LIBE 477

  Learner Considerations The learners that I am focusing on are grade 9 English students, but the resource is meant for colleagues to help them teach with infographics.  This resource will be both information for the teacher and, possibly, a new medium to learn from for the students.  Colleagues I am hoping that with this resource, my colleagues will feel better about using an unfamiliar medium. I am hoping that with the curricular connections and the delivery suggestions within the resource, my colleagues will find it easier to use infographics in their classrooms. Within the slide presentation, each infographic will be located on its own with the following slide the curricular connection and some suggestions on what to ask, how to use, or even explaining the infographic (if needed). I will also include a slide on what information is usually included in infographics, a how-to teach with infographic slide, a how to develop your own infographics, a review on a site that yo...

Initial Idea Infographics  - As one can tell if they have viewed any of my previous blog posts, I love infographics. I like the way they have a lot of information in a little space but not too much that they are overwhelming. The idea of using them in my classroom to enhance student learning is something that piqued my interest when I first read 180 Days  by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle. They use infographics in their teachings and I really wanted to try them in my practice.  (https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/other/infographic-about-infographics) The infographic above shows a breakdown of what infographics have to offer and what information one can gain from them. The infographic below shows how to create an attractive and informational infographic.  (https://inretrospect21.wordpress.com/tag/infographics/) These will be included in my presentation because they can help students visualize why we create and use this visual representation of specific informa...

Thoughts, Thoughts, and More Thoughts When I started this blog post I had tons of ideas on what to include in order to show what I have learned in the past few weeks about TL's, PLN's, and all the other wonderful things we read about and researched in the last four weeks. As I started to write, I realized that I learned more about the process of learning about these wonderful ideas than I did about the ideas. Now don't get me wrong, I did learn tons and have included many of the apps/ideas/organizations into my 'bag-o-tricks,' but the lessons that I learned were more about me and my research habits than anything else.  When I started researching any of these topics, I had clear-cut ideas, but as I received more and more information, my ideas changed, and that was unusual for me. In the past, when I have topics that I want to write on, I do a little research and write, but for some reason with these inquiry blogs, I never , not once  stayed on my original topic. It w...

Lucky Us When we consider what is available to us in our little section of the world, we should recognize just how privileged we are. We can pick up a book/e-reader, a phone, a computer/tablet and just move on as if it is nothing because, for us, it is a convenience that we take for granted. We have all grown up with the ability to grab information and move on without giving a second thought to how easy knowledge and access is available to us. When reading the literature that we received in our course resources about UNESCO's Moblie Learning Publications, it really does bring to light how lucky we are. Around the World There are quite a few initiatives within the global community to try and get literature and digital access to everyone across the globe, but I am only going to focus on two: Room to Read and SpaceX's Starlink satellites. Room To Read   - This organization  " seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on litera...

  Initial Thoughts This week's subject holds a special place in my heart. Within my school, I am both the Technology person and the Professional Development Rep. Finding ways to make sure that my staff is continually learning about ICT skills and have enough confidence to use them in the classroom is thought-provoking, time-consuming, and tricky. Quite a few of my colleagues are a little leery of using new technology within their classrooms as they are settled in their ways, but some are willing to try. As stated in my last blog, this past year was a learning curve for many of the teachers in my school and hopefully, it kick-starts some colleagues to learning some more skills on their own. Developing a "Bag of Tricks" There are a few ways that educators can learn to be more proficient and pro-active when it comes to learning new ICT skills. I recommend this video by Matthew Hains to find out where you are personally with ICT. This video is very heavily towards the Micros...

 What are ICT Skills and Why do We Need Them? ICT skills are very important in our line of work, even if you don't think they are. Information and communication technology is the way of the future for almost all businesses that our students will be joining in the future. If we do not use these and teach these effectively, our students are going to be at a disadvantage in their future endeavours. I thought I was teaching my students enough to get by with, as I was the Computer learning teacher to our grade sevens for three years....In hindsight, nope. Forced Situation - A Change in Learning My school and A LOT of my colleagues, and to an extent myself, had a little push in upgrading our ICT skills because of the novel coronavirus that has changed many things in the world currently. The push in our district in March of 2020 was straight to Online Digital Learning after Spring Break (I believe that was province-wide) and this included a lot of teachers using online tools more prevale...