Google Apps and Digital Citizenship

Today’s post is the second installment in the series of posts sharing examples and strategies from teachers with regard to Digital Citizenship in their classrooms.

Using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) to teach about netiquette and positive digital footprint with engaging in peer feedback

Keeler School’s Learning Commons Learning Leader and Teacher, Mike McKenzie, shared many ways in which they are teaching DC principles in context. They are using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in many of their core classes as a means to engage in regular formative assessment practices. Though there is some “front loading” of DC information and skills, more often they tend to use “just in time” learning or “teachable moments” as they present themselves in order to teach students about topics like netiquette and positive digital footprint. 

In one example, Mike spoke about a grade 4 class comprised of diverse learners using Google Docs to provide formative feedback to their peers during project work as part of the polishing process. This allowed for a variety of student voice as well as self-reflection.

In another example, students used Google Forms to solicit peer feedback on dress rehearsal performances in order to polish their final presentations.

After each performance, the class spent a few minutes talking about how the group performed based on the criteria set out in the rubric.  Then one scribe for the group used the Google form to enter the feedback.  Results of the form were instantly visible and students began dissecting this new information.

The way the feedback was gathered is particularly important in this instance because of the mixed abilities of the students in this class. The conversation among the groups’ participants as they decide what feedback to give enables all voices to be heard and ensures that the task is accessible to all.

Each performing group then received 6 sets of written feedback about how to improve their work.  Then they were given time to go over the feedback and made modifications based on feedback.

“One DC challenge we encountered in doing this was one of access.  Students from PLP and L&L had difficulty logging in to first the laptop and then again into google apps. It made it too complicated and frustrating. The process could be made much less complicated by just having a link to the document for students to contribute their comments. However, there was concern that if we provided just the link then student comments would be added anonymously and that could be problematic, particularly if the comment ended up being inappropriate or problematic in some way.

In the end we decided that it was more important to provide students with the link to make commenting easier than to ensure we had names attached.  In fact, the anonymity provided for better learning opportunities as the comment was not directly connectable to individual students, so we could use individual comments as learning opportunities without singling out an individual by name and embarrassing them, but we could still get the point across as we talk about what is appropriate and valuable in giving feedback.” Mike Mackenzie

Mike works with teachers and students across the school as the Technology and Learning Commons Learning Leader. This provides him with opportunities to support teachers across the grades in learning to use digital resources and tools to support teaching and learning in ways that are meaningful and effective. He has dozens of examples on Keeler School’s Learning Commons page and will be contributing many of them to CORE in the coming weeks.

For more information about Digital Citizenship visit https://albertacore.ca and search for DC Plan. You will find the DC Planning Template, the extensive collection of supporting resources for DC education and the Ed Talks for DC, Web 2.0 and Copyright. 

Also launching today is the third video in the DC Ed Talks mini-series, Digital Citizenship and Professional Responsibilities.

Stay tuned for more posts where we share what teachers are doing with regard to DC. 

Sue Bell

Education Specialist

Innovation & Learning Technology 

Making Learning Go Viral!

By Steve Clark @stevewclark

This week I attended a workshop (Create, Innovate, Voice) run by the one and only George Couros this week. While what we learned, wasn't really all that new to me, I took away a tonne. It also got me thinking a lot about how we can, as a school district, celebrate the amazing things that happen in our classrooms.

Our school board, the Calgary Board of Education (hashtag #yycbe on Twitter) is the second biggest school district in Canada. It turns out we have one of the smallest presence on social media platforms out of many school boards in Alberta, let alone across Canada.

Our organization/school district hashtag is overrun and dominated by the media and the general public. It is predominantly associated with negative comments and news articles about things that are happening in our district. We, as a large group of passionate and caring educators, can change this negative view of  #yycbe. We have amazing things happening in the CBE and we also have a 10 000 strong staff that can help with spreading the word!

What I think we need to do is take away some of the fear away from sharing outside the walls of our own school, maybe even outside the four walls of our classrooms. If we embrace that change that is happening, instead of hiding from it, we can make a difference.

It is so easy to, and feels so much safer to isolate ourselves within our own context. If we really want to grow as educators, I believe we need to be reaching out and connecting with others more often. This reaching out helps us think outside the box. It gives us different views and other ways of doing things. It also can confirm the great things that we do in our own practices. We also need to remember that every one of us has something different to offer and can offer something to each other too.

In our workshop, it was awesome to see other people get excited about Twitter as a networking tool. There were not many people that had previously joined twitter but after the session, we had a whole lot more people willing to experiment and learn more about this amazing networking and PD tool.

It's exciting to thinking about the challenge of increasing our Social Media presence. We have a big job ahead of us but because our sheer size, we also have the possibility of going big, very fast. All we need to to start gaining some momentum.

Let's do this #yycbe!

Here is the story that was told through Twitter throughout the day with George Couros (@gcouros). It was fun seeing new people tweet and connect through this medium. Let's hope it continues!

 

Building a Culture of Digital Citizenship

With all that is happening in Education today, it’s more important than ever that our schools are places that both model good digital citizenship and support our learners in becoming good digital citizens, so today’s post is focused on Digital Citizenship (DC).

To begin, we wanted to share some work our team has been doing related to DC. Last Friday, Innovation and Learning Technology launched the latest installment in our Ed Talks: Digital Citizenship – The mini series. The first episode, Growing Healthy Habits, focused on helping students learn about how to use technology and the internet both at home and at school, in ways that are safe and healthy. Today we launched the second episode: Building a Culture of Digital Citizenship. This episode focuses on what schools can do to build  a strong culture of digital citizenship in their buildings. Be sure to check it out for some really good ideas and examples of strategies for building strong DC. Next week we will be launching the last episode in the series, DC and Professionalism, in which we explore the rights and responsibilities we have as educators when it comes to using technology and modeling digital citizenship.

The Ed Talks are a great place to start, and in preparing the Ed Talks we were able to talk with many teachers about the interesting and creative ways they are engaging with students around DC. 

Creating Engaged Citizens by using Twitter and KidBlog with Kindergarten students

Kindergarten teachers, Heather McKay and Jaime Hatchette, from Andrew Sibbald School spoke about the importance of starting with our youngest learners to build DC skills and how they use generic Twitter and Blogging accounts to help build student awareness and knowledge of DC principles. Click on the images below to watch the videos in CORE.

   

           

Learn more about:

• Digital Citizenship planning 
• Digital Citizenship Week 

Design Thinking Series

“Design thinking asks students to become investigators in their world, attempt to solve problems, bridge gaps of knowledge independently, collaboratively, and resourcefully.”

(Gray, Lee-Ann, Making Education More Like Real Life)

The maker movement encourages learning through doing while working with peers. Building from DIY and incorporating a belief in the ability to make things better, cheaper, greener and more efficient, the maker movement encourages students to make their learning visible. The maker movement in schools encourages invention and creativity, prototyping and experimentation.  It celebrates the human need to create, innovate, play and tinker. Students from k-12 are given opportunities to engage in design thinking and work with their hands, trades and technology. (Invent to Learn, Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary Stager)

So how does a Phys. Ed. teacher find herself learning how to solder and taking apart an old Sony Walkman?

In The Designing for Learning workshop series, teachers are invited to be inspired by the maker philosophy to inform teaching practice around making learning visible. 

All sessions are held at the CT Centre Lord Shaughnessy High School

Wednesday March 19 4:30 - 7:30

Designing for Learning: Fiber Tech & Wearables
Register

Wednesday April 2 4:30 - 7:30

Designing for Learning: Introductory Electronics and Robotics
Register

Wednesday May 14 4:30 - 7:30

Designing for Learning: 4 Rapid Prototyping and 3D Printing
Register

To find out more about the Maker Movement:
Invent to Learn
Cool Cat Teacher
MIT Lifelong Kindergarten
Design Thinking for Educators

Online Professional Learning Networking Blitz

Get ready to jump in virtually with both feet and build your Ed Tech connections. It's been a long, cold winter and Spring Break is on the horizon, so let's make this easy! You don't need to leave the comfort of your own digital space in order to share, connect, chat, and learn together. Over the next 2 weeks ILT is doing an online networking blitz to really take advantage of the online opportunities that are available.

Join us in an online journey together as we:

• share sources of inspiration and innovations in the world of edtech
• discuss the supports and professional learning offerings you need as you delve into your inquiries
• challenge ourselves to think deeply about how we interact and learn online
• ponder current challenges and topics in edtech that are relevant to you
• chat about the role of digital leadership in your schools
• reach out to others and broaden our networks

Where will the journey take place? Meet us online in our Google+ Community, Twitter and right here on this blog.

Looking forward to connecting with you online!

Posted by: Tannis Emann
on behalf of the ILT team

25 Years after Roots comes Digital Citizenship the Mini-Series on "CBE Ed Talks"

As we increase the variety of ways teachers and students interact with technology on a daily basis, it is more important than ever that our schools are places that model good digital citizenship and support our learners in becoming good digital citizens. To learn more, watch our Ed Talks mini-series, starting this week. These videos provide excellent information and perspective on what it means to be a good digital citizen. They also help define our role as educators in helping our learners to become good digital citizens.

	Part 1 - Digital Citizenship: Growing Healthy Habits Digital Citizenship is becoming an important and integral component of all schools and businesses. To gain some perspective on student understanding of Digital Citizenship, we invite you to watch part one in our digital citizenship mini-series. ​ Links to video CBE Staff Insite Link CORE Public Link
​	​Part 2 – Digital Citizenship: Building a Culture of Digital Citizenship – coming next week! What does it look like when there is a culture of digital citizenship in a school? How do schools make their digital citizenship plan come to life? To find the answers to these questions visit our website next week to watch part two in our mini-series.
​	​Part 3 - Digital Citizenship: Professional Rights and Responsibilities - coming March 17, 2014 As educators, we play a critical role in modeling and practicing good digital citizenship. We also have an important role to play in protecting the privacy and personal data of our students when using technology. To learn more about our professional rights and responsibilities watch part three in our mini-series. Post by: Sue Bell Education Specialist, Innovation & Learning Technology.

Calling All Explorers, Adventurers & Navigators of Our EdTech Ecosystem!

Sometimes it's overwhelming to consider all of the different pieces of educational technology that are available to educators and students. On the Innovation & Learning Technology (ILT) team, we know what it's like to feel as though you are faced with never-ending ice-covered mountains, caves, valleys, and monster fortresses of technology that you must journey through. (Apologies, it's -35 degrees outside and I've was stuck indoors watching the LOTR trilogy all weekend). 

Let's continue with this analogy. Imagine that you are an explorer of new worlds. Your purpose is to help identify new species, and learn about how newly discovered organisms interact with one another other, as well as those that are already known. You wander along many pathways, intrigued by random sightings and interesting tidbits, which you note in your digital journal (or online PLN), and share with your fellow explorers.

In ILT, we consider educators and students to be explorers of educational technology. We consider edtech as an ecosystem with a diversity of organisms that serve different purposes. In our educational context, we want you and your students to place yourselves at the "top" of the food chain, not in a way that makes you superior to other beings, but in an approach that emphasizes that edtech serves the user, not the other way around. 

What are your thoughts on the ecosystem of educational technology? (Here's a link to a post that uses a a generic inquiry example to explore aspects of the digital learning ecosystem that includes D2L, CORE, Web 2.0 tools, Google Apps, Iris and more.) How do you navigate it? What analogy might you use to describe how students and educators interact with technology and each other? Post a comment. We want to hear from you!

Lunch and Learn! Google Apps for New Users

Want to learn more about Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Hangouts?

Google will host live demo sessions on March 11th, 2014 and March 12th, 2014. In this live demo product specialists will walk you through a set of Google's core products using a real-life example. You will get to experience how Google uses some of their products on a day to day basis to collaborate and get more work done in less time.

The target audience for this live demo are new Google Apps users with a basic level of Google Apps experience.

To Register:
March 11th, 2014 - 12 pm
March 12th, 2014 - 11 am

More Info:

Google Apps in the CBE