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Dr. Heather Lotherington
Joyce Public School (JPS) in Toronto, is engaged in collaborative school-university research to observe, create, understand and document contemporary multiliteracies. The research is motivated by the challenges faced by urban children who are acquiring literacy in an era of complex digitally-mediated, globalized communication. The project aims broadly to teach literacy through narratives, to make literacy resources more linguistically and culturally inclusive, and to create pedagogical processes for teaching contemporary multiliteracies. This presentation discusses and illustrates how children are retelling traditional stories using digital media to include their cultural and linguistic worlds.
Jennifer Jenson
This talk will explore some of the tensions and pitfalls in the development of an educationally focused web-based game, Contagion, detailing how such a practical development project has led us to re-theorize questions about what is “educational,” and how and in what ways that relates to ludic elements within a video game. With reference to and within the framework of design-based research, I shall address the challenges we encountered designing this “alternative” game, and how we came to see content, not simply as “what the game is about” but as essentially tied to and enacted through all aspects of the game. Content, that is educationally valuable knowledge, is infused through all relational aspects of the game as the player’s activities accomplishments: character selection, art, narrative, programming, goals, game structures and play. Each of these aspects and challenges of game-design are explored in an effort to show how knowledge is constructed through these inter-related elements, and to further understand how and why that might matter to future game development projects.
Mike Parkhill
As Director of the Academic Sector, Mike Parkhill is responsible for Microsoft Canada’s educational activities and initiatives across Canada. With responsibility for K-12, Colleges and Universities, Mike heads a team of education specialists dedicated to meeting the unique and diverse needs of customers. One of the key factors in the team’s success has been their ability to strike the right balance between Corporate Social Responsibility and their role to provide effective market solutions. Never satisfied by the status quo, Mike Parkhill, Director of the Academic Sector for Microsoft Canada Co. views himself as a change agent for certain Canadian societal issues. Mike has participated in initiatives addressing the situation of homelessness in Canada, releasing Inuktitut versions of Windows and Office so the Inuit peoples can function in their mother tongue, committing to safety on the internet and helping to share best practices and visions for improved learning outcomes through the use of technology. Mike realizes there is much to do to engage child learners in an effort to stay in school, involving the evangalising of the development of learning games. He has keynoted many learning events including Riding the Wave, BC Ed Online and Alberta Online Consortium. Please join in the discussion around becoming a change agent within the learning community of Saskatchewan. This talk proves to be both thought provoking and entertaining as Mike uses many examples from across Canada around children s learning styles for the 21st Century.
Ron Owston
Students in our schools today, who do not know a world without digital technology, are different from previous generations of students in the ways that they learn, share, work, communicate, and socialize. And as new technologies become available they are quick to embrace, adapt, or reject them. This poses a significant challenge for teachers who typically are not as comfortable with technology as their students are. In this talk, Dr. Owston will argue that we need to think beyond conventional approaches to teaching and learning with technology if we are to engage and motivate students now in our classrooms. He will discuss the implications of this for teacher professional development, curriculum, and educational policy.
Todd Cunningham
Following the life experience of an individual with a learning disability from grade one through university to the work-place this presentation will share the learning connections supported by assistive technology. The power of Assistive Technology in the regular classroom to aid a student with a learning disability will be told from first-hand experience. A range of assistive technologies will be demonstrated to show how these can be used to allow a learner to utilize their natural strengths to overcome their weaknesses.
Overcoming barriers presented by Assistive Technology - Assistive Technology is continuing to develop as a tool that can be used by parents and educators to help students with learning disabilities circumvent areas of weakness and access the regular curriculum. Technology is no miracle cure and like any tool for a job, the right tool is needed and one must understand how to use the tool effectively. From working with students, parents, and educators, and as a user of the technology, the presenter has seen and faced many of the barriers that exist around the use of Assistive Technology; including selecting the wrong technology, cost, stigma, poor implementation, lack of training, negative perceptions, and lack of access. This workshop will describe three important aspects to overcoming challenges. First, the selection of the right technology to meet the needs of a student by identify weaknesses and building on their strengths. This includes developing an understanding that there are a range of programs that can circumvent a weakness and it is not necessarily the most expensive one. As well, not all assistive technology tools are appropriate for all students. Students have different learning profiles. There is a range of assistive technology available and that will be presented. Second, when training the student to use the technology a curriculum/academic context is important so the students can see the fit between the technology and the academic tasks. This can help the student understand how to integrate the technology with school activities and provide context for the appropriate learning strategies. Third, the normalizing of assistive technology as tools for learning will be addressed in helping prevent the development of social and learning stigma. In this interactive session participants will be provided with time to ask questions, present observations and problems that they may have experienced in the field.