BLC18

Digital tools bring with them an explosion of possibility for learning, especially with young children. In this session we will explore meaning-making in forms that are more relevant to the way we think and play in the real world. The first half of the session will aim to approach digital tools from a literacy lens, we will create digital texts to learn and understand what types of thinking should be highlighted when using each platform. In the second half of the session we will take a look at coding and computational thinking as a literacy in the 21st century. By taking on challenges and creating games of your very own, you will walk away from the session with a better understanding of how coding can work for your little ones! Come prepared to make, create, and engage because just like in early childhood, we are going to learn through DOING! 

Reading to self, reading to someone, working on words, writing and
listening to reading are all important parts of any literacy program. The two
sisters have given us a wonderful framework with their Daily Five model. How can iPads make this structure even better? We’ll explore apps, tools and methods that can help you take advantage of this powerful learning tool.

How do we find and cultivate our inspiration and true engagement, leading us to create and innovate?
Is it ingenuity over automation, empathy over disconnection? What defines us is what sets us apart from the machines, even as we build them—and, it’s these traits that will become increasingly important as we embrace new technologies and ways of approaching everything from data analysis to problem-solving to creative expression.

This session looks into the design and flourishing of our greatest assets. In the Age of AI, what makes us human becomes all the more essential, critical to our communication, creativity and true consequence. We’ll blend in storytelling, VR, robotics, design and mindfulness as we step through the looking glass into animated wonderlands that illuminate our innovative perspectives as creative learners.

Even young students can have digital portfolios that allow them to reflect and record their learning. They, too, want an audience and feedback beyond their teacher’s comments. We’ll discuss the why’s, the what’s and the how’s and look at the best hosts currently available.

Teachers and administrators struggle to find time to work together in a meaningful way. There are plenty of meetings scheduled. Many teachers leave these meetings though with the feeling of “could have spent my time doing more important things”. How do we squeeze in one more meeting to help teachers grow as professionals? How do we add one more opportunity for teachers to learn important new skills, listen to one more educational consultant, one more expert on a new initiative? How do we give teachers the time to learn with and from their own colleagues? How can teachers learn from what is going on in the classroom next door?

In this session, we will take a closer look at:

-Why build a PD hub for your school?
-The challenges
-The characteristics
-The steps to take as you are developing a professional development hub for your school

How can you embed professional and personalized learning across a school for all stakeholders? In this session, you will learn how one school leader empowered her staff to lead the learning in one middle school. Through a shared vision, teachers transformed their instruction into a personalized learning model embedding Project Based Learning and Performance Assessment in their classrooms. You will learn about creating a strategic plan for your school aligned with Division and/or District Goals. Key elements will include how to empower your teachers, students, and community members in the journey of educational transformation resulting in deeper learning for all students.

​We contain multitudes. ​From real life to virtual worlds, modern mindful presence is all about choice and voice, encompassing curiosity​, multiplicity​ and self-awareness. We are constantly faced with the question of how to "be present”—to connect in a meaningful way.
This workshop looks at three prime focus areas: mindfulness, design thinking and storytelling.

We’ll talk about the “how” and the “why” of using practices in mindfulness and presence, as well as how technology such as virtual reality can be incorporated, to sharpen awareness, focus, creativity and design. We (as well as our ideas!) are inter-related, thriving in a network of connections, and many different layers of meaning and context.

Best of all, those of us who are “hacks and hackers”, problem-solvers and designers, adopt solutions-based approaches that keep our own minds empathetic and flexible. We begin to see, quite truly, that no human is an island. The advantage of mindful awareness and connection is core to “Mindful by Design”, with leadership, voice, and interrelated systems in focus, as we cultivate innovative mindsets.

Towards the end of the second decade of the 21st century, we are continuing to experience the exponential growth of information and technology tools that allow us to collaborate, work and learn with people around the world. Understanding the importance of information and network literacy, including network intelligence, capabilities and the ability to craft your own network identity is more important than ever.
This concept of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) has been around for many years. What has changed though is the reach, the size and the availability of that network.
Your PLN is no longer tied to your geographic location, nor specific times, when you can travel to conferences or workshops. You no longer work and learn in isolation. Your PLN is customized as:
-it filters the vast information available and pushes what interests you
- you choose who is part of your network
-you decide when and how to access and use it
In this session you will learn about building your own PLN by:
- Creating a Twitter account
- Start branding yourself as a professional educator
-Connecting with people who share your interests and who will push your thinking
-Curating and disseminating resources for yourself and others
- Creating your own content

Many of us only know of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through pop culture and SciFi movies, although it's already all around us. A recent Forbes article talked about the shift that will occur when Machine Learning and AI take over processing mundane and repetitive tasks and require humans to perform high-value tasks that require strategic thinking, creativity, and ethics. This is a version a student co-presentation at New York Academy of Medicine and SXSWEdu with student voice representing perspective from Generation Z and experts in the AI industry. The goal of education needs to shift to prepare for an unknown workforce by educating students to assess in multiple modalities, transfer learning outside of purely learning content, and knowing how to adapt various situations.

In today’s connected world, it’s no longer a question of whether or not students are going to be using a device; it’s about supporting students to create, reason, and connect responsibly. In this presentation meet LivBit and hear how crafting a digital identity gives deeper purpose to her literacy journey. 
This presentation will deepen teacher understanding of digital identity, use of social media as a tool for learning, and contextualize guided practice as a construct when supporting students digital lives.  Presenters are confident participants will learn useful digital strategies to use with their students; understand how student stories inspire ideas and incite a larger purpose for learning; and consider new digital entry points for teaching.

The workshop will highlight how we used and adapted the Technology Together model to implement several large scale technology initiatives in our school board (LBPSB). Our successes/challenges will be discussed and the program materials with over 70 resources (surveys, checklists, pd activities, etc.) will be given to the workshop participants. Professional development for technology integration can be challenging for many reasons, not least of which are rapidly changing technologies and the varying levels of ICT competencies within a school. “Technology Together’ is a research based model that originated in Australia, and at it’s core “fosters a school-wide culture of collaboration and support” while helping individual teachers to develop positive attitudes toward ICT. Participants will learn how the metacognitive approach of this professional development program can with used with any technology initiative (1 to 1, iPads, Chromebooks, BYOD, etc.) in any setting from K through university levels.

Building upon the Maker and STEAM movements, this presentation demonstrates how students can design, build, code and exhibit interactive electronic art projects in a course that fuses art and technology. Students use microcontrollers to learn to construct circuits with sensors to create visual and performing art projects. This session shows the process students use integrate problem-solving, building with different materials, constructing electronic circuits and computer programing.