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. This week I was so pleased to share and learn with the Ochre River School (ORS) community at an evening session entitled: Social Media for Parents. This session, hosted by the ORS Parent Advisory Council, was designed to help inform caregivers about the world of social media so that they feel confident and prepared to explore… Read More
Follow Friday – Ochre River School 2.0
Every Friday I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages (linked at the top of the blog) to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. Ochre River School has been active on social media for many years but has recently given their online presence a refresh with a new Facebook page. Their new page, Ochre River School 2.0, is being used to highlight school events like: field trips extracurricular activities school updates examples of student programming (formally public) productions like Remembrance Day services, Christmas concerts, etc Ochre River… Read More
Youth Exposure to Prejudice Online
Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. This week I wanted to focus on a statistic as we prep for conversations tomorrow surrounding Safer Internet Day. This year’s Safer Internet Day theme focuses on how to do your part to contribute to a “better internet” for everyone. One component of a positive internet experience is digital citizenship and one’s ability to conduct their behaviour and interactions in a manner that is respectful and conducive to a positive experience for all involved. This includes both what you say and… 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
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
#TweetTheHalls 2021 Winners
Today starts off the LAST week of school in 2021 (a short week as students’ last day is the 22nd), which also means that our #MBEdChat #TweetTheHalls event has come to a close. Over the course of 17 days we had over 200 participating Tweets with a total reach of over 100,000! While the majority of participants were local Manitoba educators we also had our network extend to include schools and student groups. This morning we used a random number generator to randomly select three winners from all eligible participants. I want to extend a HUGE thank you to: all of the #MBEdChat… Read More
Follow Friday – Mackenzie Middle School
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. For the past two weeks the admin team at Mackenzie Middle School (MMS) have been working on their communication strategy; including the use of social media as a tool for transparency, communication, and community building. After careful consideration, it was concluded that the majority of their adult stakeholders utilized Facebook, and the launch of the Mackenzie Middle School Facebook page was live! Give them a follow to stay up-to-date on… Read More
Constructing The Echo Chamber: Constructivism in Social Media Use
*This post has been written as part of my journey as a Ph.D student through University of Regina As we enter the third school year under the presence of the Covid-19 global pandemic there is a narrative of acclimating to a “new reality”. What has been overlooked by some administrators is that, for many of their staff and students, their life has been operating in a new reality for much longer than they may realize; the self-constructed reality as developed by social media. Michael Crotty (1998) defines constructionism as the stance in which knowledge is constructed by the interactions between… Read More
Back to School Checklist
Welcome to a new school year! At the start and end of each school year I find it helpful to share out the following checklist that was inspired by a practice from when I was a classroom teacher. This checklist is designed to ensure the effective and professional use of various ICT elements and support your growth in the 2021/2022 school year. Please note that not all checklist elements may apply to you depending on your position within the division. The checklist itself has each task hyperlinked which leads to a tutorial or video providing more information on how to… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Ed Tech 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. When I moved into this position I noticed that there were reoccurring concerns from administrators and teachers from many of our schools: families were unfamiliar with a variety of technology-related aspects of their children’s’ lives. This may include how to utilize school-related tech tools, how to help their child navigate social media, how to guide their child’s use of screen time, etc. With the shift to remote learning in the spring of 2020, this concern… Read More