For my future vision project, I am considering three options. Each idea relates to the topics explored throughout this course. All three ideas would serve as professional development for the teachers and they would be a great resource for the school community. My ideas would help the teachers and students in my school to grow their abilities and knowledge in digital literacy, to develop a love of reading, and learn to use technology tools for in-class or remote teaching.
Image by Pixabay
Idea #1 Providing information and resources to the school community to help grow digital literacy, specifically research skills.
This project would focus on creating a professional development session using Microsoft Sway and presented using Screencast-o-Matic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcg6DGO9hpI
video by Microsoft
The content would focus on digital literacy in the 21st century, the provincial standards and outcomes for research skills, research skills framework, and strategies and activities to teach effective research. My goal is to create a professional development session that serves to teach digital literacy to teachers and the important role it plays for the future of our students. I would introduce and explore research skills such as search bar strategies, reliability of the information, and forming meaningful questions, etc. Although this is a meaningful topic to explore, what concerns me in the preparation of this professional development presentation is the sheer magnitude and scope of information around digital literacy and research skills. I would need to narrow down the focus of information for the presentation without leaving out the important aspects that provide a global understanding of digital literacy. Using Screencast-o-Matic also concerns me. I do not have experience using voice-over software.
Image by Pixabay
Idea #2 Create a two-year strategic plan to foster a culture of reading throughout the school.
For this project, I would create a list of ideas on how to create a culture of reading within my school. The plan would contain a timeline and I would describe each idea with a step-by-step plan for its implementation. The ideas that I want to implement would be directly linked to the needs of the students and teachers. The purpose of this plan is to bring about change and implement regular activities and events that would benefit the school community and create a culture and love of reading throughout the school. I had difficulty finding a unique way to present this topic. I thought of creating a series of short news broadcast videos explaining the idea and inviting students and teachers to participate. I would send out the videos once a month to the teachers. Using Prezi, Powtoon Animated Video or IMovie came to mind. This project idea would include news broadcast videos.
Image by Pixabay
Idea #3 Help teachers develop their ICT by curating a list of digital tools that can be used for remote teaching or in-class teaching.
Considering that the province of Manitoba is currently at level red, with the possibility of remote teaching on our minds, I think that a curated list of digital tools would be very useful to the community of teachers in my current school division. This project could be shared with not only the teachers in my school but with teachers throughout the school division. The goal of this project is to improve my fellow colleague’s ICT by offering them the information they need to access and use the tools that have been provided to them. The focus of this project would be to create a list of tech tools offered by my current school division, to provide an overview of each tool and how it can be used. I would also include a list of other resources that could be useful for remote teaching or in-class teaching about Virtual Tours, Global Read-Aloud just to name a few. Once again, the idea of doing a voiceover presentation comes to mind. I could provide the teachers with a document including an overview of the tool and a quick video demonstrating some of the features of the tech tool.
Image by Pixabay
Although each of my ideas will take time to develop, I think that there is a need for all of them within my school and school division. The teachers and students would benefit greatly from each idea.
Idea #1 offers the teachers resources to teach research skills and the students the skills they need for 21st-century learning.
Idea #2 offers the teachers and students the opportunity to develop a love of reading.
Idea #3 offers the teachers the resources and information they need to be successful during remote and in-class teaching using tech tools providing the students with unique and engaging ways to learn.
Choosing just one to explore is a difficult task. I have a lot of thinking to do! I am also concerned about choosing a presentation tool that I feel comfortable using. I will take the time needed to explore the various presentation tools and hopefully, I will grow my confidence.
The Global Read Aloud, theglobalreadaloud.com/.
Nisha. “Manitoba’s Best Virtual Tours You’ll Want to Try from Home.” Travel Manitoba, Canada – Start Planning Your Trip Here, 100s of Great Ideas and Experiences, Manitoba, 19 May 2020, www.travelmanitoba.com/blog/post/manitobas-best-virtual-tours-youll-want-to-try-from-home/.
“20 Digital Tools for Classroom for Innovative Teachers & Students.” GraphicMama Blog, 5 May 2020, graphicmama.com/blog/digital-tools-for-classroom/.
Starke, Kathryn. “Developing a Love of Reading in Students.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 31 Jan. 2020, www.edutopia.org/article/developing-love-reading-students.
Unesdoc.unesco.org, unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000257933.
Williams, Addie. “Tips for Teaching Research Skills.” The Secondary English Coffee Shop, 1 Jan. 1970, secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2019/11/tips-for-teaching-research-skills.html.
“Digital Literacy Fundamentals.” MediaSmarts, 20 Feb. 2019, mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals.
“Home.” 21st Century Learning International, 20 Mar. 2020, www.21c-learning.com/.
“Welcome to Screencast-O-Matic: Screencast-O-Matic.” Screencast, screencast-o-matic.com/tutorial/welcome-to-screencast-o-matic.
Hi Kathleen
All of your ideas sound great. Why don’t you do all three? Just kidding! For my final project, I’ve decided to tackle fostering a reading culture in French at my school. I love your idea of a timeline. I think it’s a great way to stay motivated and on task. Would you mind if I did the same?
Hi Jennifer, sure, use the timeline idea. I haven’t decided yet but I think I’m leaning more towards creating a divisional tech tools presentation. I know that there are teachers that are unaware of the tools that my school division offers. We have subscriptions to Ebsco and World Book just to name a few. I myself was unaware of all these tech tool until I became the TL. My division has offered a lot of PD on how to use Microsoft Tools but we have access to so much more and I think the teachers would take advantage of everything we have.
I agree Kathleen, We are spending so much money on our EBSCO databases and they are rarely used. Ours are hidden in a tab on the school district web page. No one knows they are there. I also only became aware of them through my work as a TL. One day I happened to be in a meeting, and one Tech person said to the other, “open the digital classroom” I had no idea it was there.
Alison
Kathleen I completely understand that need to bring awareness and ease of access to our digital databases. When schools in BC went online last year I built a library website mostly for this purpose! I counted one day and it was over 5 clicks to get to our databases because they were buried in our library catalogue.
I think all of your ideas are really great, and they sound like they can all be of use to your school right away. I appreciate that you are pushing yourself to try technologies that you aren’t quite comfortable with yet. You have got this!
Hi Kathleen,
Wow! Those ideas sound amazing! I am excited to read about whichever you choose!!
I’ve never heard of Sway. Thank you for sharing that! I’ll have to check it out for my final project as well.
SWAY is great! Really easy to use. I just need to figure out how to create short video voiceovers to insert into the SWAY. We will see how that goes! The other challenge will be to choose which tech tools to explore. There are so many and I can’t present them all.
Kathleen
Kathleen,
I have not used Sway before, but it looks like a more fun version of PowerPoint. I didn’t realize that this was a part of the Microsoft Office package which I do in fact have access to. I think that the development of a professional development artifact that talks about research skills would be extremely valuable and would provide a great jumping off point for further conversations about how you can support teachers and students in this area. If you become skillful with the creation of these infomercials, then you could develop the others when you have a chance. You could even create a site to house all of your tutorials or create yourself a private YouTube channel. The benefit of doing this is that there will always be this storehouse of information that you can share with new teachers in your building, or to share if you move to a new school. You could easily evolve idea three into this as well.
Alison,
P.S. I feel your trepidation about using voice recording/voice over tools. I am going to write a script so that I don’t forget things, or talk to fast.
A
You have some strong ideas here for your Final Vision project. Whichever direction you take you will be creating something that will be very valuable for your staff and students. I appreciate your honest reflections here and the way you model lifelong learning and risk-taking. Looking forward to seeing what you decide!