On day one I connected strongly with Jenny’s vision of movements to engage teachers with technology to become leaders. As a digital immigrant I feel that my key defining quality is my willingness to participate in the process and be willing to forge ahead with an open mind. In the past two years of teaching grade five I have found ways to engage students with ICT through the daily use of my LCD projector by means of interaction via a whiteboard as well as exploring various internet sites and to teach new skills, for example, PowerPoint and Word 10 documents. I chose to initiate at least weekly group emails to parents regarding homework projects, sharing classroom activities and collections of photographs documenting special events and inviting parent participation in student learning, presentations or fieldtrips. The class had time to explore I-pads in pairs with the school set of fifteen. Each week the class were taken to the school computer lab to research various projects, produce their findings in either PowerPoint or Word format and explore the creation of cartoons under Pixton.ca.. I had a student in my class that was on the spectrum and with the Speech Therapist the student began to expore TouchChat on an I-pad as a means for communication. I made time daily for other students in the class to work with that student and the E.A. outside of the class on communication skills through question and answer, sharing of experiences and game playing.
I feel extremely open to the ideas and thoughts presented by Will Richardson in his book, “Why School?” and am looking forward to more discovery on my ICT journey. Within a global framework it is paramount for teachers to recognise the importance of connecting with other educators through collaboration, discussion and sharing as a fundamental way forward for ICT.
Through the fast paced exploration of digital resources, discussion and collaboration in this first week I have continued to deepen my connected self within ICT and education. As I began to explore Mind Meister I decided to illustrate the ever changing interconnectedness of the cognitive, cultural and technological dimensions in relationship to the connected self.
https://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/308052916#info
As teachers are being asked to consider government definitions of technology and information literacy with reference to 21st century learning I became excited by the BCTLA’s Points of Inquiry that resonnated with my connected self and aligns itself with Richardson’s work.
http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/documents/Points%20of%20Inquiry/PointsofInquiry.pdf
Despite the challenges of resources, mindsets, internet codes and Pro-D in reference to ICT, I am excited to continue to collaborate with colleagues, explore digital resources, challenge my connected self and consider what can be intergrated into my practice as an educator.
I am happy to hear that you are talking about the points of inquiry . I went to the BCTLA conference in October. It was my first professional development experience in this area. I came away from this conference excited about what the keynote speaker was saying about Learning Commons and Points of Inquiry. I am feeling as though I am beginning to connect myself to these concepts and begin working with students through my cooperative learning time .It sounds as though you have embraced your connected self and are on your way teaching your students!
Willingness and and an open mind mind are definitely what all educators need. After all isn’t that what we are trying to instill in our students. It sounds like you are dedicated to ICT! After learning about the absent or outdated technologies your district has from your insightful presentation, you have still charged ahead to embrace technology resources. I am not aware of touchchat, but I wonder what the communication and interactions were like between this student and the rest of the class before touchchat. It warms my heart to think about all the possible social connections this one app has created!
I like the idea of a weekly ‘news magazine’ for parents to stay connected to their kids lives in school. Simple, but it could be quite effective. Especially if every ‘edition’ included links to students work online – ie. a photo gallery of artworks, or a project documenting the analysis of the broad jump. Imagine students using Mindmeister to produce concept maps and embedding them in a project blog. There is definitely broad policy support for Learning Commons, Inquiry Learning, and learning empowered by technology. That is good. The challenge is matching these larger policy initiatives with the day to day life in schools. I love the combination of your concept mapping and the points of inquiry diagram. A rich point of intersection to explore.