Guest Author: Nancy Lake
I thought that as the subject of this blog is about mobile technology, I really should write it from a mobile device. I am on a bus trip with our PeeWee hockey team driving back to Airdrie from Regina, and my approximate location is somewhere in Saskatchewan, on the #1 highway between Swift Current and Medicine Hat. But one look at my cell phone, and I can see my exact coordinates on Google Maps. I know how far it is to the next city, and if I’m looking for the nearest Tim Horton’s, I just type it in the search field and I get directions, along with an ETA. I am writing this on a laptop, but I could also choose to write it from my iPad or iPhone…
Guest Author – Andrew Doyle There is lots to be said about social media and its uses, advantages and vices. I myself have recently been added to the addicted to twitter list. I have been on facebook for years with varying levels of interest and I engage in the ‘always connected’ lifestyle without a second thought to it. When talking to colleagues about simple things such as email I hear [ Read More ]
Guest Author, Dan New – In my recent post, “My Teacher is on the Television” there are implications of students interacting with a screen rather than an educator. It is this very conception that I have attempted to address in my classroom this semester. The question all distance educators (not just video conference educators) must ask is, “Are these students a part of my class, or are they simply observers?” [ Read More ]
Guest Author – Andrew Doyle With the abundance of choices in technology to integrate and utilize in the classroom it is hard to reflect and determine if we are using these technologies effectively for student learning. When I refer to technology in this post, it is all inclusive of things we use in our classrooms (websites, SmartBoard, Cameras, software, internet, etc.). The goal of integrated technology is to not only [ Read More ]
Guest Author: Nancy Lake
My kids came running up the stairs from the basement, shirtless…faces burning. What in the world? “We’re in the world championship for volleyball, Mom! We need a quick drink and then we’re on!”
I’ve never been a gamer. I don’t understand it. Even when Pac-Man and Donkey-Kong were King, I didn’t play. So when my kids wanted their first gaming system, a Game Boy, I wasn’t thrilled. Reluctantly, I granted their wish. Next was a Game Cube (only because it was compatible with Game Boy). Then came the Nintendo-DS, and a hand-me-down PlayStation 2. Wait a minute…this was getting out of hand…
Guest Author, Dan New ~ Calculus students at W.G. Murdoch High School in Crossfield, come to school every Monday, just as any other student. They wander in from the parking lot, place their belongings into their lockers, and grab their calculus materials. When they cross the threshold of their Calculus class, however, what they are greeted with is far from what one might define as a “regular” classroom in today’s [ Read More ]
Guest author, Leslie Collings – Recently, a delegation of SCHS staff members went to San Diego to experience High Tech High firsthand. If you have ever browsed Edutopia, you will most certainly certainly have encountered this amazing school. Because SCHS is a one-to-one school, our delegation was interested in how High Tech High integrated technology in a project-based environment. Perhaps the most important lesson from the trip was that High [ Read More ]
Guest Author: Nancy Lake
Moodle? Mahara? Wiki, Blog…sounds like new swear words from our Pee Wee Hockey team’s dressing room! Actually, these terms all relate to online collaborative environments. The Horizon Report sees these online spaces scheduled to affect education in one year or less…well, we’re ahead of schedule…
Guest author, Simon Pols – I was only 11 years old when I went to the Drive-In Theatre to watch “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. I recall laying in the back of the station wagon eating salted popcorn, drinking cream soda and trying to figure out how I could create a manikin, synchronized with the movement of the bedroom door; complete with snorts and snores. I laughed along with others at [ Read More ]
Guest Author, Nancy Lake – “Mom! Mom! Do you want to see our school project? I’m working on it with Jordan and Avery.” These were the words out of my eleven-year old as he rushed in the door.
“Sure…” He had nothing in his hands, and thankfully, his friends weren’t with him this time as I didn’t have any “good food” (cookies) to offer them today. “Where is it? Is it in your back-pack?”
“No…it’s on the computer,” he replied. I expected him to get his flash drive to show me. “It’s in the cloud Mom, on Google Docs.”
“What??”
The cloud? Google Docs? What was he talking about? Perhaps you’ve had this conversation with your own child…
