School District 60: Peace River North – You must connect yourself to connect your students.

There is a lot of discussion about what a Personal Learning Network is or is not. It can be different for everyone, clean, messy, exciting, informative, formal, informal. It can be anytime, anywhere. It can be on Saturday at 7am with a book and coffee. It can be enhanced by technology and social networks, or it can be a group of people that meet to discuss a book, a concept, a research project… A key piece I believe though is that it is participatory and often best when it is social. We learn best what we share and teach with others.

A lot of effort, time and money goes into in-service training where we take staff from their regular duties and school them on how to do specific things. Our success with in-service honestly ranges from wanting to amazing depending on the participant as it can be difficult to meet the varied needs of our learners on one specific topic. That’s where differentiation comes in. We’d like to meet the needs of everyone of our learners. Two ways we are going to help differentiate learning are to encourage the use/creation of your own Personal Learning Networks (get ready to hear this a lot more often) as well as use a self-assessment around technology to get you started.

With technology learning sometimes we don’t know where to get started when it comes to a certain topic and it is helpful to have some kind of assessment of our skills. In an effort to help differentiate learning for our staff around technology several of us in TS have created a page called the SD60 Technology Learning Passport.

While this is a tool to help you get started or continue your learning journey please remember that there are many skilled peers in your school, your district, your classroom (yes ask the nearest 10 year old for help they are teachers too), and online around the world to help you move forward on your learning goals! Go through the SD60 Technology Learning Passport, pick something new and then check with your skilled peers on where to go next.

One of your skilled peers that nearly everyone knows in our district is our Wireless Writing Mentor Teacher, Toni Thompson. I’m happy to say that Toni is still our 0.4 WWP Mentor teacher but she is also now our 0.4 Technology Mentor (I had originally misspelled that as Teachnology, I like that! Anyhow…) So Toni is now available to everyone in the district for help around the items in the  SD60 Technology Learning Passport.

So please give us a ring or send us an email, we’d be happy to help you start with your Personal Learning Network!

Jarrod – jbell@prn.bc.ca – 250-262-6011

Toni – tthompson@prn.bc.ca – 250-263-8201

Job Posting for BCeSIS Secretary/Tech Facilitator

http://asgard.prn.bc.ca/career/career.taf?_function=detail&job_posting_uid1=5407&_UserReference=9476F17FF42F87F94C728B86

I was reading a post from Educational Paradigms which I’ve linked to below in my rough draft and thought that this could be a good way to help differentiate inservice and professional development for our staff. What was 10 things all teachers should know has turned into three categories with some specific things I hope people can check off over the years and reflect on where they are as a technology learner. The 10 things was great, but having done some inservices this year I realized there is a basic level that is not being addressed, as well as an advanced level to look at! So here’s the draft below. Eventually I’ll add in links to services as well as exemplars. Comments are appreciated!

3 Levels and Inventory of Skills in Technology

Technology Learning Passport
(Inspired by http://educationalparadigms.blogspot.com/2010/06/10-things-all-teachers-should-know-how.html)

Basic

1. Learn basic physical computer troubleshooting
2. Be able to log in to a Windows or Mac computer
3. Use BCESIS for attendance and report cards
4. Use email, calendar and documents for communication
5. Effectively manage files and folder on computer and network
6. Discover menus and tools of programs
7. Back up work (not personal media) to network
8. Connect to a projector, Smartboard, document camera
9. Access content on a district Moodle site
10. Setup/connect to a new printer
11. Create, manage, update and reset your passwords
12. Ability to contact the helpdesk for support at 250-263-6442 or create a work order at helpdesk.prn.bc.ca
13. Download pictures from a device to a computer
14. Attend a webcast via Elluminate (or other web meeting software) for content specific educational presentation (e.g. http://ceet.ca/events.html)
15. Be Web Literate (Alan November Web Literacy for Educators)

Intermediate

1. Subscribe to an RSS Feed using a browser or a reader (try starting with www.leadership.prn.bc.ca)
2. Bookmark, tag and annotate websites in the Cloud (diigo, delicious)
3. Create and use a Blog (edublogs.org, wordpress.com)
4. Create and use a Wiki site, or a Moodle Course (wikispaces, pbworks, District Moodles)
5. Create hyperlinks (in e-mail, at blogs, websites and wikis)
6. Create a PDF file for Free
7. Capture, Remix and upload Photos (free of copyright restrictions, flickr, picasa)
8. Capture, Remix and upload Audio/Video
9. Use a collaborative file sharing system with colleagues or students (Google Docs, http://typewith.me/)
10. Personal Learning Network: Locate and Participate in Social Networks on Education, Useful Tech Tools for Learning, 21st Century Learning and content-specific Education Sites (twitter, 1:1 educators on twitter, CEET Ning etc).
11. Participate in a scholarly discussion via Elluminate (or other web meeting software) for content specific educational presentation
12. Communicate appropriately with parents and students via email
13. Set up your own Elluminate Classroom via Learnnowbc.ca (http://www.learnnowbc.ca/lnbcresources/elluminate/default.aspx)

1. Utilize Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy when creating lessons (Andrew Churches)
2. Design of Lessons including Technology (UDL, Pedagogy, start with Why)
3. Build and maintain a dynamic Moodle Course with Forums, Assignments, Quizzes etc.
4. Embed Content (Youtube, Slideshare, Scribd etc) into blog, moodle, wiki
5. Project based learning with technology (authentic tasks, webquests, etc)
6. Action Research projects about or using technology
7. Teach in a hybrid classroom via Elluminate with students in your room as well as students at a distance
8. Facilitate or Present on a content specific educational topic via Elluminate (CEET)
9. Use feedback tools in and out of class such as wallwisher.com, SMS/web polling www.polleverywhere.com/, Twitter backchannel #mrbellsclass, Google Forms for surveys, Google Moderator

Wallwisher is a great tool where people can add sticky notes to your wall. Easy to setup, can be moderated etc. Here’s a great example that our Superintendent has created for ideas about the learning space at the Enerplex. Feel free to share your thoughts!

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/Espe-a

Energeticcity recently posted a story about School District 60 kids and stats on FSA, class size, and Provincial Exams.

http://www.energeticcity.ca/fortstjohn/news/06/29/10/district-60-under-provincial-average

I’d like Energeticcity to reference where they are getting their results from as they are mixing various reports which may represent different years however no referencing makes their assertions difficult to verify or refute and paints an unclear picture for members of our community. From the article,

In the FSA Student Achievement report School District 60 ranks higher than the provincial average with grade 4 students in reading and numeracy, SD 60 ranks lower in writing. In grade 7 students, the district ranks higher in reading, but lower than the provincial average in writing and numeracy.

Which year are you looking at in that statement? Here’s my synopsis of the February 2010 FSA with SD60 and Provincial results along with the reports and links to where you can find them. These reports show that SD60 students are equal to or  higher in all areas in reading, writing, and numeracy except for grade 7 numeracy for students meeting or exceeding expectations on the FSA.

2010 FSA Results for Grade 4 – % of Students Meeting or Exceeding

Reading: 68%  SD60 / 68% Province – 0% difference

Writing: 81% SD60 / 69% Province – +12% SD60

Numeracy: 67% SD60 / 63% Province- + 4% SD60

2010 FSA Results for Grade 7 – % of Students Meeting or Exceeding

Reading: 65%  SD60 / 65% Province – 0% difference

Writing: 78% SD60 / 68% Province – + 10% SD60

Numeracy: 56% SD60 / 63% Province – +7% Province

Feb 2010 Provincial FSA Results

Feb 2010 SD60 FSA Results

taken June 29, 2010 from

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/district_data_summary.php

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/prov_data_summary.php

An alternate but not suggested route into bcesis is http://www.bcesis.isw-bc.ca/

I suggest this today is it appears that isw-bc.ca has an issue. The ISW shares news about outages etc and I suggest normally using that route.

Laptop Swap Scheduling begins on June 3rd by calling the helpdesk at 250-263-6442

Please print off page 1 of the attached sheet below, fill out and attach to your laptop when you hand it into your AO on or before the morning of June 30th.

WWP Teacher Laptop Hand in Info Sheet

Great when you find these things out there!

Peace River North School District Announces Results of Wireless Computer Writing Program Research Study

http://www.apple.com/ca/press/2004/01/peace_river.html

For more current results from the WWP have a look at our WWP page http://www.prn.bc.ca/?page_id=59

Below is a description of the Employee & Family Assistance Program for SD60 from Patrick Crawshaw of Brown Crawshaw Inc.

For personal matters whatever they may be you can contact them confidentially at 1-800-668-2055 or on the web at www.brown-crawshaw.com

This was sent by email to WWP, BB, DK, Admin, and Secretaries on May 14th.

-teachers must return laptops to admin on the morning of or before June 30th
-teachers without an assignment/contract will not receive a laptop for summer use
-teachers in grade 8 (and 9 at middle schools) who currently have a ~1+ year old laptop will have their machines reimaged, scheduled in July for pickup
-teachers returning to grade 6/7 will get a brand new laptop, scheduled in July for pickup
-teachers in grade 8 or at the middle schools in 8/9 will receive a ~1+ yr old laptop wherever possible, scheduled in July for pickup
-teachers on special circumstances can apply in writing to Jarrod Bell for summer use by June 14th (email is fine). Confirmation to be returned by June 21st from myself. Must be on contract, and must arrange dates for swap. Teachers with a ~1+ yr old laptop for special circumstances may be required to swap before the end of June for a 4yr old laptop loaned for the summer only

-In the case where TS will be providing you another laptop we will transfer data in your User folder only to your new machine.
-It is your responsibility to backup your files to the network or external device.
-We will not be held liable for any loss of files or personally purchased music or movies on your District owned computer.

6/3/2010    Central    (early due to Quebec Trip)
6/7/2010    Baldonnel
6/8/2010    Upper Halfway    Wonowon
6/9/2010    Prespatou    Taylor
6/10/2010    TRACK and FIELD
6/11/2010    Alwin Holland    Robert Ogilvie
6/14/2010    CM Finch    Upper Pine
6/15/2010    Hudson’s Hope    Duncan Cran
6/16/2010    Clearview    Charlie Lake
6/17/2010    Bert Ambrose    Bert Bowes
6/18/2010    Buick    Dr Kearney

We’ve received three copyright infringement notices from our friends at PLNet in the last couple of weeks.

Please note that downloading of music, unlicensed (pirated) movies, or unlicensed (pirated)  software on our network (in schools and teacherages) is contrary to the acceptable use policy, board policy, and Canadian copyright law.  Illegally downloading files opens our district to liability. For students and staff it may open them to disciplinary action and possibly legal action.

There is still some discussion regarding music downloading according to the law, but it is against the acceptable use policy for our district so it should not be done on our network.

School computers used by students generally are not able to download these types of files. Staff computers as well as private machines are the usual suspects as the user has rights to install the software that facilitates the downloading of illegal files.

Investigations are time consuming at the best of time and ultimately will result in a lower level of service to all of our staff.

This is a social and personal responsibility issue that needs to be addressed by all staff and students.

Please use the comment link below to enter your name and school for the:
I’m Glad I Read the Tech Services News Email Section – Document Camera Draw

School’s without any document camera will be given first chance at the draw!

http://delicious.com/ssladen/learning_resources (includes any links that Sian uses in her presentation)

smarttech.com for training links

Reference Manual that Sian passed around on her memory stick

Showed a great trick for revealing notes using text written in the same background colour and create a coloured rectangle. The rectangle is ordered (right click > order) to the back (sent to back). The rectangle can then be moved around and it would reveal the text as you move it across.

Teachers Love Smartboards: http://smartboards.typepad.com/

Teacher created powerpoints

http://www.pppst.com

http://Worldofteaching.com

http://www.pics4learning.com

Thank you for all the applications for 25-135 Technology Summer Students. We have filled both positions.

We are having a redirect issue with the Elem moodle as of 8am Friday, April 23. We are currently looking at the issue and hope to have it resolved shortly.

RESOLVED at 8:55. Vhost issue. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Friday at 4pm we are planning on upgrading our virtualization infrastructure. Websites, Helpdesk, files etc will be down into the evening. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Our department is working towards an Environmentally Sustainable Information Technology Policy. We would like your feedback in the comments. We’ve added a few of the brainstorming items below.

• Reuse wherever possible (refurbished machines)
• Recycle IT when it is at the end of usable life (data protection / destruction consideration)
• Power management via Software, Group Policy (Active Directory), User Education
• Power bars on your desk rather than hidden so devices can be totally shut off (Vampire electronics such as adapters, chargers etc)
• Virtualization of Servers where appropriate
• Energy Star / Energuide considerations before purchasing technology
• Phase out CRT’s for LCD’s (already working on this as CRT’s are too dangerous to repair)
• Appropriate devices used for the task (ie. mobile device instead of rack mount server for checking email)
• Cleanliness of computers and their surrounds (lack of air flow / dust causes heat which results in higher fan RPM, higher level of failures of hardware)
• Centralize Printing / Models (fewer models means fewer cartridge types, fewer printers means less power usage)

Please add some more in the comments!

Week-long open discussion April 19 to 24
Hand Helds, iPods and CellPhones in the Classroom:
Distraction or “Swiss Army Knife” for Research and Organization?

Can we tolerate mobile devices in the classroom? Encourage them? Bar them? Join this free and open collaborative professional development opportunity to grapple with the practice of cell phones in the (K-12) classroom and consider possible responses ranging from how we get them under control to how we might use them productively and creatively to enhance education.

Facilitators: Richard Smith, Grant Potter, Claire Thompson, Clint Surry, Wade Gemmell, Dave Lanovaz, Virginia Rego and Sandy Hirtz

Register @ http://tinyurl.com/y8pjpo3
Login @ http://bit.ly/dfxhnt

I learned some new things as well!

All teachers will be required to return their laptops this year. We need to consider how this is going to be done and I’ll provide some options, but would like you to comment on the post (remember it is public) if you have a preference or other suggestion…

Option 1

All Teachers will be required to hand in their WWP laptops at the end of June to their administrators. If a special circumstance exists please email jbell@prn.bc.ca (need it for a wedding slideshow etc) but arrangements must be made to hand it in during the summer. We will then transfer data, reimage and provide a new (possibly new to you) laptop to you at a later date arranged with the staff and yourself.

Option 2

All Teachers will be required to hand in their WWP laptops by appointment during the summer before August 15th at the facilities shop. We will then transfer data, reimage and provide a new (possibly new to you) laptop to you at a later date arranged with the staff and yourself.

Option 3

No I want to keep my old 4 year old laptop and I don’t want a brand new or one year old laptop! – No, not really an option, we want them all back

Option 4: Mix of Option 1 and 2

Leave your laptop with your AO June 30 or arrange with TS to drop it off on a certain day.

Option X?

Something else? Please give your thoughts in the comments to share.

Back up your Data

We also advise teachers to back up their data to the network or external drive. Personally purchased movies, pictures, music should be backed up by the teacher externally (ie. External Hard drive). NB: We won’t be held responsible for any purchases on your laptop or data that you haven’t backed up!

Who does this apply to?

Anyone with a WWP owned computer – that means AO’s, grade 6/7/8 teachers, teachers assigned a spare computer,  8-10 Teachers at Bert Bowes and Dr. Kearney as well are included in this.

Will I get a laptop back?

Grade 6/7 teachers will be provided with a new laptop

Grade 8 teachers will be provided with the one to two year old laptops if at all possible, (grade 9 teachers at BB and DK as well)

Grade 10 teachers moving to NPSS will not receive a laptop.

Technology Services has a posting for:

SECRETARY/TECHNOLOGY FACILITATOR (BCeSIS)

Competition No. 25-131

The competition closes April 13th, 2010.

I had a chuckle this morning on twitter about a post that said something of the order “Stop blaming the computer, it’s often you that’s causing the problem!” Clicking the mouse 29 times in rapid succession does not make things go faster, it actually tries to run what you just clicked on 14-29 times depending on what you are clicking on. That slows things down.

The link which I’ve since lost had a good metaphor. If you are using a pen with the lid on, it doesn’t work very well. That’s not the pen’s fault, it is the user and their lack of knowledge around using the pen. Technology circles often refer to it as a PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair) or an I-D-Ten-T (ID1OT) error. There are also variations of RTM (Read the manual) that are occasionally mentioned between technologists as we often do it as well.

A critical issue here is how do we teach our staff how to use these tools that are on our desks and we are all expected to use? Is it fly by pro-d? Do just-in-time training videos work (if you know how to view them and take the time, then hopefully yes)?  Should we have a series of basic sessions on computer use? Do we need sessions on how to copy from a document over to BCeSIS or PowerPoint or Word?

I mistakenly thought we shouldn’t need to teach people how to copy and paste by now but recent BCeSIS training sessions show that there is a massive gap between the computer skills of our staff members. BCeSIS can certainly have issues, but many issues are user/education/hardware related and have nothing to do with the service. We offer a variety and many sessions on new technologies which are fine for those of us who have adopted the technology, but those who have not are still struggling and we’re not addressing their needs.

Should computer proficiency be a requirement for school district teachers? How about the staff that need training? Pro-d? Inservice? After school sessions? Growth Plans? Invitations or mandatory?

Many questions, but let’s start with one. I’ll be putting out a simple survey today to staff to gauge the need for some basic sessions, I hope those that really could benefit will be checking their email.

From an email to the AO’s

Evolution Learning Technologies, our BCERAC partner for Smartboards, is providing a teacher, Sian Sladen, M.Ed, for April 29th to do two half-day inservices for our teachers using smartboards.

TS will cover the TOC costs for schools to send a staff member. I would ask AO’s to nominate one person from your school for this session. Rural participants will be covered for the full day and travel (UP, UH, Wonowon, Buick, Prespatou), and will have a break out room with another Smartboard available for them to work on in the afternoon, or they can attend the session again. Lunch will not be provided.

I would ask that the person nominated be:

• technologically proficient/experienced
• have some experience with the smartboard or at least a strong willingness to use them in the future
• will likely be remaining in your school next year (and hopefully for several years to come)
• willing to work collaboratively (willing to help train others on the Smartboard in the future)

Participants need to

• bring a laptop with Notebook 10.6 loaded before the inservice (if you need the software loaded on please create a work order and we will do it)
• if you can’t get them a laptop I can provide one if you let me know, but they should at least come with a thumb drive so they can save files they create

Please reply by email with who you would like to send and I will let you know early in April whether they are attending the morning/afternoon (full day for Rurals) session. Also could you please let me know if they need a laptop.

Thanks!

TEDxOntarioEd – April 9th, 2010 – 4pm – 7pm local time

What is TEDxOntarioEd? http://www.tedxontarioed.ca/

TEDxOntarioEd is where educators, academics, students, and other remarkable people will have 5 minutes to share their ‘idea worth spreading’ about motivation. This dynamic sharing will discuss the concept of motivation, how it relates to students and educators in our rapidly changing world, the tools that enable motivation, and how motivation is manifested in various contexts. Through the support of TED, this event promises to bring together creative minds from across Canada that will immerse an audience of live and remote participants in a rich dialog about innovative ideas.

SD60 to Host LAN Party for TEDxOntarioEd

We will host a LAN Party to view TEDxOntarioEd. We will have a video, skype, and twitter link to the conference so we can view and participate. Also dinner will be provided for participants who are able to attend. If you’d like to attend please email me jbell@prn.bc.ca with the number of people.

Toni Thompson and Kim Boettcher demonstrate personal story interviews with iMovie.

Mrs Jensen and Mr Longley’s class took part in a skype chat today with U of T astronomers through skype. Great questions from our grade three and six students!

I was please to join a discussion with the Socrates Cafe at NPSS today about Facebook. We only hit the tip of the iceberg but I’m really looking forward to more. Karl did a great job moderating a very interesting topic!

I’ve included the MP3 as this month’s Tech Aware podcast.

Facebook Discussion Feb 25, 2010 @ NPSS