Yesterday (despite the awesome weather here), I spent the day indoors over at Immaculata High School, taking part in a "SummIT" held by the OCCDSB. I promised participants in my session that I would post my notes.
Here is the powerpoint file...
The day was a great experience for me. It was especially nice to open our eyes a bit and work with folks from our co-terminus Board. Big thanks to Gabe and Jim for the invitation. Hopefully the start of long term collaboration...
MrP also had some reflections on the day...
Keywords: conference, OCCDSB, SummIT
Comments
Hi Tim,
Neat idea with SummIT. How many educators attended the day? How was the day organized? Now I'm excited.
It was a Catholic Board event, which we tagged in on. They had about 120, we had only 30 or so, but given that it was really the first great day of spring weather here, I'm impressed with their turnout.
Day was 9-3:30 or so. Keynote in the moring followed by first workshop session. Then a light lunch and 2 more workshop sessions, then wrap up/door prizes.
Already thinking about next year...
I love these sessions where we can take a step back and think about what we are doing. The keynote address had me wondering why I'm still using overheads, but when I got back to school today I remembered...they WORK! If I had a reliable LCD projector I could do a lot of cool stuff with Powerpoint, etc. but I'm still limited by the hardware! At least the overhead is predictable and if worse comes to worse, I have LOTS of chalk!
Overheads and chalk still work, but they cannot bring Read/Write interactivity into the classroom.
We have had great success with 2 roll-outs of our multi-media cart. This year's permutation includes a laptop, keyboard and projector, one per school. I wonder if every classroom just shouldn't have one of these. That and a tablet.
Interesting comments...
Sometimes there are challenges to bringing any technology into the classroom. Changing those overhead light-bulbs can be a pain, try finding a replacement lamp. All machines break. That is a fact. Yet we all drive cars, watch television, and depend on our furnaces for heat in the winter.
Ranting here ...
BUT - how many people still visit tellers at the bank for their day to day banking, how do you find the answers to questions (Do you Google it?) - now how do our students in our classes? The world is changing. We are holding them back if we think that looking up the last encyclopedia Britannica article in the school library on the topic is current information. I'm not sure who your keynote was, or if the entire SummIT was on this topic but the cool factor wears off quickly for any tool. It then becomes how does it benefit you and your students in your daily practices, behaviour and life.
More Ranting ...
Other than elementary school and high school - where does anyone do draft writing work on paper - everyone else uses the computer - with all the benefits that go with it? As educators, do we really think writing drafts on paper is a lost art or is it too hard to fight for a computer lab or get that projector into our classrooms? Our children our worth it.
Are you aware of http://www.edugains.ca/ where the Ministry of Education of Ontario are exploring these tools. It was part of a Ministry sponsored symposium.
"EDU GAINS is a dynamic site where leaders and ministry-supported developers collaborate using Web 2.0 tools to enhance their own learning, and to create and share high-quality system supports for learning at all levels."
Off to develop my social network - http://twitter.com/qdsouza
Tim, thanks for sharing your excellent PowerPoint presentation.
The fact that it raises more questions than it answers is a tribute to your willingness to explore new territory.