Professional Learning at Your Fingertips

Wow! What a fantastic year of learning, connecting and sharing! It has been inspiring to be a part of the ever-growing networks of educators who so graciously share, so openly welcome, and so actively learn together.

If you are interested in professional learning over the summer, CORE is a hub for a wide range of resources and can be accessed anywhere, anytime including on your deck and at your cabin! Below are some areas to get you started.

From all of us on the CBE ILT team we wish you a relaxing and rejuvenating summer vacation. We look forward to the 2014-2015 school year and continuing our learning journey together!

Google Apps for Ed (GAFE)

• Google Apps for Ed: Getting Started (educator created resource)
• Google Apps Workflow Resources: Support in using Google Apps for Education on mobile devices
• Import Google Groups Users: Step by step instructions on how to retrieve student gmail addresses by group from SIRS and import into Google Groups for easy set up
• For more Google Apps for Education resources, including webinar recordings, search “GAFE” in CORE

D2L

• Using D2L Competencies and Grade Schemes for Outcomes Based Assessment: A collection of resources supporting K-9 Assessments Framework indicators
• Video tutorials on D2L With Paper Guides (educator created resource)
• Setting Notification for News Feeds from D2L: D2L will send a notice to email or smart phone each time a news item is added
• For more, search "D2L" in CORE

Learning Commons

• Area III Learning Commons Blog: Area III schools share their learning commons journey (educator created resource)
• Learning Commons Journey at Cranston School (educator created resource)
• Transforming Your Library: Building Community Through Making with Sue Considine (webinar)
• For more, search "Learning Commons" in CORE

CORE

• Learn all about CORE including how to use CORE, how to contribute resources, and more: 
• Access the [Guide to CORE] from the left navigation bar in CORE and select the [Getting Started] section for a wide range of resources (print and video)

Other Professional Learning Resources

• Search “Professional Learning” in CORE for a wide range of PL resources
• Narrow your CORE Power Search by selecting [Professional Learning] when searching a specific topic
• Search “PLN” in CORE for professional learning network resources

Stay Connected, The Choice is Yours

• Join CBE ILT Google+ Community
• Follow CBE ILT on Twitter
• Like CBE ILT on Facebook

Tannis Emann

on behalf of the ILT team

The Networks Have Spoken

On February 20th we officially launched our networked approach for professional learning in Innovation and Learning Technology (ILT). Since then we have been excited to be a part of the sharing, discussions, and connections that are taking place between educators online and face-to-face from all across the CBE. 

The ILT Google+ community (bit.ly/googleilt) has become an ever-growing hub for questioning, sharing, and conversing around many ed tech related ideas and concepts. Just some of the engaging topics currently being discussed in this community include: iPads in the classroom, growing your professional learning network (PLN), design thinking, Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in action in the classroom, and the flipped classroom model. 

During our first face-to-face networking session educators from across the system came together to share ideas and artifacts, meet others with similar interests, wonders and passions, and be inspired by the work of their colleagues. Conversations during this face-to-face session ranged from building a learning commons to GAFE for collaboration to ed tech in the K-3 classroom and beyond.

In response to all the richness that is occurring in the networks, we have created additional professional learning sessions to both meet the requests for additional face to face networking sessions as well as topic specific sessions. Please see below for a listing of our upcoming offerings.

Connect in 3D with You Ed Tech PLN: Face-to-Face Networking Sessions

Are you looking for:

• face to face time with educators
• a chance to share and connect around topics of interest to you
• a session close to where you teach and/or live

Then the face-to-face networking sessions are for you!

Professional Learning Networking Sessions:

Thursday May 8 4:30 - 6:00
Harold Panabaker School

Tuesday May 27 4:30-6:00
Tom Baines School

Register here for the above sessions

The Google Series

Are you looking for:

• tips for getting started with Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for you and your students
• opportunities to build understanding around the collaborative elements of Google Drive
• ways to connect with others in an online environment
• examples of GAFE in action in schools and classrooms shared by fellow colleagues

Then the two upcoming GAFE webinars are for you!

Tuesday April 15 4:30 - 5:30

Webinar: Getting Started with Google

Tuesday April 29 4:30 - 5:30

Webinar: Google Show and Share

Register here for the above sessions

Living the Learning Commons

Are you looking for:

• ways to develop your learning commons
• ideas for how to introduce makerspaces into a learning commons
• time to explore using task design to help students learn to be innovative
• hands-on discovery of 3D printing and rapid prototyping

Then the following sessions are for you!

Tuesday, April 22 4:30-5:30

Transforming Your Library: Building Community Through Making with Sue Considine

Webinar

Register

Wednesday May 14 4:30 - 7:30

Designing for Learning: 4 Rapid Prototyping and 3D Printing

Career and Technology Center

Register

Stay connected with Innovation and Learning Technology:

Google+ Community

Twitter @cbeilt

iltatthecbe@gmail.com 

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!

 

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

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!

Thanks for Joining Us! And Here's More...

We're sending a huge shoutout to the educators who just joined us for our professional learning kick-off webinar, Create Your EdTech Network! Here's what we did:

• Used Google Docs to facilitate a dynamic real-time brainstorm about how informal learning networks shape our professional learning networks (PLN).
• Brainstormed our wonderings, explorations, challenges, and ideas around leveraging educational technology in learning.
• Got our community excited about combining social media like Twitter, blogs, Google+ and more, with face to face sessions lead by community members and supported by the ILT team.
• If you haven't yet filled our our quick post-event survey (we used Google Forms to create it), please click here! Your feedback will help shape our direction!

Want more? We've got it!

If you missed the webinar, not to worry! Not only will we post a recording in the next few days, but we have provided you with the following resources that you can use immediately. Click here to find:

• PPT slides with visuals explaining how we plan to connect existing and new networks through face to face and digital means
• Clips of CBE teachers discussing how they currently use networks for professional learning
• Google Docs that all of our participants used to brainstorm during the webinar
• Links to additional resources

Coming up next

We've planned a face to face session that will help to build our connections across existing and new professional learning networks. We don't have all the answers, so we will discover them while learning and problem-solving together. The questions, wonderings, solutions, and innovations that you bring will be the basis upon which we facilitate and plan professional learning opportunities with and for you. 

What: Connect in 3-D With Your EdTech PLN! - Face to Face Session
When: Tues, Feb 25, 2014, 4:30 - 6:00 pm
Where: Career & Technology Centre 2336 53 Ave SW
Resources: Check back soon for a link to our session resources in CORE
Audience: All educators. Register now.
We will:

• Participate in engaging activities by connecting with your colleagues, and work on your questions, wonderings, experiments, challenges, and ideas around leveraging educational technology for learning.
• Discuss ideas for your next steps and explorations. How can ILT support your work? What questions do you have for the networks?

Questions? Email us at iltatthecbe@gmail.com or Tweet us @cbeilt


See you online and in person!

EdTech Professional Learning Networks Online & Face to Face - Join us!

You're invited to our kick-off professional learning webinar and face to face event, to support your EdTech Networks!

We're approaching professional learning a bit differently in Innovation & Learning Technology (ILT). We want to help you harness what students and teachers are doing across the CBE and beyond, and collaborate together on the professional learning topics that are most important to you.

We're taking a networked approach because we know it works. We don't have all the answers, so we discover them while learning and problem-solving together. The problems, questions, solutions, and innovations that you bring will be the basis upon which we facilitate and plan professional learning opportunities with and for you. 

What: Create Your EdTech Network - Kick-off Webinar
When: Thurs, Feb 20, 2014 from 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Where: Online in our Blackboard Collaborate session - click here when it's time to join!
Resources: Webinar link & Google Doc that we'll use live 
Audience: All educators. 

What we'll cover:

• Exploring how formal and informal networks shape our professional learning networks (PLN). How do you use your existing networks to support your learning? What have you learned from your networks?
• Time to discuss your questions and inquiries around educational technology. What questions, wonderings, experiments, challenges, and ideas do you have around leveraging educational technology for learning?
• Getting you set-up with the social media of your choice, such as Twitter, our blog, and Google+ to enhance and build upon our synchronous, digital, and face to face learning together. What type(s) of social media would you like to try in order to extend, delve deeply, and stay connected to your colleagues and professional learning communities?

Don't worry if you're unable to join us! We'll post a recording afterwards. You can attend either or both events. Everyone is invited!

What: Connect in 3-D With Your EdTech PLN! - Face to Face Session

When: Tues, Feb 25, 2014 from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Where: Career & Technology Centre 2336 53 Ave SW

Resources: Check back soon for a link to our session resources in CORE

Audience: All educators. Register now.

What we'll cover:

• Time to connect with your colleagues and work on your questions, wonderings, experiments, challenges, and ideas around leveraging educational technology for learning
• Exploration and discussion of your next steps. How can ILT support your work? What questions do you have for the networks?

Questions? Email us at iltatthecbe@gmail.com or Tweet us @cbeilt

See you online and in person!