On Wednesdays, I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Every day 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. One of our ongoing goals as a department is to increase our student capacity when it comes to our Office 365 environment, specifically at the elementary level. We are dedicated to helping ensure that our students have an opportunity to learn about this system in terms of access, navigation, program features, and accessibility/learning tools before they reach… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Convert Documents to Presentations
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. One thing that I always struggled with in the classroom was student PowerPoint presentations. When offered the option of how students want to share their learning with others it was often a PowerPoint. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with a PowerPoint; for many students it is a comfort medium. However, there are always those students who could spend WEEKS of class time on the design of the slides and not… Read More
Introduction to Power BI
I am spending this week in Winnipeg taking part in software training via MERLIN on Power BI. This is part of the back-end of our divisional strategic plan in which we will utilize the Power BI software to connect to our divisional data, create visualizations, and publish reports. An overview of the course is included below as an image: Microsoft Learn (Educator Center) There are numerous training modules, both one-off courses and extensive learning paths, on the Microsoft Learn webpage that anyone can access. Microsoft Learn offers FREE, asynchronous, micro-credentials for all of the Microsoft programs (you can learn more… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Sophie Thomas
On Wednesdays, I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Every day 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. This week I am excited to showcase an example of how our staff are using digital tools to strengthen literacy. Sophie Thomas, who currently has a Grade 7 French Immersion class at Mackenzie Middle School, is currently supporting their students with written and spoken language fluency. Sophie accessed both Immersive Reader and Dictate features within the Microsoft EDU… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Office 365 Learning Tools
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. As we continue our “I Love To Read Month” posts, I want to highlight some of the great accessibility tools built into the Microsoft Office 365 suite that all MVSD staff, students, and families can access. These tools can be one option in your literacy toolkit to assist users in their literacy skills in both classes and their professional roles. The following resources and tutorials can assist you in your understanding of what these can… Read More
Elementary Esports Divisionals – Planning Time!
With a growing esports presence within Mountain View School Division, I set a goal for myself to help grow opportunities for this type of programming. While our middle- and senior-year students have the option of participating in a variety of games, tournaments, and events through the Manitoba School Esports Association (MSEA), our elementary students do not. I am very much in the introductory stages of this event but I wanted to share the process as we progress for those who are thinking about planning an event of their own. At the current time, our planning includes: Location We have three… Read More
WOW Wednesday – SJS Minecraft Club
On Wednesdays, I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Every day 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. MVSD is on a roll when it comes to esports and I am thrilled to share our newest addition, the SJS Minecraft Club out of Smith Jackson Ukrainian Bilingual School. In a similar fashion to our other elementary esports teams, the SJS Club is using the Minecraft EDU platform to participate in both school- and division-based build… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Barker Builders
On Wednesdays, I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Every day 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. I am so pleased to see how esports has been growing across Mountain View School Division as we enthusiastically announce a new esports team, the Barker Builders, out of Lt. Col. Barker Elementary! As a K-5 building, this presence has been mirrored off of our widely successful Macneill Gamers team. A subsidiary of their team, the MVSD… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Bing AI
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. The topic of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been front and center for many of my conversations since it hit the public scene in 2022. In fact, I am currently in Banff attending the 2023 CyberSummit which is focused on AI (watch for a blog post to come). This will also be the 20th post on the blog with an AI tag While this week’s topic isn’t brand new to the blog, I am happy… Read More
Happy Halloween from the Blue Screen of Death
Who doesn’t love a good tech-themed Halloween costume! Since joining the MVSD team as Coordinator of ICT I’ve tried to ensure my costume aligned with my role and it has honestly become one of my favourite traditions. This year I tried to think of one of the scariest things for an ICT Department: 2022 – The Social Butterfly I had recently had an opportunity to visit with Chris Nesi on the House of Ed Tech podcast, in which one of our discussion topics was social media. You can listen to the interview in which this reel’s audio is taken from:… Read More