STAO / Ontario Ministry of Education - Connecting teachers through inquiry exploration in an online community.
Making connections with teachers.
I have been asked to be a coach for an Ontario Ministry of Education funded project through STAO (science teachers association of Ontario). Working with the Achieving Excellence document www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/renewedvision.pdf The Ontario Ministry of Education has decided that not only would this document be created but it would bring learning to teachers from K-12 across Ontario. This summer I worked on creating inquiry units based on science / technology / FNIM for the FDK level, which are currently posted on the connexstao.ca website. The second part of this project was to connect teachers across the board via monthly online chats, voice thread and google chat to communicate, share, and learn in implementing inquiry into their classrooms. I have been offered the privilege to lead the FDK and primary teachers a group of 17 through this year long learning journey. By connecting with these few selected teachers from 8 different boards I hope that these teachers will share their learning with other teachers within their teaching communities. By making these important connections, provide a safe online community to share, collaborate, question and define our educational practices the goal of the project is to make change within the overall teaching practices of teachers across Ontario. Teachers meet on November 12 & 13 face to face in Toronto to begin this online learning with almost all 105 teachers eager to be apart of this initiative . I am very excited to use what I have learned in the digital literacy course as well as other M.Ed courses to bring a personal connection to our group and to engage these talented adult educations in this online community.
I have been asked to be a coach for an Ontario Ministry of Education funded project through STAO (science teachers association of Ontario). Working with the Achieving Excellence document www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/renewedvision.pdf The Ontario Ministry of Education has decided that not only would this document be created but it would bring learning to teachers from K-12 across Ontario. This summer I worked on creating inquiry units based on science / technology / FNIM for the FDK level, which are currently posted on the connexstao.ca website. The second part of this project was to connect teachers across the board via monthly online chats, voice thread and google chat to communicate, share, and learn in implementing inquiry into their classrooms. I have been offered the privilege to lead the FDK and primary teachers a group of 17 through this year long learning journey. By connecting with these few selected teachers from 8 different boards I hope that these teachers will share their learning with other teachers within their teaching communities. By making these important connections, provide a safe online community to share, collaborate, question and define our educational practices the goal of the project is to make change within the overall teaching practices of teachers across Ontario. Teachers meet on November 12 & 13 face to face in Toronto to begin this online learning with almost all 105 teachers eager to be apart of this initiative . I am very excited to use what I have learned in the digital literacy course as well as other M.Ed courses to bring a personal connection to our group and to engage these talented adult educations in this online community.
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Affinity spaces
When I was working on my presentation for online communities and affinity spaces I was thinking of gaming communities. Thomas kept sharing his interest in StarTrek and that online affinity space and the neat gadget he bought for his phone for only 0.99$ that transformed his blackberry into a 1960's transponder. He was having so much fun with this. The joy a simple toy can bring. When I was doing this journal I was thinking of these spaces differently. How had I used these spaces? How had my family used these spaces? Then I remembered my daughter Alina doing these online youtube talks when she was at St Mary's in Halifax doing a degree in business / marketing. She would talk about her love of makeup, make-up applications, where the best deals were, coupon options. She started this for fun but her followers or community grew. Finally companies were sending to her products to talk about. She had so much fun with this project and I just wanted to share it here. This is one of her shorter videos that I thought I would share. |
In the news... November 14, 2015
The World becomes Connected within moments
In my two other journal entries the topics have been fun, engaging and entertaining. Last night however our world became connected through digital literacy in a much more real and profound way. The bombings in Paris France once again united the world. Within seconds the world knew of the fate of innocent individuals and could infer through this communication the direction of our global community on this event. We were connected as one by the instantaneous communication network that we have been afforded in these times. Love ones could communicate to rest their minds at ease or could learn the horrible truth of the moment.
The Guardian created a live blog where individuals could post information and their thoughts. Here are some of the early posts on the blog
www. theguardian.com/world/paris-attacks
5:20am - Paris prosecutor says attack death toll is likely to top 120
5:36 am - Paris attack kills more than 120 people as it happens.
5:44 am - Amateur footage from Stade de France attack shows panic during explosion
6: 06 am - Malcolm Turnball says Paris attack as hallmark of an Isis operation.
How the world is responding
Brook Fisher Liu from the University of Maryland has been researching how individuals use social media during traumatic times. She defines this usage like this...
" During natural disasters people tend to use social media for four interrelated reasons; checking in with family and friends, obtaining emotional support and healing, determining disaster magnitude and providing firsthand disaster account" (Reddy, 2013).
In light of the bombing in France Facebook has set up a page for people looking for loved ones at https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/paris_terror_attacks
Elton John instagrammed Martin Luther King's quote.... " Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ( (telegraph, 2015))
The following quote demonstrates how social media and digital literacy is connecting the world through text, video and music is this tweeted message, "When the city of lights turned dark, the world lights up in solidarity. Don't let terrorist win." (telegraph, 2015)
How the world lite up in November 2015
References
References
Reddy, E. E. (2013). The 4 ways people use social media in natural disasters. Retrieved from https://blogs.gnip.com/how-social-media-is-used-in-natural-disaster
The Guardian (2015). Retrieved from www. theguardian.com/world/paris-attacks
The Telegraph. (2015). Retrieved from www.telgraph.co.u/news/worldnews/europe/france/11995266/Paris-shooting-how-events-unfold-on-social-media.html
Reddy, E. E. (2013). The 4 ways people use social media in natural disasters. Retrieved from https://blogs.gnip.com/how-social-media-is-used-in-natural-disaster
The Guardian (2015). Retrieved from www. theguardian.com/world/paris-attacks
The Telegraph. (2015). Retrieved from www.telgraph.co.u/news/worldnews/europe/france/11995266/Paris-shooting-how-events-unfold-on-social-media.html