*This post has been written as part of my journey as a Ph.D student through University of Regina. Ed tech…. ed tech skills… ed tech tips and tricks… ed tech capacity… ed tech meme… ed tech chat… when I type ed tech into the search bar of my blog it literally brings back over 100 results. But what exactly is educational technology and what should we know about it? The Type A, straight-forward part of me wants to go to the Oxford dictionary when it comes to defining anything but I don’t actually agree with it in this instance. EDUCATIONAL… Read More
Technology for Reflection & Metacognition
On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. At the end of May we started discussing some tech options for final assessments. For a lot of our staff, their report card comments are due this week which means that they are working to finalize summative understanding with their learners and, for many of them, tech tools play a role in this task. While I’m discussing this at the end of the school year, don’t be fooled, the use of technology as a tool for reflection and metacognition should be… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – NFC Tags
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. Today’s tip focuses on NFC (or near field communication) tags. These small pieces of plastic can be easily coded via a variety of app options so that when a smart device is placed in proximity to them, they automatically share some type of digital information (opening a website, sharing a file, etc). This is the same type of technology utilized in the “tap” function of your debit/credit card. For further explanation, check out the video… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – PDFs
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. I’m just going to go out there and say it, most teachers are hoarders! We love saving ALL the things because you never know when you may need it for this specific class, or that project, or that spirit-week activity. Digital files are no exception to this fact. Between curricular documents, blackline masters, third-party resources, shared files from colleagues, PD handouts…. this list goes on and on…. there are so many files! If they are… Read More
No Statistical Difference
On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. *This article is a repost from 2017 When it comes to educational technology (ed tech) I find that it can be one of those ed topics that can become incredibly polarizing. You either find educators who are enthusiastically supportive of the implementation of various forms of ed tech or you find educators who will use ed tech if they have to but tend to stick with other materials and strategies that they are more comfortable with. Admittedly I fall into the… Read More
Which Version Are You?
Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. I stumbled across this quote being shared across Twitter last week and it resonated with me as I have the unique opportunity to get and inside look into the variety of classrooms across MVSD. Through our 16 buildings, the role technology plays in student programming varies drastically and is influenced by: device availability and connectivity options the culture of the school and broader community / student interests teacher familiarity and comfort with tech integration student grade and subject area and many… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Split Screen in Windows
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. Today’s weather system sees all division facilities in MVSD closed to both staff and students. While classes are cancelled, staff are reporting from home. If you’re anything like me, that means I am missing my secondary screen! Today’s tip highlights a quick and easy keyboard shortcut to split your screen to allow users to view multiple projects simultaneously. Check out a quick tutorial from Microsoft Edu guru, Mike Tholfsen, on TikTok:
Data Privacy Day
January 28th serves as Data Privacy Day, a day dedicated to bringing awareness to the privacy and security of your data (and students). While this has been an important topic for quite some time, the past 2 years has seen a drastic increase in the amount of digital data created in the field of education. As such, this is the perfect opportunity to review these skills. The following posts have been shared in the past and can help guide your learning in the area of data privacy and cyber security. Student Data – ICT Considerations What we should know about… 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 – Disinfect Your Tech
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. As January is recognized as Clean Up Your Computer Month and, with so much more of our practice being digital during remote learning, all of this month’s tips will be dedicated to this topic! Here in Manitoba we are one week into our return of in-person learning and our classrooms are the busiest they have been in 2022, while navigating the current wave of the pandemic. One strategy in increasing the overall health and safety of staff/students… Read More