I Thought I knew it All (when I was a teenager)!

Time for a change!

2010-12-11T11:10:00.002-06:00

Well I'm switching gears. I just don't feel that I should continue blogging on this site as it is a blog set up for EC&I 831 and I was using it to reflect on the things I was learning in the class. So I've decided to embark on a new journey; I am starting a new blog that will focus on the positive things going on in school. I am hoping that some who have followed me here will take a look, but really this is not about followers; this is just where I need to go. Thanks to all who have commented and visited this blog; I hope my new blog, LLCS Principal's Blog, will be worth a visit from you.

Farewell my Friend

2010-09-18T11:26:00.006-06:00

One of my good friends from High School, Rod Jackson, was supposed to turn 48 today and it was his goal to be alive for one last birthday. He didn't make it missing it by just five days; he had esophogeal cancer and died on September 13th. It's been on my mind since I learned of his passing and I feel compelled to write.

I went for a walk this morning (September 18) with Rod on my mind. It was a glorious fall day with brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds catching the suns rays reminding me that yet another season was passing. As is my custom when walking alone; I said a few prayers, but this time thinking of Rod. It occurred to me that it was Rod's birthday when I observed something roughly a kilometre in front of me cross the road but I lost sight of it on the side. This distracted me from my thoughts and I continued forward keeping my eyes on the place ahead in case the animal could be a threat to my dog. I finally saw the animal move off into the trees and relaxed a little. By now I was less than half a kilometre from the spot and the animal re-appeared, but now I was close enough to see that it was a coyote. The coyote came out of the ditch and turned and looked at me for what felt like a long time even though it could see I was approaching. Finally, it started to go back the direction it had come from stopped, turned and with a final look at me went the other way. The rest of my walk was spent looking to see if my coyote companion would return.

I didn't think too much about the coyote until I started to tell my wife about it. My wife is a strong believer in signs; she just thinks we need to be open to them. She tells about grieving for lost family members and little things that happened that she connects to them. She told me about two angels, one orange and the other purple, she found in a store one day after she had fallen into sadness remembering the passing of her cousin, Lucy, and than her cousin's youngest child, Erica. These were the only 2 in the store and it just so happens that orange was Lucy's favourite colour and purple was Erica's. Some would call it a coincidence; my wife believes it was a message to her from them, and it helped her come out of her grief.

Anyway as I told her the story of the coyote, it occurred to me that I had never seen a coyote here before despite the fact I've lived here for over 24 years and I remembered that just before I saw the coyote I had remembered that it was supposed to have been Rod's birthday. Maybe it is a coincidence, but I know Rod had wanted another visit together so I wonder was his spirit at work, was this his good-bye? I will never know for sure, but in my heart I know it was!

Rod was a good friend through high school and, though as adults we were not in contact much, whenever I did see him or whenever I talked to him it was like the time that separated us melted away and I was with my buddy! The mind is a terrible thing though as I have trouble remembering details; my memories of Rod are more like a collage! I remember a friend we teased because he couldn't put his knees together, I remember a friend in the late 70's very concerned about his mother's health, and I remember he used to repeat things a lot almost annoyingly so. For example, whenever one of us would say "Deadly" Rod would reply, "Deadly Dudley" and give a grin. He always grinned! I remember camping trips on the Queen Charlottes with Rod the summer after we graduated and I remember we worked together with school district #50 in Masset one summer. That summer Rod was working on reframing a wall at Tahaygen Elementary School and was being tormented by horse flies. We all know horse flies can drive you mad and Rod evidently lost it that day because when he reached the breaking point he lined up his hammer on a horse fly that had landed on his knee - it was time to strike back. Rod slammed the hammer into his knee while the horse fly fled the scene! I believe this was the summer Rod started smoking and when I questioned him why? He explained it was okay to take a break for a smoke, but if you weren't smoking you had to keep going.

In 1980, we graduated from High School and made plans to go to school. Rod was off to SFU to study criminology and I was off to Victoria for Arts and Science. We left the island together that summer and it was then he told me a story that I still laugh about. There we were on a 737 flying towards Vancouver and he told me about his first experience with a girl on a beach near the Sangan River and how the next morning his mother was complaining about all the sand in his clothes! That was a grin I tell you!!! I don't know if he ever told her the truth about that.

The Rod I want to remember always made me smile. He was a person who trusted his friends, a person who shared stories, but most of all a person who loved life and loved to laugh. Rest in peace Rod. I hope we meet again!

A few thoughts on Religion

2009-11-15T11:33:00.003-06:00

I have been on Twitter this morning and following the Tweets of Alec Couros as usual and I followed his links as usual which lead me to Joseph Hack's blog and and an article called ipod Religion. Not only did Alec post a link to the blog but then he tweeted, "But in thinking about this, how do ppl currently choose "religion", do they rly "choose"? Is it not most likely ur born into belief systems?" Well my mind got working and what follows started as a comment on Joseph's blog but evolved into something I thought more appropriate for my own blog. To make sense of what I write you really need to visit the links in this introductin first.

Interesting questions raised by the article and as I respond to this my conscience is challenging me about my own non-attendance in church today, but I'll have to resolve that issue in my own conscience.

I do no give modern media any more power in the changes that are happening to people and their faith today, rather I think it is just an extension of what has been happening through the last half of the 20th century and maybe even earlier. After all, I think the Beatles can be given some credit too as they were singing about "No Religion" long before the ipod and easy access to the internet; I believe they had quite the influence on the parents and grandparents of kids today. And to just single out the Beatles is unfair because there have been many other forces in the media that have presented images and ideas that are contrary to Christian beliefs and teachings. Organized religion has been challenged by the diversity of ideas for quite some time and in our part of the world (the west) organized religion has lost its political power to punish those who question. Remember the Church once considered those who believed the world to be round to be among the worst of sinners. We have progressed as a people to be more tolerant, but it has come with some costs to those who wish to preserve insitutions as they were.

Young people are continuing to evolve in their thinking and belief systems and if it looks like teens are seeking answers and experimenting with other faiths, is it really any different than it was when I was a skeptical teen in the 70's questioning the Catholic faith that I was "forced" to attend to.

Yes people are not attending to their faith the way they once did, yet it seems to me that spirituality is alive and well. It just doesn't look like it did centuries ago; I'm not sure that's a bad thing either. I am a Catholic but as a young adult I drifted away from Church; was it I didn't believe or is it something many young people go through? I think many young people are struggling to find themselves in an increasingly complex and multi-cultural world. Should we blame technology or should we blame learning? For me it goes back to an essentially spiritual question, "What is our purpose here on earth anyway?"

As I have grown older (I'm in my 40's), I have become much more aware of my own spirituality and now I usually attend the Catholic church in my community and I regularly take a turn with doing a reading. Does it mean I am practicing the faith the way Christ intended? Does anyone really know that answer. Many believe they do, but I know the church I attend has been molded by people with their interpretations of what Christ taught based on stories that have been passed down. I am educated enough to know that man has twisted the words to meet their own perceptions and have used the words of the bible to create laws and rules that suit their own purposes. I am also educated enough to know I need spiritualism of some form; it bonds me with a community, it comforts me when my mind is tormented with the fears and apprehensions of being mortal, and it defines a way of living that does not harm my fellow man (not to be confused with the fact that the Catholic Church has had members who have done harmuful things to people in the name of God).

I think the fact that young people can find information about other religions so easily is a positive thing; it is allowing them to explore their own beliefs. I believe we can learn from other cultures and all religions which can only help eliminate some of the ignorance of others that lead to such horrific events like the Holocaust. Those who think their belief system is right and should not change are similar to the Luddites who smashed machinery during the industrial revolution. Not all change is good, but some is and change is inevitable.

Anyway, I've recorded some of my thoughts on a topic I do not normally speak out loud about because of its sensitive nature. I trust those who read these words understand that this is me making sense of the world the way I see it and in no way is it intended to be judgemental of others or the way they see the world. Thanks Joseph and Alec for taking me down this road.

Wikispaces Orientation

2009-10-13T00:44:00.000-06:00

Later today, some colleagues from Edcentre.ca and I will be presenting wikispaces to a group of teachers in my school division. Consequently, I've spent a lot of my evening trying to think about how best to demonstrate wikispaces to them; I know very few have much of a background in web 2.0 tools so I'll have to be careful not to overwhelm them.

I've decided to start with Suzie Vesper's Learningweb2 wiki as a starting place and follow it up with the slides below. I hope can a least spark a flicker of interest in those attending; perhaps some will be using wikis in the classrooms of Northern Lights School Division before Christmas. Without hope, where would we be?

I wonder how others would present wikispaces to beginners with only 30 minutes to work with and no computers in the hands of the learners?

Moving towards online learning!

2009-10-11T22:53:00.010-06:00

I got a call from Ted Green, the principal of Edcentre.ca in La Ronge, the other day and he was inviting me to help him and his staff present at our annual teacher convention coming up this week in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. I had been planning to attend the session, "Getting Connected," anyway and immediately agreed as I realize that my limited level of connectivity places me ahead of most in our school division. I also believe in the spirit of sharing that I have to credit my PLN for instilling in me which means I am obligated to share my knowledge that I have learned from others. Anyway, the call actually turned into a bit of philosophical discussion about the state of affairs of technology in our school division and the need for a Digital Learning Consultant to take our Division to the next level.

One of the pieces of the conversation centered on the issue of getting teachers to start using the web tools available to connect with their students, parents, and the world in general. In my world as a principal, I have been encouraging teachers to incorporate technology into their classrooms, I host interested staff at Tech Thursday sessions, and I am thrilled that a few have started (Melva, Megan, Tessa, and Sarah). Nevertheless, I am struggling with why it is so hard to get some to see that there are new things in education because of technology that can really engage a learner. In fact, I've been warning people that the day is coming when teachers will be expected to use online tools to make their classrooms available to students and parents. How long will it be before teaching jobs come with advertisements that call for teachers with the skills to use Moodle, blogs, and wikis (to name a few)?

If I could get some to read Jeff Utecht's blog titled Preparing for the worst = opportunity from September 21, 2009, they might begin to understand that increasingly it is normal for teachers to use the internet to work and communicate with their students. He also points out that there are external forces at work on schools like influenza that may make it necessary to work with students in non-traditional ways.

He says, ...I believe every classroom today, especially in the middle school and high school where students are more tech savvy should be a blended model of both classroom learning and online learning…

This is something I've been saying in my school where the problem we face is irregular attendance. We need to find ways to meet the needs of learners who do not do the traditional school day the way it was intended and an online - classroom blend may be the solution. I just need staff who are willng to try the idea with their classes.

Image from: about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3156789807/"><> rel="cc:attributionURL"

Is technology really that scary?

2009-09-23T21:47:00.002-06:00

I've been back in school now for almost a month and I continue to turn to technology to make my own work easier and to find ways of sharing with my 100+ colleagues. So far this year, I've used Wordpress to build a site dedicated to the Northern Lights Jr. Games that my school was chosen to host in March 2010. I've been contributing interesting items to a school Ning site that I help administer, I've been posting items including my schedule to a wiki site I built last year, and I've been sending weekly memos by e-mail to the staff. I even had a Technology Thursday session with staff to visit the idea of classroom blogs like Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog.

And I've seen some progress, baby steps I guess. I have a teacher who has embraced technology and is busy incorporating our Smart Board into his teaching; this is taking off as other teachers now want a board in their room. I also have staff who have started blogs and are beginning to share; for example, there is a new teacher blogging about her experiences and an intern invited me into her digital world a couple of nights ago. Nevertheless, I am feeling somewhat disappointed; it seems like some are choosing to ignore the powerful medium that the internet offers preferring to do things the way they've always done them. Is the technology really that scary?

How many of us reluctantly gave in to the cell phone craze and now cannot live without them? What is so different about picking up a new computer application and embracing it as a new way of doing business.

Today, a teacher shared with me that people see communication as a problem within the school and feel that we need to stick to one way of sharing information. I am not so sure. I believe we need to put the information that needs to be shared in multiple places in hopes that one actually works for each individual. I know I've tried the paper memo thing in the past and failed to communicate a message, I've called meetings and failed to get everyone I needed in place, I've published newsletters that not everyone read, and I've even tried the old intercom thing but was not listened to. All methods have a place, and all in way, rely on technology in one way or another (some newer than others). I really see today's technology as offering many novel solutions; we can now seek information when we want it not just when someone is presenting it. However, we are at the mercy of the individual receivers of information and their interest in learning something new. Unfortunately, some teachers are resisting learning something new; some are modelling what frustrates them about their students (they are reluctant learners). Ironic!!!

There is hope though; the cell phone thing was not embraced enthusiastically at first by all, but when people saw a use for them, they became widely accepted. I even know retiring teachers who have learned to text; if a teacher on the way out of the business can learn new techological skills then surely there is hope for the teacher who thinks he/she does not have time to learn "another" thing! I look forward to the day when we do not have to work to peruade staff about the powerful network tools that exist; I look forward to the day when people accept that technology provides us with tools that make doing business easier!

Dreams versus Reality

2009-09-06T12:09:00.002-06:00

I took the principalship of LLCS because I believe that I can have a positive impact on the the staff and students of the school. I dream about the students doing very well in school, I hope the teachers who come here love their experience teaching here as much as I did when I first came, and I want to strive to build positive relationships with our parents and the community in general. The realities are still there though and we, the staff, have so much work to do.

I have to be realistic about what is in my control and what is not though. I felt things started off fairly well for me, but change has allowed me to do some new things and see some new things. I have managed to spend a few hours at the Ducharme Building and see the K-6 end of things; the differences I have seen have been an eye opener. At the k-6 level I am seeing students anxious to please adults, students who are curious and want to learn (one grade 5 boy taught me that Dandy long legs have venom), and I am seeing students who are quite cooperative. On the other end of the spectrum, I am seeing high school students who seem disconnected with the purpose of school. They challenge authority and rules, and some appear to have little interest in attending classes although they do want to be in school. What causes this change? It is too simplistic to just blame it on adolscence because there are teens who remain focused and who do want to pursue a good education. I wonder what kills the dreams of childhood of those who get lost on the journey? I wonder how do we rebuild those dreams? I wonder ... I wonder....

I approached one class in the high school on Friday afternoon after I witnessed some of the students from the class arriving excessively late. I went in to talk to them about what they want from school. I tried to reason with them that to get educated you need to work at it. They have a very hard working and enthusiastic teacher in their class; I could see her frustration though as she was struggling with them to meet their responsibilities. I felt at least for a few minutes some of them were understanding that we, the staff, are not the enemy, but I have a feeling it is a lesson that will need to be re-taught and in more than one room. I really hope the staff are willing to adjust their expectations for what a student should be and learn to meet the students from where they are coming from. I dream that the staff will see the strenghts of their students, will see their humanity, and do their very best to take them in a positive direction. I know after the first week of wandering two buildings with nearly 1000 students, I am seeing many staff working very hard to make it happen. That has to be regarded as a good thing! A new week is coming with new challenges; we have to realize we won't always make the progress we dream of, but we also must realize that we have to dream or we have already failed.

First Day Musings

2009-08-27T00:07:00.002-06:00

I've had a very long day today and though its late I'm not ready to call it a night. You see tomorrow (actually today), I face a staff of over 100 people for the first time as their principal. I have been given the enormous responsibility of leading a group of educators in the task of educating over 900 students. What do I tell them? I mean I love the people in my community and I want what is best for them; I want the decisions I make to only have a positive impact on the students and our community. What I say, what I do, how I act could have an enormous consequence on them and the community. Just reflecting on that thought makes me wonder if I will sleep tonight.

I also know the realities of life and work will at times interfere with my goals and will affect others on staff in ways that will not always be in the best interests of students. Things will happen that take me and other staff members away from the school and the things that need to be done. And I wonder, .... I am seeking the right words to say to this incredible group of people that will ignite a spark that will inspire positive change in a community that has been struck by too much tragedy. In some ways, I feel inadequate or maybe a little scared that I now have the ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the school. Can I be the leader that makes the difference needed for this community? Can I be the leader that can pursuade others to follow and work to their fullest potential acting in the best interests of their students?

Man oh man what have I agreed to do? Tomorrow's 30 minutes with the staff will be a defining moment for this year and maybe for me. I'm not sure exactly what I will say, but I've decided that I can't say it better than Dalton Sherman. So tomorrow I'll play it safe; I'll share some things with staff and then , thanks to the advances in technology, I'll invite Dalton into the meeting and let him tell his story to another 100 people and just maybe a spark will ignite our teaching community to believe in our students - all of them. What more could a principal hope for from a staff?

Creating a User Name - the origin of kicode

2009-07-02T10:54:00.004-06:00

I just finished reading How to Create Cool User Names by Srikanth and I'd like to share the way I created my user name. But first the background; for those who know me, you already know I share a name with one of the most read authors in the world, Stephen King. Obviously, there are problems with trying to use my real name online as my digital identity would disappear beneath the thousands (millions?) of references to the author. So I decided I wanted to create something easy to remember as Srikanth suggests you do. My solution was to take the first two letters from my last name- "ki" from King, the first two from my son's name - "co" from Colin, and finally the first two from my daughter's name- "de" from Demetria. The result was kicode; I pronounce it "key code".

I discussed this over a skype call with @robwall back in June after he expressed curiousity about where the name came from. I am finding that the user name works with almost all sites that require a user name although someone beat me to it with g-mail! The nice thing with this solution is you can play around with the order of the names; in my case I used my last name, my first born, and then my second child. I could have had something different using the same plan in a different order; for example, it could have been dekico or decoki or codeki or cokied. Try it for yourself; you might find something that sounds cool,is easy for you to remember, and has not yet been taken.

An Adult Alternative 12

2009-06-23T07:41:00.006-06:00

On Thursday, the 28 students in our class of 2009 will be celebrating their graduation from High School. One of them will be an adult alternative 12 graduate who I have to confess I had my doubts about ever being around long enough to graduate. He was a young man few of us could figure out; he was loud and very often acted in inappropriate ways. His teachers quickly lost patience with him and he was a social misfit with his peers. He basically did not attend school from the time he was 16 until he was 19. When he returned to school, I wondered what the heck we were going to do with him because nothing we had tried worked. Fortunately though, the right teacher came along who saw a student who needed our help, who needed education, and who needed support.

She challenged staff to change the way we looked at him. His nickname, Spinner, which he had happily responded to, was quickly dropped and we began to use his proper name. We still saw some inappropriate things from him, but we also saw something else; his humanity fell into focus. We learned about a person with feelings and questions though it was sometimes difficult to understand what he was trying to say. We began to accept some of his quirks and we got down to the business of trying to work with him. And guess what? He proved to us that he could learn, that he could stay in a classroom, that he could do some algebra! He also proved to us that he could push some buttons still and his teacher was not afraid of telling him that he had crossed a line and it was time to go home.

Some will view the alternate status as a negative no doubt, but he has grown more over the last three years than most I've known. I also saw him commit one of the greatest acts of kindness I've ever seen from a student. We had a literacy carnival in late May and he attended. He happily went around playing the various games we had set up winning tickets to buy books. When he got to my station, Yahtzee, he quickly won 12 tickets. Well he immediately turned to a little girl who was watching and who had run out of money and tickets and gave them to her saying, "Go get yourself a good book!" With that he left my station and left me convinced that he was graduate material.

Now that his time with us is coming to an end, I feel some sadness and a lot of concern. What will happen to a young man going into an adult world that does not always tolerate differences in people? What kind of future is in store for him? Ours is a small town where unemployment hovers over 60% and it is a town with huge addiction issues. He is going out into that reality and we are holding our breath. I hope he finds his way; he's earned it.

RockYou.com

2009-05-18T02:33:00.002-06:00

I visited The KinderKids' Classroom Blog by Maria Knee and was thoroughly impressed with the way she used web 2.0 tools to document the activities of her Kindergarten class. The visit introduced me to RockYou.com as well which kind of reminded me of Animoto. However, it is also somewhat different as it gives you more control of the way the pictures are displayed during the presentation. In any case, it is another "cool tool" for presenting images to the public. I selected some images from an Elder's Evening that our school hosted back in February for my first attempt at preparing a RockYou presentation. I'm quite happy with the result!

Curse you Twitter!

2009-04-23T09:43:00.005-06:00

I'm supposed to be writing up my Master's project right now, but just had to take a few minutes to share my morning lurk around Twitter. First of all, I normally do not allow myself the time to get on Twitter in the morning because I find myself struggling to pull myself away; there is just so much good stuff there. Today is a good explanation of why I don't do Twitter in the morning; 30 minutes on Twitter turned into another hour of exploring (and I only scratched the surface of most of it).

Twitter itself is not the problem. I posted one Tweet this morning; a re-Tweet of a colleague's Tweet and sent one direct message to the same colleague. The problem is I can't resist opening links that look interesting to me; here's what I found this morning.

@shelleydeck suggested I check out a site that is a check list for Foundational Digital Literacy skills - http://tommarch.com/files/ict.htm.
@jackiegerstein suggested a site that encourages communities and groups to host their own Ted Talks - http://www.ted.com/tedx.
@AngelaMaiers suggested a site that professes to be a place for professional development for teachers and librarians. She sold it as "a great resource for tech and literay" - http://eduscapes.com/tap/index.htm.
And I can't remember who Tweeted this one out - http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Tools+at+a+glance.

I also read a blog from @wfryer that gave me an interesting idea as a way to run a public meeting -http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2009/04/23/advice-and-wisdom-on-school-public-relations/.

In just 30 minutes of reading microblogs on Twitter; I have more professional resources collected than I collected from an entire school year last year before I heard of Twitter!

Now Twitter I'm turning you off and turning back to my work; curse you for being so useful!

Reflecting on EC&I 831

2009-04-12T13:24:00.004-06:00

Part 5: Reflections on EC&I 831

EC&I 831 (cool video at this link) has surpassed my wildest dreams for a class. With non-traditional assignments and self-directed learning, it has opened a world to me that has allowed me to grow professionally and spawned a desire to learn more. It has made me into a 21st century teacher and learner! I have created a personal learning network that is a true professional learning community and I have opened a world far richer than any library can provide. My learning has been so great that I can’t possibly summarize it all in text. I began by trying to summarize my thoughts about the class using MindMeister. This grew into an idea to make a video to summarize my thoughts using a SmartBoard, a tool I had never used before. The quality of the video I made though was not the greatest as I worked on it alone and still have much to learn about making a quality video. I also had problems uploading it due to its length which I actually now consider a blessing as I decided not to use it and accept the fact that the 3 hours I put into making it and trying to download it taught me about Smart Boads and the importance of setting up properly when producing a video. I elected instead to make a series of Jing videos to summarize my learnings in the class. These can be viewed by visiting Stephen King's E-Portfolio .

I decided to submit an E-portfolio as my major digital project for the EC&I 831 class with Dr. Alec Couros for several reasons. It is a compilation of my learning over the last three months, as well as, a venue to house 2 of the 3 parts of my project. The first part is actually a Moodle Class, Career Ed. 7, that I created to use with a group of Grade 7 students I teach. Part 2 is a Wikispace that I have created for the benefit of the staff of La Loche Community School; it includes scheduling, important dates, and numerous links that teachers will find beneficial. It is not complete; it is a space that will continue to be developed and improved upon. The next phase of the site will be to develop teacher video tutorials using Jing for school programs like MAT (mark and attendance program). Finally, the third part of the project was to learn about WordPress for the purpose of teaching e-portfolios to High School students. I decided that to make the experience meaningful I would make my own portfolio; this WordPress blog pulls together the other parts of my major digital project and it includes aspects of almost all of my learning through the EC&I 831 class.

I hope those who visit my major digital project find at least one thing in it that they can learn from; it was my pleasure sharing my thoughts and learnings with you. And the next time I blog, it will be done entirely on the belief that I am not being evaluated and simply because I had something to share. Thanks to all who have helped me get to this point!

The more I know; the less I know! (ProCon.Org)

2009-04-12T09:09:00.008-06:00

Confucius said, "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." This is a concept that has rolled around in my brain for years, although I never said it so succinctly. When I was in my third year of University, I remember realizing that the more I know the less I know because there is so much more to learn that I still do not know! Make sense?

I'm not even supposed to be working on this blog because I'm trying to finish off my obligations for the EC&I 831 class that I am taking, but I stumbled across a site as I was browsing through some of my the unread blogs in my Goggle Reader account that really illustrated the point above. I visited the blog, Free Technology For Teachers, and specifically a blog titled, "ProCon -Helping Students Evaluate Controversial Topics." It looks like it would be a good tool for students engaged in researching controversial topics in school. However, it is a site that illustrates just how much there is that I do not know; I'd never heard of it before this morning and now I'm writing about it. I've never used the site and would have to take some time navigating around it to know its full capabilities, but because I do not teach a lot I doubt I will use it. However, I do think there are teachers who could use the site and so I'm sharing my latest discovery yet again!

The sad part is I have over 300 unread blogs in my Reader account; how many more gems have I missed because of time? I guess though in a way this is the power of EC&I 831; it forced my to learn a lot, but in doing so made me realize there is so much more that I do not know! Nevertheless, it has given me the tools to learn more and independently. I am a better educator as a result!

I have attached two images (click on them to make them larger) above for those interested in ProCon.org; might be enough information there to get you to have a look for yourself.

Source of Confucius Quote: Inspirational and Motivational Quotes @ http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Knowledge4.htm

Major Digital Project - the end of the beginning!

2009-04-10T23:53:00.009-06:00

My Major Digital Project for EC&I 831 is an E-portfolio. It is a compilation of my learning over the last three months, as well as, a venue to house 2 of the 3 main parts of my project. The first part is actually a Moodle Class, Career Ed. 7, that I created to use with a group of Grade 7 students I teach. Part 2 is a Wikispace that I have created for the benefit of the staff of La Loche Community School; it includes scheduling, important dates, and numerous links that teachers will find beneficial. It is not complete; it is a space that will continue to be developed and improved upon. The next phase of the site will be to develop teacher video tutorials using Jing for school programs like MAT (mark and attendance program). Finally, the third part of the project was to learn about WordPress for the purpose of teaching e-portfolios to High School students. I decided that to make the experience meaningful, I would make my own portfolio; this WordPress blog pulls together the main parts of my major digital project and it includes aspects of almost all of my learning through the EC&I 831 class. I hope you enjoy your visit and please feel free to leave me your comments; I really appreciate feedback!

My Major Digital Project is now nearing completion, at least as far as evaluation is concerned, and I am ready to share it with my colleagues and the world. I just have one piece left to add (my final thoughts on the class) and I hope to have it in place either today or tomorrow.

If you would like to see what I've been working on over the last three months, you can visit the site by clicking on the link here. You can also hear more about it by watching the YouTube video below that I produced using Jing Pro.

Is it me or is my memory getting better?

2009-04-05T10:45:00.003-06:00

I wish my memory was getting better! I'm happy if I can remember what I had for breakfast at the end of each day. But I'm not really speaking of my memory today; I'm more interested in talking computer memory and our ability to handle vast amounts of data. Today, I have a shoe box full of 3.5 diskettes filled with information from my days in the classroom in the early 90's. Some are marked and some are mystery disks that I have to find a portable disk drive to view because the new computers just don't need them anymore. Most of them have not been viewed for more than a decade! I haven't taken the bold step to throw them away yet, however, with my latest purchase I just might. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My first home computer was the beautiful, MacIntosh Classic, with an astonishing 40 MBs of memory on the hard drive! I was in heaven as I had the option of saving on the hard drive and backing up with 3.5" disks. I never imagined that I would ever need more computer. And with a printer, my purchase of the classic only set me back $2200 (tax included). It still works today and I refuse to get rid of it because it has files on it that I no longer have access to with the technology I possess.

My current work computer is an Inspiron 9400 with 120GB of memory and I never dreamed that I would need that much memory. I refer to it as my portable filing cabinet! Sound familiar? Well I've been making noises in my office that I NEED a better machine. It needs to be faster.

Well, I recently got back from a quick medical trip to Saskatoon with a short stop at London Drugs to purchase a portable hard drive. This is my second drive. My first drive was a Maxtor 80GB drive and about 10 days ago, it informed my (rather rudely I thought) that it was full! How could that be? I was only backing up documents and music and pictures; oh yeah, and video clips, but could it really be that much stuff?

My new drive is even more beautiful than the last; it has a small plastic stand and it compliments the silver of my Inspiron in a way that makes me think they were meant to be together! It is an iomega 500GB Prestige Desktop Hard Drive; I can't imagine that .... no forget that thought. The salesman almost had me with the terabite model, but I resisted the temptation.

I'm now reflecting on the changes that have occurred in less than two decades. I entered the teaching profession in a time when gestetners were still in use and I did not know anyone, but my technologically gifted and rich oil industry employed brother who even owned a computer. Few teachers knew how to make the Apple IIe's do their magic. Today, we are in an age where we are storing tremendous amounts of information on our computers, largely because of digital photography, digital video and digital music, but we are also in a time when we can store the information we need on servers accessible through the world wide web. I wonder if the day is coming when our own personal need for memory on our business machines will decline as we gain trust in storing and retrieving information from the internet. Three months ago I would have thought no way; today, I see the possibility and from experience I know the things I know are constantly in a state of change and if it is possible, it will happen.

Nevertheless, we are not at the point yet, and I know I will have a terabite one day soon. I won't have a choice.

A Bump in the Road

2009-03-25T23:33:00.011-06:00

Up until today, I've had very positive experiences with social networking, but my first foray into an EdtechTalk show did not leave me thirsting for more. I listened in on Teachers Teaching Teachers this evening @http://www.edtechtalk.com/live, but found myself confused. Like a good student I tried to get in a little early, but heard nothing. A quick Skype call with Darren revealed that he was having the same problem, so I re-tried and nothing. I tried several times using several different buttons and nothing but a black screen with the words [no video] (see top photo). Finally, I heard sound, but I'd missed the introductions in my back and forth stuff. Then I could not figure out how to do the back channel chat because all I had was a black screen (see picture) and the panel was making reference to the chat and links they were inserting. I knew I was doing something wrong, but with no previous experience, I was floundering. I even turned to Twitter for some help from a classmate, but alas she was not on! I finally tried to open a 2nd window to the techtalk (see photo) and I was finally able to participate in the back channel chat and hear the discussion. However, because I missed a bit I did not feel connected and felt almost unnoticed. I was very frustrated with the lack of clarity in connecting!

I had Skype capabilities, but no one explained how that feature worked or what needed to be done so I essentially was voiceless. To make matters worse, the audio seemed to break up at times and I missed chunks of the conversation; I'm not sure if others had the problem, but it was very frustrating to be listening for something only to lose a portion of the point being made.

I also felt somewhat of a disconnect from the content because I did not have prior knowledge of what we would be doing and there was no agenda to follow as near as I could tell. Fortunately, it was not all a bad experience as there were things being talked about that were leading me on in my quest to understand more about practial applications of technology in school. This session was lead by what sounded like English teachers (at least originally) who were using technology to engage kids. They spoke confidently about the connections being made between literacy and technology. Much of the discussion revolved around what are the qualities we look for in a learner? I felt totally unprepared to answer this question, but the responses made me realize they were speaking from the point of view of the learner in a tech. environment. I did grasp that the leaders Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Gail Desler talked about all students needing to be teachers, learners, people who share, and people who publish. Allison sounded like he had some cool things going on with kids and social networking.
They also spoke of digital storytelling and publishing. 'Sprout' (see photo) was mentioned, but I had no idea what it was and the leaders assumed this was a known application by the listeners. I now know it is a "quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more. Any size, any number of pages. Include video, audio, images and newsfeeds and choose from dozens of pre-built components and web services." I also know it is a site I will want to return to.

Not a lot of links were provided at this particular session,but they did mention Clarence Fisher, and I felt good that I knew who they were talking about. I even pasted a link to his website. The links mentioned were: http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=439 which is a blog site by Matthew Needleman called Creating Life Long Learners, a link to something called Youth Voices that I could not get to connect to during the talk, edtechtalk.com, and teachersteachingteachers.org.

In conclusion, I would have to say I was not adequately prepared for my first Edtechtalk; I won't say it is the last time I will visit, but I think I would like to be better prepared for the technical struggles so that my experience is not tainted by my own lack of familiarity with the process. I have added two of the speakers to my Twitter account as people to follow because I realize these people have a lot of worthwhile things to share with people who are willing to take the steps to learn more about their craft!

Tiny Chat and Hashtags

2009-03-24T22:33:00.005-06:00

Sometimes the unplanned leads to the best learning. Tonight, a few of us from the EC&I 831 class were searching for our beloved prof., Alec Couros, because we believed we had a class. He believed we had an e-mail with instructions for what we were to do and some actually received it while others were wondering what was going on. Anyway, I tweeted out that if anyone had an alternative way of getting a hold of Alec to let him know that we were wondering where he was. In the responses, it was suggested that we have class without him; @Capohanka suggested we meet in a bar, but considering the distance between us that was not a realistic option. She then suggested I do a hashtag and find him that way. Having no idea what a hashtag was I had to ask her to explain it to me. The conversation went as follows:

@capohanka explain the hashtag thing please

@Kicode hashtags are a way to tag tweets and then search for them as a group.

@capohanka okay so you attach it to the end of a tweet?

@Kicode yep. then you can search for the tag. Search for #itsummit.

starting a new hashtag - where in the world is courosa "witwi@courosa"

@capohanka it would like my last tweet?

@Kicode yes, but you put a "#" in front of it. He was at the #itsummit today so he prob just got home.

@capohanka Okay - learned something today ! Thanks for walking me through it! #witwi@courosa

I now understand what those comments were on Twitter but I was too shy to ask about! Thanks @capohanka!

During this conversation @bbcrfc (DLowry) suggested that our class meet in Tiny Chat. I had never heard of it before and told him I would have to check it out. I wasn't going to at the time, but something pushed me to check it out and I quickly learned that it was a very simple chat room that can be limited easily to only people you invite. However, I did a tweet with a link and was pleased to be joined by @kimcottini, @gracemcleod @bbcrfc @capohanka @leannemerkowsky @dslink and @courosa! Yes, we finally found him! The nice part though was that some of us in the EC&I 831 class had a sustained chat on Twitter that involved a few others from outside of the class including @bbcrfc @capohanka and @shareski! Some of my classmates added @bbcrfc as someone to follow on Twitter and we all got to learn a little more about each other while I got to learn about Tiny Chat and hashtags. Not a bad way to spend the evening!

Ning

2009-03-21T16:27:00.004-06:00

I was introduced to Ning this weekend by Shelley Deck, a teacher at LLCS. She has set up a Ning network for our school and invited me to join. Ning is a social networking program with a difference. It allows you to control membership by invitation! Why is that a positive feature? I think the power is that for those who are reluctant to participate in a forum where everyone can see what you are doing, it provides a forum where only those invited can participate. It also allows you to customize the site to include a variety of widgets to suit the purposes of the network.

I like what I see of it so far, but wonder if there are disadvantages to the site. Nevertheless, in the spirit of learning as much as I can, I have established a site for the Community Based Master's Program - La Ronge cohort in hopes that our class can remain connected even after our program is completed.

For anyone in the class that has not yet received an invitation (and there are some whose E-mail addresses I am missing), please contact me through Webct and share your e-mail address.

Video Blogging or Vlogging

2009-03-19T23:50:00.004-06:00

Ever get tired of typing? Ever want to say something instead of writing something? Well I thought I would experiment a little this evening as I just purchased a small web cam Creative Live!Cam ($36.97 @ Walmart) to experiment with. I had my first Skype Camera call earlier with my wife and now I want to see the movie making capabilities of the camera. Hope you enjoy my efforts.

A Fortunate Meeting and a Fortunate Discovery

2009-03-19T19:45:00.004-06:00

I have been in North Battleford for the last couple of days and today was hi-lighted by a chance meeting with Leanne Merkowsky from North Battleford at A nthony Muhammad's presentation on PLC's. It was nice to be able to put a face and voice to a person that was known to me only through the the EC&I 831 Class. She was also able to meet Guy Penney, Jackie Durocher, and DD MacCullum who were also in attendance for todays professional development opportunity.

Anthony gave us a lot to think about as far as changing the culture of schools goes. The main thing is that he establishes the idea that there are things that can be done to turn schools around even in situations where it may not feel like it is possible. It is a hopeful presentation, but a presentation that forces educators to consider their own role in the failure of students; I would be lying if I didn't admit that the message forces you to recognize that what you may consider to be enough of an effort is not good enough when you have students failing. I know I will be reflecting on his message in the weeks and months ahead.

Anyway, I really wanted to blog about a new tool (at least to me) I discovered last night accidently as usual. The program is called MindMeister; it allows the user to make a web of their thoughts. It would be a great tool for English teachers teaching essay writing, it would be a great tool for students to use while preparing material for an essay, debate, or presentation of some sort, and it is a tool I will use for organizing my thoughts about this class for my final blog. For now, I have done a quick example of some of the things I have done with my AR project to give you an idea of its power (sorry the quality is not great for the space provided by the blog). I have to confess I actually considered not sharing this find as the evil competitive side of my nature reared its ugly head. Fortunately, because of the good example set by so many on Twitter, through blogs, and comments on blogs, I realized the right thing to do was share the resource with others. I hope it is something you think you can use.

The road that should not be taken!

2009-03-12T22:32:00.010-06:00

I've been browsing the web and trying things here and there, but this was truly a fun application for me to experiment with.

Atom Smasher allows you to change the text on signs as I have done in the picture. I have always complained about the road in north west Saskatchewan for its many potholes especially between Buffalo Narrows and La Loche. I frequently make the comment to my family when we see a sign that says caution rough road ahead that they really should have a sign that says, "Caution paved sections ahead." Well this application allowed my to make my commment visual! What sign have you always wanted to see? Give it a try!

Blogging with benefits!

2009-03-12T09:21:00.005-06:00

When I began the EC&I 831 class back in January, I had a very vague idea about what blogs were, but I really was not sure how to find them on the internet and, therefore, largely ignored that realm. What I knew, I learned back in the fall before I started this class. I had met Alec Couros and I was certain he would expect us to take up blogging so I started to experiment with writing my own thoughts before the class began; I had no idea or expectation that much of what I would be learning in his class would be because of the blogs of others. At first, I was only following a few blogs, but when I realized the power of Google Reader and discovered links to blogs through Twitter, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to follow more. I am now following 45 blogs including 21 from my class and another class; I also have several others in the back of my mind that I may yet follow. I sometimes find myself reading and writing comments for several hours in the evening and I want to do more! I am not being mark driven; I am knowledge driven. There are so many people sharing ideas and tips about how to do things or where to find information that I have to put off some things that I would like to know about. Even with my efforts, I still have some 306 blog entries to read not including archived blogs. Obviously, learning to be selective in what you read and even who you read is an important skill to hone.

I have found out about many different applications that I have tried as a result of blogging and microblogging (Twitter). I am also getting comments from people who are thanking me for sharing what I've learned from others which leaves me with "warm fuzzies" by the way! I am being entertained and educated at the same time. I have found the experience of reading and reacting to what I read in a public manner to be a huge step in my own thinking. Ironically, I think I am becoming a more positive person as a result of being a critical reader and responder. I now have a better understanding of what it takes to put yourself out there in print and even if I don't agree fully with what I read, I find myself reacting positively. I share my thoughts on the topic and compliment the writer for stimulating discussion.

On the down side of blogging, it can be hard on the ego. You strive to put something in print that you hope others will see and react to, but often you end up with only a few comments and in some cases no comments (and sometimes after spending hours drafting your blog). The reverse is true as well; sometimes you get a comment from someone you don't know and you realize there are people paying attention and reflecting on your words.

I am now trying to learn more about the things that make a blog something worth reading. On Tuesday, March 10, my class was lead by Will Richardson who has been blogging since 2002 and is known for being a "trendsetter in Education."I asked him what does he consider to be the qualities of a good blog. First of all he did not define a good blog; he answered the question by giving the qualities of blogs that he likes to read. This is roughly what he said, " I like to read people who are willing to test their ideas who are not coming out saying this is the way the world is..., people who write well, who read widely and who have a certain amount of passion in their voice ..., people who are asking questions and engaging people in conversations, who make it about ideas..., people who provoke thinking and conversations ..." To hear Will himself you can visit the Elluminate session here. I liked his response; despite his experiences blogging, he framed his answer from his own perception and did not pretend to represent all readers of blogs. His humility is remarkable considering his achievements.

I often feel like I take more than I give online. However, when you consider the wealth of information available, I suppose we all take more than we give. Blogging is changing me into a contributer though, and I am enjoying writing in way I've never experienced before.

Update March 21, 2009

I found this blog on what makes a blog good and thought I would add it to this posting. It also includes a good activity for student bloggers. Thanks to Clarence Fisher for the excellent ideas.

Wordle

2009-03-10T00:16:00.004-06:00

This has been a hard blog to write because I really did not know what to say about "Wordle" other than, "Cool!" I actually began thinking about blogging on this topic back in mid-February when I was experimenting with JING to capture an image, but...it just didn't feel right to use the program, but not reflect on its value. Sure I was impressed by the colour and composition, but I did not really see a purpose behind the application. Therefore, I hesitated knowing that one day I would return to the topic.

As things go, I began to share the program with teachers in my school and it was not long before others were using "Wordle." I guess I didn't consider the impact on students; students enjoy being creative and Wordle allows for creative use of the written word. It is also popular with second language students because the order of the words is suddenly not important (they cannot be wrong). It is a program that isolates significant concepts in larger print allowing viewers to identify major ideas being presented by the text that created the Wordle. Finally, students like it because it creates a polished piece for publication.

Teachers are also impressed with Wordle for many of the same reasons as students. However, they would add that it is a program that they can turn to for an assignment in an effort to engage students more. Just today, an Alternate High School teacher I shared the program with immediately saw uses for her students who are struggling with English and she left with the program address in hand. So if there is no other value to the program than it engages students in an activity that is focused on print, then it belongs in the tool box for the 21st Century teacher.

For me as a student, it allows me to look at text differently (for example the Wordle above was created from one of my blogs). Major concepts become clearer which helps me understand what the focus of the print is about. I am now looking at using Wordle to put together some major concepts that emerged from my journal over the last two years in an effort to help me focus on the lessons I learned while working on my Master's project.

Husband, father, teacher, cartoonist!?

2009-03-07T13:55:00.006-06:00

I was reading from the Lifetime Learning Experience blog and noticed an entry called "New Tools this week."that mentioned a program called Toondoo.

I had always wanted to experiment with a animated type program and thought why not. I'm glad I did; it is simple to use and allows you to embed a cartoon you create into your blog as I have above. I can see using the program myself to illustrate concepts and I can see using it with students to allow them to express themselves in a more creative way. It is also a forgiving program; you can go back and edit it if you chose and it can be edited by others as well. You can also publish it so that all can see, you can keep it private, or you can share it with friends by sending it to their e-mails.

I expect I will make some cartoons using Toondoo that I will use when it is time to present my project in May. If there is a negative with the program, it would be the time it takes to launch it. I know there are other programs out there and I'd be interested in hearing from others about their favourite cartoon making programs. Be careful though, once you start playing with it, it is hard to quit.

I should have a career in Moodling

2009-03-06T23:03:00.022-06:00

It seems like everyday I'm learning something new in Moodle. Today, I was determined to insert a sound item into the resource list for the first lesson I prepared for a Career Education class in Moodle. I felt I had to do this because some of the students are not yet fluent in English and need assistance with reading longer passages. Fortunately, I remembered reading Kim's blog about Vocaroo and decided I would try it; needless to say, I succeeded on my first try! You can listen to my recording of a piece from the Saskatchewan Grade 7 Career Education curriculum titled, I'm a success (see Vocaroo icon below).

With this success under my belt so easily, I decided I would tackle the issue of moving the resources around. I quickly learned how to move the tasks to the right but I struggled with moving them up or down. I finally noticed a button I had not tried when editing and my problem was solved.

Update: If you visited this site earlier, you would have realized you needed a password to hear my reading of "I'm a success." It turned out to be a very tricky operation to link Vocaroo to my blog once I had a password. For some reason, Vocaroo would not let me copy the full HTML link and post it in the blog even when I was not logged in. I wonder if others have had a similar experience; I have not had a problem posting it into moodle and have done so successfully on two occasions, but now I wonder if others can listen or will they too need a password. If others will need a password, I will need to be setting up a different account just for Vocaroo. Simple to record using it though!

I am a Success. Click on the play button to hear recording.

Sharing

2009-03-03T23:49:00.005-06:00

Despite having a day dealing with some very emotional kids, I had a day that left me feeling like a true professional. I was sharing with colleagues while colleagues were sharing with me. I met with four teachers today to go over what we had been learning about Moodle; I shared my experience with registering students and then assisted them in trying it out. It worked! I then had a Science teacher show me a Chemistry 30 resource that he was using with his class; I was amazed and then I learned the source was from Centralischool! I was dumbfounded as he showed me the resources in the site; I had heard of it before, but didn't realize you could see whole courses without being a registered student so had never bothered visiting it before. Do I feel sheepish? I feel like a missed a memo or something. What a tremendous resource for teachers!

I also had a moment of clarity as far as the internet and social networking go. The online world of educators that I have become a part of advocates strongly for sharing and I have learned of some tremendous resources from that professional community. Yet today, I learned of a resource from people I work with and have known of it for years, but hadn't shared it with me or other colleagues because ... it never came up! What a shame! The f2f world has some catching up to do with the online world. The amazing thing is that none of this would have happened if I had not been exposed to the the culture of sharing that I am learning about with my personal learning network which has pushed me to share with my colleagues. Ironically, it seems the tweets on twitter are now reaching the ears of those who haven't yet taken the time to see its true value.

Photo source

Aboriginal Youth Losing Hope! Does Canada care?

2009-03-02T23:06:00.004-06:00

I write this with a heavy heart. On Saturday morning, a 17 year old girl from my school killed herself; it was the morning after a 21 year old was laid to rest after killing herself the weekend before. She was the fourth student from my school to do this since June 18, 2008. In addition, our neighbours from the reserve lost a student to suicide in December and one of our feeder schools lost a student in August. We are reeling as we hear of more and more attempts! It is becoming normal to deal with a grieving student while at school; it certainly does not fit in with the continuous improvement framework that we are hearing so much about but are unable to attain. I keep asking myself why is this going on? Unfortunately, this reality is not unique to this community; other aboriginal communities are suffering in similar ways.

Where is the hope? These communities have been ravaged by the long lasting negative effects of colonialism and to this day continue to be victimized by a society that appears not to care. These kids that are killing themselves are/were loved; in fact, were good people. Yet, the conditions that bring them to the brink are being largely ignored by mainstream society. Aboriginal people in this country continue to be the most disadvantaged people in our society and yet politically it appears to be o-kay with most Canadians as there is no outcry that things need to change.

As Canadians, we need to look at our shameful past, we need to acknowledge the wrongs that were done to our aboriginal peoples, and we need to empower aboriginal communities to work with their youth to give them hope. It won't be cheap; services need to be brought to the communities, and healing has to happen on so many levels. We have to do something or the history books will be painting us no better than that of our ancestors who at times deliberately infected aboriginal communities with the smallpox virsus causing dramatic reductions in aboriginal populations.

To find out more about aboriginal suicide visit:
http://www.nandecade.ca/article/aboriginal-suicide-statistics-71.asp http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081207/national/sask_northern_suicides

Reflections on "Did You Know"

2009-03-01T21:35:00.004-06:00

Karl Fisch's presentation Did You know is a must view for educators. One slide states, ...

"We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don't exist ... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems."

Kinda makes you reflect on global warming! Unfortunately, we are trying to prepare students using an outdated model based on the industrial revolution (I think I got that idea from Shareski - if you can confirm or correct me I will update). Today, while going through the stacks of paper that accummulated on my desktop I was frustrated to find a large package of photocopied Career Education resources based on 2002 information with a note from a well intentioned consultant saying, "It should still be useful". The "yeahbut" inside me screamed as I recalled a website (District School Board of Niagara)I had visited the night before that had all kinds of links to Career Education resources as well as other resources for their students. I wondered where are the visionaries? I am in a system that still relies on sharing information with paper when there are much more effecient and effective ways.

However, complaining is absolutely useless; I am fully aware that sometimes change is more likely to come from individuals than it is from bureaucracies. With this in mind, for the last little while I've been kicking things up at school by engaging as many staff as possible into discussions about school and technology. I would be lying if I said I was being greeted with enthusiasm. Comments range from "we need time" to "kids learn better in face to face settings". Don't get me wrong though, there are those who see the need to learn more. I have two other teachers who have joined me in trying to learn the intricacies of "Moodle" and I have a session with interested staff on Thursday's to explore different web applications available and to discuss their use in school; in two sessions, I've been joined by about 15% of a teaching staff of 32.

Unfortunately, the obstacles or perceived obstacles are compounded by failures in the technology. My last session bombed because our internet was slow! We had long waits for websites to download and my laptop seemed to be possessed with gremlins; things that had worked earlier in my office refused to cooperate in the lab.

Nevertheless, I am passionate in speaking to staff about incorporating technology into their classrooms and I think I know a resource that will help me at our next staff meeting on March 3. You see, I watched the Youtube video, Did You Know, this evening and was even more impressed than I was with the ShiftHappens video that I watched last spring. I have been telling High School teachers (this is my vision of Education in the Future and no doubt influenced by Stephen Downes) that if they don't become comfortable working with technology, there is a chance they will be considered redundant in the educational system. I strongly believe that High School teachers will be expected to know how to prepare courses that can be delivered either face to face or via the internet or some combination of both within the next 10 to 15 years if not sooner. Fisch's video highlights the need for educational systems to change; hopefully, it will also help pursuade some teachers that they also need to change.

Image from: Ruminate which took the image from ShiftHappens.

Still learning!

2009-02-23T23:25:00.011-06:00

I've been strangly silent this last week, but with good reasons. First of all, I spent three days on the road for a total of 19 hours of driving; my only thoughts were couldn't Scotty beam me from La Loche to Regina and then back! And then I was having a great time exploring tools I have always wanted to learn, but used "the lack of time" as an excuse to avoid; I've learned some, but I also lost some momentum with blogging.

I am pleased to announce major progress in my experimenting with Moodle (photo shows some of the work). I can now insert video and pictures, I can change the background, and I have a good working knowledge of the basics of Moodle; I actually think I have enough knowledge now that I could create an online class. I have also started a small professional learning community of teachers in my school interested in becoming moodlers! We are meeting on Tuesdays; today, we took a major step towards understanding ways to enroll a student. If all continues to go well, I might even be able to "teach" a class with it as early as Thursday. Not too bad for a week of asking myself, "What does this icon do?"

I also had a session with staff interested in learning more about technology last Thursday; seven of us met and I introduced the others to Google Docs. It was refreshing to talk about something we can do and use to be more effective teachers; I actually felt like I was a teacher leader instead of being the person to react to the crisis of the day. And the staff involved gave me faith that many of us in the profession are still learners! I'm thinking about exploring Twitter on Thursday.

I have also begun to play with making movies using Jing. It is actually quite simple except for one small problem; the free version of JING saves the movie files as a shock wave flash which you cannot import into moviemaker. All is not lost though as a visit to Twitter gave me several possible conversion programs that I can try that are free; I also got a response from Dr. Couros and he recommends purchasing Jing Pro for $15 for a year as it will save the file as a mpeg allowing a user an easier time with editing. Unfortunately, I have tried several different free programs and I have been frustrated time and again. Yet, the positive is that by sending a tweet I had 6 different people attempt to come to my aid. It is amazing that there are that many people out there that are anxious to help with no expectation for something in return. This network of people is as close to a utopian world as I have seen; people are positive, helpful, appreciative, and kind. It is a world I am now a part of because I want to be not because I have to be for an assignment. In fact, I'm not really sure what is evaluated and what is not being evaluated; it actually does not matter because I am getting something out of the experience and I am learning continuously.

For example, when I tweeted out that I was looking for a program that would convert shock wave flash videos to mpegs, @plind suggested http://www.zamzar.com/. It did not do what I wanted it to, but I learned if I wanted to convert a gif image to a jpeg I could with Zamzar. Zamzar does many conversions and I suggest if you are trying to convert a file that you try it first; it may save you a lot of time. I would also suggest that if you haven't used twitter to solve a problem, try it; there are a lot of helpful people willing to share.

The New York Times asks, "Do we need a new internet?"

2009-02-16T11:21:00.009-06:00

Thanks to D. Lowry (@bbcrfc on Twitter) for bringing this article from the New York Times to my attention through Twitter, Do we need a new Internet? Just yesterday, while visiting a moodle tutorial site, I had a Norton's anti-virus offer pop up on my screen. I didn't think much about it as I closed it and went on with my tutorial; once I was finished viewing the lesson, I took a much needed break. When I returned to my computer, I was surprised to see Norton's telling me my computer's status was still good and that I now had a Norton's Icon (see attached image) installed on my desktop. Is this related to the New York Times Article? I have to admit I am apprehensive about it at this time. (If anyone knows, please comment!)

The article suggests we need a new more secure internet that would force us to accept the loss of some anonymity for the sake of security. Is this a bad idea? Those of us involved in social networking are giving up a certain amount of our privacy already so if it is a trade off between a more secure network and a loss of some personal information, I'm not sure it is bad. On the other hand, those who argue it should be protected make me wonder what are they hiding?

I guess the other side of the coin is what happens when when we have abusive forms of government that use information posted by individuals punitively? In such situations, the ability to hide your identity in the electronic world might be the difference between life and death. What is the answer then? How do we protect our personal identity and ourselves online?

I understand so little about how virus' get started and about how to protect my computer from them. It seems like the anti-virus programs are only somewhat successful in protecting our machines; and it seems like there are malicious individuals in the cyber world who are ready to make people miserable by abusing the system and the people who use it. I know if this were our telephone system, governments around the world would be anxious to fix it; there would be a public outcry to do something to eliminate the hidden hazards.

I thank god we have some very intelligent people working to oppose the abusers; where would we be without them? I also think, maybe, the time has come for a new internet. I know I'd be prepared to sacrifice some of my identity for the sake of using the internet the way it was intended without the needless fears that we are warning children about, but fall victim to ourselves!

19 Minutes that could change your thoughts about School

2009-02-14T12:44:00.007-06:00

Several weeks ago I noticed a link in my EC&I 831 course readings regarding creativity. The link was to a speech given by Ken Robinson who asks do schools kill creativity?

I put off watching the video because it is a longer one (19 minutes) for youtube which has got me thinking, "What's happening to my attention span?" But that's another blog! I also have to admit I don't consider myself to be the most creative person in the world and arts education usually leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I'm not a singer, dancer, or artist; I think if I had the opportunity, I could have enjoyed life in drama. So, in a nutshell, I believe I avoided the video because I believed it was about something I was not very good at doing.

However, after listening to Ken's speech, I really wonder what education has done to me and what do I perpetuate as an educator! I wonder if the education system imposed on me reflected Ken's ideas of encouraging creativity, would my life had turned out differently and been more rewarding (at least to this point). Even in this text, I indentify myself as not being creative, yet now I have doubt. It could be that my creative side has been "educated out of me" as Ken speaks of in his speech.

There is so much in the speech that I will likely re-watch it. For me the key concepts were: school is educating creativity out of students, school is preparing students essentially the same way it did during the industrial revolution, and school is stigmitazing being wrong.

I encourage my readers to check this video out; I guarantee you some laughs if you do, but, more importantly, I think you will come out of it with some really tough questions about what is school doing to young people.

I also have to thank Ken for a great line. It goes something like this, "If a man speaks his mind in a forest and no woman hears, is he still wrong?" Watch it! It will make you think!

Photo credit: picture taken from http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/Ken-Robinson-o.jpg

Internet Ethics or Couros Causes Concern!

2009-02-13T10:22:00.008-06:00

I've been thinking about internet ethics as a result of the discussions during Alec Couros' EC&I 831 class on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, titled Popular Issues in (Digital) Media Literacy. My thoughts actually began the night before when I noticed a blog that closely resembled another (I am not prepared to identify them here) and I began to ponder the idea of plagiarism on the web. With the cut and paste world we live, it is simply too easy to "borrow' writings from another person and claim ownership by making it look like your work. Don't get me wrong, I am totally fine with someone valuing my words enough that he might want to use them, but give credit or provide it as a link to your thoughts on the topic. I know many of my ideas for blogging have sprung from others, but I make sure I credit those who got me started.

Anyway, the class on Tuesday was timed appropriately for where my thoughts were going. I had begun to question the idea of ethical internet behaviour. From my point of view as an educator, I believe there is a higher standard for me. I wonder if all users should be held accountable, but I realize the reality is that you cannot police such a thing. Nevertheless, I wonder how many people consider themselves to be ethical in their use of the internet especially the social networking aspects when in reality they are involved in what may be considered unethical behaviour. For example, during class we were shown a video titled "David after Dentist" that was posted by the child's father. Some people were quick to condemn the father and I admit I was leaning that way myself until someone mentioned that it could have been posted for grandparents. But because of anonymous viewers sharing what they saw, the video gained popularity and spread throughout the wired world. While I am still suspicious of the father's motives for posting the unflattering video of his son, I am now wondering more about the ethics of us, the viewers who made it go viral. There is no doubt that the child in the video will have to live with this event his entire life whether he likes it or not and some really caring conscientious people in the world have helped make it possible by passing it on. Is that ethical behaviour for a person to share something about another person that could be potentially devastating? If the father is wrong for posting it, we are just as wrong for spreading it! I'm glad my most embarrassing moment(s) as a child were not captured on film and shared with the world; would people take me seriously now if they saw me in moments I would like to forget?

The next pictures in the presentation of the Oswald murder (see pictures above) awoke a memory of a former student that I taught over 2 decades ago. She had told me a story how some bullies had pasted (with glue) her face onto a nude picture and were showing it around town. She was humiliated and felt shame even though she had done no wrong. Flash ahead to the world today; photo manipulation in the digital age is easy to do and is happening with and without the knowledge of the person in the photograph. I actually am not against it if it is done by the person with rights to the photo or with permission from the person with rights to the photo, and if the person in the photo has agreed to let their image be altered (I gave permission here) and published. However, when you take a picture of a murder and you manipulate it for laughs, have you crossed a line? I immediately was struck by the manipulated image of the Oswald murder and I thought of his family. Do people consider their pain? Do people consider themselves as being disrespectful of life in general by laughing at a tragedy? Does the voyeuristic nature of the internet have us doing things we would not do if we were there? Are lives being ruined by maliciously altered images?

My consciousness about the internet and its potential harm was raised on Tuesday. And if I have advice, I will refer you to THE CORE RULES OF NETIQUETTE and rule number one, "Remember the human."

Images obtained from http://eci831.wikispaces.com/02-10-09.

The image of me with many arms was created by Shelley Deck @http://www.shelleydeck.com/

Another example of a PLN at work! Can you help?

2009-02-10T22:51:00.015-06:00

I wasn't planning to blog tonight, but thanks to Sarah Hill I learned something that I didn't know about Google Docs. Furthermore, because I've been playing around with Jing I can show it to you. In the picture to your left, you can see a corner of the Google Docs page and you will see under 'new' the word "Form." If you click on it, it allows you to create a questionnaire that you can post in a blog or onto a wiki (and probably other stuff that I don't know about yet); you can even e-mail it. I was just amazed and immediately began to think of possible applications this tool could have in my practice, but I'm really not so sure how it will work. So in the interests of my own learning and because I am a man and refuse to look for directions (yet) I am asking you to participate in helping me understand this google feature. Simply click on the where are you from Google Form and answer the two questions attached. Then submit your answers.

While you are at it you might want to visit Sarah's blog and complete her Google Form. You see if you participate in this little experiment you become a part of my personal learning network (PLN) and if you visit Sarah's site WE have become cogs in her PLN. This is the power of social networking; we can learn from one another and we can help each other when we are need. If you need more convincing, you haven't been paying attention!

The Promise of Yesterday! A Paperless Office!

2009-02-09T00:27:00.007-06:00

A colleague of mine some years ago (the first part of the last decade of the previous century) and I had conversations about what lay ahead of us due to advances in technology; one of our beliefs was that with advances in computer technology we would see much less paper on the job. Boy were we wrong! I have been swamped my more and more paper in my work as an assistant principal as you can see by the photo on top. Today I disconnected from the internet, rolled up my sleeves and began to make sense of all the paper in front of me. I worked for hours sorting and filing and, oh yeah, swearing (you didn't hear that mom).

And as I worked, I thought back to last night when I was looking at my Google Reader Account. It was a mess and needed some organizing. Well in a matter of seconds I clicked on 'manage subsciptions' and I had the 22 blogs I follow organized into 4 folders; it was sweet! If only I could do that in my office!

Well as things unfold, you come to knew understandings and it occurred to me that perhaps "Google Docs" could be the answer. Do you think it is possible to get every administrator and teacher working collaboratively on documents posted in Google Docs? Do you think we could persuade the thousands of people who want our attention or access to our students to use Google Docs as a way of sharing their information with us? I dream...I dream...I dream.

Online Teachers need online student teaching!

2009-02-06T23:21:00.005-06:00

I've spent a lot of time over the last year thinking about online learning and supporting students in online classes. I have looked at this primarily from the point of view of working with the student. I also have to admit my bias was that students taking such courses needed strong independent working skills, strong motivational skills, and above average computer skills. The students I work with are mostly aboriginal and speak an aboriginal language as their first language, and consequently, I was concerned that online classes would require too much reading. Well semester one has come to a close and the students that enrolled in online classes from my school are either still in progress or they have given up entirely on the class they enrolled in. However, I'm now not so sure that my bias about success being dependent on entirely on student skills was fair. My thinking was expanded again today by Karl Fisch and a blog he wrote in December titled, Online Student Teaching?

Fisch argues, and I paraphrase, that it is only reasonable to expect that if teachers need to be trained to teach in face to face situations then it is logical to expect that teachers need to be inserviced or trained in the best practices of online instruction. Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that before?

I know Dr. Friesen questioned me about cultural adaptations to the curriculum being offered to the students I was supporting, but I now think I failed to consider that question. I realize that the students need to shoulder some responsibility for their learning, but I think it is fair to say online teachers need to reflect on their practices as well and question their effectiveness if students are having difficulty completing the online course. I think online schools need to make sure their teachers have suitable training behind them before they are hired.

I happen to know that there is a conscientious group of online teachers offering programs to my students, but I wonder if their experiences rival my own as a teacher. I entered a classroom 23 years ago expecting a class full of students that would basically be at about the same level. I had no experience or training in cross cultural education, and I was asked to teach a Native Studies 10 class without ever taking any aboriginal studies classes; I am embarrassed to admit that I had no Special needs knowledge when I began teaching. I was not nearly prepared for the classes I was assigned to teach; I wonder how many teachers are teaching online classes without having the training behind them. Are they like I was, doing the best they can while learning on the job?

I have been encouraging staff to look at online platforms for course delivery like Moodle; I now feel guilty for thinking it was even possible without some kind of professional development. I guess my learning continues and my list of weaknesses grows longer! Thanks Karl for another valuable lesson learned.

A Good Reason to Twitter!

2009-02-05T01:04:00.006-06:00

I've been chatting with @plind (Penny Lindballe) tonight on Twitter and was overwhelmed by some things she put me on to through links in Twitter. I felt very much like a student as she was throwing links out at me faster than I could view them (and @plind I visited them all). She did what Shareski was advocating last night - she shared her time and her knowledge and I am better off because of her willingness to share. The best part is she was able to expand my thinking by linking me to someone who has influenced her thinking. It's awesome.

One of the links she posted was a particularly impressive blog. The blog called The Fischbowl was titled simply "What if?". If you read nothing else from my blog, go to this link. It might just rock your world. The issues discussed in the blog were written in 2006, but are so relevant to my world and I'll bet yours too here in 2009. I plan to put a paper copy of 'What If' on the staffroom table; I know it won't be popular with some, but I also know it will make people think!

Image taken from http://blog.mr-foto.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/no_ipod.jpg

A strange Connection! Aboriginal Values meet Web 2.0 Values!

2009-02-04T00:00:00.008-06:00

This is a confusing world. As a child, I remember hearing my parents urging me to share with others, while my Christian upbringing pressed me to give, but the society I grew up in pushed me to get ahead of the other guy, compete, and be the best. Strange messages swirled around me outside of my home: "Nice guys finish last", "He who has the most toys wins." "Win at any cost!" "It's survival of the fittest." I'm sure this rings true for many others and I think it is fair to say that the messages we have gotten from society in general have made many people more individualistic, more committed to "What's in it for me?" thinking, and I think less connected to their fellow man.

Over the course of the Community Based Master's Program I am part of, I began to hear another voice that I had not really heard before. It was the voice of aboriginal thinkers. I heard about generosity and for the good of the community over and over (and trust me I know these values exist in all cultures). Traditional Aoriginal teachings seemed to be consistently about doing what was good for all; the self had a responsibility to the group. It is such a different way than that of the capitalistic western world (and one that I think many Aboriginal people would agree has been eroded in aboriginal communities influenced by western thinking). Yet, I still see examples of this generosity today. For example, in the north, it is not uncommon for communities to raise money through auctions to help families that have suffered a loss; I grew up in a culture that believed it was shameful if you could not afford to bury your loved one. My wife (she is Dene) regularly has relatives that share a catch or a kill with her; she routinely goes to their assistance in times of need. When she does, I catch myself thinking, "What will that cost? I realize now that that thinking is a scar from my own socialization as a child raised in a capitalist world.

My journey through the Community Based Master's Program has taken me to new places and I have been reflecting on ideas that Aboriginal people have exposed me to. It started in a class as I was challenged over and over again to see things from an Aboriginal perspective. Then a colleague shared a list of Dene Laws with me; I immediately was challenged by the first law, "Share what you have." But I decided I would begin to move to be a more giving person in school.

These are small things that I consciously did this school year to be more giving; I have found 25 cents when a student was short for a drink, I have shared candy (that I had deliberately brought to school) with students in my office (even the ones in trouble), I have offered bottles of water to colleagues that look like they needed it, and I have expected nothing in return. However, what I have gotten is a feeling that I was doing the right thing - it felt good. I was sharing and making a strong human connection at the same time.

Today, after listening to Dean Shareski's presentation to my EC&I 831 class, I realized that sharing extends beyond what we have. Sharing knowledge is also sharing something of value. Perhaps, the world of Web 2.0 will move society back to the notion that we should share openly without condition for the good of our world community. Perhaps communities will become less insulated from the human condition that surrounds them and become more globally conscious. Sounds like the 21st century thinkers may be taking us to a world view that is not unlike that of traditional Aboriginal values; a strange connection indeed!

Just for the record, here are the Dene Laws. Sorry I do not have a source but I believe it has come out of the North West Territories.

Dene Laws

1. Share what you have.
2. Help each other.
3. Love each other as much as possible.
4. Be respectful of elders and everything around you.
5. Sleep at night and work during the day.
6. Be polite and don’t argue with anyone.
7. Young girls and boys should behave respectfully.
8. Pass on the teachings.
9. Be happy at all times.

La Loche Community School – Dene Building is proud of its Dene roots. We think the world can learn lots from the Dene people and we are striving as a school to honour and respect the Dene people, their language, and their traditions.

Image taken from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dehchofirstnations.com/ani/ani_drum.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.dehchofirstnations.com/press.htm&usg=__Xc9gqUMbWeS_aDqL2KCFZ9BxnV8=&h=121&w=160&sz=40&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=vCcK8dPIwIiklM:&tbnh=74&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddene%2Bdrum%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7SUNA%26sa%3DN

Picasa and Widgets!

2009-02-01T10:31:00.002-06:00

If you've visited my blog before, you will be noticing a couple of changes today. For one, you can follow my last 5 comments on 'Twitter' and you can see the 10 pictures that I placed on 'Picasa' yesterday. For those new to blogging, those add-ons are called widgets; for me personally, it is another link to my life and internet activities that you can view. I have to admit, the pictures I've placed have not explored my family life and I'm not sure how far I will go that way if at all. Ethically, I think I should get permission from them before I do anymore of putting my life with them out in the "World Wide Web"! However, I do see it as an opportunity to explore the world around me.

I hate to admit it, but Twitter is addictive once you start using "TweetDeck". Twitter by itself really lacks intimacy; TweetDeck has you chatting in no time. Yesterday, I had a couple of longer conversations; one about Disney World and attractions in Orlando and another about 'Picasa' or 'Flickr'. I also managed to have a conversation with Alec Couros about things he would like to research with his Twitter Followers. I also learned that the Sarah Hill Alec talks to his EC&I 831 classes was demonstrating Twitter to a friend around the same time Alec was buying produce in a store! Twitter takes you from the ordinary life stuff we do to making connections about the things you want to learn.

For example, I learned about Picasa and Flickr through contacts on Twitter! As a result, I came to the conclusion that both are really about the same. However, because I have a 'Google Account," it was easier for me to go with 'Picasa.' I had actually experimented with Picasa before, but I can't remember my username or password for that account. I assume the images are still out there. That old cliche "use it or lose it" applies here!

The more I do, the more I realize these 'tools' and 'programs' are helpful to the way we communicate, they give us an opportunity to find people with similar interests, and really they provide the user with an archive of their activities on the internet. Picasa will help me organize some of the pictures from my past that I've been scanning and Widgets will help me make my Blog a little more interesting (or not). But when I show it to others who do not know this world, I can be a little smug and say, "Look what I've been learning!" LOL. To the staff of LLCS, I'm willing to help if you want to get started!

Reflecting on the journey with thanks to Ulises Mejias

2009-01-30T23:12:00.009-06:00

EC&I 831 Computers in the Classroom has already been an incredible journey for me; I have seen corners of the internet that I didn't know existed and I have plunged myself into an "electronic social world" that is becoming something of an obsession. I'm checking Twitter and my Google Reader Account regularly to see if the people I am following are live on Twitter or if they have posted a new blog. People that I've never met are sharing things with me (and others) on a personal level, while at the same time they are sharing things on a professional level. Current events are discussed and quirky news items are circulated. I can't remember where I read it but someone referred to Twitter as being like an electronic staffroom; I didn't understand it then but now I see the parallel. You really never know what you will talk about once you enter.

So the question then is how do these social networks affect learning? I know my experience has seen my horizons broadened and I am constantly finding myself reflecting on my beliefs and attitudes. If it has such power on individuals, surely it should be an easy sell as a new tool for teachers to use with students.

Well consider the words of Ulises Mejias who wrote in A Nomads Guide to Learning, "It is relatively easy to incorporate new technologies into the learning process if the goal is to merely replicate the traditional ways of doing things without significantly disturbing institutional values." The thing is social networks by there very nature are more self-directed and in a school environment it would mean a teacher would have to sacrifice the director's role leaving students more and more responsible for their own learning. Mejias went on, "But what is more difficult, and for this very reason perhaps a more worthy exercise, is to introduce new technologies while we step back and question the pedagogical principles that inform our educational models." Social networks are changing the way people learn and who they get there information from; the notion that the teacher and the prescribed curriculum as they are written today controls the content would be gone forever. Social networking when used responsibly is already a challenge to current pedagogical principles; the building of personal learning networks may become a normal activity at schools and learning how to build a personl learning network will likely become a part of the curriculum.

Mejias also looks at social networking as a way of personalizing e-learning, "What social software can do is to reintroduce the social back into the learning equation, while preserving some of the advantages in personalization that e-learning and flexible learning have introduced." If it has this kind of impact on e-learning, it would seem that more and more learning may be done through the world wide web. Even as I write this I am learning and yet it my choice about how much I write or even what I write about; the assignment expects me to choose my own learning path. This class essentially requires the students to define their content; it is the processes that matter. If this is the future of education, we are heading for some radical innovations in education in the years ahead; we are questioning our 'pedagogical principles'!

Attention Community Based Master's Students

2009-01-30T00:58:00.003-06:00

I know many of us are feeling the strain of work, a new class (for me EC&I 831), and an action research project that is due this spring. I have this nagging voice in my brain telling me, "You gotta get going!" I am hard on myself, but I feel like I'm procrastinating. Well I decided to check procrastinating out on Youtube just to see what I could find; and I found this beautiful little clip that I now use when talking to students who delay getting to their responsibilities. It's a good laugh I hope you enjoy it.

So many ideas; so little time!

2009-01-30T00:29:00.003-06:00

Where do I begin? I find myself a enthusiastic disciple of Couros (not intended to be sacrilegious!) and in the days that follow a class I am positively bubbling with enthusiasm as I try to spread the Word of Tech! It's interesting how uncomfortable some get when I start preaching from the Book of Couros et al! I keep hearing, "We don't have time!" Yet, some of those people are the ones who are gone before 4:00 and don't have the added strain of course work to contend with along with job responsibilities. How is it that I can find time and they can't! Anyway, I see shadows of hope and I am finding colleagues who are interested in learning more. I spent an hour with our Information Processing teacher on Wednesday after class and even she sees a need to learn more in order to keep up with the changes. I dangled the possibility of auditing the EC&I 831 class next week and I hope she is up to the invite. I really do want to see the staff I work with as enthusiastic about the possibilities technology offers as I am.

I also had a wonderful experience this morning by allowing myself to be interviewed by another Grad student in an Arts Ed program with the University of Victoria (my old turf). She is working on a project about teacher image and asked me many questions that I am still reflecting on, but in the interview I commented that I am frustrated that the most used piece of technology in our school is a piece of chalk with a chalk board! In hindsight though, the reality is probably the photocopier. The world of Web 2.0 appears to be a long way off.

Nevertheless, I feel a synergy building as my excitement is creating dialogue with my peers, my colleague's project has teachers talking to teachers about teaching, and I know there are people on staff taking little peeks into this world and thinking about its implications on them. I talked to four different staff about my Major Digital Project for the EC&I 831 class and I made overtures that I might be interested in working with them if they were interested in being involved. Planting seeds you know!

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

2009-01-26T22:46:00.004-06:00

bjnesbitt's Vision of K-12 Students today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8) got my attention. For one, I thought it was ironic that, aside from the opening images, the text of the video was done using white boards only. Most of the text was man made print, yet the point made is that students are 21st Century learners. I appreciated the irony. I also felt some frustration as the ideals of bjnesbitt's vision seem so far away in public schools today. Maybe that was his point for using the white boards.

Seeing the concept of 21st Century learners sort of jarred me as I have been so used to thinking of the 20th Century that I haven't quite shifted into thinking that it is a Century in the history books. And I'm embarassed to admit that I still don't know what a podcast is or what they are used for; that will be something I have to explore in a later blog.

I also appreciated the fact that the material is referenced at the end; it is just not thrown out as fact. Too often we see things or hear things in popular media that is not referenced and it is accepted as fact. It also reminded me of a Youtube video that I thought was very powerful that I first saw thanks to my friends at http://www.edcentre.ca/ called ShiftHappens. It is a longer video (7+minutes) but the music is good! It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnWKg9B2-8. It also paints a picture of a world undergoing rapid change; well worth watching. Come to think of it, I should use it with a career ed class I teach.

I have attached this picture to remind those of us who came out of the 20th century just how far we've come. This picture is of my sister checking out my dad's new word processor - errrr - electric typewriter (just so the kids know what it was called). Incidentally, the typewriter was new and the year was 1980 (the year I graduated from High School). My how the world has changed!

Trying to make sense of Twitter

2009-01-26T00:51:00.002-06:00

I sat and viewed the Video: Teaching With Twitter - Chronicle.com that I found in the EC&I 831 "Reading List" and found myself understanding that to Twitter effectively you need to connect through your telephone and become a proficient "Texter". David Perry, a professor at the University of Texas, talks about using his iphone but I wonder about using any cel phone. This is something I will need to explore much more. So far after a little more than a day I've learned that Alec Couros has just returned to Regina from a conference and 'rhysatwork' in the land down under caught a mess of fish yesterday. I also learned that Alec has some strong opinions about some of the things that are wrong in school - teachers who yell and buildings that provide a place for kids to watch adults work. Good points I thought though I can't image kids not meeting in face to face schools. Interesting though that a couple of thoughts that Couros Twittered on made me pause and reflect. I have one more question before I go to bed; what is a twitter and what is a tweet or are they the same thing?

A Youtube Rookie makes the jump!

2009-01-25T20:46:00.008-06:00

I have resisted setting up a Youtube account for some time now although I love going to Youtube for ideas to support teaching and learning. I'm not really sure why I resisted but .... maybe it goes back to the fear of putting too much of myself out there. Yet, now that I've posted a biography of myself on Youtube I know I will be checking it to see if people are viewing it; I also hope that some long lost friends stumble across it.

Setting up the Youtube account was painless and downloading my first video was even less painless. Using MovieMaker to make the video was a nightmare. The program froze on me frequently and would not allow me to have two different sound tracks at the same time. I wanted music in the background, but couldn't make it happen unless I recorded myself with the music playing in the background. I tried it but found myself making too many mistakes like recording with the music too loud. I really want to get ahold of a good movie making program, but I'm not sure what is out there yet. Anyway, I now know I can do this!

Block heaters work better in mild conditions

2009-01-23T23:08:00.005-06:00

I sometimes wish I was more skilled with my hands and had the ability to manuafacture things because every now and again I get an idea of a product the world needs, but I lack the skill to make it happen. For example, the time has come to build a better block heater cord. It seems like every year when the really cold weather comes (-30 or colder) my block heater cord breaks. Now the idea of block heater is to keep the oil warmish in the engine block in brutally cold weather; does it make sense that this cord breaks so easily in cold weather? Absolutely not! Because of this technological failure, I have a big blue ice cube on my hands!

Now my choice is to get up early and run my vehicle so it can't freeze up or walk and wait until things warm up. It doesn't help that my pipes froze last weekend and I've been without running water since last Sunday; I can't wait for spring!

Normalization of Technology mixed with the joy of Teaching!

2009-01-22T22:20:00.003-06:00

Today was, as usual, a busy day at school for me. I taught two classes this morning and the rest of the day was a blur as I tried to plug holes because of staff illnesses. I didn't think about it much during the day, but when I got home I thought about how technology affected my day at school. As I reflected on it, I realized that in many ways technology is a normal part of my life at work. I used Word to make some posters about the Saskatchewan Departmental Exams which began today, I used a PowerPoint lesson on paragraph writing with two grade 8 Language Arts classes I covered, I used MAT (Marks and attendance Program) to locate a phone number of a parent, my superintendant communicated a message to me regarding Math resources through e-mail, I received information about a student's flight to Ottawa coming up on the weekend through e-mail, I printed an application form for a student wanting to take an online class next semester, and I responded to an e-mail from a student taking an online class. That was the school business side; I also checked my own e-mail, checked my blog and was pleased to see someone in Rochester had responded to one of my blogs. I also noticed two student council members handwriting quotes about love to decorate the school with and I sensed some frustration on their part at the time it was taking; I suggested a copy and paste solution that they had not thought of and they ended up working on their project until six. It was just another day.

I hadn't planned to stay at school that late, but my daughter was involved in decorating and they needed a staff member to stay with them. Some complained that they were hungry so I called my wife and had her drop off some pop and chips which allowed us to sit and chat informally; it felt right. I was working, if you can call it work, with kids! I was happy and in a way didn't want the decorating to end so I prolonged it byI entertaining them with a previous blog of mine that contained a Youtube video that saw people running into a huge puddle that had been created as a practical joke.

I now realize that though I do enjoy working with technology, it is the people I am in contact with that leaves me feeling fulfilled. I enjoyed a short conversation in the hallway with a teacher about the differences between two grade 8 classes with the same course content; comparing notes about teaching, when you spend most of your time in administrivia, is actually quite refreshing! Calling a worried parent and letting her know I finally had her son's flight information was far more satisfying than finding the e-mail in the first place. And seeing students happy while doing something for the good of others and themselves on their time was somehow a joyful event. Today was a reminder, I am a teacher first and I am thankful that I was called to be one.

Goggle Reader and Labels

2009-01-21T23:55:00.005-06:00

I dabbled into Goggle Reader last night and added the blogs of those in my class to Goggle Reader. Well today I played around with it a bit and learned that as I read through blogs that people had posted the number of blog entries to read automatically decreased. I was able to read through all the blogs of my classmates (ok - some I scanned) and I now know there is nothing left for me to read in their blogs as of 11:59 p.m. I now understand why Alec Couros was encouraging us to use Goggle Reader; I do not have to go to the participant page on the EC & I 831 Wiki (http://eci831.wikispaces.com/Directory) to find the blogs of my classmates and that can save a person quite a bit of time. I am wondering how to organize folders in Goggle Reader; I will have to visit the course tutorial and see what it says.

I am also wondering about the labels that we can attach to our blogs. I just started adding them to my last couple of blogs and I noticed I got more feedback from others on the web. I'm guessing by adding labels I make it easier for web surfers to find my writing with a goggle search. I think I'll do a search to test my hunch!

Challenged but Connected!

2009-01-21T21:32:00.003-06:00

Wow 8 comments on my blog from last night! I'm sitting here in front of my computer with a silly grin because some people thought they needed to speak their piece back at me; little ol' me! It's an interesting feeling that people from Saskatoon, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Australia, and Buffalo Narrows all connected on words I wrote. Suddenly, I don't feel like I'm talking to myself when I write these words. I have mixed feelings though; part of me is going yahoo I'm sharing and another part of me is thinking I better think things out carefully before I publish. I'm still smiling though and thinking that this could become addicting.

I've been Elluminated

2009-01-20T23:31:00.003-06:00

It seems like I'm constantly being exposed to programs that open up the world of possibilities to me. For the last three Tuesdays, I've been 'attending' an EC&I 831 class with Alec Couros through the power of Elluminate! I'm not even really sure who everyone in the class is because it is an open class; that is, anyone in the world with access to the Internet can participate. Today, we had people on from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Luxembourg, and yes even Canada, including someone from Toronto; I believe we had 32 participants today and many of the visitors contributed valuable ideas to the discussion. It was a powerful demonstration about the power of a Synchronous ("Live") Session and highlighted the idea that we can learn from anyone in the world if we can arrange times and forums in which to meet. Elluminate is one such forum that gives learners a place to meet with teacher guides; it also is one program that proves you do not need mortar and bricks to have a place to educate people.

Tonight, our session was on an Overview of Connectivism (George Siemens). Siemens made the point that people are interacting differently because of technological advances. He also made the point that Web 2.0 is just another advance in a long line of technological improvements. It was a good connection to last week's session on the history of technology in Education that can be found by clicking on the link Introduction to Educational Technology (Richard Schwier & Jay Wilson). However, as good as the formal presentation was, the idea I heard tonight that I am most interested in came from an Aussie, 'rhysatwork', who wrote about the idea of the 'attention economy'. It intrigues me because I sometimes wonder if the world wide web is little like television; I mean televison is very good at commanding attention but often for meaningless programs while educational programs get little attention. Is this the Internet today? Programs like Facebook and Bebo grab a lot of attention as people share often insignificant details of their daily lives while the opportunity to learn meaningful lessons like the one we had today are largely ignored by the masses. It seems to me that those who are able to grab attention are those that influence popular culture and even political opinions!

I'm not sure we are at the point that George Siemens suggests we are; that is that 'people' are communicating differently and the PR spin campaigns are no longer controlling opinions as they once did. I think we need to qualify people with the word 'some'. I believe there is a movement, perhaps a significant movement, of people headed this way, but at the same time I know there are still Luddites among us and many Internet users who are just seeking information. They are non-participants in the exchange of ideas on the web. I know this because I was one of those people who lurked but held back. Maybe the day will come when it changes globally; right now I believe it is mostly a western world phenomenon that excludes people living in totalitarian countries, those who are poor, and those who are disadvantaged. Though the numbers of participants on the web continues to grow, we need to emphasize that only some people are buying into the world of Web 2.0 at least for now. I do agree though that it is only going to grow and the influence of Web 2.0 is going to change life as we know it today. For some, the change has happened.

Web 2.0 The Future of Education?

2009-01-15T00:42:00.003-06:00

I read a blog a couple of nights ago that I've been mulling over for a couple of days called Web 2.0 Is The Future of Education (http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/03/web-20-is-future-of-education.html). It did get me wondering where technology is taking us and is it even a positive change. I know my experiences in Northern Saskatchewan leaves me struggling with a school system that despite the efforts of hardworking teachers is working for less than half of the students that attend. Content and processes are being taught in ways that cannot compete with the same effectiveness as the wired world we operate in. Many of our students are social networking and attending to other sources of information and entertainment while learning is supposed to happening. Even my classmates in my Master's program have multiple windows open on their computer as they jump from conversations with people at home to searching a name mentioned by a professor or viewing a text message on a cell phone while in class. Technology has a hold of learners today in many ways. However, I do not jump to the conclusion that technology is THE future of education; I believe though that technology has a place in education now and into the future.

Steve Hargadon makes point that there is "a tidal wave of information" being produced; he claims that there are 100,000 blogs created daily and MySpace is signing up 375,000 users everyday. I'm not sure how he found this information (and I do think we need to be adding links to factual claims like these), but I do think it is probably true. He makes the point though that to deal with the information overload we need to know how to "produce more content" so that we can understand the information we find on the web. Essentially, when we have over 100, 000 blogs being created a day, by knowing how they are created we better understand the reliabilty of the information. For one, by knowing how to blog you will realize that blogs are essentially personal editorials and narratives placed on the web; you can learn from them and be misinformed by them. Reader beware. So by asking the question where did the statistics in Hargadon's blog come from (he does make a reference to John Seely Brown in Educause Magazine earlier), I have instantly made a connection that some of what I am reading may actually be a fabrication. I certainly do not think it would be a credible source for a formal research paper. Nevertheless, the point he makes is valid, and if we accept it as valid, then we have to conclude that education needs to include the teaching of the technology of the day. The question though is that all school will be? We also should not forget that technology is constantly changing and as I learned in the presentation in my EC&I 831 class last night ( go to http://eci831.wikispaces.com/01-13-09 and click here), I have to believe that even Web 2.0 will become obselete and outdated; it to could be viewed much like a gestetner.

His assertion that Web 2.0 is the Future of Education is strongly stated. I accept that Web 2.0 will need to be a part of an education for students, but let us not forget the teachings that are not technology driven that still belong in the life of a student. I think we would all agree that Physical Education is being made even more important because of the time we spend being inactive; we also have to think about the arts, the Practical and Applied Arts, and the socialization and social networking of students at all levels.

Steve also made me realize with his blog just how much change has come about with the internet. He emphasized that essentially it began as a "one-way medium" and now it is much more interactive. I hadn't really thought of it that way before and it made me realize the significance of the change. Those who are participants in the world wide web are now much more engaged as participants and creators. Good or bad; it is what it is and we (teachers) have a responsibility to help learners navigate safely in this rapidly evolving medium.

There are of course questions about how will Web 2.0 be incorporated into curriculum. Will English curriculum writers (as well as other subjects)be mindful of the impact of Web 2.0 as they renew and rewrite Language Arts Curriculums? Will governments fund schools to allow for greater access to computers and the multiple of tools that accompany them? Will parents resist having their children exposed to the web in a way that gives an entire planet access to their images, ideas, and possibly personal information? Will teachers who resist change adopt the Web 2.0 stuff and learn it?

Steve Hargadon is a visionary and he has made some excellent comments about what education may look like in the future, but there is much work to be done in public schools and in Ministry of Education offices to make the world he foresees a reality.

You just have to fool around!

2009-01-12T23:25:00.004-06:00

The title might have grabbed your attention, but now it is my job as a writer to keep it! I've been experimenting tonight with the settings on my blog and I learned it is possible to place an image on the title bar of the blog. I'm not happy with the image I've posted as a trial run and I hope to change it before long once I've learned a little more. I also learned how to add a gadget, although after playing the first sudoku puzzle to show up on my blog I wonder if I selected a lower quality game to attach. I'll try another version later I think.

I've been viewing other blogs and wikis with images in the titles and I am wondering how do they do that? I've been really impressed by the quality of some like the edtechposse logo and the head with an opened lock logo used on http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/721 and others. It ads a special dimension to the look of the blog and it suggests that the creator has some special talents with technology. If anyone can share with me how to make a unique logo using the power of the internet, please let me know.

As I was writing this it occurred to me that capturing an image from someone else's blog or wiki is a relatively easy thing to do. It also made me wonder if there are unscrupulous bloggers who try to pose as someone they are not by using the logos of another. Maybe, this is the privacy concern that many of technologies nay sayers are flooding us all with coming out. I guess I will always be somewhat cautious about what I put on the internet about myself, but I wonder if I've already shared too much for one wanting to steal an identity.

I have also allowed my image to be used by a teacher friend and artist for her Master's project on teacher identity. She surprised me with a dress the administrator page that left me dumbfounded in the staffroom. I laughed from the soul and at the same time I wondered would the use of my head on a man's body dressed only in boxers be seen as inappropriate conduct for an administrator. You can check the site out at http://www.shelleydeck.com/LLCS%20Collaborative%20Portraits/slides/King%202.html if you are curious. I decided it was obviously humourous and allowed the page to remain possibly forever in cyberspace.

If this is my 15 minutes of famethough, I feel cheated.

RSS Feeds

2009-01-09T00:11:00.005-06:00

I viewed RSS in Plain English on Youtube today that I found by exploring the tutorials section of the EC&I 831 Blog and decided to experiment a little. I'm not sure I completely understood everything as I set up a g-mail account for myself (kicode2@gmail.com) and I explored Google Reader. And I'm not sure I had to use reader to benefit from RSS. However, I think I understand that when you use reader, it will let you know when the sites you are interested in get updated; I suspect the more I become familiar with reader the more I will see its benefits.

What I discovered about RSS though, was it acts much like favourites when you use the feeds or RSS button next to favourites. A small discovery, but nevertheless a discovery!

I can't say enough about learning from Youtube; the above mentioned site from Youtube helped me understand that Google Reader will save a person time when they are attempting to keep up with the news from multiple sites. I have lots more to learn here though.

EC&I 831: Computers in the Classroom

2009-01-07T00:20:00.002-06:00

Well today (actually yesterday - it's late) was the beginning of a new journey for me and the beginning of the last class of the Master's program I am enrolled in. Today's class came at the right time as in just two days back in school I've lost two teachers to extended sick leaves and a new teacher we hired quit on the spot today! I still have to figure out what to do with the class tomorrow, but that's a new day! When I received this news it was like oh my God! What next! We do not have qualified substitutes here and when a teacher disappears it means internal coverage. I'm not sure I can completely comprehend what this means to our school yet, but I digested the information for about an hour as my principal and I discussed the various scenarios that we could employ to at least temporarily keep the kids without teachers meaningfully engaged in school and then I remembered a resume that I got just before Christmas and made a call. The long and the short of it is we are doing an interview tomorrow evening to try and fill a position for the third time this year; yes, it is ugly.

I then scrambled to get home for the first class of EC&I 831; and quickly gobbled down a delicious meal my wife had prepared while I learned the basics of Elluminate (thats why I didn't try the camera today)! Sweet and sour wings are messy! Anyway, the joy of learning new things made me forget the issues in my school and allowed positive energy to return to me far more quickly than anything else could.

I've already tried a few things out tonight (worked on the wiki participant profile, investigated subscribing to the course blog, and re-watched a part of the presentation from this evening) since getting off line and I do not really want to stop except I do need to sleep and I really need to think about the needs of a Grade 8 class. However, before I go that way I need to reflect on a few things regarding my own thoughts about technology.

I love learning through technology; it is engaging and stimulating. I find myself more likely to spend a significant amount of time working on a project when I can include technology. I get excited by learning programs that I can employ to make my work life easier. For example, I found a program online to assist teachers with keeping marks on students that students and parents can access online (Engrade). I also have learned how to work with Adobe Pagemaker to produce newsletters. I am dabbling in Wikis and the possibility of having an electronic staffroom (http://llcsdenestaffroomwiki.wikispaces.com/) for our school. It has not been well received yet but my principal asked me about it today and if he gets interested than I expect the staff will come around!

I have even taken my interest in technology to this master's program as I am investigating what an administrator can do to support online learners in a school.

The school I work in has a significant problem with student attendance and I am ultimately interested in finding ways of incorporating technology with the learning program of the students. So in a way I guess I am a technology crusader who is encouraging staff to look at technology as a fantastic tool for working with students. This is not to say I believe in technology over people though. I believe that the technology requires teachers who build relationships with students while facilitating learning.

Feeling down? You need to laugh!

2008-12-02T23:28:00.002-06:00

School has not been a lot of fun lately for me. There has been too many stress causing things at school and I've been feeling myself getting sucked into a low energy phase in the school year at a time when I really need to pick things up. December and the Christmas stuff is a high energy time. The pressures of work have been compounded by the pressures of getting class work done and the frustration of trying to work on my project only to find my time slipping away on me. I'm struggling with getting the time to spend with the students who have signed up for online classes. I guess it is one of the realities of action research; time will always be a problem. However, I digress from what I wanted to write about and that is the need to laugh. Because laughter has been lacking in my life lately I sought out a video that would give me a laugh about homework. I found one that really tickled my funny bone, but it really isn't appropriate here as it has some rather offensive language. That video is called the homework song and I laughed at it because I was struggling with getting to my own paper. Anyway, happily enough that hit lead to me finding this video. The video is a prank where walkers unexpectedly end up in a pool of water. I'm not sure what this says about me as I laugh at the misfortune of others, but maybe that's the point. My job puts me in the position of trying to be a people pleaser at times, and I have to be the straight guy when sometimes I really just want to laugh. Maybe, I need to let myself be me and not a school administrator! Anyway, I still have work to do and I need to get to it. Suffice it to say that this video brought laughs to me and I was able to share it with my family. The joy that comes from laughing with your teenaged children is special especially when times have been a little less joyful than ordinary. Laugh out loud when you watch it and you will feel a sense of renewed vigor in your soul. I feel much more relaxed right now and it is likely that I will be more focused on my work for the rest of the evening. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Household Pet? Member of the Family!

2008-11-18T00:28:00.002-06:00

Well my dog forced me out of the closet this weekend! I have to admit that her life has an importance in my family life. I have always been a little irreverant about her place in our home since she chewed up my favourite sandals as a pup! I affectionately call her 'dumb dog' and I was not ashamed to use guilt to make the kids pay attention to her. Seemed liked I was the only one who fed her and gave her water and I was the one that never wanted a dog.

Well she has been a part of our lives for 9 years now and on Saturday we nearly lost her. She went under the back wheel of a Ford F150 and came out of the situation crying like I'd never heard her cry before and dragging herself across the road in a fashion that left me thinking I'd have to finish her off with the shovel I was holding. Fortunately, a police officer neighbour came out and told me he thought she would be okay judging by her legs. Well I picked her up and brought her inside and me and my daughter began a vigilance that lasted all evening Saturday and into Sunday. She wouldn't eat or drink and at one point made an effort to get outside. We helped her because we thought she wanted to pee, but it was like she wanted to go and hide. It took us an hour to coax her out from under the deck. Anyway, she finally drank a little just before bed on Saturday and she ate a little on Sunday as well drank some. It wasn't until Monday that we knew she could still pee; my poor wife had a huge mess to clean up.

Anyway, I bundled her up on Monday afternoon and pulled my daughter out of school and headed for the vet in Meadow Lake. The trip passed uneventfully and the vet took a quick look at her and concluded that she would heal. Her pelvis is broken but that will fuse together again in a matter of days or weeks. His biggest concern is that her diaphram may be broken and she will need surgery for that. He set her up with an IV and some pain killer and placed her in a kennel until x-rays can be done in the morning. We had to leave her there, but we left with lighter hearts knowing she was being helped and confident that she will make a recovery if we give her the time.

I have to confess I'm glad the dumb dog is going to make it even though it is going to cost me $$$. My kids have had to deal with enough tragedy lately; a miraculous recovery from their dog will ease their worries and make life seem more forgiving. And hopefully, my wife's long distance running companion will be able to enjoy more runs in the future. Rest well tonight Scooter; you may be home in a day or two.

Are you getting enough sleep?

2008-11-15T08:05:00.002-06:00

I know I'm one of those people who cheats on sleep. I sometimes literally go until I can't stay awake. You know the micro sleeps that you can have when you are driving; I've actually experienced those while working on my computer and of course just doing leisurely things like a Soduku puzzle. One thing for sure, when I finally give in to sleep, I'm not having trouble getting to sleep.

The experts are talking about how the electric light bulb and electricity have changed people's sleep patterns and how unhealthy that can be. I found this clip on Youtube and boy am I bad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxrMLD5Uwdk I'm not doing much right when it comes to sleeping. I do cheat my sleep during the week and then try to catch up on the weekends. I wonder if I developed good habits if that would change how productive I am by the end of the week.

I was exhausted last night and spent most of the evening either napping or watching World War stories during Remembrance Week on the History Channel. Great programs but it was not what I should have been doing. I had planned to work on my classwork last night but just didn't have the energy. The strange thing though is I woke up this morning dreaming about my project. I had a brainwave and even though I'm tired I felt compelled to get up and write down my thoughts about my project; I feel cheated because it was supposed to be a catch up morning for me. A chance for me to rest so that I could put in a good day's work on my project. I guess taking care of me will have to be a higher priority; I cannot keep functioning this way.

Remembrance Day Guilt

2008-11-11T00:25:00.001-06:00

I'm feeling guilty tonight. Our school held its annual Remembrance Day assembly as I believe we should do, but our ceremony included God Save the Queen. I never really thought about the song before, but today the words were like a dagger in my heart. I couldn't wait for the song to end; all I could think of was how contradictory it was to being respectful of the Dene culture. I know it is a song that is traditionally used in Remembrance Day ceremonies but it is one I will want to seriously discuss before it is played again in our school.

As it is I started a conversation about how can we do something equally meaningful on National Aboriginal Day? I've planted the notion with some staff already. I'm even thinking we should have a Remembrance type ceremony for aboriginal people who essentially faced genocide with the introduction of small pox in the 1800's. Nevertheless, I will continue to observe remembrance day as I am greatful for the sacrifices made by previous generations in the belief that they were creating a better world for those who would follow them.

If you want to see a powerful song about Remembrance Day check out the Edcentre.ca blog @ http://edcentre.blogspot.com/

Just for the record, I've attached the lyrics to God save the Queen - I couldn't believe the second and third verse.

God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter thine enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen.

Into the Wild

2008-11-09T22:58:00.003-06:00

I recall the t.v. sitcom M.A.S.H. and the song suicide is painless that was the show's theme song. I didn't think about it much back then, but with the recent rash of suicides and attempted suicides in my town I can assure you that suicide is not painless. There are so many kids in this community who are hurting and crying for attention. It is an educator's nightmare. We seem to be focused on the bureaucracy of our jobs and continuous improvement when kids need help; I'm struggling with the idea that administrative tasks may be interfering with my ability to be a hallway presence and make a difference in a kid's life. On Wednesday last week, I spent over an hour listening to and talking with a grade 12 student; the bureaucracy did not triumph in this situation and it felt rewarding although it was also an emotional session. However, it was what the student needed. She didn't need a crisis hotline, she didn't need a therapist; she needed a compassionate listener to make sense of her own emotions over the most recent suicide.

I'm at the point now where news of another suicide or attempt is not all that surprising. I think I expect to hear of more; the surprise is who tried or succeeded. I wish I had the ability to wave a magic wand and heal those who hurt, but I don't. I try to make a difference for those I reach and I will continue to stress to people that life is a joy. I watched the movie "Into the Wild" on Friday night and was so touched by the story. The young man's awareness of the beauty of nature was inspiring, yet his final realization that happiness is nothing if it is not shared pointed out what I believe about life. The purpose of life is to make the world a better place for those around you; it is a joyful mission when you reflect on the connections you make with others. For those in despair and wanting to end their own lives, the challenge is how to move their perspective from one of having too many problems to one of having challenges to overcome. I embrace each day I am given; today's snow was a visual reminder of the changing season and I took a minute to notice the path of snowflakes, the coldness in the wind, and the joy of a warm home with people in it that I love.

Tell the Truth! All the time!

2008-10-28T20:30:00.000-06:00

I had a really nice visit from one of the adults taking classes through the online school. She was struggling and came in because she needed encouragement. This is on of the problems I anticipated with the online students; staying motivated is an issue. She just feels disconnected and she knew she needed some encouragement. In the end we agreed to establish e-mail contact with each other and I invited her to come to the school to work on her classes in times when she felt she needed the human element (particularly the adult element) in her life. She left feeling better and I have to send her a note to see how the rest of her day went.

I got involved in a complicated relationship thing today where a young man came in to discuss a problem he was having with his girl friend. She didn't trust him and was believing someone else who was apparently telling lies about him and another girl. I was quit sympathetic and told him if necessary we could show his girlfriend the video of the hallway where this incident was alleged to have taken place and straighten the whole thing out. He didn't think it was necessary but he nodded when I told him the offer would stand if he needed it.

Well the next hour his girlfriend was in the office in tears and she asked me to see the video. I had a meeting to go to but I trusted the young man and I thought it would help him to show her the video. Turns out he was lying to me and his girlfriend saw something he never would have wanted her to see. I don't know how it all will play out. I feel really bad for the young lady he was lying to though and when I saw him that afternoon and discussed it I asked him about an assembly we'd had where our principal had asked the students to remember a couple of little things: the first was "TELL THE TRUTH" and the second was "ALL THE TIME." He could have saved a lot of people a lot of time if he had been honest to begin with! It was an interesting couple of hours. Unfortunately, the rest of my day was spent with the bureaucracy the Minstry of Education has created around special education. I'm really feeling like administration is getting to be too much responsibility and instead of giving us time to be educational leaders the demands on our time is taking us away from the classrooms. Today I missed a class visit because of the longer than expected meeting with our special education consultant. Tomorrow is a new day though and I'm going to continue to make students my first priority!

Searching

2008-10-27T23:34:00.000-06:00

Well October continues to deliver awesome weather. I think its been better than the summer. I continue to not get to my project and I continue to feel like I'm not doing enough. To make matters worse Icreated a binder which had a lot of what I had done together that I cannot find now. It had phone #s and addresses along with consent forms for participation in my project. I've searched everywhere I can think of and it still has not turned up - I am concerned. I wanted to investigate e-mailing the students involved in the project and now I've lost their e-mail addresses. Aarrrghh!!!!! I keep thinking to myself stop looking and you will find it; the harder I look the worse it seems.

Today was another day of working on paper work and wondering what really is important. I found out just before lunch that another one of our young students had attempted suicide the night before and had hurt herself. She is a really likeable kid and I get along with her very well; I didn't see anything that worried me of her and I can't help but wonder if all the administrivia in our lives is keeping us from the important people we work with - the students. I will be praying for her tonight but I wonder if the bureaucrats even realize what the impact is of the paper machine they are creating. I could rant on this but it is not productive nor healthy. I will do what I can to fill out forms the way they want, but I will continue to make the kids my first priority. We've been talking about the need for fun in our lives and we can't help but think our jobs are more stressful than they used to be because we don't have the time to plan for fun. I know I want to be more spontaneous in school and I want to see more laughter amongst the students. Today the Student Council proclaimed as 80's day; I didn't dress up but I did bring in a CD with 80's music on it. I don't know if the kids liked it but the teachers did and there were a lot of smiles from those that heard it.

I spent most of the night working on assignments for my Ed 870AR 383 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy class. I actually felt in the groove and I credit it to not working myself until I was exhausted today. I made it home before 5:00 p.m. and I relaxed to the point of having a nap before 6 which left me feeling strong this evening. Maybe this is the answer to my grad work - be selfish and do it for yourself. I hope my director doesn't read this!

Scraping Hide

2008-10-24T23:25:00.000-06:00

I should have brought my camera to school today as I had my first opportunity to try scraping a moose hide! I know for many people this is a strange thing to write about but for me it was an amazing experience. For one, it looks a lot easier than it is to do; it also has a smell to it that once on you seems almost impossible to get away from. I washed my hands 3 or 4 times and I could still smell the flesh I was scraping on my hands despite spending only 10 minutes working on it. I really developed an appreciation for the skill involved in scraping a hide. I imagined what life was like for aboriginal people who depended on hides for clothing and shelter and I thought about the work involved and I gained a small but new insight into what life must have been like for aboriginal people. Thanks to the elders for their sharing!

It was a glorioius day today with a wind blowing, blue sky overhead, and mild temperatures especially for this time of year. There is something to be said for outdoor learning opportunities.

Sometimes I think the Luddites had it right!

2008-10-23T21:17:00.000-06:00

Today was one of those days when I was reminded how frustrating technology can be. It began innocently enough; my printer which had been away since June was finally returned to me yesterday and I decided it was time to put it to action again. I proudly switched printer on my first attempt at printing smug in my knowledge that I wouldn't have to risk printing to our constantly jamming photocopier! Well I hit print and nothing. No happy wirring from the printer, no sign that it had even received my order to print; I checked the printer and everything seemed to be right but nothing happened. I thought about this for a minute and then I remembered I hadn't hooked up the usb cable to the printer - that would be the problem. Sure enough after a brief look for the cable and then a long wait to get back into my office because my phone had been borrowed I had the printer working beautifully!

Well then I had a student transfer back to our school and so I did the paper work and went to print her schedule - for some reason the two printers I have available to me were not available to me to print from and so I had to find a secretary to print it for me. Well during this time a tutor got on our copier which is also the secretary's printer; guess who had to wait! Then the darn thing jammed and I waited some more; finally it printed and I picked it up and went to make the student a copy and the copier jammed. At this point, I could have been converted to Ludditism! Nevertheless, I persevered and finally sent the student on her way.

It was then that I remembered I had a memo to produce for the bus drivers. This time my computer was able to connect to my printer and I quickly finished and printed the memo. I grabbed it and went to photocopy it and... well check out the video ... it wasn't as bad but it was a jammed copier I gave up on as I handed the task to our secretary and went outside to supervise buses and cool off!!!

Benefits of Journaling

2008-10-22T21:43:00.000-06:00

I'm still new at this blogging thing and I wanted to see if I had the know-how to post a video. This became a priority for me today when a teacher I talked to about her class and using visuals confessed that she had never heard of Teachertube. I hadn't either until this past spring. I want to spread the good word and so I went searching. I found this video on teachertube but I couldn't download it from teachertube; however, I found the same thing on youtube and it worked!

Half full or half empty?

2008-10-22T21:04:00.000-06:00

Today was punctuated with a talk with a student that centered on the idea that there are two ways of viewing a cup half filled. You can look at it and see it as half full or as half empty - its the same thing but not quite. One view - its half empty - is deficit based; the other - its half full - is strength based. Our principal, often says, "If you want things to change, change the way you look at it."

Today, it occurred to me that these two bits of wisdom are connected. It also drove home the point to me that the way I use language is changing the way I think and it can be powerful when speaking to students. The student I spoke to today nodded as I explained the half full cup story and a smile crossed his face as he said, "Mr. King you got me thinking totally different than I was 40 minutes ago." However, he hadn't quite got it as he started speaking about his problems again. I stopped him and asked him if he could look at his problems differently; I asked him if instead of calling them problems, he called them challenges did that make things different. Again he smiled as he realized it changed the way he looked at things. I can't promise that his life will be better forever because of the conversation; but his mood lightened and left my office smiling. It made a difference for one day anyway.

Another student today who had spoken to me on Monday about struggling with his online class confessed that things were a little better than they had been. He was looking at one chunk of information at a time instead of looking at the whole course. I smiled inwardly because he made a point of wandering over to me to share his small success; I smiled more when he said, "Well I guess I'll be going, but I'll be back tomorrow." Baby steps, small successes; half full I'd say!

Having vision!

2008-10-21T22:52:00.000-06:00

Our school met a little over a year ago and created a belief statement that is echoing through my brain like a chorus to a popular song; I just can't seem to get it out of my head. When I think about it, I realize that the belief statement is one that I have embraced. Our statement, "Together, we dream, believe, strive and succeed" was the product of many hours of arguing over individual words and I have to conclude that the arguments were worth it because it is a memorable little sentence that is impacting our professional decisions at the school level.

Today, I saw this statement in action. A teacher met with me this morning and we quickly took care of her question and then began talking about the possibilities of wikis. We spoke of trying to improve what we do, working more effectively and efficiently at how we communicate in an effort to become better teachers and serve our students better. For me it was the highlight of the day; it was collaboration, it was respectful, and it was hopeful. In the afternoon, I bumped into a student just after I left a classroom and she was looking for our career transition advisor because she was interested in learning more about going to university; I told her I hadn't and she said well maybe you can help. I thought how nice it was to have a student ask for help regarding her future and I immediately changed my plans and spent 20 minutes showing her around the U of S website. It occurred to me that this is what together is all about. A student needed help, the resource person she was looking for was not available, and I stepped up and filled in the role meeting the student's need. It felt like I was making a difference and I was glad that I had taken the time to learn as much as I could about technology because I was able to find what she was looking for on the internet in a matter of minutes. I was sharing in the student's dream and I was showing her I believed in her by taking her request for help as being more important than working on exit reports or PAA reporting sheets. Her efforts in school may be heavily influenced by the 20 minute conversation we had today.

I also saw team work (together) today; at a high school meeting after school I presented the problem I was having supporting online learners in our school. I just don't have enough hours in the day to reach the students consistently enough who need help. So I asked the group if they would be willing to help by taking interest in one or two students each to monitor their progress and to encourage them to keep working. I am delighted to report that I had no problem getting staff to volunteer; they want to see our students succeed and they are willing to work as a team to see it happen. It was a good day at school; I networked with colleagues, I had positive interactions with students, I visited a class, I took care of some of the administrivia that is on my plate, and I left the school late feeling tired, but satisfied that, for today anyway, my day was spent more as an educational leader than as a cranky old guy in the hallway.

Satisfaction and Frustration: Just another day!

2008-10-20T19:13:00.000-06:00

Every now and again things happen that restore hope and lead you to believe that all the things that cause you grief can actually be overcome by turning to your friends and colleagues. Today began with a staff meeting and we had a problem that we did not have a solution to; we had 5 staff wanting a leave for Thursday and Friday when we only had 3 subs available and 5 leaves already approved! Staff came through though; the suggestion came to have a culture day on Friday which would allow us to easily combine groups of students and cover them with appropriate supervision. Problem solved; meeting planned and leaves granted!!!

I still had another problem to contend with though as I have a teacher out on sick leave for perhaps as long as 9 weeks. I have no qualified teacher to take a term contract and no one to plan lessons for the class. I spent an hour today trying to find work we could give to the group and I was beginning to think I would have to take the group over, but again a staff member came to the solution. She would take the kids,the sub, and tutor from the other class and incorporate them with her own! Problem solved! Boy I owe that lady some Mars bars - her favourite!

The good in people surrounds us; we just don't always take the time to see it for what it is!!! It makes me appreciate the team I work alongside with and it makes me realize that together we are so much stronger than when we work in isolation.

I met with a student taking an online class today and he was feeling down. He was feeling overwhelmed by his online class, his motivation was low, and he was talking about dropping the class and picking it up in second semester. I smiled as he talked and I confessed to him that I had been having similar concerns; I admitted that I hadn't been able to support the learners the way I had hoped I would be able to and that I had another idea that was going through my mind. I plan to talk to high school teachers tomorrow about taking an interest in one online student; I would want them to check with the student frequently and be a go to person when the student is having a difficulty. I also suggested that he had to set a goal of completing one activity a day. I shared with him my belief that because the student can see the whole pie (all the class work) that he wants to eat it all at once. I suggested that if he were only shown one piece at a time it would be easier. I then helped him with one assignment and he agreed that it would be helpful to limit himself on how much he tries to to take on a day. I ended our session by showing him a Youtube video on Dalton Sherman called "Do you believe in me?" which can be found at http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA When he left, I marvelled over the maturity I now see in him and I thought briefly about the challenging student he had been a couple of years earlier.

The work of teachers is often overlooked by those who think poorly of the profession; however, when you see first hand the impact teaching and teachers can have on individuals, you realize just how important a single meeting between a teacher and a student can be. Teachers are life changers; all this on just another day!

People don't always do what the say they will!

2008-10-19T23:29:00.000-06:00

I bumped into one of the online adult students in Church today and I lingered after Mass to see how things were going for her because I'd been away most of the week. She told me she had done some of the orientation unit, but was having some problems that she wanted help with. She asked if I would be at school in the afternoon and when I confirmed that I would she said she would drop by. Unfortunately, there was no visit and I am in the dark about what her issues were. I guess this will be one of the challenges of my project. I want to support online learners, but I can't do it for them. They have to want to be successful and be willing to take the help when it is offered or available. This is the second time I'd made arrangements with an adult learner who wanted help and then didn't show. I'm little disappointed, but I have to remember this is a research project and the human variable is the reason it needs to be studied and reflected upon.

Do you play with your Wiki?

2008-10-19T09:37:00.000-06:00

I've been experimenting with Wikispaces since I attended a class with Dr. Alec Couros of the University of Regina this past spring. He was so enthusiastic about what technology can do for us that it became contagious. You couldn't help but think to yourself, and out loud for that matter, that you just have to try some of this stuff. I have become a lot less paranoid about putting myself out there in the world wide web as a result. I currently have two active Wikis; the one I am most active with right now will have a relatively short shelf life as it is a collaborative assignment that I am working on with six other people and is due on November 1, 2008. It can be found at http://teachinginacoldandwindyplace.wikispaces.com/Book+and+Article+response if you are interested. The other is an idea I want to play around with and it is essentially an electronic staffroom. With a teaching staff of 32 and a support staff of 13, it is sometimes difficult to communicate with people so I am hoping this will be part of the answer. This Wiki can be found at http://llcsdenestaffroomwiki.wikispaces.com/.

If you have never experimented with Wikis, I am encouraging you to have a look at them; they are essentially web pages that can easily be updated and added to. You can set up your own account at http://www.wikispaces.com/ and it is not difficult to get started. If you want to see what Dr. Couros has done, I suggest you go to http://couros.wikispaces.com/tools; he has posted a long list of programs that you may find useful. Incidentally, I found out about teachertube because of this site!

Well I'm not sure how I will connect all this to my community based master's project except that it could be a way of sharing what I learn. More on this later.

Another Journey Begins

2008-10-18T11:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I found some old pictures of my children and marvelled at the changes they have gone through in less than a decade. I found myself in a reflective mood and began questioning what things were most important to me; it didn't take me long to conclude my family is number one in my heart. Yet, even though it was a Friday and I was off, I was working on a project for my Ed870AR class that had me looking for pictures to support a powerpoint I am working on to explore effective Indigenous Pedadagogy instead of being with them. Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets for pursuing the Master's Degree, but I am realizing it is a real sacrifice to dedicate the hours to research and writing for course work.

I was away from home this past week because of our annual teachers' convention and I was able to attend sessions that had a direct link to the project I am working on. I am exploring ways that an in-school administrator can support on-line learners and so I attended sessions on Tuesday, October 14, put on by the staff of Edcentre.ca, an online school that offers Saskatchewan High School credits. At one point they shared their successes with us and I was surprised that they only had two student names (I knew they were missing another one) from our school. This year, because I have drawn attention to the program and its availability to students in the community I serve, we have registered close to 20 students. I guess in one sense, even though the project is not complete, I can already claim a success; the fact is the program is now better known here than it was and I have given local students an opportunity to earn credits in an alternative way that they had not considered before.

I have to say that the more I look at technology and the changes that come with it, the more I am realizing that even though I consider myself a progressive thinker who is open to change, the more I am realizing just how far behind most educators are when it comes to working with the technology. My exposure to technology has influenced my thinking and the way I work or want to work into the future; I am now exploring wikis and how they can fit into my work,and to support course work requirements to journal I am looking at blogging as a solution to keeping track of my own thoughts and writing. I am already wondering if I can blog retroactively? Is it possible to go back to what I have written and add it to this blog with the date I originally wrote it? If you read this and have an answer, let me know.