Ossewho??

OSSEMOOC! (Ontario School and System leaders Educational technology Massive Open Online Community)  

While MOOCs have been around since 2008 they became more widely heard of starting around 2012. A little over a year ago in Ontario OSAPAC (Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee) was looking for a way to help leaders in education keep up with all the changes in technology.  The answer was a MOOC or as @markcarbone and @dfryed describe it an... 'Awesome MOOC'.  It has been very popular with several of our principals. Here's a video to further explain just what a MOOC is....

While I haven't yet participated in a MOOC, nor do I know of many that have, I do recognize that they are here to stay.  Online? Free?  Hmm, something to put on my 'need to check it out list'. Will it be on yours?

Professional Learning Favourites

In 10 days I'll be making the drive from Kitchener up to the Kempenfelt Conference Centre near Barrie.  It has become a tradition over the years to save a few days in August for some intense yet casual, immersed yet floating, technology engagement. Our board, WRDSB, sponsors a CATC Camp each year. The philosophy has been that of Open Space Technology.  Some call it the Law of Two Feet.  You find a 'room' (or couch area or picnic table etc.) where facilitators are focusing on a particular area of learning such as websites, iPads, Coding, Social Media or whatever you request. You stay if you want to, you move when you need to.  It's a little like the EdCamp opportunities of the past few years only far more hands on. It's for all teachers, K-12, at any level, beginner to expert. Teachers make plans or projects for their year or just learn something new. Here I am leading a group of beginners to iPads in the lounge area of a rustic lodge right by the waterfront.  As a facilitator, I am on hand to answer, lead, suggest, and support but I also end up with my own personal development.  We have a 1:3ish ratio of leader to camper so there are many, many experts available as our camper numbers have traditionally been over 100.  Those tub chairs have heard many shared stories, ideas and networking plans developed over the years.  Recently, we have started inviting Keynote speakers, we have been fortunate to have had Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Doug Peterson and George Couros. The best part is that they stay after their presentation and chat or help out, either formally in the designated areas, or down by the campfire at night sharing stories. By far it has been the site of the best professional learning I've experienced.  I recommend that other boards check out this unique program. 
Once the school year gets rolling, I look to other conference or online activities to keep me up to date and active in the ever evolving digital world.  It wouldn't be hard to engage in professional learning everyday and here are 8 of my reasons why.

1) Twitter - find a group of leaders and follow, follow, follow.  Also find a time of day set aside just for checking the latest tweets.
2) Zite - an app that filters by subject, articles of interest
3) ECOO - Elementary Computing Organization of Ontario - in particular the BiT conferences. November
4) ETFO offers a wide range of Professional Development -  I like the ICT conferences (Spring) and the Summer Academy workshops.
5) OTF Connects - throughout the school year, varied online webinars 
6) Cybraryman - a very robust lineup of EdChats all year round 
7) Find an educator such as Kathy Schrock who has an everything you ever need website!
8) Google - when I'm stuck and need an answer quick, I Google it.  Chances are good that someone else has had the same problem and has either shared a written answer or made a video!

So, unless my WiFi goes down, I can learn something new everyday.  And even if it did, there's nothing like a good tub chair and chat.

"Why School?" How About... "Why Assess?"

http://goo.gl/HDhKf1

"Remaking assessment starts with this: Stop asking questions on tests that can be answered by a Google search. Or, if you have to ask them, let kids use their technology to answer them." (page 34)

Will Richardson states this in his 2012 book 'Why School' and my online course group came to this conclusion a few times in the last few weeks even without his writing as a prompt. So now what? What kind of testing is 'good testing'? Is there such a thing? At what age should students be 'allowed' to google their answers? If we remake assessment what effect does that have on our rankings worldwide? Should we care? What do we really need our students to be able to do? Do we need to assess children at all???? What came first...school or testing? These chicken and eggs need to be set free! Here's what Alfie Kohn thinks, and here's some more, what do you think?

The Teacher's 21st Century Toolkit - Assessment Specialties

Teachers often ask, "How can I use technology to assess my students?" There is no quick answer for that one.  I think teachers picture themselves walking around the room with a handheld device and effortlessly clicking away, a few seconds a student, for perfect record keeping.  Actually you can do that, but you first need to examine what your learning goals were, decide what devices you have available and think about the result you would like to have.  Is it a spreadsheet, anecdotal comments, captured video, captured written response or perhaps audio recordings?  As with students, teachers must ask themselves, what is the best program to meet my needs?  Below is a Prezi with 5 varied applications that were either specifically designed for assessment or can be adapted for evaluation purposes.  I'm not a huge fan of the Prezi app (I get dizzy easily, and the element placement layout and linking can make me crazy) but I thought it might be a nice change and would adequately hold my examples.  Use the arrows and click on the links for student examples.  Hope you find something of interest! 

"What did you do at school today?"

'Here mom, let me show you.'  Student pulls out their iPad, uses the short cut icon to open up their Google Apps for Education account and proudly shows their presentation.  'I worked on my passion project with my friend Wehbet today.'  We want to tell everyone about her family's culture.  It's a slideshow that we want to use at the Multicultural night next fall.'

 
Well, I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but that's basically how the mother of this student described it to me when we had a chat at the end of the year.  She also mentioned that most of the year was like that. Whenever she wanted to know what was going on in class her daughter could just grab a device, log on and show her finished projects, works in progress, rubriks, or a checklist like this one that was assigned earlier in the year.  She also commented on how amazing it was to see my comments (as in the image above) right on the work.  For this generation of parents it is quite amazing for them to witness the advancements of technology through their children's classwork.  As stated in Growing success, 'The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning.'  Through 21st century tools such as Google Apps, families can now see one of the fundamental principles (ongoing descriptive feedback), in action.  Through tools such as revision history and comment features, the development of a student's work has been captured online and is an evolving story of their learning. For me as the teacher, it has changed how I see students as learners.  Sometimes it is like I can be standing over the shoulder of all of them at the same time and watch them think through decisions.  I can use the Revision tool mentioned above and relive their organizational process when developing the project. I can replay the editing steps they went through or didn't!  I can see how much time they spend on task or how frequently.  But most of all, I can be a part of the process with them and give feedback without drawing red lines through their work or circling errors like many of us experienced from teachers when we were younger.
I don't know if all my students gave the same answer at home when asked about their day, but I do know that they all could and that's kind of amazing.

Summary of WRDSB Special Education Supports

Special Education Support across WRDSB follows a vision statement, "Inspired Learners – Tomorrow’s Leaders, the board strives to provide educational opportunities that encourage all students to develop their individual potential in the most enabling environment. When a student’s optimal learning potential is affected by behavioural, communicative, intellectual or physical exceptionalities, special education support is required." page 14, WRDSB Special Education Plan.  This 189 page document provides extensive descriptions and definitions for all Special Education services in our board. Below is a select summary of those supports and their availability to students.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Will Richardson asks good questions.

A question from Will Richardson's book, 'Why School?' page 34,  "With few exceptions, all the things our children are using to connect and learn outside the classroom - social media, cell phones, Internet connections - are banned inside classrooms. In my kid's case, school is the only place in their lives where they can't use the technology they carry around in their pockets and backpacks to answer questions. The only place. Why is that?" 

This was written 3 years ago. Is there an answer? Has anything really changed in that time?  

https://goo.gl/cgA9Yj