Welcome
February 1, 2011 in Uncategorized
Welcome to SCDSB Networked Learning. For information about this site and account information please see the page “Introduction to this site“.
by Jim Carleton
Join Eco Journalist Emily Hunter Live
May 14, 2012 in Collaboration Opportunities
On May 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm EST, join environmental activist Emily Hunter as she speaks to students across North America on how they can make a personal difference in saving the environment. Learn more about this interactive “Bring the World to Your Classroom” webinar event by visiting www.gofrontrow.com/world
Do not worry that the closing date for registering is May 14th nor whether or not you have a Frontrow system. Frontrow is now opening up this event to all.
For mor information please contact Jim Carleton – jcarleton@scdsb.on.ca
Poster to help teens make decisions about posting pictures online
May 11, 2012 in Tools for Educators
This poster may spark some conversations in class.
Empowered by a pen (post by guest student blogger)
May 4, 2012 in Classroom Examples
Katie Kemp, a teacher at WH Day has been using Livescribe pens in her classroom as part of a pilot project. Just recently, a student of hers, Shaq, got a pen as part of his SEA equipment. Shaq wanted other teachers to know how the pen has empowered him in the classroom and wrote the following post. Thank you Shaq and your family for agreeing to share your story.
I am a grade 7 student and my teacher has been using livescribe pens with us. I have used one many times and I think it’s great. I use livescribe for anything, math, science ,history. Even when I’m done my work I can use an app called piano that’s really fun. Apps are the best. You can get apps when you hook it up on a computer or when you are on the menu. My favorite app is translate. You take the pen and say or write something in any language and it will say it back to you in the different language and tell you how to spell it. In math, if you use something like ICE (illustrate calculate explain), you can draw with the pen, then it calculates, then explain with your voice if you don’t like writing it down or your hand just feels tired. You can use it for a history project if you do it at home or
ever need to send it anywhere you can use imail or if you have a Google account. The livescribe pen helps me put things in my head onto the page. It can help any student and it will help for so much more in highschool when I just can’t get stuff on the page and I’m so frustrated. I just use my voice, no problem. If you want it to bring home or just want one to play around with and use for you own purposes, it only like 90 bucks and so worth it. Livescribe helps me out and it can help you and your students out too.
Live streaming from the classroom
May 1, 2012 in Classroom Examples
Over the past few weeks I’ve witnessed two very different uses of live streaming in the classroom. Live streaming is a live video feed that folks can watch from their computers on the internet.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to Park Street to help live stream an event. They were doing a SLAM festival (how cool is that?). The students from an English, a Writers Craft, a Physics and a Drama class all worked together and created SLAM poetry. On the day they held the festival they wanted parents to be able to join in and watch. So, we set up an adobe connect room (a website) and turned our web cam and microphone on. From there parents could join the room. Someone monitored the adobe connect room chat box to chat with parents and answer questions while the SLAM fest was going on. We ran into a few technical difficulties, but in the end it worked. Parents were in the chat room. They really appreciated being able to take some time from their day at work to jump online and watch their student perform. They got a glimpse into the classroom.
And, now, just five minutes ago I got the message “AWESOME…. chicks hatching… live stream”. Mali Bickley and Cindy Beveridge from Fieldcrest have set up a live stream of chicks hatching in the kindergarten classroom at Fieldcrest. Its happening after hours and students and parents want to be able to see it happen. Now they can do it from their house if they have the internet. Mali and Cindy are using a computer with a webcam and a free product called ustream (http://www.ustream.tv/). They have embedded the live stream into Cindy’s blog so parents and children (and nosey ICT consultants) just have to go there to watch. I hear that they are also trying to get time lapse pictures of the whole ordeal as well so they can create a time lapse video after. Can’t wait to hear how that works out!
Have you ever used a live stream in the classroom? There are lots of things to think about, like parent permission of the students about to be streamed online (chickens make it easy – they don’t require permission). Other things to consider include whether or not there will be a social aspect. If there is a chat room built into whatever product you are using, who will be monitoring it? Will bandwidth (internet speed) be an issue? How will you share the link or video stream location? Do you need a live stream? What is the purpose? So many things to think about. I find it neat that these two examples are on opposite ends of the age spectrum. Kindergarten and Grade 12. 
Contact Info:
Tom Johnson (Park Street)
Cindy Beveridge (Fieldcrest) - http://cbeveridge.edublogs.org/
Mali Bickley (Field crest) - http://dreamteam5.edublogs.org/
Mobile devices for learning on Guest Wireless
April 20, 2012 in Tools for Educators
While our board doesn’t support iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPods), because it simply isn’t feasible to support every type of device from a technological point of view (it would result in less devices able to be supported in total and that isn’t good for any of us ), we have an amazing guest wireless system in every single school. Many schools have been asking how they can make use of the devices that students are showing up at school with. These devices are often iPod touches or iPhones. Many teachers also have iPhones that they would love to put to good use in their classroom.
In response to an email conversation I was having today with some great teachers, I had come up with a list of free or cheap iOS apps that I’ve seen in use in classrooms. I figured that I could share here and then hope that others would add in the comment section about other apps they are using. In particular, I’d LOVE to hear about ANDROID apps that you’ve used. I don’t have my own android phone or device and therefore get very few chances to play with one. I’d love to learn more about how those devices (which I’m sure can do everything my iPhone can do) work. I watched a teacher at Minds on Media yesterday do the entire session from his Android phone. It was great. It also made me feel like I’ve some learning to do in that area
Thanks for sharing – here are some apps that I know of. Please add in the comments section!
1. edmodo – you can access edmodo.com from any web browser, but there is a free app for that. Edmodo is like Facebook, but for class. kids can’t talk to each other in the back without you knowing, you can make quizzes on it, take polls, post pics, video, docs, etc. A great place for discussion. You can also give out parent codes and make a group for parents. 
2. dragon dictate – free – you talk to it, it takes what you say and types it into text for you. you copy and paste it into what you need (email, doc, message, edmodo post, etc.)
3. evernote – free – evernote.com is a great free website that you can access from any device from a browser or from apps. you can store notes, docs, images, video, etc. check out the website for quick videos. you can make a shared folder with each kid if you wanted to to put their work and notes (like portfolio). Or, you could make a shared folder for the entire class to share where kids each put notes from topics or projects into so that they could all access them. lots of ideas with evernote.
4. Skype – free – bring in experts to your class to teach
5. adobe connect -free – connect to experts or other classes (ex. have two kids in one class working on a project with 2 kids in another class). adobe connect can be accessed from any device as well. there are apps for that or using a web browser
6. dropbox – free – dropbox.com – make a class folder and share it with everyone – you can all submit docs to it and read the others. great place to store handouts and for kids to submit work. check out their website for video tutorials
7. camera apps – such as instagram, photo synth, camera+ – to take pictures and quickly edit or adapt for projects
8. stop motion or movie apps – most have small fee – to make videos for class projects – iMovie, frameograph, iMotion HD, etc.
9. bump – free – you can tap each others iPhones or any device (android) that has a bump app and share contact info or files
10. audioboo – free – you can record audio and have it automatically post to a blog. great for class updates (students create a quick 2 minute update on what they did that day, it auto posts to a blog and parents can listen when they want (or kids that miss class). Audioboo.fm is also accessible by any web browser
11. garage band – $4.99 – expensive – you can create music using drum beats, guitar, piano, voice, etc.
12. SFE Mobile – free – this is just for teachers, its SCARRI (enter in your staff number and scarri password and you can do online supply calling from the app)
13. TED – free – all the TED talk videos – inspirational, educational, awesomeness
14. NFB – free national film board of canada independent videos
15. animoto -free (make sure you go to animoto.com and register for an upgrade to an educational account) – create videos from pictures you’ve taken and add in headings and music
16. vimeo – free – like youtube – you can upload videos to the site to share with the world. also has some limited video editing in the app – great because its free. take video with your phone, edit it in vimeo and post it online to share
17. simple mind – free – mind mapping or concept mapping
18. adobe photoshop express – free – photo editing
19. Speak iT! – $1.99 – takes text and says it out loud
20. blogging apps – free – examples: wordpress, posterous – if you are getting your students to write blog posts they can do it from their phones (note: a posterous blog lets you write a blog post from an email so a kid with ANY device that can send email can write a blog post from their phone and email it to be posted
21. pencasts – free – this is for any teacher using Livescribe Pens in their classroom – the can posts pencasts and kids can watch them from their phones
22. voicethread -free – this is a great tool for classrooms – voicethread.com (make sure to apply for the free educator upgrade). You upload images or video or docs and the you can write on them and leave voice recordings. There is a free app for that and then any other device can access voicethread.com from a browser
23. socrative – free – go to secretive.com for information, but it allows you to as a teacher to create questions (multiple choice and short answer) and then kids can access and answer them (like clickers) from any device (from web browser or app).
24. converter apps – free – to convert units of measure
25. quick graph – free – graph things
26. Livebinders (IPAD ONLY… not for iPhones or iPads) – version of livebinders.com for the iPad.
27. scoop.it – iphone/ipod app – same functionality as the scoop.it website – you can bring in feeds and share resources and have your resources show up in a great format (looks like a magazine)
28. google – free – you can do voice google searches and access your google docs from here
by K Varey
Livescribe Pens
April 17, 2012 in Uncategorized
The staff at Brechin P.S. have been using Livescribe Pens as a technology tool in our classrooms since September 2011. We have compiled a list of ways that we have used the pens in our classrooms:
USING THE LIVESCRIBE PEN IN THE CLASSROOM
General Uses
- understanding student misconceptions and new understandings
- providing self, peer and teacher feedback
- problem solving in small groups
- recording/writing tests and assessments (PM Benchmarks & CASI)
Literacy
- guided reading stations: reading response group answers
- writing stations: (group or individual) allow students to write/record and hear it back. Does this make sense?
- poetry group write (teachers can listen to what input each member was contributing as the problem solving process involved)
Numeracy
- problem solving (group or individual) – students can record written work and oral thinking
- project on a screen or on blogs sample math work
- self, peer and teacher feedback opportunities
Special Education
- diagnostic and summative assessments for writing but mostly reading
- create an interactive dictionary/word wall where students can press on the word to hear the word, an example and use in a sentence
- character trait chart where students can press the pen on the word in a list to hear it read to them
- students can read daily or nightly on the pen without the stigma of reading aloud and the teacher can listen and give feedback right on the pen
Using Google Docs with your class
April 11, 2012 in Tools for Educators
Here is a quick video about how to use google docs with your class to support collaborative note taking or document creation. If you have any questions please give me a shout!
Supports for using Frames4
April 3, 2012 in Tools for Educators
Frames4 is a great program that can be used for digital storytelling, stop motion animation and creating videos. Here are a series of video supports created to support teachers and students in using the tool.
Byng uses google docs to make the 3-part math lesson interactive with Cameron Street
March 27, 2012 in Classroom Examples
Post by: Patty Fedorco, pfedorco@mail1.scdsb.on.ca
Adding technology to facilitate and enhance the 3-Part Math Lesson became a part of our second focus for the Junior/Intermediate division’s TLCP back in January. Having freshly come back from the board’s Professional Development course on utilizing The Teacher Notebook in Math, I had just been introduced to Google docs, more specifically Google Presentations and decided to try this piece of technology to meet the goals of our TLCP.
I had already been using the class blog (http://pfedorco.edublogs.org/) to post the minds on activity and selected 6 different students daily to complete the task on the blog while others completed the task on a white board. This blogging enabled the students to take what they were learning home. At times, I would have students add to a question from home with the help of their parents. This provided an opportunity for parents to see first hand what their children were learning at school.
Adding Google docs to the blogging of the minds on activity would be an extension of this interactive web approach. My end goal was to have my class and another class from Cameron Street Public School complete a 3-part math lesson at the same time from their own locations having the ability to see what the other school was doing.
We began the lesson with the minds on activity on my blog, discussed the postings by approving the comments along the way and then commenced the Big Ideas portion. By creating a direct link from my blog to the Google doc presentation link and sharing the link so that anyone could edit it as long as they had the link, each school had easy access to the document. If you would like to check out the links head to http://pfedorco.edublogs.org/ and browse the links named Cyber Connecting Cameron and Byng. Both Ms. Lougheed and I presented the presentation at the same time. The presentation was organized in a way that each class had a group number and a slide to complete the task on. The organization consisted of a slide for Cameron Street, followed by a slide for Byng. This allowed for the students from opposite schools to see how each group was tackling the task. This was a live feed and groups were organized in a way that each member had a role either on the computer or on a whiteboard calculating. Talk was very accountable and having the Task slide and learning goals up on a projector really helped students stay engaged and on track. We have kept the links up so that parents may review and reflect on the task with their children.
Since the cyber connecting with Cameron Street, my class has continued to use the on-line edit availability with Google documents. While away at our 3 day overnight, the students who stayed back at school completed several math tasks from the class blog. Since these tasks were on the web, I was able to communicate with my students on the blog and right on the presentation link. In the future, we hope to take this one step further and have a live video feed between the 2 schools.
by Mali Bickley
Environmental Project- Deforestaction
March 23, 2012 in Collaboration Opportunities
Any teachers interested in an amazing on line event? Learn about Deforestation and connect with Eco Warriors in Borneo.
DeforestACTION Live Event – March 2012.
On March 28th, join us for an exciting DeforestACTION live event! We will take you deep into the heart the Borneo jungle to connect with orangutans, hear from Dr. Willie Smits and the Eco Warriors about the work they are doing with the Masarang Foundation, and speak with other youth and schools around the world taking action to stop deforestation. Register now: www.tigurl.org/march2012
