Pecha Kucha Night in Winnipeg

I was honoured to be asked to speak at the 10th Pecha Kucha Night hosted by the Manitoba Chapter of the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) in Winnipeg.

I was billed as a 'tech advocate' for the evening, and this was my first attempt at delivering a Pecha Kucha presentation...

Enjoy :-)

#K12Online11 - Telling My Story

I've participated in the K12 Online Conference every year for the last handful of years.  I look forward to this online conference each year, as there is a wealth of information posted on a daily basis that's free for the taking.

While I've worked alongside several of the people who make this virtual conference happen every fall, I've never done more than subscribe to the presentation feed in iTunes and catch most of the presentations each year.  I know many people who have presented and keynoted K12 Online Conference strands over the last five years, and this year I felt as though participating from the sidelines just wasn't enough.

When asked if I'd submit something for the 'Story Time' strand for this year's conference, I jumped at the chance.  I spent many hours thinking about what I'd present & how I'd share.  I had all kinds of great ideas for an innovative presentation that would challenge me and inspire those who took the time to sit through my presentation.

Then, all of a sudden, the K12 Online Conference was upon us and my session wasn't complete.  Having taken on too many projects this fall, I was forced to just "git 'er done" instead of creating the kind of presentation that I had envisioned.

Although my first time presenting in this amazing conference didn't turn out the way that I had initially envisioned, I'm still happy with my submission.  I don't know that anyone will walk away from this presentation thinking 'that was absolutely spectacular', but I do think that the folks who take the time to watch my presentation will be inspired by the idea of celebrating the little things that happen in their classrooms and schools on a daily basis.





We are shaped by our experiences, as are our students.  If you're willing to take the time to watch "When Learning Becomes An Event", you'll find that it's all about living in the moment - capturing and highlighting the learning experiences that are occurring all around us.  

An Arctic Adventure

In exactly 24 hours, I'm hopping on a little plane to fly from Winnipeg up to Churchill, Manitoba. While I've lived in Manitoba over half of my life, I've never had the opportunity to travel this far north before. Not only will this be my first time visiting Churchill, but the way that I get to take in the tundra will be very different than the way most people get to experience northern Manitoba.

I've been asked to join Polar Bears International and Edmodo to assist with facilitating several days worth of webinars and video conferences. I'll be working alongside a panel of world-renowned scientists and researchers as they study polar bears in their natural habitat. We'll be witnessing, first-hand, the impact of global climate change as polar bears congregate along the shores of Hudson Bay to await the formation of the sea ice.

I know that there will be a lot of 'work' to do as this adventure unfolds, but this really is work worth celebrating! Connecting with hundreds of classrooms around the world to answer the questions of teachers and students alike. Connecting with zoos and universities to provide real-time updates about what we're seeing during this year's fall polar bear migration. And capturing every aspect of this adventure through lenses so that all of the details can be archived.

The morning after I arrive in Churchill, our team boards Tundra Buggy One - this is the same vehicle that streams live video of polar bears over the web via The Polar Bear Cam.  We'll roll about 40km over the icy tundra toward Cape Churchill.  This is where we'll find Tundra Buggy Lodge, a series of Tundra Buggy's that have been converted to a portable base camp that our team will call home for a few days.  Between Tundra Buggy One and Tundra Buggy Lodge, there will be nothing but a thin sheet of metal separating me from dozens of polar bears in the wild.

This is sure to be an adventure that you'll want to follow as it unfolds.  I've set up a website so that I can share my stories, pictures and videos as they are captured.  If you want to feel as though you're right by my side aboard Tundra Buggy One & Tundra Buggy Lodge, you'll want to check out Chilling with Nanuq. 

I hope you'll follow along :-)

Telling My #unplugd11 Story

Last night a bunch of educators from around Manitoba gathered at the King's Head Pub for ManACE's annual preSAGE event. This year's theme was 'Telling Our (Digital) Stories' and one aspect of the evening saw the Manitoban #unplugd11 participants sharing their reflections on the Unplug'd experience.

This was my first time racing against the clock with a five minute presentation set to auto-play through the slides. Any chance I can get to talk about the impact that Unplug'd has had on me is a great opportunity to reminisce about the experience.

If you've got five minutes, you may want to check out 'My #unplugd11 Story'...

Hackin' the Radee-o

Yesterday marked a first for me - broadcasting live over a mainstream radio network along with my old buddy & new co-worker, Darren Kuropatwa.

This was an awesome experience for me on a number of levels.  I'd listened in a couple of times in the past when Darren was being interviewed by Richard Cloutier on CJOB radio and I knew that we'd be in for a great conversation.  Sitting beside Darren while he waxed poetic about various aspects of the current state of our education system was nothing less than thrilling.

You can have a listen to the broadcast here:

Part 1

Part 2

Richard Cloutier was a great facilitator and he's a master of his craft.  Along with Mark, the young & gifted sound engineer for the Richard Cloutier Report, this 'Dynamic Duo' sure knew how to ask the right questions and push all of the right buttons to keep the conversation moving forward.  Whether fielding questions from callers or quickly locating and queuing up 'teacher' tunes for use between commercials and guest spots, both Richard and Mark were gracious hosts.

But what really set this experience apart for me was the sense that we were trying something new - pushing the limits just a little. During the frequent sponsored breaks, weather reports and news updates, we kept the conversation going.  Through both Twitter and Today's Meet back-channel conversations, we were able to engage with our live audience and connect on a much deeper level with the CJOB listenership than we could have if we were simply fielding e-mails and phone calls.

Sure, we responded to a few callers through the two hour broadcast, but we were able to connect with many more of our listeners in real time through our back-channel conversations.  Not only did they ask some critical questions, but they also provided us with some valuable answers.  It was all of our collective knowledge that made for a much richer conversation.

At one point during a sponsored break, Richard even commented about how they needed to find new ways and better ways of keeping the conversations going during all phases of their program.  Sure, they have to hand the airwaves over to their sponsors for a portion of their time, but this shouldn't kill the conversation.  From behind the glass wall at the back of the studio, we could already hear Mark's wheels turning as he pondered the many ways he could put a Twitter account to good use during future broadcastings of the Richard Cloutier Report...

Our conversation turned in many different directions, and we covered a lot of ground.  We discussed assessment, mobile devices, textbooks, spelling and so much more.  And our dialogue caused listeners to reflect on many of their own beliefs about where our education system is today and where we need to be tomorrow.

The opportunity to share ideas and information through mainstream radio has me thinking more deeply about the societal changes we're seeing all around us as a result of the technologies that are now commonplace.  We know that textbook companies need to give themselves a facelift to maintain their appeal in this day and age.  We've seen our major newspapers strive to update their image to maintain their relevance through the information age.  We've witnessed a dramatic shift in the role of the record companies who once owned the ability to bring our favourite music to our ears.  And we're still seeing the need for radio networks to put themselves in closer contact with their listeners.

This is something that was really brought to my attention earlier this summer when I attended Unplug'd.  Although I'd heard a bit of buzz surrounding #ds106radio prior to my arrival at Unplug'd, I really didn't know much about this grassroots broadcasting platform.  I didn't know that #ds106radio was as mechanism that had been developed by Grant Potter where anyone, anywhere could broadcast live from their computer or mobile device.  But the power of #ds106radio became immediately apparent to me when I witnessed Bryan Jackson conducting a live broadcast with Danika Barker, Dean Shareski & Alec Couros (and so many more) aboard the Unplug'd bus...

The Unplug'd 'buscast' was a real eye-opener for me because I saw how Bryan tapped people on the shoulder to share their wisdom and how the Twitter network responded in real-time.  This dynamic has huge potential and really brings the power of the audience to the forefront...

I've started listening casually to the #ds106radio feed and heard many of my Unplug'd friends taking over the airwaves the share their songs and their stories.  I've even had a couple of opportunities to broadcast with others on #ds106radio over the last couple of weeks and it's really opened my eyes to the possibilities that exist with this medium.  I'm extremely grateful to Alan Levine for taking Chris Harbeck, Darren & I under his wing and getting us on the the radio as he wound through Winnipeg this summer on his North American odyssey.

There's power in this medium and I need to take more time to explore it more fully.  Any advice that you can offer me when it comes to hackin' the radee-o?

Unplug'd - it's a long story...

Earlier this month, I was one of the lucky few who had the privilege of participating in Unplug'd - the inaugural Canadian Education Reform Summit.  Like many of the other participants, I've encountered some difficulty in articulating what this experience has meant to me.  When asked about my experiences 'unplugging', I really don't know where to begin.  I've come to realize that the reason I'm challenged with a response is that I want to tell people EVERYTHING about the experience.

 

It's not enough to say that I really connected on so many levels with 36 other amazing individuals.  And I can't simply state that I've deepened my relationships with passionate educators from across the country that I've only ever known through my various online networks.  To leave it at this would cheapen the experience.

Telling people that each and every one of the stories I heard and shared have shaped my thinking doesn't even begin to convey the impact these stories have had on me.  These tales were so raw and powerful that they evoked a wide range of emotions in all of the participants.  Whether they were shared in a whole/home group meeting, over a meal, around a campfire or in a canoe, these stories often brought forth either tears of joy or pain.  They struck different chords for all of us, depending on our role within the system and the experiences that we brought with us to Algonquin's Northern Edge.

These stories will stick with me for many years to come.  And they will flow through me - ready to be shared at any given opportunity so that others can benefit from the value of these yarns.

I firmly believe that it's the stories - OUR stories - that made Unplug'd such an overwhelmingly positive experience.  The stories that we've told, the stories that we're telling and the stories that we've yet to tell.

The full impact of our stories can't be grasped when they're told in isolation or without context.  Sure, each and every one of our narratives is powerful and will have a ripple effect when shared with others.  But we'll really make waves by sharing our stories as a collective.

We came together to share our stories and, even after parting ways, our stories continue to be told by us and are beginning to be told more widely through our networks.  We've planted the seeds and now we want to watch them grow.  But we know that it's not enough to sit back and wait for this to happen - we must tend to our seeds and nurture them to ensure that they flourish.

The 'slow release' of our collaborative writing project, "Why _____ Matters", is a fantastic way to keep the conversation flowing.  The anticipation of what's to come will keep all of us coming back and each of us will bring a bunch of friends along to share in these conversations.  

To the organizers of Unplug'd - THANK YOU for your vision, your passion and your guidance in bringing us this far... I can't wait to find out where our efforts will take us :-)

And to the many friends, new & old, that I've met along the way - THANK YOU for sharing your stories... they've shaped me in more ways than I currently know.  I'm deeply humbled by the opportunity to work alongside each and every one of you and I look forward to all of the future collaborations that will stem from our Unplug'd experience...

When I talk to others about my experiences participating in Unplug'd, I share your stories.  Whether your stories come in the form of your personal narratives, the pictures you've shared, the tweets you've sent or posts that you've published, it's your stories that people want to hear. 

Our collective stories need to be heard.

Managing Online Circles

 
With the advent of Google+ coinciding with the arrival of my summer holidays, I've been feeling a little out of the loop over the past few weeks.  I typically try to 'unplug' a little over the summer so that I can recharge my batteries for new projects & collaborations as another school year begins.  This means taking a bit of a breather from most of my online connections.  Not completely removing myself per se, but limiting the amount of time that I engage with these tools.

But now that Google+ has been introduced, I've felt the need to dabble - to connect with different people in different ways, to create new social circles with my online connections.  Well, not really new social circles, but more social circles...

Herein lies the problem for me.  With all of the online communities that are available to participate in, I'm beginning to find that it's becoming increasingly difficult to 'manage' my participation in each.  Is regular participation required in each of these communities in order to make them meaningful?

I participate in a number of social networks and I find that I use each one in a slightly different way - each tool has it's own purpose for me.  I like each of the social networks to which I belong because of that sense of community.  And when new social networks arrive on the scene - especially networks that have been developed by the heaviest hitters in the online world - I don't hesitate to jump on board and explore the features and possibilities.

I know a great many educators who shun all aspects of connecting & collaborating online.  You and I both know that these teachers are doing themselves a great disservice by avoiding the use of these tools.  For some of these teachers, they refuse to take the plunge because they feel that they've always been fine without the use of these tools.  For others, they feel that they have nothing to contribute.  But the excuse that I hear more than any other is the lack of time - they feel that they just can't afford the time that it would take to participate effectively in an online community.

It's a shame that we still have so many educators who have not realized the potential that social networking has to offer.  But, to be honest, I'm starting to see where some of these teachers are coming from.  It takes time to manage your participation in these learning communities.  Is it worth the effort?  Of course!  But it can be tricky to juggle your online circles.  I've begun to wonder just how many balls I can keep up in the air without dropping them...

Magical Moments

I had the privilege of attending TEDxPhillyEd yesterday and I was blown away by what unfolded before my eyes.  I've been a live participant in a couple of TEDx events already this year (TEDxManitoba & TEDxJuanDeFuca), so I knew what to expect going into this...

 

At least I thought I did.  The two other TEDx events that I attended were great.  The speakers were all world class and I walked away with so many ideas to pick apart.  But as I walked away from TEDxPhillyEd yesterday, I couldn't help but think that the experience wasn't just great - it was magical.  

Everything about this event was perfect - from the venue and the speakers, to the hosting city and the sponsors. The organizing committee deserves a huge round of applause for crafting their vision for this event and bringing it to fruition :-)

There are so many things that transpired throughout the day that I really can't articulate them all succinctly in a blog post.  But there are a few ideas that I'd like to pick apart here that have got me thinking.  One of the most significant things that made the day so special for me were the connections.  

I connected for the first time in person with a number of the people I'd only ever known virtually.  Seeing your network come to life in this way is a very satisfying experience and one that will stick with me for a long time to come.  

All of the talks throughout the day were so well connected, from the featured speakers, to the students and the emcees.  Everything about the content and format of the day was so well designed.  The TED videos that were shown throughout the day were directly connected to speakers who were in the room, which served to complement the live event perfectly.  

Even the hospitality area where participants networked during the breaks was connected to the content of the sessions, providing all of us with the opportunity to see, first-hand, the passion for learning that was so clearly articulated throughout the day.  I loved how participants even had the opportunity to test out their new Echo Smartpens that were given to each and every one of us by one of the event sponsors - THANKS for your generosity, Livescribe!!!

I'm not going to go into any detail about the individual talks - suffice to say, they were all brilliant.  I tweeted incessantly throughout the day about my own take-aways.  I tweeted more yesterday than I've ever tweeted before, and I tagged all of my tweets with the hashtag for the event - #tedxphillyed - a hashtag that proved to be used by so many people that it was trending in Philadelphia yesterday...

If you want specifics, you really need to find them for yourself.  You can follow the discussions with the hashtag listed above.  You'll also want to check the TEDxPhillyEd website for the archived videos - they will all be made available soon and I know that I will be revisiting each and every one of them!

I do, however, have one lingering thought about the day.  When asked how many people in the room were Twitter users, I was surprised to see about half of the hands shoot up.  And I was also astounded by the sheer number of iPads in the room - clearly tablets are taking over as the device of choice among educators.  

But where were all of these people on Twitter?  Sure there were a LOT of tweets contributed to the feed, but there were really only about a dozen of us in the room who were using the hashtag to track the conversation.  There were also a number of people who were contributing to the dialogue from abroad.  

As I looked around at all of the iPads in the room, I noticed that many (most?) users were recording their reflections using Notes.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think there's SO much more power in sharing our reflections in transparent ways.  I know that if I were using Notes to record my thoughts and ideas, they'd live on my iPad and I'd occasionally review them to refresh my memory about what I felt was important at the time.  Nobody else would benefit from me capturing these highlights in this way :-(

When an idea resonated with me, I tweeted about it.  On many occasions, other people retweeted my tweets to show consensus.  Several times throughout the day, I engaged in side conversations surrounding these topics with different people in different places.  I thought much more deeply about the content as a result of the continuing conversations.

The whole idea behind any TEDx event is to make a difference.  To bring together a group of like-minded individuals and push them to think about the things that matter.  TEDx is all about spreading ideas and information - to encourage people to create and innovate.

Moving beyond TEDxPhillyEd, all of us have a responsibility to keep the message alive.  By attending this event, we've all made an informal commitment to spread the word within our own learning communities.  How do you plan to keep the message alive?  How will you share your own take-aways from this event?  How will you make a difference?

WoW! - Writing on Writing

 
I just completed a really interesting chapter in the story of my life and decided I need to use this space to share it.  In a way, I was contracted to do some writing and I really didn't know what I was getting myself into.  I've written a lot of content over the years, but I've written it primarily for myself and the limited number of people who visit my blog.

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to join the Edmodo Featured Blogger Team.  There were five of us from around the world that were asked to post to the Edmodo blog once a week for the past ten weeks.  I was humbled by the opportunity to write alongside this amazing group of educators!

I've been overseeing the implementation of this secure educational social networking platform within our school division.  As a result, my posts provided a 'view from the district' and they were all related to various aspects of implementing Edmodo in our classrooms and schools.

Knowing that the readership of the Edmodo blog is significantly higher than the number of readers I see here, I really felt as though I had to pay close attention to the words I wrote.  I spent a great deal more time than I usually do reading and re-reading the sentences and paragraphs that I wrote, because it was important to me that each word was used for a reason...

In looking back over the ten posts that I submitted to the blog, I'm proud of my accomplishments.  I can see how I've grown and changed even over the last couple of months.  I find it fascinating to reflect on how my story over the last ten weeks unfolded as I built upon my preceding posts from one week to the next.    

I though it might be interesting to link to my Edmodo blog posts here, in the event that you're curious as to the story I've told.  If so, you may want to go top up your cup of coffee, find a comfy chair to curl up in and settle in from the beginning ;-)

• Week # 1 - getting started...
• Week # 2 - professional development...
• Week # 3 - it's all about connecting...
• Week # 4 - sharing 'pockets of innovation'...
• Week # 5 - technology infusion & the BYTE Challenge...
• Week # 6 - breathing new life into an old system...
• Week # 7 - why use Edmodo with your students?
• Week # 8 - spreading the word...
• Week # 9 - get out of the way...
• Week # 10 - the end, or a new beginning?

Thanks, Edmodo, for this amazing opportunity!

When Learning Becomes An Event

I had a fantastic week of connecting, sharing and learning with many colleagues from around the province of Manitoba as I attended the Riding The Wave conference out in Gimli. It's always a treat getting together face to face with like-minded educators, and I often find that (for me, anyway) some of the richest learning experiences take place between sessions as participants reflect over a cup of coffee and extend their own learning.

I was invited to present a couple of sessions at this year's conference. You'll find one of these two sessions below - 'When Learning Becomes An Event'. I've been thinking a lot about how I learn and how our students learn. This session proved to be an opportunity to take participants on a little journey to explore the idea of extending the learning by celebrating even the little things that happen in our classrooms and in our schools.

There's been so much talk in recent years about '21st Century Skills'. It's time for less talk and more doing. Teachers and students need to see tangible ways of incorporating social media into the teaching and learning that takes place in their classrooms.

If you just want to poke through my slidedeck, you can find it posted on Slideshare. However, I think you'll find that the content just isn't complete without the narrative. For that very reason, I recorded a screen capture of the actual presentation which you can watch right here...

If you're willing to take the time to view my presentation (about 70 minutes), I hope you'll take two extra minutes and post your own reflections, questions, comments, etc...

Making Our Learning Transparent

I had the opportunity to attend my second TEDx live event just a few short hours ago and my head is still spinning.  As I drove away from an amazing day of sharing, learning and networking at TEDxJuanDeFuca, my mind was reeling.  Such a diverse array of speakers and each of them rose to the occasion in a very big way.

I've been reflecting on each of the speakers I saw and I must say - they were all brilliant :-)

But I've also been thinking a lot about how I learn.
And how I make my learning transparent.
And how I learn best by sharing.

One of the ways we all learn best is through sharing.

Yesterday: I shared some of my learning through tweets and images.  I talked about my learning.
Today: I'm writing about what I've learned and how I learn.
Tomorrow - (or another day...) - I'll share my learning however and wherever I can.

How do you make your learning transparent?

The Safety Net

I fell off the horse months ago and made the mistake of not climbing on again right away.

I'm amazed at how easy it's been to ignore my blog and voice my thoughts, ideas & opinions elsewhere (in 140 characters or less).  All of the things I'd traditionally use my blog for have been replaced by micro-blogging - sharing current projects, highlighting resources, networking with colleagues.  I never intended to remain silent for so long on the blogging front, but I find some comfort in the fact that I'm not the only edublogger who's ever taken a little reprieve from publishing in this format.

But the time has come to break my blogging silence.  And the reason is simple.  I have a favour to ask of my professional learning network.  You are my social net and, in this case, I'm hoping that I can count on you as my safety net as well - in place to catch me if I fall ;-)

Image Credit: 'Greekadman'

In just a couple of days, Darren Kuropatwa and I are being put to the test.  We've been tasked with educating a live audience of 200+ for three hours on the opportunities and challenges that exist with social media in a classroom setting.  While we're thrilled about the prospect of taking this audience on a journey and challenging them to try new things and see new possibilities, we can't shake the fear of having our plans backfire.

That's where you come in - the social network, the professional learning network.  You see, we've structured the afternoon in such a way that our virtual attendees could get just as much out of participating as our live audience will.  In fact, with increased virtual participation, the participants in the room will get that much more out of their experience.

The entire afternoon will be streamed live over the web and you can catch the Livestream on the Create Faire website.  The focus for the afternoon will involve having participants work together to create content which, ultimately, could be re-purposed in any number of ways down the road.

We'll be encouraging participants to tweet throughout the afternoon using the hashtag #createfaire - this will serve as their feedback and provide them with an opportunity to voice their opinions or concerns.  Participants will be asked to tweet with the prompts 'I like...' or 'I worry...' with regards to the social media opportunities and challenges that are raised throughout the morning.  If we could have you tweeting with these same prompts, or using the #createfaire hashtag and engaging some of these Twitter newbies by pushing back a little, that would be fantastic :-)

A portion of the afternoon will involve participants (did I mention we'll have students in the room along with teachers & administrators...) using their mobile devices to snap some pictures and e-mail them in to us for inclusion in a collaborative slideshow.  All photos will be auto-tagged and licensed under a Creative Commons NC-AT-SA license.  We'd love to include your pictures as well - just send them to: 

did40use@photos.flickr.com

So, I've filled you in on the basics, but there's so much more in store for everyone who is part of Create Faire.  We'd love to have you take part in this event in some capacity.  

Please consider joining us virtually for Create Faire this Friday afternoon, March 11th, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm CST.  Darren and I are confident that (if everything works according to plan) this will be a professional learning experience unlike any these folks have ever had the opportunity to participate in before.  And, with your participation, it'll be that much more meaningful for everyone involved :-)

Please leave a comment if you'd like to participate virtually and I'll make sure that all relevent information is shared with you...

Pump Up The Volume

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53611153@N00/2337887067

 

 

 

No, this post isn't a tribute to the eclectic 80's band MARRS, although their tune was mighty catchy.  Those of you that know me likely assumed that this post had something to do with music, as I have been known to spend too much time and money on live music - but no, you won't find that in this post either ;-)

This post has grown out of some reflecting that I've been doing over the summer about media literacy and the increasing need to make sense of the wealth of information and content that we're bombarded with on a daily basis.  The times, they are a changin', and we need to really think about how we are preparing ourselves and our children to embrace these changes...

I haven't spent a whole lot of time at home this summer and my adventures have taken me through many diverse landscapes.  Through photography, I've tried to freeze all of these moments in time to preserve my memories of the places I've been and the people I've seen.  I've really played the role of a tourist well - I've had my camera by my side every step of the way. 

5 weeks & 4300 images later...

What do I have to show for all of these adventures?  Far too much to fill an old-school photo album.  But I do have plenty of material to create some captivating photo slideshows.  My wife has a tonne of quality images to use in her digital scrapbooking.  I can produce, upload & share videos of our adventures, or burn DVD's chronicling our summer holidays for family and friends.  All of these things require the use of the media that we've been acquiring along the way.

It hasn't always been this way...

You see, we got a new camera.  Our first digital SLR - a Canon Rebel XSi.  We've decided that although we're both amateur photographers, we're ready for more than we can get out of our standard point and shoot cameras.  My wife and I both love this new camera and we've done a great job of 'breaking it in' by shooting a tonne of photos.  But 4300 shots - really?  There's no need for that!  To me, this just exemplifies the way our lives are changing as a result of the media-rich culture in which we live, work & play.

Rewind about 13 years...

Image Source: http://sajidgidda.com/life/the-descent-of-the-photographer

This was it - my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica.  I fell in love with this camera instantly for the ease of use and convenience of seeing and sharing my photos instantly.  This was before memory cards & USB cables were commonplace.  All I did was insert a 3.5" floppy disk and start shooting pics.  I could get about fifteen photos onto a floppy disk before I had to eject it & copy the images onto my desktop computer but, hey, it worked.  I carried a stack of floppy disks in that camera bag anywhere I went because I knew I'd need them ;-)

Diluting an art form...

My wife's uncle is a professional photographer.  He's spent much of his life making a living through photography.  As much as I praised the merits of my Sony Mavica digital camera, he simply turned up his nose at it.  He sneered at the thought of digitizing photography.  I vividly remember a conversation we had before the turn of the century about how digital cameras were killing the art of photography.  According to him, digital photography ruined the art because anyone could take perfect pictures.  We set up our shots and snap our pics - if they don't turn out the way we want them, we try again.  We frame them a little differently, we capture our subject in a slightly different pose, or we change the lighting a bit.  The instant feedback that we get from shooting digital photographs can turn all of us into professionals by arming us with the ability to perfect the photos we capture.  This uncle resisted for many years and finally bought his first digital camera about five years ago.  Now, it's all he shoots with ;-)

The way it was...

Remember when you used to have to drop off your rolls of film at the 'photo finishing' store to get them developed?  You'd pick up your prints and excitedly open the envelope to see what you captured.  In most cases, you'd be delighted to find a few shots from a birthday party a few months back, a couple of pictures highlighting a family trip and a few photos featuring friends and family.  One little roll of film could span a few months of your life.  Now, we can easily shoot a hundred images in an afternoon...

The evolution of digital photography really reflects what's been happening with every aspect of technology.  It's crept into nearly every aspect of our lives and we see evidence of it everywhere we turn.  Through digital photography, we now chronicle our lives in far more detail.  Every little experience is captured and preserved.  And we have far better ways of sharing these images than simply tucking them away into albums and putting them up on a shelf.  But with this increased volume we have to have better means of 'filtering' the photos we capture and share.

We're still learning the filtering process.  We're looking for better ways of managing our digital photographs.  We need to find more effective ways of archiving our images so that they can be easily retrieved.  In most cases, we choose only a random sampling of our photos to share through sites like Flickr - so what do we do with all of the other images that don't get shared so publicly? 

Who teaches us how to do these things?  More importantly, who teaches our kids how to manage their digital artifacts?  These skills haven't traditionally been taught in our schools or our classrooms, but they need to be...

A Transformation

Over the weekend, I participated in a very powerful community celebration.  Approximately 250 people of all ages pitched in to transform a school's playground in one day.  This transformation will have a tremendously positive impact on the students who attend Brooklands School in Winnipeg, and the reach goes so far beyond the school itself - their re-designed school grounds will prove to be a focal point in the broader community for years to come.

The process of re-designing the Brooklands School playground has been months in the making.  The school principal, Rex Ferguson-Baird, worked tirelessly to secure grants, line up resources & assemble a dedicated team of volunteers to turn his concept into a reality.  Rex secured a grant through Let Them Be Kids, an organization that is dedicated to building one hundred new play structures a year in communities across Canada.  The $75,000 that Rex raised toward this project was matched by Let Them Be Kids, which meant that the school had the opportunity to spend $150,000 on this project.

Throughout the day, volunteers worked tirelessly to bring about a complete transformation of the school yard, including:

• two new play structures
• a butterfly garden
• removal of brush
• repair of existing baseball diamond
• beautification of gardens and planters

The school grounds were abuzz with activity, with teams of people turning Rex's vision into a reality. From the students and staff to the parents, grandparents and alumni, everyone played a role in bringing about this radical transformation.  Everyone had a part to play and they all did it with gusto.  The following images will provide some insight into what transpired throughout the day:




Not only did Let Them Be Kids support this project financially, they also promoted the redevelopment  of the Brooklands school grounds on their website.  Harnessing the power of technology, they featured live streaming video of the day's festivities on their website.  We had dozens of viewers from around the globe watching the action on uStream as it was unfolding in real time.  Not only could people participate at a distance, but we've also archived a great deal of content that was recorded throughout the day.  We conducted interviews with students, teachers, parents, administration, former principals and city councilors.  Highlights of the day can be accessed by scrolling down the LTBK uStream page.

In addition to snapping photos and assisting with the live video feed, I thought it would be interesting to create a time lapse video of a play structure being assembled throughout the day.  I set up a camera on the roof of the school and captured a photo every 30 seconds.  As you can see in the video clip below, there was a lot happening throughout the day - and it was only through the dedication and commitment of our tireless volunteers that we were able to pull it of.




The transformation that took place at Brooklands School on Monday is significant for a lot of reasons.

• It's a positive change that benefits everyone and will continue to do so for years to come
• It started with a vision and it could only be pulled off through hard work and dedication
• It's an attempt to rethink how we make the most use out of our spaces within schools
• Everybody got on board to turn this dream into a reality...

One of the things I've been mulling over since driving away from the school late Saturday afternoon is that this transformation is symbolic of a larger transformation that still needs to take place within our schooling system.  We know that there are many things that can be done to ensure that our schools are effective in creating learning environments that motivate and engage our students emotionally and intellectually.  We know that we must all work together to help bring about this change.  And we also know that everyone must be on board to turn this dream into a reality.

We pulled together over 200 people to transform a school's playground in one day.  That's radical.

How many people will we have to pull together to transform our schools so that they more suitably meet the needs of today's students?  And how long is this process going to take?

That's an even bigger challenge...

Bringing History To Life

Do yourself a favour and drop everything you're doing for the next eight minutes.  A friend and colleague just shared the following story that aired on CBC Radio this morning.

Matt Henderson is a Grade 5 teacher in Winnipeg, and he's engaging his kids in some amazing learning experiences.  He brings the curriculum to life in his classroom in very meaningful ways and, by doing so, he is developing a genuine love of learning within each and every one of his students.

I've watched Matt teach and seen the way the kids hang on his every word.  He puts tools in the hands of his students and encourages them to use these tools in interesting and innovative ways.  He challenges his students to really think about issues that affect them and he guides them toward answers to their questions...

The other day, Matt invited a guest speaker into his classroom to share stories with his students.  Mary Courchene visited his classroom to share her experiences from attending residential school.  This proved to be an opportunity that the students will never forget.

Sit back and have a quick listen to the lessons that were shared.

You can't find this in a textbook.

Dabbling With Data

Image: "I'm not keen to shift the blame"


To begin with - excuses... 

I've been neglecting this space a little as of late, and I have a few reasons I must share to justify my absence.

First of all, Blogger is no longer supporting the hosting of their blogs on custom domains.  I've hosted the TECH Talks blog on my own site, mckiel.ca, for a couple of years and kind of enjoyed the freedom to have my own piece of the pie.  Alas, all good things must come to an end, so I've finally rolled the content forward and now have a slightly less unique URL for the TECH Talks blog - 

http://andymckiel.blogspot.com

 If you're new to this blog - welcome!  If you're revisiting this blog following my delayed absence, you may want to re-subscribe to the blog on the right, as the feed may not behave as expected following the move...

Secondly, as seems to be the trend with several of the edubloggers whose thoughts, rants & ramblings I subscribe to, I've taken to condensing many of the ideas & information I used to share through this blog down to 140 characters or less.  Twitter has become the mortar in my PLN, and I find that it's often the first place I stumble upon news, trends & resources.  By the time I get around to browsing through my blog reader, I feel as though there's a lot of old news sitting there.  Through the people I follow on Twitter, I get links to new and noteworthy blog posts and I end up reading them as they're posted, not a week or two later through my RSS aggregator...

Thirdly, I sometimes question who actually sees the things I share here.  I'm not very well established in the blogosphere, and I really have no way to appreciate my reach.  Sure, I closely follow many bloggers - reading and commenting on their posts - giving back to my network.  But I don't have a lot of 'discussion' taking place on my blog.  Sure, I see some red dots popping up from across the globe on my clustrmap, but I sometimes question the value of saying things if there's no-one listening.  Audience matters & we all have a need to be heard.  In an era where collaboration is celebrated, we all want to feel connected and we value the conversations with (and feedback from) our peers.

And lastly, I've been kinda busy.  As is the case with educators everywhere, I occasionally feel the crunch from juggling too many projects and facing too many impending deadlines.  This sometimes leaves me struggling with what I share on this space.  I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I use my online spaces - I'm feeling the need to de-clutter and maximize the use of the online spaces that I have available.  I'm still in the process of re-thinking my primary vision for this space so that I can share things here with a little more clarity, rather than presenting a broad spectrum of ideas and information.

On that note, my current thought is that this space should be used to highlight and showcase some of the work that I'm currently involved with - projects & presentations - that sort of thing.  With that in mind, the following slidedeck was used to support a session that I presented and facilitated at the recent Riding The Wave of Change conference in Gimli, Manitoba.  Overall, this year's conference was fantastic, with lots of great sessions and opportunities to network and collaborate face to face with many members of my PLN :-)

Dabbling With Data

View more presentations from Andy McKiel.

If you're interested in finding out a little more about the focus of my presentation, you'll find a few more resources on the Dabbling With Data wiki that I utilized during my session to demonstrate the ability to embed Poll Everywhere polls and Google Forms surveys.  You'll also find links to a few tools that can be used to visualize data with (and for) your students.

Thanks for stopping by the TECH Talks blog :-)
I'll start writing here a little more frequently to provide you with a reason to come back soon!
Andy

TEDxOntarioEd - The Winnipeg Satellite Event

Looking forward to the upcoming TEDxOntarioEd event?

If you're anywhere near Winnipeg and would like to participate along with many other like-minded individuals, please register to attend this event in person.

Of course, you could take in most of the content while eating popcorn in your pajamas. However, you'll miss out on some of the rich virtual & F2F conversations that will be taking place at the Winnipeg Satellite event and many of the other TEDxOntarioEd Satellite events that are taking place synchronously around the world :-)

There is no cost to participate in this event.
And - we'll have refreshments & prizes!!!

Register now...

LISTEN - A Song Mosaic

Image: 'Megaphone' - http://www.flickr.com/photos/57498517@N00/158790381

My good friend and colleague is at it again - incorporating his love of composing and performing music into his teaching and the learning that takes place in his classrooms. I wrote about Ryan Miller several months ago (Rockin' The School Community) when he had written and recorded a song celebrating one of the schools in our division.

Ryan was recently the recipient of a provincial grant that enabled him to develop a project that focused on student engagement, student voice, social justice and the infusion of technology across the curriculum. He tied all of these themes together through music, by composing and recording a song that showcases lyrics that were contributed by individual students.

The result is LISTEN - check it out:

Ryan refers to LISTEN as a 'song mosaic', as it unites so many voices and important ideas in a very meaningful way. The collective and collaborative nature of this project serves to demonstrate the power of banding together to make a difference.

Thank you, Ryan, for allowing me to share this project in such a public way and for providing your students with such rich learning experiences. It will make a difference :-)

For more information about LISTEN, or to access the song/video where access to YouTube may be filtered, check out http://mckiel.ca/listen

Digital Artifacts & The Twitter Test

Last night, I had the opportunity to present a couple of sessions at ManACE's 'Making Connections' TIN. I've sat on the board of the Manitoba Association for Computing Educators for several years, and have had the opportunity to present many sessions and take in lots of great presentations through our Technology Information Nights (TIN's).

We host TINs around the province several times a year, and often have between 20 & 50 people in the room. The sessions that are presented often demonstrate the use of leading edge technologies, and I've always wanted to increase the profile of our TIN sessions to include even more participation from around the province and around the world.

This has led me to consider different ways of connecting with an audience, and I've played a pivotal role in pulling together some innovative events through ManACE over the last couple of years. Events like the Manitoba Edubloggercon and Awakening Possibilities have involved Skyping in presenters and uStreaming the content out over the intertubes so that we could engage our virtual audience and impact more than just the people who were in the room.

These events have given birth to several other events taking place within the province, like Windows To The World last spring and, more recently, the Media Literacy event that Manitoba Education Citizenship and Youth (MECY) and the Manitoba Association for Computing Educators (ManACE) organized as Manitoba's contribution to our national Media Literacy Week celebrations.

Through these events, and through my affiliations with the ManACE Board and membership, I've had the opportunity to collaborate with many amazing educators. I've learned a lot from my network and, I'd like to think, I give back to my network in many different ways. I think that one of the greatest strengths of planning and delivering sessions as described above is that all of the content is archived on the web. This allows for professional learning opportunities to take place anytime and anywhere. These digital artifacts that have been created will continue to impact the educators who stumble upon them (or actively seek them out) for many years to come. We're leaving a legacy of learning online so that educators can continue to reap the benefit over time.

On that note, several people were hoping to attend last night's ManACE TIN but were unable to be there in person. I had several requests to uStream the presentations so that they could participate from a distance. I wanted to make the content available to a virtual audience, but we didn't have the time or resources to pull it together on short notice. But it got me thinking about how I could archive the presentation in a different way. I thought about whipping out my Flip Mino HD to capture the sessions. Instead, I opted for trying out a little experiment.

For the last couple of years, I've been dabbling with an application on my Mac called Screenflow. It's a very powerful app for creating polished screencasts, and you can also capture external audio and video at the same time. I wanted to try capturing the presentation as it appeared for the folks who were in the room & record the audio to accompany the presentation.

All I had to do was click record the content of the session, then stop the recording at the end. When I got home, I opened the recording in Screenflow, exported it to Quicktime (coincidentally, it's only 66mb for 33 minutes of footage...) and uploaded it to Vimeo. I chose Vimeo over YouTube simply because not as many school divisions block/filter access to Vimeo.

It took no time or expertise to crop, render or encode the video. Just a couple clicks of a button and I was done. I'm extremely impressed with the ease of capturing this presentation, and am happy to say that it has now been archived and made available for your viewing pleasure :-)

BuildingYourPLN from Andy McKiel on Vimeo.

Due to the ease of capturing and sharing this presentation, I plan to adopt this technique a little more often over the coming weeks and months. I'd love to hear examples of how other educators create and share digital artifacts :-)

Outta This World!

This morning I got to be part of something very cool - connecting a handful of high school students with Dr. Robert Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut who is currently orbiting earth aboard the International Space Station.

This was an incredible experience for everyone involved, and a moment that will live on forever in the minds of these students.

Dr. Thirsk graduated from John Taylor Collegiate here in Winnipeg, so this was a very unique home-coming celebration. In fact, Dr. Thirsk made reference to his high school chemistry teacher, George Bush (no, not that George Bush...), who was actually in attendance this morning. Must be nice to re-connect with your former students when you can see how far they've come ;-)

Each of the students who participated in this event had the opportunity to ask questions of Dr. Robert Thirsk. You can have a listen to the entire audio content here:



This event was attended by some local media, so I would expect to see some coverage in the local newspaper (Winnipeg Free Press) as well as on television (CBC News).

This was an experience that I won't soon forget. I just wish I had enriching opportunities like this as I made my own way through high school years ago :-)