My PLN

PLN's:  This made me think about the differences between my Personal Learning Environment and my students Personal Learning Environment.  My students will know the same or more technology tools than I know.  This means that I need to be prepared for the students coming into my classroom.  I need to be prepared to use some of these tools in order to further engage my students. 
The Typical Teacher and the Connected Teacher: Typical Teacher: Curricular Documents, Colleges, Popular Media, Print and Digital Resources, Family and Local Community.  Hmmmmm.... Not really thinking outside of the box! 
Connected Teacher: So much more!! This teacher looks at the same as the typical teacher plus wiki's, blogs, chats, social networking, digital fora, social bookmarking,and digital photo sharing.  I feel that I am well on my way to being a connected teacher.  I understand why it is important to be a connected teacher!  Why not make your classroom an engaging environment using resources from more than the typical sources! 

The Panel Discussion

On Tuesday, February 18 we had the opportunity to listen to R. Norris from Dakota Colligate, A. McKiel & D. Kuropatwa from SJSD, and M. Ingenmey from RRSD (Minnedosa).   They all explained why they think implementing BYOD into the classroom is a good thing.  BYOD is excellent because it gives students the opportunity to experience technology at school and at home.  Students who can take their device home gives them extra time to "play" and get familiar with their device.  The students also have a device they can call their own that they always have access too.    
I was surprised to learn that BYOD was also cost efficient.  My first thought was that providing a piece of technology for each student in the school would be extremely costly and; therefore, difficult to gain divisional support.  Although, its not cheap the school divisions are saving money because they no longer have to create computer labs and continue to keep up with the latest computers.
Computer labs will become obsolete.  I truly believe that getting rid of computer labs is excellent!  Now the students are not only learning and using technology in one class a day or sometimes a cycle but rather they are using their device everyday for every class!
Every great idea has some negative consequences.  One con was the amount of breakage happening.  RRSD discussed the idea of giving student choice in the device they select.  The had little breakage incidents and believe that the students were more careful with the devices because they had a chance to select what they wanted.  Other school divisions created an insurance option where the students pay a certain amount at the beginning of the year and offered 1 new device if their device breaks.  I learned a lot about BYOD and truly believe that this is an excellent direction that school divisions are taking.  I predict that in the next five-10 years BYOD will be a program taking place in almost every classroom!  

The Presentation by Sophia Palachicky

Last week we had a presentation from Sophia Palachicky about Web Based Courses in Manitoba.  I was not familiar with this process due to the fact that I have never taken an online course or been involved in teaching a web based course.  I was amazed at how accessible these courses are to teachers.  This is an excellent resource to teachers as they provide an entire unit for their use.   I think that this resources is more useful in senior years than middle or early years.  Students are unable to self-motivate at this age so therefore I would not use web based courses for this age group.  I can see this being useful for senior years students who are able to self-motivate and do not have an opportunity to take a course due to the inability to offer a specific course at their school.  
 Do I think that my students should sit in front a computer and teach themselves.  I don't think I am convinced! 
I honestly struggle with the idea of web based course delivery as an alternative to classroom learning.  This form of learning does not coexist with some things that I firmly believe in such as: collaboration in the classroom (this in turn helps students to develop social skills), different learning styles, student and teacher collaboration.

Digital Footprint

Your digital footprint is your online identity.  I think that digital identity and digital citizenship go hand in hand.  Although the internet is an excellent resource our students need to be aware that there may be consequences to what they put online.
 I have put a lot of thought into this especially due to my career choice.  Teachers rightly, are supposed to be role models for their students.  I do not want future employers to see a picture of me during my early university adventures!  I want my employers to see me as a mature, qualified, eager individual.  This is why I have a blog, twitter, website, about me page ect.  I want to be perceived as a professional on and offline.
Are we different online than we are offline,some people are.  I think the real question is: should we be different online than we are offline?  My answer is no!  I think that we should be perceived as the professional we are online and offline.  
It is extremely important to inform students of the consequences of a digital footprint.  Students need to be aware that what we put online can be seen by the world.  Students need to ask themselves... do I want the world to read this tweet or see this photo?  Will this picture, comment, ect change the way people perceive me?
I would incorporate this conversation into my digital citizenship discussion.  There are a bunch of great lesson ideas on the website: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/lesson-in-action-private-today-public-tomorrow

Digital Team Teaching

I just started following Devon Caldwell's blog "Kindergarten Diva".  Devon teaches junior and senior kindergarten at Oak Lake Community School.  She has received the Prime Minister's Award for teaching excellence.  The way Devon incorporates technology into the classroom is amazing!  Devon and her colleague Leah Obach team teach.  The twist is that Devon teaches in Oak Lake and Leah teaches in Hamiota.  The students participate in Skype lessons.  Digital team teaching is their goal! How neat is this!

Digital Citizenship 
We are so used to seeing teachers that fear their students will abuse technology by using it for things like cyber bullying, inappropriate uses of social media, or sex-ting.  The things we can do with technology are amazing!  Look at Martha, at only 9 years old she changed what children were eating in schools. Through her blog and twitter she gathered many followers including her idol Jamie Oliver.   Her platform gave her the opportunity to be on talk shows and cooking shows.  Here they had conversations about the quality of school lunches.  She managed to change what students ate in schools making sure there was enough food and that the food was healthy.
There are many many Martha's in the world. These students are curious, confident, disciplined, self-directed, enthusiastic, passionate, critical thinkers, and problem- solvers is this not what we want to see from our students in our classrooms?  If we want to see these characteristics in our classrooms we need to allow our students to use technology productively.  My favorite question from this video is: how do we take the extra curricular and make it the curricular.  This is an excellent question and one that can be answered in numerous ways; from tweeting Chris Hatfield to ask him your questions, or skyping a country in Asia to learn more about it!  We need to focus less on controlling our students use of technology and more on empowering our students to become passionate about technology.  We need to teach students how to use technology properly rather than not using it because we are scared they will abuse it!

Google Hang Out
We have had two presentations in class using "Google hang out".  First of all, how cool is it that we can talk to people hundreds of miles away face to face?!  I am going to be doing a grade 7 unit on Asia.  I want my students to have an opportunity to ask their questions about the continent to people who actually live there.  This will be an excellent use for Google hang out in the classroom.  My grade 7 students will chat with a grade 7 class in Asia about their culture and society.