by Heidi Siwak
The most powerful learning that happens in my classroom happens because of Integrative Thinking. First developed by Roger Martin, former Dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Integrative Thinking has now become a K-12 initiative and is transforming how thinking and problem solving are taught in HWDSB schools. Through it, students are equipped with a set of tools,attitudes and collaboration strategies that allow them to find innovative solutions to incredibly complex and ambiguous problems.
In the early wild-west days of the Internet, animated GIFs promised the world to web explorers in the form of flashy-yet-soon-to-be-gaudy under-construction signs. Shunted aside as more refined web design arose, animated GIFs have experienced a resurgence in recent years, and are now accepted as a true Art Form, with annual competitions and juried art shows held around the world.
Participate in a hands-on workshop exploring the potential of the animated GIF, as both a professional tool for illustration and an art form for expression. Learn how to make and optimize GIFs, and explore the finer points of focus, timing, and envisioning so that you can develop your skills as a GIF Artiste. Who knows, you may even acquire a chronic case of GIF-EYE-tis, in which images presents themselves daily as an opportunity for interpretation as an animated GIF …
Discover how to use student interest and ideas as a vehicle to deliver curriculum while providing authentic learning experiences. Participants will learn how to use technology, community partnerships and innovation in order to meet expectations in multiple subject areas, through student inquiries.
Classroom-tested coding activities you can integrate into your math teaching, using a variety of coding environments (such as Scratch and Python). Come and experience the 3 advantages of using coding in teaching/learning mathematics: (1) makes concepts tangible; (2) models concepts dynamically; and, puts students in control. Please bring a laptop. A reproducible handout of activities will be provided. See more at http://researchideas.ca/coding.html
Computer programming is becoming a hot topic in education. The England education system has begun introducing programming into their elementary curriculum… but why? The benefits of coding have shown to improve critical thinking and logical decision-making, as well as to increase engagement and creativity among students.
Join us for an opportunity to explore the potential benefits of coding in your classroom. You will get an opportunity to learn from a group of educators who have successfully taught programming to high school and elementary school students. The primary focus of the day will be connecting Ontario curriculum expectations to computer programming tasks and activities.
Non-technology activities as well as actual coding languages will be explored. You will leave with ideas, resources and knowledge to integrate coding into the curriculum. You are encouraged to BYOD (laptop preferred) and come ready to explore, engage in dialogue and ask questions as we explore the amazing possibilities of coding in the classroom.
This hands-on workshop will cover everything you need to know to use the BadgeOS plugin for WordPress to gamify instruction for any subject area.
Are you looking for a way to enable student-centred, student-driven learning? Do you want to put students in control of setting goals and documenting learning? Do you want to be able to go beyond differentiation into true personalization? Do you want a classroom where students are begging to get in rather than counting down the minutes to get out? I will show you how digital badging has completely transformed my classroom.
I will give a behind-the-scenes tour of FrenchQuest.ca, my digital badge learning system, and walk you through creating a similar site customized to your subject area. There will be plenty of time to work at your own pace, ask questions and get support.
Please bring a laptop. It will also make your life easier if you have a copy of your class list(s) in .csv (or simply saved in a spreadsheet). Many student information systems can export this for you. No worries if you don't have it.
by H. DeWaard
Thinking about digital storytelling? Come with your burning question - How might I...? Why would I...? How can I...? Why will I...? Inquiry questions will frame your explorations into digital storytelling in this interactive, hands-on digital storytelling session.
Design your inquiry, then design your own story. Create and celebrate your personal learning journey. While creating personal digital stories, participants will experience the process, product and showcase. Build your story in the writing and storyboarding sandbox. Shape your story with a variety of storytelling tools (greenscreen, screencasting, image capture, audio effects). Showcase your story in digital spaces (Animoto, Powtoon, AdobeVoice, Touchcast, etc.). Begin with a question, leave with some answers.
This workshop will allow you, as a teacher and learner, to experience digital storytelling. This will encourage you to become an activator and facilitator for the creation of digital media in the classroom. Applying an inquiry framework to personal learning about elements of digital storytelling will allow participants to move through this workshop in a self-directed and purposeful manner.
Come with a question. Leave with more questions than answers, but with some tools to start finding answers to your digital storytelling exploration with your students.
by Lisa Noble
Want to combine old-school hands-on making and new-school tech? What better way than a knitted QR code to link to your blog, favourite education quote or school website. Come and learn the basics of knitting to share with your students, colleagues or a club. We'll also learn how to generate a pattern for your own knitted code, and with luck, begin to knit it. Options for displaying your code will also be discussed - pillows, shadow-boxes, scarves, or just a patch to put on your backpack? An equipment list will be provided to those considering this session, and materials for getting started will also be available on site. http://bit.ly/qrmaterials
What is ‘Minds On Media’?
Imagine a room full of teachers who are skilled in using new technologies for learning and teaching.
What could you learn from them?
Join Brenda Sherry & Peter Skillen as they host this fabulous event for the Bring IT, Together 2015 conference. Minds On Media is a day-long BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) workshop with a variety of learning centres focusing on inquiry, tinkering and deep learning through a Knowledge Building lens. Knowledge Building involves ‘tinquiry’ (tinkering + inquiry), collaboration, conversation and making thinking visible to advance collective understanding of all participants.
What Will You Learn?
That is up to you! Visit one of the centres or visit them all! You might be an absolute beginner or a whiz with technology—but this is about using new technologies with students through a 'tinkering' lens. You choose your ‘entry point’. Build your own plan for the day or be led by one of our facilitators or pedagogistas.
THEMES for the CENTRES
1. Digital Citizenship - Resources and Activities
2. Going Green - Greens Screen, Do Ink and movie making!
3. Gone Google: How do you integrate all things Google into your classroom?
4. HyperDuino - featuring Mr. Frog and the Heart!
5. eLearning Ontario Interactives - for Student Learning & Professional Development
6. Teaching & Learning Survival Guide with Microsoft in the Classroom
7. Mindomo - Ideas and More Ideas!
8. Programming with Scratch: Cross-curricular exploration and computational thinking
9. TeachOntario: Connect with your colleagues across Ontario
10. Twitter for Educators
It is easy to be paperless: stop ordering paper! But going "paperless" should be a deliberate pedagogical and richer-assessment-oriented decision. More importantly, digitizing the classroom should be a simple transition for teachers, students and parents.
This workshop will give you a running start, compressing the four-year-long experience of our school using Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook to digitize every aspect of learning, in and out of the classroom. With your internet-connected device (from smartphone to pen-based tablet & any version of iPad/laptop/Chromebook in between) you'll develop multimedia curricular materials, distribute them, assess them and build portfolios for any level, grade or subject. You'll build collaborative groups and individualized assessment on your device that automatically appear on the student device and collected back on yours -- & parents can participate, too. You’ll take all of your work home with you to use and share with your students and colleagues.
& all for free.
[This is hands on with teachers & students from our school -- if you don't have a device with you, we'll have some for you to work with -- be sure to "attend" this session through Lanyard so we can try to have enough! Because everything is cloud based, you can take your work with you even if you're not on your own device.]
by Timothy King and Katy Lloyd
3d modelling has always been a complex process limited to those few skilled enough to operate the advanced software needed, but no more!
Recent advances in 3d scanning technology allow anyone to create complex 3d models!
This how-to seminar will walk you through the process of scanning a 3d model using the Occipital Structure Sensor. http://structure.io/ You'll learn how to quickly create complex 3d models and how to make use of them in freely available software.
As a finale you'll have the opportunity to take your 3d model and learn the process needed to manufacture it in a Makerbot 3d printer.
By the time you're done you'll have a handle on 3d modelling and you'll begin to see how this emerging technology could help you do everything from create your own mathematics manipulatables to building your own custom lego pieces. The future isn't off-the-rack, it's bespoke!
3d modelling and printing is the future of small scale, hyper-customized manufacturing, and it's easy enough to learn in an hour!
Come and get 3d ready for learning!
Do you want to turn your pencil crayon posters and cardboard castles into modern media masterpieces?! Are you looking for new tools to motivate and engage your 21st century students with the real media they interact with online? This session will provide alternatives to traditional media options that teachers commonly use. Participants will learn a variety of interactive media tools for providing students with opportunities to consume information in an authentic real-world way, and be makers of authentic products applicable to real-world situations. Using the Google Classroom platform, we will collaborate and learn together as we explore media tools including infographics, ThingLinks, and screencasts. Participants will also learn strategies to use these media techniques in a flipped classroom approach, preparing material in advance for student learning. Walk away with the tools to infuse ‘real media’ into your classroom and school!
This is an interactive, hands on workshop.
Let's EXPLORE, PLAY, CREATE, and SHARE together!
Preferred device to bring- laptop AND/ or ipad
by emily scheer
Using tablets, home movie and professional-grade cameras, educators will write, pitch and shoot their own short films in small groups. Tips for student filmmaking will be provided, along with suggested curriculum connections and lesson plans. Plus, participants will receive a copy of their film after the conference!
In today's saturated web 2.0 environment, an educator can easily be overwhelmed with the number of choices when it comes to web and blogging platforms. Essentially, however, these platforms are hosted on third party servers, are limited in application, and subject to the ever-changing terms of service agreements that wrest ownership of your data from you, or use your content as a vehicle for advertising. If it's free, YOU are the product. Creating a self-hosted blog with an individualized URL provides an educator with their own space on the Internet, allowing them to step off the next-best-thing carousel and build an online presence that is truly their own. This session is designed for those that have outgrown the basics of free and limited platforms. Learn about WordPress.org. Learn how to purchase your own domain, and own a corner of the web.
by Rebecca Chahine
Walk through the process of using Google Apps to create a collaborative learning environment in a Grade 4 to 8 Special Education classroom with a focus on Math and Science. Students learn to solve word problems using Google Draw, using Google presentations for Science projects, and so much more! Students use Google Classroom for differentiated instruction as students are working at various abilities and grade levels. We will work collaboratively to try the Google Apps!
The learning commons approach has captured the imagination of educators around the world, and the Year of the Learning Commons celebrates this whole school approach to participatory learning and teaching. Your school library can be a physical and virtual hub of collaboration, technology integration, inquiry and innovation. In this working session we will explore how Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada can inspire innovation in your school, leveraging your library as a driver of future-oriented learning. So bring your learning commons team - teacher-librarian, teachers, and principals - and learn how to build a true library learning commons. Connect to our presentation webpage at: http://www.bythebrooks.ca/bit15-...
Sylvia Martinez is co-author of Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom, a book that has been called the “bible of the classroom maker movement”
For the previous ten years, Sylvia has been President of Generation YES, a non-profit organization evangelizing student leadership through modern technology. Prior to this, Sylvia oversaw product development, design and programming for consumer software, video games, and educational games at several software publishing companies. She advocates globally for authentic learning using real world design principles and hands-on experiences.
A popular international keynote, workshop leader, and consultant, Sylvia speaks on topics of design thinking and making, the lessons for schools from the global Maker Movement, student empowerment, STEM, gender issues in technology, games and learning, and digital citizenship. Sylvia weaves examples from present day schools that use technology in authentic ways with her own experiences from the real world of work in video game development and aerospace engineering.
Martinez started her career designing high frequency receiver systems and navigation software for GPS satellites.
She holds a Master’s in Educational Technology from Pepperdine, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCLA.
4th–6th November 2015