On Tuesdays, 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. January is recognized as Clean Up Your Computer Month and all of this month’s tips have been dedicated to this topic, with today being our last. While the posts shared earlier this month covered how to clean, organize, and maintain your physical computer, the personal/professional network you create online, also called your digital footprint, extends well beyond these elements. Chances are that you have dozens, if not more, of online services where you have created accounts/profiles. These include social… Read More
You Think Halloween Is Scary?
On Mondays, I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. How many Terms of Service agreements do you think you have clicked, “I Accept”, on as part of the requirements of accessing a digital service? How many times did you actually read the full agreement before selecting, “I Accept”. If you did read it all (good for you), did you understand everything? Terms of Service (TOS) agreements are notoriously difficult to understand and, although some platforms have made their information more accessible, most are full of jargon specific to that field. If you are guilty of… Read More
Jaxson’s Minecraft World
Like many children, my son LOVES to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. These channels, both adult- and child-ran, include things like: tutorials and tips world tours narrated walk-throughs of challenges, battles, etc This week he asked if he would be able to make his own video and I, of course, said yes! Given the nature of my job and personal interests I feel like we were in a good position to get started with this with a solid foundational understanding. I asked him to clarify what he wanted for his video and I decided to utilize the following platforms: Minecraft… Read More
You Think Halloween Is Scary?
On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. How many Terms of Service agreements do you think you have clicked, “I Accept”, on as part of the requirements of accessing a digital service? How many times did you actually read the full agreement before selecting, “I Accept”. If you did read it all (good for you), did you understand everything? Terms of Service (TOS) agreements are notoriously difficult to understand and, although some platforms have made their information more accessible, most are full of jargon specific to that field.… 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
#TechTipTuesday – Digital Tools for Student Portfolios
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. In Manitoba, November is a whirlwind month for educators. We start off strong with the Halloween candy-hangover, jump right into a time-change, and hit the ground running to complete report cards and book parent-teacher interviews! One of my favourite methods to assist with this is the implementation of student portfolios. Student portfolios can be a fantastic practice in the classroom as they: develop student metacognition selecting exemplars reflecting on their learning journey encourage transparent conversations… 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
#TechTipTuesday – Digital Book Reviews
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. February plays host to I Love To Read month in our schools which serve as an opportunity to celebrate all things book-related! With February now being half done I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to mesh ed tech with this celebration. When it comes to providing digital library options, MVSD offers divisional subscriptions to OverDrive for ebooks and audio-books and many schools also utilize platforms such as Epic Books and RAZ Kids. One… Read More
Digital Citizenship
*This post has been written as part of my professional growth plan through my #ISTE20 scholarship. The most important skill of the digital age Presenter: Alan November Overview: “There is overwhelming research that the majority of our students do not have strategies to to validate if online content is true or false.. Come and learn how to design highly creative assignments that cover the curriculum and teach students to be web literate!“ Main Takeaways: URL formats can tell users what type of author is associated with that content .org , .edu , .co , .com punctuation such as ~ , –… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Maintaining Your Digital Footprint
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. January is recognized as Clean Up Your Computer Month and, as such, the month’s posts have been focused on this theme. You can visit all of these posts below: Naming Files (how to organize your files for easy use) 7 Tips to Clean Up Your Computer Organizing & Archiving Digital Records While the posts that were shared earlier this month covered how to clean, organize, and maintain your physical computer and personal/professional network, your digital footprint extends… Read More