ICT Learning and Sharing

Exploring and developing my own ICT skills and pedagogy will be an ongoing process.   It also will depend on the grade and needs of the students as well as resources available at the school and teacher collaborations.  District and school policies will also be a factor.  This process will also require time for synthesis, experimentation, and sharing.   I didn't start using email till my late 20's and I held onto my flip phone for as long as I could before getting an iPhone.  But there is no turning back and nor do I want to.  The future is bright so it is important to lead, learn, and innovate. 

The following are the resources that I would use as a starting point and guide for ICT and shaping my pedagogy:

*BC New Curriculum - https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca

*BC Digital Literacy - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy

*BCTLA’s Point of Inquiry - http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/ - Posters shown below and retrieved from http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/posters/EnglishLetter.pdf and 

 http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/documents/Points%20of%20Inquiry/PointsPoster.pdf

*BCTLA Website - http://bctf.ca/bctla/index.html#

*BCTF Website on BC’s Education Chanage - https://bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=38331

*School District and School Websites

*ERAC – BC Digital Classroom - https://bcdc.bcerac.ca

*Follett Titlewave - https://www.titlewave.com/login/

*UBC Courses in TL – continuing to learn so that my students can benefit, bookmarking and keeping a curation of  helpful articles and websites from the courses

*My children (one in elementary school and the other in high school) – They let me know what learning is happening within the schools, among their friends, and mainstream society.  They are fortunate to also have access to resources and are very competent even among their friends.  They are fearless, have more time to fiddle with what they want to learn, and willing to experiment with new hardwares, gadgets, apps, and programs. My son even mentioned that he has hacked into my computer for fun.  Their ICT skills are a lot higher than mine and here is a summary of some of their skills:

·      programming  MODS, video games, robots, flow of electricity, and apps using html, Python, Java, Arduino, Scratch, Code.org, Codeacademy, and RaspberryPi

·      social media using Instagram, Snapchat, Hangout, and Skype

·      office suites (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Google docs., Google slides, Google drives)

·      videos – iMovie, iStop Motion, YouTube

·      3 D printing – design and angles

·      creating websites using wix

Even though my boys are quite skilled, we discuss about what it means to be digitally responsible, internet safety, credibility of on-line resources, ethical issues, and privacy issues.             

Educators and Professional Sharing

There are so many experts and educators willing to share their knowledge, great ideas, and experiences.  TLs have so many passionate innovators that are leading the way in the 21^st century to have our students be literate and active participants in their learning. There is such a wealth of information readily available and so many helpful teachers that are willing to help.  Some terrific ways to connect, network and collaborate are:

*Asking other TLs – quite helpful and willing to help like my sons’ TLs, TLs at my UBC courses, and the UBC instuctors

*Join the BCTLA - http://bctf.ca/bctla/ and advocate for TLs

 *TL forums such as BCTLA forum - https://it4k12-2017.bcerac.ca, LM-Net - http://www.lm-net.info, creating a chat group with teachers in the UBC course since we have everyone’s email, blogs and social media sites

*Inquiring on-line of best practices – wealth of information to read, ideas to try, and sharing my own ideas.  These are some of the websites that I found interesting:

·      The 20 Digital Skills Every 21^st Century Teacher Should Have -   http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

·      ICT  Skills for Graduate Teachers: Self-Directed Learning  - http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/skills/index.shtml

·      “Why Teachers Need to Improve their ICT Skills” - https://www.ics.ie/news/why-teachers-need-to-improve-their-ict-skills

·      UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers - http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf

*Videos such as the following "Information and Communication Technology for Education" that is retrieved at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXs5O1yGlg4 from YouTube.

*Professional workshops and conferences – for example, there are two large conferences coming soon with exciting topics which are:

·      BCTLA Superconference - http://bctf.ca/bctla//pub/pd/BCTLAatSuperconference.pdf  which features presentations from Aaron Muller , Moira Ekdahl  and Jennifer Delvecchio who are my UBC instructors, advocates, and at the forefront of education

·      ERAC IT4K12 Conference – Learning Together and Technology -

     https://it4k12-2017.bcerac.ca

Retrieved from https://it4k12-2017.bcerac.ca

Retrieved from http://bctf.ca/bctla//pub/pd/BCTLAatSuperconference.pdf

 *Collaborating and sharing with other teachers in the school and the IT teacher

*Join or create school committees such as those on literacy and technology, provide Pro-D workshops for the school staff

*Evite live guest speakers or via Skpe to to the school for ICT Learning

*Look at other TLs, UBC Instructors and LCs websites, blogs, and Twitter acccounts to see what they are doing with ICT.  It would be good to have my own LC blog and website once back in the school to share with the school community and other teachers.  I also like Hazel Clark Turner’s “LibGuides at North Vancouver School District #44) - http://libguides.sd44.ca/prf.php?account_id=27554.  She gave a presentation this summer and is a great resource.