The conference entitled, "Bring IT Together", is "Ontario's premier educational technology conference. Hundreds of educators from all over the province get together annually to learn and share best practice for the use of computing technology in the classroom."
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| Co-Chair Doug Peterson |
The purpose of our presentation was to take other educators on a journey around what it means to begin your own Global Inquiry and what things you'll need to consider when creating or participating in one. With the concept of Digital Citizenship at the forefront, we wanted to give our audience an understanding of how a simple concept like what you can see out of your classroom window, can be expanded upon in so many different ways and look different across the grades.
We did not want our focus to strictly be on the Full Day Kindergarten lens, even though that was where our journey took place, but rather shifting that lens to any grade and for educators to see the beauty of collaborative, digital learning and how it can elicit such authentic and meaningful connections for our students and their learning of the world around them.
As take-aways, we created "Bookmarks" that highlight those important points to consider when beginning or taking part in a Global Inquiry project:
We not only assisted three of our audience members as they joined the Twitterverse, but we had one audience member in particular, Magdalena Front (@TechMagFront) create her very own "We Can See" video from her experience in Niagara Falls while attending the conference! Thank you for letting me share this on my blog and I can't wait to share it with my class!
I truly can't wait to see where this new learning takes you and your school and I look forward to checking back often to read about your own We Can See journey! Here is the video she created:
Thank you again to everyone who attended our session and to our supporters near and far for all of your encouragement and positive energy! I truly can't wait to see where this year takes us!
It was my honour and privilege to copresent with you. Your enthusiasm and professionalism filled the room, I hope more classes engage in global projects.
ReplyDeleteThank you Angie! The feelings are mutual! :)
DeleteHi Jocelyn,
ReplyDeleteI have been searching around the internet this afternoon. You see its our second year FDK and I have hit what seems like a rut. We were so excited last year and started on our journey. REflecting, changing, reflecting and changing. But we want to keep growing and it feels like we are going in circles this year a little. I found your blog and it is the inspiration I was looking for..sounds corny but true..lol. I am really interested in learning more about "Global Inquiries" and your "We Can See Project". Just wondering what the basis the project is...is it connecting with communities around the world via Skype and how do you find people like the Manhattan class to connect with? We live in Northern Ontario (Up by Manitoba border)...little town of 5000. This type of connecting would be awesome for the students.
Hi there,
DeleteThank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment. That's very exciting that you are in your second year of implementing the FDK program. The process of being a reflective practitioner is truly at the heart of this program and of being an educator, and it's a job that will never come to a halt because that's when we ourselves stop learning! I'm so glad you decided to stop by my blog and I'm beyond thrilled that myself, my DECE and my class have been able to inspire you!
When speaking about our "We Can See Project" as a global inquiry, I encourage you to click on the "Category: We Can See Project" on my blog as a starting point since that will provide you with an in-depth look at how our project started and eventually grew into a global inquiry. In short, the basis for the project was to connect classrooms by comparing our communities and quite simply, what we see out of our classroom windows. This naturally lent itself to insightful discussions as students began to see similarities and differences between school environments and questions arose based on those comparisons. Eventually, with the use of the Twitterverse, collaborative blogspace (http://wecanseeprojectsharingspace.blogspot.ca) and Skype, classes began to connect digitally which in turn, led to the teachings around what it meant to be a "digital citizen." Finding classrooms like the one in Manhattan was all done through contacts on Twitter and in my Professional Learning Network (PLN). Teachers from around the world joined in through twitter and posted their own books on the collaborative blog to which each class could connect by posting comments, asking questions, leaving responses and revisiting digital books.
I hope that the following paragraph provided you with a deeper understanding as to what our project was all about. I think that where you're situated would be a wonderful start to a global project! Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Here's to new learning!
Sincerely,
Jocelyn