Dennis O'Connor and I are offering a new session of Power Searching in a Web 2.0 starting Monday, April 28. This 4 week course features techniques to become a more proficient searcher in a world of social networks. Searching Web 2.0 is quite different from Web 1.0 in terms of the purpose and process of searching as well as the need for careful evaluation. The course includes interactive activities, search challenges and asynchronous discussions with educators around the globe. The cost is $99 for the course; 5 CEU's may be earned. Expect to spend 6 hours per week in online study and practice.For more information (includes a link to the section that just concluded)
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Hello everyone,
On Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday (April 13th to the 15th) I was at the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum in Vancouver. This was a rather unique experience in Canada. Educators, learners and literacy providers from West to East and into the North were gathered together to discuss themes such as Aboriginal Literacy, early literacy and workplace literacy.
Since we were meeting by webcast with people across the country, we had to start our day in Vancouver at 6:45 am so people in S. John, New Brunswick could start theirs at 10:45 am.
Here are the cities/towns who were linked and the themes they worked on:
Whitehorse, Yukon: Building Literacy through Technology
Yellowknife, NWT : Aboriginal Literacy: Stories of Success
Arviat, Nunavut: Literacy: The path to Success
Saint John, New Brunswick: Literacy: Passport to Prosperity
Montréal, QC: Vision, Innovation, Participation
Toronto: Ont.: Literacy for Life
Winnipeg, Man.: Literacy Works! Building a Skilled and Resilient Workforce
Regina, Sask.: Aboriginal Literacy: Stories of Success
Edmonton, Alta: Literacy: Never too Early, Never Too Late.
Vancouver, B.C.: Communities Working Together for Literacy
The proceedings opened in Vancouver Sunday night because we had to start up so early on Monday morning to catch up to the rest of the country.
The first Keynote speaker was the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson (Former Governor General of Canada), who gave a speech recognizing the importance of literacy workers across the country and the contribution of teachers and librarians (teacher librarians included) in the literacy education of the children of Canada.
Other Keynote speakers of note were Susan Aglukark who talked about growing up in Arviat, Nunavut and her journey as a songwriter and signer in Canada. Dr. Fraser Mustard, who made a compelling argument for early literacy based on models and
studies done in Sweden and Finland. Frank McKenna on how much we can benefit as a society if we increase the literacy levels of our children,
In BC, we looked at several models of successful literacy programs. Revelstoke, BC has the regional district, library, city and school board working together on one of the most integrated literacy programs I have ever seen. The Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver School Board are also working together at integrating their literacy programs but it is still too early to
see any results.
Richard
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April 17th is POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY. The idea is simple: have your students select a poem they love during National Poetry Month then carry it with them to share with other students on April 17.We are looking for elementary classrooms to SKYPE with our school for our Poem in Your Pocket Day event! We are hoping that other schools will videoconference with us throughout the day to share poetry via skype! Interested in joining us? Leave a message here!!Curriculum for a schoolwide celebration of poetry is available at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dvtjctt_371hmjbhpdg. More poetry curriculum is available at http://schools.nyc.gov/academics/englishlanguagearts/educatorresources/poetry%2bresources.htmRead more…
