James McConville

Hour of Code

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 22:40:00 +0000

There are so many awesome reasons to teach coding and the basics of computational thinking to students.

Here is what our team of teachers and 120 students did at our middle school. We had them both code for an hour and then post a reflection in our FreshGrade student portfolios.

Here is our team!

Welcome to Hour of Code!

BIG IDEA - using computer to create rather than consume!

Watch: Computer Science is Changing Everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvyTEx1wyOY

CREATE - your turn to code

Minecraft Adventurer - https://code.org/minecraft

Minecraft Designer - at the end save your design and share with others!

Make a new post in FreshGrade. Include the following:

Add a photo screenshot of your final code to show how many lines of code you created.
Create a certificate for yourself and screen shot it with your name from: https://code.org/certificates

Post a comment with the following questions:

Summarize what you learned by participating in an 'Hour of Code'
Why do you think it is important for people to learn how to program a computer?
What would you like to learn more about now that you have an introduction to coding?

Optional - if you have social media (twitter, instagram…) send out a message with the hashtag #hourofcode

Student Portfolios with FreshGrade

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 22:16:00 +0000

Why ePortfolios?

As a teacher, I have always valued student portfolios. For me, ideally, portfolios are a place where students create a multimedia rich story of their learning. They can showcase their highlights along with areas of growth. Students and their parents can view and reflect on work and experiences in the classroom and beyond. Learning over a school year or many years can showcase the growth and development of a learner.

While there are plenty of educational reasons to develop portfolios, it can take a lot of time and effort to create something of quality. This past year I tried out a new platform called FreshGrade. It has been an excellent overall experience with great feedback from students and parents.

How FreshGrade works

FreshGrade is a multimedia repository of photos, videos, documents and notes about a student. There are many ways to contribute to the portfolios. I can post through the website or on any Android or iOS app. At the middle school level, many of my students have wifi enabled personal smartphone devices and laptops. Using their own devices, they do most of the posting. Take for example a common experience such as a school assembly. I can quickly snap a photo of a performance and then students all provide their personal reflections and notes. Parents then get an email to view the photo and reflections where they can add a comment.

Here is another example. Let's say in our PE class we are working on our dance unit. With a few clicks, I can capture and upload a video of the student performing their creative dance. The student and parent can see and enjoy the video and post comments.

Ways Students and Parents interact with me via FreshGrade

Student reflection has become a core part of my practice. Students can post notes and reflections on everything from results on a math test to a field trip in the forest. Other portfolio tools are very public and can be viewed by anyone on the internet. FreshGrade is different, only students, their parents and their teacher can view the portfolios. This means that the adults that are there to support the student are the only people who can interact with posts. This has lead to students being open and transparent having the confidence to post their honest thoughts and opinions.

Feedback from parents and students has been outstanding. Parents are constantly thanking me for providing a window of insight into classroom activities. Even a simple photo of a student during the school day provide an opportunity to connect parents to the learning activities.

How I've changed my practice

A common hesitation to trying a new tool in the classroom is the time it takes a teacher to learn and manage. The advantage I've discovered has been how much FreshGrade has changed my practice. There are a number of other tasks that FreshGrade has allowed me to stop doing. For example, I used to have a public teacher website where I posted lessons, a calendar and assignments. I've now moved all the notices and assignment descriptions into FreshGrade. This allows students to login and review criteria whenever they want. I no long need a paper gradebook of marks. I've exclusively used the mastery scale for student work and assess with language like fully meeting, exceeding and meeting expectations. I can also give meaningful feedback to help students improve on future assignments.

Final thoughts

This coming school year I'm again going to use FreshGrade right from when I meet my students. I will be sending home a welcome email with a introduction on how I use FreshGrade. In the past parents have completed a paper form to introduce their child. Now this will be done entirely on FreshGrade this year. I find that the sooner that I reinforce the use of FreshGrade the easier it is to engage students throughout the year.

I'd be interested in comments below to learn how other educators are using FreshGrade. Leave a comment!

Curriculum Unlocked

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 22:39:00 +0000

As you are probably aware, the BC Ministry of Education has released a bold new set of curriculum documents. What I have found is that the reduced number of curriculum outcomes has 'unlocked' the possibilities in the classroom. There is now more time and flexibility to focus on topics that best interest students and teachers.

Competencies Matter

What I find most striking is that they have separated the curriculum topics and the processes of learning. Competencies are the new skills and processes of learning that are highlighted in the new curriculum. As teachers, we know that there are special skills that the best students already have. What is excellent in this curriculum revision, is that by making the competencies overt, we can help all students improve in the areas of communication, thinking and personal and social skills. Taking the communication competency as an example, there are now eight levels of communication that students can identify with and improve on. They range from profile one where students identify with 'I statements' such as 'I can respond to peers' up to profile 8 where students communicate with statements like 'I seek consensus and focus on collective results'. What I really like is that the profiles are linked to specific age or grades of students but provide a continuum that students work through.

I really like this quote from the Ministry of Education website, "British Columbia’s curriculum is being redesigned to respond to the demanding world our students are entering. Transformation in curriculum will help teachers create learning environments that are both engaging and personalized for students. At the heart of British Columbia’s redesigned curriculum are core competencies, essential learning and literacy and numeracy foundations."

Opportunities for Inquiry

There are many ways in which teachers can use the inquiry model of learning to with our students. Once they students have an overview into the content of the big ideas, they can then spend time further wondering about related topics that matter most to them.

Inquiry has become a core process for learning and part of the lexicon of how I approach my instructional planning. I would encourage other teachers to consider how they offer inquiry opportunities for their students.

Connect, Wonder, Share

Here is a process of student learning that highlights the key aspects and opportunities in the revised curriculum.

Connect: Students make personal connections to their peers and to the curriculum.

Wonder: Student then wonder and investigate through a process of inquiry to topics that most interest them.

Share: Student design ways to make learning visible. I'm a huge fan of student portfolios of learning over time. This year I'm trying out the tool FreshGrade. So far I've had nothing but positive feedback from parents and students.

Social Media and Teens: Advice for Parents

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 17:03:00 +0000

For anyone with a teenager at home, they know that social media is a big part of their daily routine. Here are some things to consider when discussing the use of social media.

It is important for parents to be part of their son's/daughter's social media platforms. Follow them to see what they post but avoid interfering.
Ask your son or daughter to share who they are talking to online. It is a reasonable request to have them only chat and interact with people they know in person.
Remind them that anything they post online is part of their digital footprint. Once something is posted, it is out of their control.
Busy teens need and want time to connect with their friends. Social media is how they accomplish this.
Teens feel a lot of pressure online. Encourage an open dialogue with your son or daughter would feel comfortable to get your support when needed.
Keep it positive. Remind your son or daughter that written posts can easily be taken out of context and be hurtful to others. The best way to avoid hurt feelings is to only post comments that are positive and encouraging.

This article is adapted from Edutopia's article looking at a Digital Youth Think Tank where teens were asked to share their experiences with social media. See the article: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/10-teen-digital-media-takeaways-matt-levinson

I'm interested to get comments and ideas from other parents.

BC's New Curriculum - a plan for the middle years

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 19:47:00 +0000

Introduction

As you might have heard, the BC Ministry of Education is in the process of revising the curriculum for all students from grades K-12. As you can imagine this was a huge undertaking and not without its challenges.
Our local school context is that we have a middle school organized into teams. Each team has students in grades 6 to 8. Our goal was to find a way to spread the key concepts over three years and connect science and social studies along with the competencies which include personal and social, communication and thinking skills.

Key Features of Draft Plan

The plan that is shared below is designed to bring together the curricular and learning compentencies. Teachers will be able to use this a one-page visual guide to assist with planning lessons. The socials and science plans run in parallel to make is easier for teachers to plan integrated units, teach with themes and big ideas. You'll also notice that the rows below the 'concepts and content' incorporate our school community priorities.

BYOD and Technology Integration - we are a 'Bring Your Own Device' school and most (80%+) of our students have a digital device on a daily basis. We have adopted two initiatives for this year: FreshGrade student portfolios and Microsoft Office 365 as our collaboration and communication space.

Environmental Connections - the school has an amazing natural setting surrounding the school so it is appropriate to find ways each year to integrate environmental science into the curriculum. For example this year we will look at the science concepts around survival needs of organisms through the study and observation of our local ecosystem with includes several major, salmon bearing streams.

Sharing of a Draft Plan

Thanks to Barb Buczewski for kicking off this process being willing to share with other teachers.

Feel free to share the plan with others that would find it useful.

Science years ABC plan

Comments and Suggestions?

I fully accept that this draft is a work in progress and revisions are needed. My hope is by sharing, others will do the same and together we can find ways to engage all our students! Leave a comment below to join the conversation.

~James

Improving How Your Children Use Technology for Education

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 01:20:00 +0000

Do you ever have conversations with your adolescent child about what they did at school and get little or no information? It is possible that when you ask them about what they are doing with their personal technology at school you may get even less information. This might be because children perceive adults of 'not knowing how to use technology'. While it may be true that children are very capable at tasks like gaming and instant messaging, there are lots that we as adults can offer them.

One of the frameworks that is provided by the BC Ministry of Education is called the ICTI Performance Standards. This stands for Information and Communication Technology Integration.

"The ICTI Performance Standards focus on four aspects of how students use information and communications technology to gather, organize, and present information and to analyse and interpret information. The emphasis is not on information sources or software applications associated with specific technologies but on the student’s representation of their learning and the steps they used to construct their knowledge."

Here are some questions to consider asking your son or daughter on their use of personal technology at school. These examples fall under the heading of collectinginformation and resources.

How do you make decisions on how to select the best tool to use? When is it better to find a print resource or digital resource?

How do you know if the information you have selected is accurate and appropriate for the lesson or task at school?

Can to work with other students to socially gather and construct information such as surveys or mind-maps?

Consider supporting your son or daughter to help identify their strengths in these performance standards and ways in which they can practice and improve their achievement.

The ICTi Performance Standards website can be found: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/icti

Feel free to share ideas/thoughts/comments below!

Thoughts on the Proposed BC Curriculum Revision

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 04:09:00 +0000

Here are some thoughts and ideas connected to the proposed changes to the BC curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca

Practices that I value as a middle school educator:

Integrated learning of multiple subjects and topics
Co-teaching and planning using common preparation time with other educators
Outdoors and environmental education with an emphasis on active scientific work
Technology infused learning: digital environments that expand learning beyond the pencil and paper and beyond our the classroom walls
Flexible timetables and schedules that allow the learning to continue across long blocks of time
Reconfigurable learning spaces. IE the classroom, a double classroom, hallways and meeting spaces for various group sizes
Inquiry based learning using the framework by the BCTLA called the ‘Points of Inquiry’
Math instruction that is hands on and strengths student core competencies
Taking time to create and foster a learning environment that meets the social and emotional needs of young adolescents
Having a students and teacher shared responsibility for assessment/planning/learning (personalized learning)

What I Like about the revision:

That the curriculum overview is one page for easy scanning
That there are BIG ideas for teachers to connect to themes at the school-level
3-way alignment of competencies/curriculum/assessment

Don’t like:

Science proposed curriculum is far from complete. The dramatic moment of topics between the various grades needs a re-mapping between the current and proposed curriculum.
Science curriculum needs to have connection to environmental themes.
Science is missing outdoor education opportunities
The heavy emphasis on mixtures (grade 6), mixtures and substances (grade 7). Seems to have a connection to BC’s new industries of LNG and pipelines but would like to see more natural science
That a revision of Math curriculum that takes us away from WNCP 2007 protocol will isolate BC teacher from the excellent resources used in other provinces. From the curriculum site: “While the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol K–9 curriculum (WNCP, 2007) remains an important resource, it has been aligned with the goals of the curriculum transformation, making it concept-based and competency driven.”
Assessment information on Ministry site is too vague to understand what is being proposed. Can we get concrete examples of report cards to understand what parents would see related to the process of their son/daughter?

What is Missing:

Digital literacy and digital citizenship are key issues of 21^st century learning and should be stand-alone competencies. There is some integration of technology into Identity and Communication Competencies.
Resources to support the implementation of the curriculum. Doesn’t need to be a traditional textbook but teachers shouldn’t have to be content creators. We need ‘Lit Kits’ that match the outcomes with material written at the appropriate reading level of our students.
Cross-grade ideas. IE. How to implement this proposed curriculum in a blended 6/7/8 classroom or team that many teachers now find themselves.
SD43 issue: implementing a new curriculum without staff development department educators. Without support there is too much onus on classroom teachers to figure it out on their own.

This blog post is meant as the beginning of a discussion. I'm looking forward to new thinking on this curriculum revision and hope to gain new insight through feedback. Leave a comment below.

Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:19:00 +0000

The reason I do inquiry in the classroom is for the students. I know is seems obvious but implementing inquiry has taken lots of time and planning but the results and positive feedback from students has made it all worthwhile.

Here are things to consider along with your first classroom inquiry:

Why do you want to try Inquiry?

When planning your first inquiry be sure to ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve and how you will know it is successful. This is an important first step that is easy to overlook.

Collaborate

Find another teacher (or two) to join you on this journey. At a middle school we are fortunate to have a common team preparation time to meet and plan on a weekly basis. Inquiry is such a dynamic process that requires tweaks and check-ins with students and co-teachers to keep everything on track.

Make time

Inquiry is interdisciplinary by definition so you need to find time and lots of it for you and the students to get lost in the process. When inquiry is going well it is extremely engaging for the students and they will likely be able saying, “we need more time to ______”. While this is a good thing for teachers to hear, it requires time to be set aside to allow for this expansion.

If you only have a small amount of time then consider just a few classes where a new unit is started with a thoughtful question to engage and hook the attention of students.

Consider the role of technology

Technology can play a powerful and engaging role at all stages of the inquiry from mind-mapping, collaborating to presenting. It can also be very distracting for students. Decide on a role for the technology that is meaningful.

Pick a BIG idea

Last year our team used the theme “What would happen if everyone cared?” There are obvious ties to social justice and the environment that connected students to their own personal inquiry topics with both historical and current events.

A broad theme can then be used to tie together the curricular connections to the subject outcomes. We like to talk about teaching Social Studies or Science through Inquiry.

Scaffold the process

Students needs support all along the way to be successful with Inquiry. It is easy for them to pick such a large inquiry project that they get lost in the process. Have constant check-ins with various graphic organizers so that you and they know how they are doing.

We also used a process of designing 12 ‘mini-courses’ for students to learn more about themselves as learners and about inquiry itself. These included: learner profile, Bloom’s taxonomy, Myer Briggs personality, learner style, multiple intelligences and more. We felt that having this foundation of knowledge about inquiry would help students throughout the process.

Choose a single model and stick to it.

Our team decided to use the framework offered by the BC Teacher-Librarians called the ‘Points of Inquiry’. There are so many great models out there that it can be confusing. Having a single source really simplifies the process when designing the inquiry. Other sources to further explore include: Alberta Education “Focus on Inquiry” [pdf], Mindshift Blog, BIE (Project Based Learning) or Edutopia.

Share!

I’m happy to share any resources that were created through the process. Let me know what you what to know more about!

Thoughts and Comments

I’m sure there are glaring omissions and suggestions from other teachers. I’d be interested in learning from others. Post your comments here.

Back to School Laptop guide

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 20:52:00 +0000

As a parent and a teacher it is difficult to ignore the annual ‘back-to-school’ shopping ads. One item that may be on your shopping list is a laptop. While this might be one of the more expensive items on the list, it is important to make a decision that ends up with a tool that lasts several years.

creative commons photo

Here is my guide to choosing well. Each item on this list is further explained below.

What type of device or laptop?
Cost
Battery Life
Weigh and Size
Software

Laptop or ‘Device’??

If you are considering good educational technology for the student in your family then the first choice is on the platform that suits your son or daughter. While an iPad tablet my have the appeal, a laptop is the most effective tool for school. More about this can be found in thisa rticle from Dave Truss, an administrator in our district: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/byol-vs-byod

As hybrid device that I tested in my classroom for the last few months is a Google Chromebook. While Chromebooks can’t run all software and websites, the students really liked them and the cost is under $300.

Cost

I’ll state the obvious. It should be as cheap as possible. While the specifications that include processor, memory and storage always lead you to spend more, this doesn’t make it better for learning. Any basic laptop purchased in the last two years will meet the needs of our students. There are lots of 14 inch screen laptops in the $400-$500 range at our local retailers.

Battery Life

Charging a machine at school isn’t practical or safe. Long extension cords around a classroom can be dangerous. Find a machine with a 5+ hour battery life and the student can work at their desk all day.

Weight and Size

Light, small computers fit comfortable into lockers and backpacks to travel between home and school. Also a smaller screen and laptop better fits on our small student desks beside a textbook or notes. The less that hangs off the edge the less likely it is to get bumped to the floor.

Software

Almost all software titles can be found online or for free. The one exception is Microsoft Office suite of tools. More about software from a previous post.

More information

Here is an article with good point on what you need and, more importantly, what you DON'T need to spend money on. It is by Alex Cocilova at PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/229929/how-to-buy-a-laptop-for-college.html

This article suggests 10 great student laptops. It also includes good criteria to consider. Via Mashable http://mashable.com/2013/07/29/back-to-school-laptops/

Thoughts/Comments/Suggestions – feel free to leave them below.

Social Media in Education

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:31:00 +0000

This posting is in response of our BC Ministry of Education work on the Communication Competency Continua. The topic I choose to explore is social media by teachers in classroom.

Strengths:

With a public blog, there is an authentic audience. They can get comments from other students, parents and teachers.
With social media like the current darling, Instagram, students are highly engaged.
Communication is immediate and active.
Accessible anytime on any device (computer, handheld…etc).
Parent – teacher – school relationship that reduces barriers for reluctant parents.

Weaknesses:

Students see social media as their territory. It is very personal and they believe it is a unique world for them and their peers.
Students would have to follow the teacher or subscribe to updates. Would be challenging to get 100% uptake.
Hard to get attention of students in a model where student follow rather than being pushed the information such as via email.
Appropriate use needs to be taught, models and then reinforced when students make mistakes with digital communication.
Teacher use of social meeting needs to separate personal and professional uses to follow ethical guidelines.
District policy and procedures that may limit how and what teachers can do on social media.

New draft policy from our district:

When using Social Networking, Collaboration, Blogging, Media sharing tools, in relation to their role, employees are expected to…

1. use appropriate and respectful User Profile pictures, biographies, and other information to represent themselves.

2. not seek out and “friend” or connect with students without a clear educational purpose, a professional account and User Profile, and without first advising parents.

Case Studies:

A Girl in grade 7 who is very socially active in the class, school and community. She is a performer at local plays and musicals. She uses social media like facebook to connect and communicate with students from our school and other schools.

Hannah really enjoyed the creation and use of a class blog. My parents could see what I was posting.

From interview video:

Uses facebook 1-2 hours each day. Have Twitter but don’t use.
It would be cool to use some type of social media. For example, if there was a group in facebook for homework.
Students communicate and connect by texting, snapchat about homework and personal matters.
I’d have to make a different account for school use versus personal use.

A boy in grade 7 students with an amazing website that gets 1000’s of hits each month and has numerous subscribers to his podcast of the weekly radio show. He has collaborated with both independent performers and business like scholastic to have guests on his radio show.

From interview video:

Feedback from the site: I get emailed requests and links from the artists.
Youtube channel with homemade videos.
Collaboration with a band in Seattle.
Learning and presenting with videos at school is fun [motivating].
Teachers using social media is good because so many students are on it. It would be challenging to get students to follow.
Students only want to use technology for personal uses. I have a Macbook but I keep at home to make videos rather than bringing to class for school use.

Other Sources:

1. New Zealand has a site for teachers considering using Social Media: http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/

2. “Did you know?” videos as a reason to use technology for student communication. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE

3. BCEdPlan ‘learning empowered by technology’ strand: www.bcedplan.ca

4. School District 43 (Coquitlam) Digital Citizenship http://www.sd43.bc.ca/Resources/DigitalCitizenship

Comments/Thoughts/Wonderings?

I’m looking for feedback about this post. What makes sense and what else should be considered with students and teachers using social media for communication?

Professional Learning via Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:06:00 +0000

This week I’ve been working with the Computer Using Educators of BC on a professional learning event called Twitter Week.

The event was a way to have educators across our province engaged in great dialogue. In short, it has totally exceeded my expectations. This event was free, didn’t have any release time, was fully online and self-paced. Teachers are sure a committed bunch to carve precious time out of their day to meet (online) and discuss what they like best about education.

Using a moodle server here are the topics we discussed:

Our learning intentions; the reasons we wanted to participate
Writing a great tweet
Twitter in the classroom
Technology integration in the classroom
Two starts and a wish for the next event

Here are some of the aspects of the event that seemed to work well.

It was organized by a volunteer organization which is a provincial specialist association as part of the BCTF.
Our amazing leadership team led be president Mike Silverton where able to setup a server capable of hosting such an event.
Email advertising works but it is the personal connections and word-of-mouth that get people registered.

Here is our poster

Would be interested in thoughts/comments. What great professional learning have you enjoyed recently? What aspects made it a success?

QR codes in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:23:00 +0000

Wondering what those square barcodes are on posters and advertisements? They are called QR codes and just like items in a grocery store, they can be scanned. You’ll need a smartphone and an internet connection to use them.

Why Use QR Codes?

They save time
They save paper
Student are engaged and enjoy using technology for learning
They are DNA for BYOD (Device Neutral Assignments for Bring your Own Device) initiatives.

Getting Started

The first time I used them with my grade 6 and 7 students I gave them no warnings or information how to use them. I simply put the QR code you see above on a math quiz. All I asked them to do was put their cell phone on the desk before starting the quiz. It was amazing to see how students worked together to figure out how to use them and then enthusiastically answer the math question!

1. Create a QR code that links to a website. Here is a webpage that lets you create a QR Code.

2. Copy the code to a document and print it so the student can scan.

3. Students need a SmartPhone and an internet access. They need a free app to scan the code. I recommend using I-nigma which is FREE from the Android Play Store and Apple iTunes. Laptop computers with a webcam can use this QR code reader.

Optional step - create a simple webpage that displays on a smart phone. Here is a document that I’ve created that can be edited in Microsoft Word. You can then save this document to your website and send student directly there from your QR code.

Possible Uses in Education

High tech scavenger hunt. QR code to an online map with items for students to find.
Links to key websites – QR code for the homework board or links to ‘how-to’ videos on doing a math concept.
Put them in books so that students go to a site to post book reviews.

Other resources:

Comments?

How have you used QR codes in your classroom?

Goodbye Apple, I’m leaving you

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Well I can’t say we didn’t have good times. You were my first (tablet). We traveled to 16 countries together. Your 3G card was brilliant in Asia back in 2011 when every airport featured a local company happy to provide data to travellers. But even during our beginnings, I didn’t understand why you had different apps for iPad and other devices. Did you really need to charge me twice for ‘Plants and Zombies’? Even after I invested in your proprietary 30 pin cables and music players with 30 pins, you went and changed to a new cable. I really can’t start again will all new music players and cables in both cars.

I all ended last week when I found a willing new partner on Craigslist. I traded my iPad Wifi+3G version 1 for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 4G. Like most of my interactions on Craigslist, both of us left happy.

Here is what you did to me over our 23 months together. After only 23 months, you Apple decided not to allow me to upgrade my iOS to 6. This leaves me on version 5 and now some of my favourite apps stopped working as they needed updating and I was no longer part of the club.

I want to have have all my bought apps run on all the devices in my home. We are moving over to Android and it will be a long while before I consider coming back.

Not alone?

Looks like others have had the same concerns with Apple. Since the release of iPhone 5 share price has dropped 24%. This article on CNET has a few possible reasons. Here are my thoughts to make yourself relevant to others.

Make more than one flavour of a phone. Time to create a low-cost entry level phone that isn’t just the old 4s for sale. Samsung seems to have this figured out with everything from the affordable ($200ish) Galaxy Ace II to the SIII superphone. Even google has created a superphone for the sub-$400 price range with the Google Nexus 4.
Dump iTunes. With GooglePlay I can go to a website on any computer, buy an app and send it to download to all my phones and tablets with a few clicks. iTunes is way too bloated.
Put GPS and other core chips on all your devices like the iPod. Those of us who enjoy the outdoors can then use Stava and other mapping apps.

Thoughts for Education

I’m still feeling that Apple is the best option for education and here’s why. They overall ecosystem still has the best install base in North America. This means that there are educators on my PLN using iDevices in classrooms with lessons and ideas on how to integrate. Also app makers with educational apps still focus on apple devices. Of course, this may change with time as education is a slow-turning ship. Will have to reevaluate this over the coming months and years.

Feedback?

Mistake or not, the decision has been made. What are other doing with their devices?

Environmental Explorers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:43:00 +0000

Our class has been studying Environmental Science during the first term. We have had weekly walking field trips to our amazing parks and green spaces around our school. The big idea is that by having students complete specific science tasks they will better understand, value and respect nature.

Looking at the view from the bottom of Rocky Point inlet.

A natural archway is a great place for a photo!

Exploring the intertidal wetlands.

Journaling at the Port Moody Area. We all got cold hands at the ice rink!

Ms. Ferguson along with the class.

Doing our ‘VLogs’ in the forest. Students do ‘Video Logs’ of the environment around them.

Digital Classrooms and BC’s Education Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:19:00 +0000

This post is a compilation of activities, links and resources for the staff at Laity View Elementary.

BC’s Education Plan

The Ministry of Education in BC has a plan to change education in the province. Their tag line is “The World Has Changed…The Way We Educate Our Children Should Too.”

Watch this video and read the summary of the plan.

SWOT Analysis

We will work in groups to complete this chart.

Strengths of the Plan	Weaknesses
Opportunities	Threats

Questions – what further questions do you have about the plan? Are there details that are key to understanding and implementing the plan?

Blogging in the Classroom

Here is a demonstration of the an amazing blogging tool Posterous. Posterous can take photos in an email attachment and format them into a great looking blog post. When you send Posterous an email with a link to a YouTube video it automatically embeds the video onto the blog site. Posterous also automatically embeds documents created in Word or even sound clips too.

Be a guest blogger on my site by sending an email to workshop2012@posterous.com. Test the site by including a photo, image, a link to a youtube video or a document. Once the posts are approved by the teacher they will appear on the website.
View the results at http://workshop2012.posterous.com

Your turn. Create a free account at Posterous and start your first blog. Choose a template and send in your first post.

Twitter for Educators

BIG IDEA: Participating in a Professional Learning Network

Here are some of the essential twitter skills that you’ll need to build a professional learning network.

Login and view your timeline

Twitter is like a newspaper in that every time you login there is a stream of text, links and thoughts to explore. Scroll through your list of tweets from people you follow.

Please start by adding your twitter account to this list (http://bit.ly/Snnc9n) so we can connect to each other. My twitter address is: http://twitter.com/#!/jmcconville1000, I look forward to following you back.

Write your Bio

Then upload a picture – most people won’t follow people without the basic information.

Following others

You’ll notice right away that people start following you. Don’t be alarmed most people find you by the connections that twitter suggests. When it comes to following people back here are some suggestions:

Follow people that have similar roles as yourself. I always follow back educators that follow me.
Follow local people that you know! Obvious but sometimes overlooked.
Politicians and special organizations are all tuned to twitter now. Check for BC politicians or your BCTF executive.
News organizations that you visit will send out tweets of their headlines with a link to the full article if you are interested.
Look for people that don’t tweet too often. If they are writing about what they had at the conference lunch then move along.

Make a list to categorize the people you follow such as people from your district to join the conversation. Here are my lists.

Reply and Retweet

Now that you have a few people in your timeline it is time to send a thought, comment or response to someone. Retweeting is a way to repeat what someone else said to your followers.

Sending a Tweet

Most people spend a while ‘lurking’ and reading other tweets before sending out their own post. Looking for ideas? Here is my guide to writing a good tweet.

Search Terms & Hashtags

They sound weird but are simply a way to find people having a conversation about a specific topic. Check out #Canucks (during a hockey game), #edchat (adhoc educational conversations),#bcedplan (BC’s education plan) or ____

Advanced Skills – experts only

Use a tool like TweetDeck to personalize the experience. Twitter on your cell or other device.

Manage your followers – some tools to help you weed and prune.

Google+

Will this supplant twitter AND facebook in the future. Google thinks so. View this video that explains how G+ works. Unique features include circles, hangouts and more.

People to follow:

Jan Unwin https://twitter.com/jktunwin
Dennis Tjernagel https://twitter.com/DennisTjernagel
Chris Kennedy (WVan Sup) https://twitter.com/chrkennedy
Dave Truss (Coquitlam VP) https://twitter.com/datruss

World’s Largest Science Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:44:00 +0000

Looking to engage your students in science. Here is a very cool event being organized by the government of Canada to promote science education. I’m part of the organizing committee and wanted to get this out to a many educators as possible. Anyone in the world can participate! I hope you take 30 minutes with your students to be part of this event!

Hello,

I am pleased to send you the announcement we are now circulating to parties that may be interested in our World Record-setting event.

As you may already know, we at Science.gc.ca and our partners are organizing the World's Largest Practical Science Lesson at multiple locations. It is a world record-setting event that will take place for 30 minutes on Friday, October 12, at exactly the same time across Canada.

We are now looking for event organizers and participants to make this historic record as great as possible. Do you think that you or the members of your organization would be interested in promoting this event for young Canadians? Or perhaps you would like to join other science centres, schools and organizations across Canada in being part of this memorable and fun experience.

The event will follow a simple lesson plan about Bernoulli's Principle, and attendees will perform two very simple experiments based on it.

All participating organizations and schools will be recognized, and event certificates for awarding to all who participate will be available for downloading from http://Science.gc.ca

Please visit http://www.science.gc.ca/newrecord to find out more and register. This record-setting event will also mark the beginning of the National Science and Technology Week, which will be held this year from October 12 to 21 with celebrations and fun events for all Canadians.

Please help us by sharing this e-mail with any individuals and organizations that you think may be interested in helping out with this fun and educational science event.

I look forward to your reply, and will welcome any suggestions you might want to make to ensure that this event is a success!

Best wishes,

PDF to Text Converters - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Here is a problem I’m trying to solve. How do I turn a scanned document into text that I can edit in a program like Microsoft Word?

Schools are very fortunate to now have multifunction photocopiers available for teacher use. The machines make quick work of scanning multipage documents into PDF attachments. These PDF’s can now be stored on a teacher website for sharing. But what if the teacher wants to edit the document prior to posting? For example, perhaps they have lost the original word document of a newsletter and want update some of the information.

There are a number of FREE programs that provide this service. Let’s see how they work with a PDF document that I have from our copier/scanner.

Nuance PDF reader 7.0

http://www.nuance.co.uk

Cost: FREE

Problems: needs to be installed on a teacher computer. That means jumping through hoops to get a technician to install.

Outcome: Did an almost perfect job of interpreting the document. It even found the bolded words. Only about one error/page.

Zamzar Online

Cost: FREE

Fully online and easy to use with their four-step process.

Outcome: Didn’t turn any of the text in the document into something that could be edited in word. Seems to have turned all the text to a single image. Not helpful.

PDF Converter

http://www.pdfconverter.com/free-pdf-conversion-online/

Cost: FREE

Got an email from this company asking me to evaluate their product, here is my first trial. The are fully online so there isn’t software to install. They have much less distracting advertising on their site than Zamzar and they offer a straightforward three step process.

NOTE (update to original post) This free version is intended to convert originally created PDF documents rather than scanned versions. Their paid product PDF Converter Elite is designed to work with scanned documents.

Outcome: Fairly good conversion. Had errors in characters of the text that a different font in the original. Also had layout errors. For example, where a paragraph was indented it added unwanted line breaks. While the text is editable, it would take a while to cleanup for reuse.

Recommendation

Nuance PDF Reader (and converter) was the best overall PDF to word converter. For teachers it would be worth the extra effort to get it installed on a desktop for use.

Feedback/comments?

I’d be interested to hear from other teachers. What do you use and recommend for scanning and converting documents?

Having Great Ambitions: moral and civic backbone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 31 May 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Do you have those moments when many different thoughts and plans all start to come together? I had one of those listening to CBC the other day. During the ‘On the Coast’ show in an interview with music host Lisa Christiansen they shared an audio clip from a video of Henry Rollins. He is a former lead man for a punk rock band.

My personal connection was to the planning for my students next year. The team of teachers that I’m working with have been drawn to the global theme of “What if everyone cared?”. This video by Henry Rollins is an amazing message to young people, especially the adolescents who are trying to find their place in society. There are two videos below. The top one is the very popular remix followed by the original interview with a simple white background.

“If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future, you must go at it with almost monastic obsession be it music, the ballet or just a basic degree.”

Well said!

PICMONKEY: photo editing made easy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Teachers looking for a safe, free, easy to use picture editor check out picmonkey.com. Here are some of the features that make it so compelling for education.

FREE – we are all on tight budgets, who doesn’t want something great for free?
No account needed. With school administration increasingly concerned about student privacy it is great to find a site that doesn’t require students to create an account to get started.
Effects, stickers and text can be added to photos with ease.

Getting Started

Take a photo on your camera. Consider turning down the resolution to 5 megapixels or less to make the site run faster.
Click ‘Edit your photo’ and upload the photo
When you have all the text, effects done click save.

The downside of not having an account is that all edits need to be done before you close the browser as you can’t continue editing the photo the next day.

Effects

When teaching students about body images it is great to have them use the ‘touch up’ effects. Students seem to know that most fashion magazines use photoshop to retouch photos to achieve our image of modern beauty. The great think about picmonkey is that students can try to beautify, recolour, tan themselves with the privacy of their own computer. Awesome!

Another effect not to miss is CLONE. Simply designate part of the photo such as a face as the source and then paint a clone onto another part of the picture.

Overlays and Text

There are countless stickers and shapes that students can add to their photos. Think of picmonkey as your personal scrapbook site!

Comparable websites

Still find that picmonkey doesn’t meet your classroom needs? Here are some other sites to explore.

Google+ – google bought picnik and brought those great tools into G+
Aviary Image Editor – full layer editing like photoshop but online and free
SumoPaint - Great for painting, lots of amazing brushes but slow for high-res photos and crashes.
Adobe Photoshop Express Editor – must be good, it is from Adobe

Why the iPad is bad for education

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:59:00 +0000

‘Amazing, revolutionary, a new era in technology’. The iPad may be all these things but in my humble opinion it is bad for education and schools. Here are some reasons.

They aren’t popular.

The iPad isn’t designed to be a primary home computer. Not even a secondary device. Ask any student, do you want a cell phone? Of course they do. So, at best, an iPad is a tertiary technology purchase and won’t have the ubiquity education needed to begin meaningful integration. The classes will be split between the have and the have not students. iPads promote social division between students who we are encouraging to work cooperatively in our classes.

They are only designed to be a one user device.

The reason that most schools still have computer labs with desktop computers is multifold. They always have power and have good connectivity as they are wired to the network and internet. They are also great for having multiple students use them in a given day. This doesn’t work for the iPad. Take for example the email app which is designed for one user to check and send messages.

Back to my previous point. Apple has designed a one user machine for the simple reason that the less it can be shared the more they sell. Even at the ‘cheap’ price of $499 that would be a whopping $400,000 to get them for all the students at our school.

They promote media consumption not creation

The small keyboard is difficult and slow to type on. Voice dictation accuracy is average to poor. Our ESL and special need students who most need voice input, it would be terrible. Therefore, writing, blogging and having students create projects would be a worse experience than regular laptops/desktops.

Purchasing Apps is for individuals not schools

There isn’t clear information on how schools can get discounts for bulk purchase of apps. Check out the terms of use on the apple site. Let’s say your class has a mix of school owned and personal iPads. If you had ‘an awesome’ paid app, how would you get it on all iPads?

They don’t support flash

Really Apple? I’ve read Steve Job’s open letter to Adobe and still don’t get it. There are so many great free educational sites that are built on flash. One of my favourite websites for having students practice keyboarding flash based Dance Mat Typing. Why can’t I use this site on my iPad?

They are fragile

Take this as an example. Let’s say your school uses eBooks on the iPad. Now the simple statement of ‘open your book and turn to page 123’ is now a lesson in patience as the device loads, student find the app and opens the textbook. If the book is WiFi dependent there is another challenge to overcome. When the battery runs out there isn’t only no iPad there is no textbook.

Links

I’m not the only person who feels this way. Here are some other posts to support this view

Why iPads can’t succeed in education by Liam Cassidy

Why the iPad Will Not Reform Higher Education Anytime Soon by Lindsay Pund

Thoughts or Comments?

OK, I know that this post is intentionally controversial and against common views of educators that own one (including myself). Agree or disagree with a comment below.

The Social Learning Network

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:52:00 +0000

Hello to the attendees at the COTA Conference in Kelowna!

BIG IDEA for this session: learning is participatory

We are going to spend some time using and talking about how social networks, mostly twitter, can be professional networks.

Login and view your timeline

Twitter is like a newspaper in that every time you login there is a stream of text, links and thoughts to explore. Scroll through your list of tweets from people you follow.

Please start by posting a comment to this blog with a link to your twitter account so we can connect to each other. My twitter address is: http://twitter.com/#!/jmcconville1000, I look forward to following you back.

Write your Bio

Then upload a picture – most people won’t follow people without the basic information.

Following others

Follow people that have similar roles as yourself. I always follow back educators that follow me.
Follow local people that you know! Obvious but sometimes overlooked.
Politicians and special organizations are all tuned to twitter now. Check for BC politicians or your BCTF executive.
News organizations that you visit will send out tweets of their headlines with a link to the full article if you are interested.
Look for people that don’t tweet too often. If they are writing about what they had at the conference lunch then move along.

Make a list to categorize the people you follow such as people from your district to join the conversation. Here are my lists.

Reply and Retweet

Now that you have a few people in your timeline it is time to send a thought, comment or response to someone. Retweeting is a way to repeat what someone else said to your followers.

Sending a Tweet

Most people spend a while ‘lurking’ and reading other tweets before sending out their own post. Looking for ideas? Here is my guide to writing a good tweet.

Search Terms & Hashtags

Advanced Skills – experts only

Use a tool like TweetDeck to personalize the experience. Twitter on your cell or other device.

Manage your followers – some tools to help you weed and prune.

Google+

Will this supplant twitter AND facebook in the future. Google thinks so. View this video that explains how G+ works. Unique features include circles, hangouts and more.

Looking for more?

If we have time here are some activities we can explore from my other session called ‘Digital Classrooms that Work’ at this conference.

Presentation by Brian Kuhn on Twitter and social networks.

Join the conversation by posting a comment below with a link to your twitter account!

Digital Classrooms that Work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Hello to the attendees at the COTA Conference in Kelowna!

BIG IDEA for this session: create to learn

Please contribute to each of the activities below so that we have content to demonstrate how they could work in a classroom environment.

Survey with Google Docs

Surveys can be quickly created to gather feedback from students. They can also be created by students for math lessons. Google docs make them easy to share and have a very graphical view of results.

complete this survey
view results – click on ‘Form’ show summary of responses to see the graphical results.
Notes and explanation of how it was created. Google docs can be collaborative even if students don’t have a google (gmail) account.

Blogging as a Class with Posterous

Posterous is a blogging site that allows you to simply post by sending an email. The email can include picture attachments, office documents, sound clips or links to YouTube videos. All file types will be converted to a format suitable for viewing on the internet.

Be a guest blogger on my site by sending an email to workshop2012@posterous.com. Test the site by including a photo, image, a link to a youtube video or a document. Once the posts are approved by the teacher they will appear on the website.
View the results at http://workshop2012.posterous.com

Draw & Poster

SumoPaint (http://www.sumopaint.com) blog post and getting started handout
Picnik – closing soon but amazing! Will post link to an alternative tool one I find one.
Glogster (http://edu.glogster.com) online poster where you can embed pictures, text, video and more. Examples (The Brain, Trustworthiness)

Assessment

Quizlet lets you make matching games. Try this Internet Safety Quiz.

Engrade is an online gradebook that has built in portal technologies for students and parents to check in at home. See more about Engrade.

Wiki document sharing

While google docs aren’t classified as a wiki they do have the amazing ability to allow live synchronous writing. Try this online debate.

Voice discussion about pictures with VoiceThread

Voice comment on the following pictures or respond to what others have shared. You’ll need to register for a voicethread account. The VoiceThread is embedded below or you can view on the VoiceThread site.

Thanks for reading, participating and exploring the links. Leave a comment below. Share a link to your twitter account or post about which digital learning tools will you try with your students?

Writing a Good Twitter Tweet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:23:00 +0000

Twitter has been around for since 2006 and now boast 100’s of millions of users. While many of the accounts are inactive, some people are prolific at posting their every thought and activity. As an educator, there are definitely some features that I consider a good post. Here is my list.

Be informative - share something you've found, a resource, educational video. Sending links via email is so '1990's'
Ask a question - an open ended question on a broad topic can get interesting responses from your followers.
Be topical - sending a tweet during a live event. Eg. #canucks during a game to share in the celebration will be read by those at the game and at home.
Add humour - everyone likes to lighten their day with a laugh.
Post an opinion tweet - a word of caution here but nothing gets responses like an interesting point-of-view. Consider adding a link to support your opinion.
Add personal thoughts – when sharing a link to someone’s blog post add a few words that ‘capture’ you that contributes to the message. Idea from Gino.

What else is missing from this list? Send me a tweet @jmcconville1000

Thoughts? Comments? What do you like see in a good tweet?

Software for School Computers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Here is some software that we have on our student school computers.

Windows 7 is now our standard on school computers that have the hardware required. It has a number of built in features that help students. See previous blog post about Windows 7.
Office 2010 is now our standard software
Windows Live Essentials is a huge improvement to the old photo editor and Movie Maker, see: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials
Firefox as an alternate internet browser.
Mixcraft 5 by Aucoustica is a ‘Garageband-like’ program for Windows. See previous blog post.
Any Video Converter (FREE) – will convert any file format to another.
Paint.net – free painting program
GIMP – photo editing for free
Faststone image viewer and resizer (FREE)
Google Earth – for exploration and the cool flight simulator
Scratch by MIT – computer programming for students
Sketchup 8 by Google – 3D modeling program
FlipBoom Classic – 2D animation program
JING – screen capture software
Lego Digital Designer – 3D online lego designer
YouTube Downloader – FREE software to get videos off YouTube.
VLC Video Player – great media player, will play almost any type of video including the FLV format when you download from YouTube.
iTunes from Apple as a music player and to connect to student’s iPods
All The Right Type for keyboarding skills

Feedback from other educators: Which are your favourites, what software do other schools use?

What I Learned at CUEBC 2011 Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:32:00 +0000

What an amazing, yet busy day at the recent CUEBC conference. As a volunteer member of the executive, this is our largest event of the year. We look forward to and dread the rush of the day. So many conversations and so little time.

This year was overwhelmingly positive, well worth the effort. How else can you be in a building with 400 like-minded educators learning, sharing and thinking.

Highlights

Keynote David Warlick was outstanding. Although I was in another part of the building during the keynote, the live webcast thanks to UpperSports made it possible to participate remotely. Already there is an archive of the event!
Twitter continues to grow in terms of adoption and use. When we first introduced twitter hashtags at a conference three years ago it was a small group who participated. My estimate is there were 100+ educators active on twitter on Friday using the tag #CUEBC, enough that the tag become a trending topic on the live trendmap.
Great presenters – I managed to attend a few sessions and learned from other educators.
- Phil Macoun’s session on Scratch was excellent. Handouts here.
- David Warlick’s session on data visualizations and infographics gave me the idea to look for the twitter trendmap.
Sponsors have so much to offer! I know that other non-profit organizations hesitate when it comes to including sponsors but our decision on including them has always been that they offer something to our members. Companies like Adobe provide teachers with tools that we use on a daily basis and bringing them to a conference allows our members time to ask questions and network.
Welcome to everyone who attended who are now members of CUEBC and also to our two new executive members!

Learning Links

Fabulous learning summary from CUEBC presenter Phil Macoun on his blog here.

Feedback?

If you were there or if you just followed the discussion on twitter post a comment on your insights.