Breakout Session Descriptions 2011
Breakout Sessions
Morning Sessions:
Story Telling the Common Craft Way - Lee LeFever
This session will build on the themes highlighted in the Keynote address.
Edmodo - Social Networking for Students, Teachers, and Parents - Peter McAsh
Edmodo is a free, secure social networking system designed specifically for education. Launched in 2008 there are now well over 3.7 million teacher-users around the world. At the current pace, they expect to surpass 3.8 by the end of October.
This session will provide an overview of the features of Edmodo. There will be the opportunity to go hands on if you BYOT (laptop, iDevice, SmartPhone, etc.).
Using Twitter to Develop a Professional Learning Network- Danika Barker
Your personal learning network is the group of people that help you grow and establish resources for professional growth and personal interests. Learn how to leverage Twitter as a ‘real-time’ and ‘open’ Web 2.0 social media tool that can expand your thinking and connections to other educators around the world.
The Idea Hive: Connections in the Thin Walled Classroom - Heather Durnin
Learn how intermediate students in Wingham, On & Snow Lake MN learned to collaborate, connect and share their learning in "The Idea Hive." Learn how you too can enrich your classroom for learners by embracing new technologies and eliminating barriers.
Riding the Video Stream (Video Streaming) - Kenji Takahashi
This session will focus on the potential of video streaming in supporting education at the classroom, school and system level. We will be engaging in discussion, looking at examples and viewing demonstrations that will highlight some of the software and hardware solutions behind live streaming.
Facebook Part II - WRDSB’s Board Wide Facebook Rollout. - Mark Carbone
Mark will build on his presentation from last year. Waterloo is in there second year of using Facebook board wide. Mark will discuss policy and how the implementation is going. Teflon Vest anyone? Topics covered will include: background and rationale, Facebook with students, security and privacy sessions, challenges and discussion/Q&A
Primary Digital Literacy (Pixie 3) - Elaine Ernewein
Come and see the new OSAPAC software called Pixie. This software is easy to use and introduces young students to the world of digital literacy. Learn how to use the ready-made activities as well as the text editing, drawing and recording features to promote critical thinking, storytelling and language development. Pixie integrates well across the curriculum and engages students while motivating even your reluctant learners to build 21st century learning skills.
Writing Conferences with the new Lightscribe 'Echo' Pen - Trevor Hammer
Conference with the students on the formative process of their independent writing, offering reflective feedback using the digital Lightscribe pen. My notes include the students' next steps that we have discussed, recorded in their own voice, and played back in digital ink on m desktop. The students receive a paper sticky note, with a digitial voice recording embedded within it, and the entire conference is shared with my, and their, Google Docs account. The kids and their parents can then see, read and hear the reflective feedback at home, on their computer. Everything is stored in ink, in my daybook, and digitally on the pen, and in google docs.
Afternoon Sessions
ePortfolios in Greater Detail - Helen Barrett
A continuation of the use of ePortfolios in the classroom keynotes. Q&A opportunity.
Early Years iPod Touch Literacy Project - Gidget Davidson
Investigate the use of iPod Touch devices as they have been integrated into Daily Five activities in JK/SK class rooms. This project explored student engagement and the acquisition of phonemic awareness and other related reading skills. The session will provide and overview of how the equipment is deployed and managed as well as highlight some very successful iPod Touch Apps.
Why the Tools Matter, Technology for use in Special Education - Kim Gill
Participants will learn about how a great variety of technology tools can greatly motivate and enhance student learning. Learn how tools such as SMARTBoards, document cameras, iPods, iPads, Livescribe Pens, netbooks, digital cameras, and desktop computer applications can support special education learners, differentiate instruction, and promote student collaboration. See real examples of free interactive web tools and social media sites that can be used and integrated into various lessons in any area of the curriculum.
The Future is Now ( Future Forms Project) - Harry Nieze
Through 2010-2011, Waterloo Region DSB embarked on a journey to pilot a secondary instructional
model that understood the needs of the 21st C learner in a technology rich environment. This
presentation will share the development and implementation of this pilot from the perspective of the
central Board staff - celebrating the successes, identifying the challenges and reviewing the lessons that
were learned
Project Based Learning: Rich and Relevant - Peter Skillen, Brenda Sherry
What is effective project based learning (PBL)? What do collaboration, inquiry, self-directed learning, metacognition, and Web 2.0 have to do with classrooms? Participants will join us to unpack some of the common terms and myths associated with PBL and 21st century learning. We’ll help you co-construct a model of PBL and we’ll deconstruct some examples. Through the examination of rich and relevant tasks, we’ll all leave with a deeper understanding of the role of technology in learning.
Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) - Marc Lijour
"Free/Libre Open Source Software: what we need to tell our kids"
For historical reasons, Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) embodies
many of our values, including those described in our own Ontario Ethical
Standards for the Teaching Profession, and the Standards of Practice for
the Teaching Profession. This breakout session will highlight the key
benefits of FLOSS to improve student success and well-being, as well as
saving some taxpayers' money, and (last but not least) freeing some of our
precious time to focus on students rather than on technicalities. A
significant portion of the session will be dedicated to explore practical
FLOSS applications with the potential to improve quality and efficiency at
the board level, the classroom level, or at home, with minimal investment
on our part.
Twenty-first century Ontario students will have to master innovation and
entrepreneurship to an all-new level in order to succeed in a global
economy. To replicate in their own business the dazzling growth of Amazon,
Facebook, and Android, our kids need to understand how they can leverage
FLOSS. FLOSS opens up a broad range of opportunities that will be
explored in the session, from starting a SOHO (small office/home office)
with minimal costs, to making one's first steps in bleeding-edge Research
and Development.
Finally, attendees will leave the sessions with classroom-ready
strategies, and with simple tips to manage FLOSS (e.g. FLOSS Intellectual
Property, communities, references).
Unplugd.ca Why BLANK Matters - Zoe Branigan-Pipe, Rodd Lucier, Ben Hazzard
This presentation tells a compelling story about why it is important for digital colleagues to connect face to face. Participants will leave with a newfound understanding of the role relationships play in professional learning. The presentation will provide an overview of the UnPlug'd experience that includes a range of stories that include:
* pre-planning
* the role of collaborative publishing * the range of team members and participants
* the role of transportation
* key sponsors
* the most apt venue
* the role of technology in an unplugged event
* what happened
* what the unplugged experience means to participants
* what UnPlug'd might mean for you
* Why Blank Matters (the summit publication) UnPlug'd broke new ground in professional learning. The powerful role played by this event is highlighted in the published responses of participants. For details, http://unplugd.ca
Frames 4 (OSAPAC Movie Production Software) - Janet Ewaskiw
I believe it is so important to incorporate literacy skills, story telling and media literacy in lessons for children to help motivate their learning and writing skills. Presenting our thoughts and ideas in a creative manner helps allow students to write using a variety of multiple intelligent skills. Write a story while recording it, drawing, take photographs, video tape and act it out, or use texts and graphics. Using Frames 4 to create a movie presentation of a story or commercial can be a great way to capture a child's creativity and brilliant ideas. Be creative and create!
Symposium 2011 Registration
Download the Registration Sheet Above.
Please mail registration,
payable to "RCAC Symposium"
with fee $105/person - $125 after November 18th to:
Patricia Cruickshank
1740 Calvary Street
Tecumseh, Ontario
N8N 5A1
Inquiries: rcac@palantir.ca