional development across the division administrative meetings extracurricular organization parent-teacher conferences etc This means that our staff’s Teams interface can… Read More
February ICT Newsletter
February has started with an Alberta clipper that sees all of our divisional facilities closed (along with many of the school divisions in the province). With the start of a new month comes a new monthly ICT newsletter. These newsletters are designed to serve as an outreach to all MVSD staff and provide: general ICT updates (software changes, divisional ICT timelines, tech-themed holidays) upcoming PD for the month tech tips divisional highlights These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared out through our social media pages and divisional website. February 2022 ICT Newsletter by Kirsten… Read More
Collaborative Video Projects
On Thursdays I usually participate in the online social media trend of #ThrowbackThursday where you re-post a picture or video memory. These posts can be anything the user wants: good memories, bad memories, recent history or decades-old memories. Today, as I was scrolling through old posts on the blog and was reminded that 9 years ago this week I was working with Mike Nantais (who was teaching at BU) and Tyler Letkeman (fellow B.Ed student at the time) on our contribution to the #ETMOOC Lipdub. This project saw participants from around the world work collaboratively to divide up a song,… Read More
January ICT Newsletter
Our staff and students are back and we are ready for a new year! With the start of a new month comes a new monthly ICT newsletter. These newsletters are designed to serve as an outreach to all MVSD staff and provide: general ICT updates (software changes, divisional ICT timelines, tech-themed holidays) upcoming PD for the month tech tips divisional highlights These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared out through our social media pages and divisional website. January 2022 ICT Newsletter by Kirsten Cali
Remote & Blended Learning Resources for Educators
As our local Covid-19 situation changes we are seeing further restrictions put in place that impact education and our ability to have our students with us face-to-face. As such, we are seeing an increased need for information on Remote & Blended Learning Resources. While the majority of my blog posts focus on ed and ed tech resources I do a lot of curation that doesn’t necessarily get onto the blog; which is why I also provide a direct link to my curation platform of choice – OneNote. Please see a short video below showcasing how to find this resource in… Read More
10 Year Blogiversary!
In 2012, on the recommendation from a university professor, I started a blog to document my learning journey and connect with other educators. That initial blog post started with, “I will admit that I am not the most tech-savvy person, but it’s a start!”. If there was ever an example of foreshadowing, this introductory sentence would be it. Little did I know that that start would swell to a 900+ post documentation of my journey from, “… not the most tech-savvy person” to the Coordinator of ICT; responsible for the technology programming and purchasing for over 3,000 stakeholders. This journey has been, and continues to be, guided by both an internal motivation to seek out new information as well as… Read More
December ICT Newsletter
In true Manitoba fashion, December started off with a day of bus cancellations due to inclement weather! With the start of a new month comes a new monthly ICT newsletter. These newsletters are designed to serve as an outreach to all MVSD staff and provide: general ICT updates (software changes, divisional ICT timelines, tech-themed holidays) upcoming PD for the month tech tips divisional highlights These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared out through our social media pages and divisional website.