http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/679.html

Interesting timing on this newly released document from the Minster... I certainly wasn't paying attention the week before the holidays...

http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/safeschools/respect.html

Actually - quite an interesting read. The accompanying letter from the Minister to school boards is an invitation to use the research as a kicking off point to local discussion - so here it goes...

(note: the letter wasn't posted on the public site, but a copy is here) 

When I read between the lines, there are some interesting paradoxes in what was said by students, and what was "heard" by adults taking part. For example:

"Students expressed concern that the media focus
on the inappropriate use of technology and that
this can take the focus away from the largely
positive uses."

Immediately following this statement, the summary turns into an anti-bullying flyer???  While students seemed to be accentuating that technology can be used as a positive social medium for change, the underlying message from the Ministry seemed to be about anti-bullying.

While I do applaud the effort to engage students in dialogue, there is very little in the way of concrete "next steps" to address the issues identified and move forward. I guess that is where we come in.

Anyone interested in "replying" to the Minister's call for discussion? 

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/687.html

 

Since the Ontario Curriculum Unit Planner Official Version 2002 was released, over one million elementary curriculum units have been downloaded from [ http://www.ocup.org ]www.ocup.org by elementary teachers. With the ongoing revisions to curriculum, we recognize that maintaining the current functions of the Planner on school and home computers is a challenge. We would like to explore options where some of the Planner functions might be accessible and kept current in a web-based format.

Consequently, we have developed a short online survey to obtain feedback from Planner users, curriculum consultants and teachers. We value any input regarding effective supports for elementary teachers. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey.[ http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zhROLkgh90hyA2wDLaaVBg_3d_3d ]http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zhROLkgh90hyA2wDLaaVBg_3d_3d
The survey will be active from January 7, 2008 until February 15, 2008. 

Sincerely,

John Taylor, Education Officer, Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch, Ontario Ministry of Education.

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/696.html

As soon as we started hearing about the OLPC project a couple of years back (I first heard about it from Seymour Papert at a Network of Innovative Schools conference in 2004), many of us felt "left out" because it would be very 3rd world centric and would exclude North America as a potential customer.

There were lots of good reasons for this I am sure (the biggest likely so that they wouldn't suffer the wrath of WinTel producers who saw margins about to shrink...)

I'm not sure if it is good new or bad news then that OLPC is setting up shop stateside to sell to N.A. While I'm happy to potentially have the chance to deploy them in schools, I'm wondering if this is a sign of the failure to successfully penetrate the 3rd world. Maybe what we are seeing is the impact of the many countries not wanting to buy into technology that we (N.A) haven't bought into yet, for risk of being left out on a limb. Will be interesting to see how this plays out...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141298-c,notebooks/article.h 

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/794.html

Curious about how your student see technology in their lives and in their school?

Check out the latest copy of Canterbury High School's "Fandango" online 'zine to hear it straight from the students about technology in their day to day lives at school...

 http://canterburyhs.ocdsb.ca/fandango.pdf

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/800.html

Last year, a group of teachers at one of our schools (Brookfield HS) applied for and won a grant from HP that included a cart of tablet pcs. I wanted to share this video that the George Lucas Foundation recent produced that outlines that successes they have seen as a result of their efforts. Amazing stuff.

Hello all,

I'm pleased to let you know the new video "Canadian Kaleidoscope: Brookfield High School" just posted to our website. It will be featured on the homepage for the next week, then accessible in our archives after that. This link will take you directly to the video itself:

http://www.edutopia.org/brookfield-multicultural-technology-video