questions?

Taken from 21st Century Skills:

Learning for Life in Our Times by

Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel

When I last participated in

this activity, I was amazed

at how similar everyone’s

responses were. The crea-

tive and effective applica-

tion of many instructional

technologies support an

environment where stu-

dents can discover the skills

of a life long learner.

Four Question Exercise

Imagine that you have a

child whom you love and

care about deeply, and this

child is just starting kinder-

garten. Consider the fol-

lowing questions.

Question #1: What will

the world be like twenty

years from now when your

child has left school and is

out in the world? Think

about what life was like

twenty years ago and all the

changes you have seen

happen. Then imagine what

will happen in the next

twenty years.

Question #2: What skills

will your child need to be

successful in this world you

have imagined twenty years

from now?

Question #3: Now think

about your own life and the

times when you were really

learning, so much and so

deeply, that you would call

these the “peak learning

experiences” of your life.

What were the conditions

that made your high-

performance learning ex-

periences so powerful?

Before going on to Ques-

tion #4, review your previ-

ous answers and think

about how students cur-

rently spend their time each

day in school.

Question #4: What would

learning be like if it were

designed around your an-

swers to the first three

What might 21st Century Learning look like?

Inside this issue:

Ethics of Stem Cell VC 2

HEAL Team VC 2

Geocaching 2

MyClass and ANGEL 3

Document Cameras 4

Premier and SpecEd 5

Learning Teams 6

Heart Lake Secondary School

Technology at Heart Lake

Special points of interest:

Stem Cell Ethics Town Hall

with Alberta, Texas, and

Heart Lake

Remembrance Day Celebra-

tion with troops in Afghani-

stan

Green Schools Presentation

with Alberta School

Montreal Biosphere: One

World Consumption Virtual

Field Trip

Students presenting VC Biol-

ogy Quest competition to

teachers at STAO

Virtual tour of Alaska Sea Life

Center for Grade 8 Exposi-

tion Night.

NOVEMBER 2010 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

Technology Update Over the past few months,

Heart Lake has had quite a

slue of new technologies

introduced to the staff.

This includes departmental

Mobi Interactive White

Boards (IWBs), Clicker

Student response systems,

document cameras, a dedi-

cated video conference

(VC) unit and a Smart-

Board IWB. This poses

another great opportunity

to integrate technology in

the classroom.

Each of these technology

initiatives will be supported

with ongoing professional

learning. In order to garner

a richer understanding on

how these technologies can

help create a 21st century

learning environment, con-

sider joining a technology

learning team.

Already the VC equipment

has been instrumental in

connecting with students in

Texas, Alberta, Quebec,

Michigan, Mexico and New

York. For Remembrance

Day, HLSS classes watched

as classes across Canada

interacted with troops in

Kandahar, Afghanistan in a

national memorial event.

The Clickers are a key part

of action research projects

taking place in both the

math and science depart-

ments.

Social Science teachers are

expanding their teaching

repertoire with the Mobi

while the Specialist High

Skill Major program will be

engaging their students

with the SmartBoard IWB.

names of our local parks and Grade 9 Geography students

experienced the fun

of Geocaching!

Like old fashioned

orienteering, but

with a twist, stu-

dents used our

hand-held GPS

units to locate an-

swers to mysterious

questions, find the

get to know the Valleybrook

Corridor a little better. This

kind of experiential learning

gets students to feel comfort-

able with new technology and

the outdoors!

Ethics of Stem Cells Video Conferencing

Geocaching with the Social Sciences

to share what makes our school

a Gold Certified EcoSchool.

Unfortunately the technology

did not work as well as we'd

hoped, and we were unable to

share our ideas with

them. However we were still

able to hear what other schools

across North America were do-

ing to become more sustainable,

and it inspired us to do some-

thing similar. The HEAL team

plans to use VC technology to

host a similar conference with

local schools so that we may

share our success and the chal-

lenges we have faced on the road

to becoming Gold!

From every opportunity we can learn . . . On Oct 29, the HEAL Team

participated in a Video Confer-

ence with a model “Green”

school from Alberta. The idea

was to listen to practical advice

from a world leading school,

Cochrane High School, on how

we can take some measurable

steps, be they small or great,

towards becoming a more sus-

tainable school. At some point,

Heart Lake students were going

Grade 12 Biology students par-

ticipated in a Video Conference

related to the ethics of using

Stem Cells. The debate

revolves around the

destruction of embryos

in order to possibly

preserve a life of a child

or adult. Students from

Heart Lake took on the

role of scientists, while

schools from Texas,

Alberta and Michigan

represented Muslims,

Catholics, Protestants

and Industry.

Some of the views presented

were very intriguing as students

knew little about this issue be-

fore the conference. The stu-

dents were able to engage in a

lively discussion that mimicked

the real world debate between

science and pro life perspectives.

In addition to the presentations

by the students, a lawyer special-

izing in International Medical

Law and a Stem Cell scien-

tist from University of

Alberta also shared first

hand perspectives on the

issues related to Stem

Cells.

Student reflections indi-

cated that they appreciated

this type of technology

integration in the class-

room and look forward to

more rich opportunities to

engage with students around the

world.

Page 2 TECHNOLOGY AT HEART LAKE

“The illiterate of

the 21st Century

are not those

that cannot read

or write, but

those that cannot

learn, unlearn,

and relearn” -

Alvin Toffler

MyClass is used to share course

notes, assignments, schedules

and other materials with students

and parents on a regular basis.

Many of the technology and

science teachers place all their

course materials on the My Class

Sites. This includes PowerPoint

presentations, various assign-

ments, as well as content review.

One of the biggest attractions of

this environment is the easy

access for both students and

parents to all the material. To get

a better feel on many of the

options available to you in My-

Class, be sure to check out the

Online Help Centre

Another option available to

teachers at Heart Lake is the

online learning management

system, ANGEL. Similar to

MyClass it also allows teachers

to incorporate a wide range of

interactive communication tools

like wikis, blogs, discussion fo-

rums, and instant chat. Teachers

can also create formative quizzes

and interactive lessons to sup-

port the student learning. Check

out www.peelschools.org/bel,

log in with “HLguest” and

password “hlss”. Take some

time to explore this online envi-

ronment to get a feel for how

the ANGEL could be blended

with your classroom instruction.

Our Instructional Technology

Resource Teacher will be offer-

ing workshops related to this

environment over the next few

weeks. Stay tuned for more in-

formation.

of the subject in which they are

enrolled. Included in

the suite of programs

are applications such as

Talking Dictionary, PDF

Builder, Scan and Read Pro,

Talking Checkbook,

Talking Calculator,

Text to Audio and

Universal Reader Plus.

Consider talking with a colleague

in Special Education to learn

more about this amazing applica-

tion.

All students taking the

Learning Strategies

courses are familiarized

with the use of PREMIER assis-

tive technology as well as pro-

vided with the access

code for home use. It is

used to complete some

assignments to support

the development of this skill and

promote its application to other

courses.

Premier is a valuable tool

for all students regardless

Supporting classroom instruction with Online options

Special Education use PREMIER to support Literacy

Science teachers are making use

of the document camera in a

variety of ways. Looking closely

at organisms and cells is a key

skill in the living sciences. The

document camera allows teach-

ers to project close-up live shots

of dissections, cells and biologi-

cal diagrams to the class without

each student needing to huddle

around the demonstration area.

Check out the video on the Peel

Intranet Homepage on the many

ways that Document Cameras

can benefit your classroom. With

several document cameras

throughout the school, this is a

technology that you can defi-

nitely get your hands on.

Making it Visual with the Document Camera

Page 3 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

We are currently

preparing students for

jobs that don't yet exist .

. .using technologies

that haven’t been

invented . . . in order to

solve problems that we

don't even know are

problems yet.”

Richard Riley , Previous

US Secretary of

Education

nology in your class. You can

consult the Instructional Technol-

ogy Calendar to see when certain

teachers are using or experiment-

ing with a particular technology.

Check it out, and if you are inter-

ested in sitting in, send them an

email requesting an invite to their

class.

Some of the most effective PD

comes from the observation of

strategies being implemented in

the classroom. This is a great op-

portunity to have some authentic

learning that may help you incor-

porate similar strategies into your

classroom.

The Heart Lake Instructional

Technology page is your one stop

shop for documents shared dur-

ing any IT PD session this year

at Heart Lake.

With specific folders dedicated to

Clickers, Markbook, Mimio,

Mobi, Prezi, Room Booking sys-

tem and turnitin.com there is lots

of opportunity for refreshing

your learning from workshops.

The site includes tutorials, links,

and animations to support all

types of learners.

Suppose you are considering

implementing a particular tech-

If you have any documents that

you feel would support instruc-

tional technology, please consider

sharing that with the staff. Send it

to Clayton Ellis and indicate that

you would like it posted on the

Instructional Technology Share-

Point page.

If you are considering scheduling

a Video Conference in your class,

the Instructional Technology

Calendar shows the dates of all

VCs booked. Be sure to check

the times on the calendar to

avoid any conflicts.

Heart Lake Instructional Technology SharePoint webpage

Heart Lake Secondary School

296 Conestoga Dr. Brampton, ON 905 840 2328

A note about your Instructional Technology

Resource Teacher—David Weightman

A note from your Instructional Technology

Cross Curricular Head—Clayton Ellis

With the reorganization of responsibilities for this school year, Heart Lake now only shares their IT RT with five other schools. This means David will have more time to assist your learning teams. De-tails to follow. David will be available at Heart Lake from 11:00 to 1:00 on the following dates:

Do you want to be a part of a learning community dedicated to helping Heart Lake teachers integrate instructional technology strategies? Then consider joining the Computer Committee. Our combined energy can be an infectious trigger helping to in-crease teacher and student engagement. Watch the Instructional Technology Calendar or send me an email if you are interested.

“If we teach today as

we taught yesterday,

we rob our children of

tomorrow.”

John Dewey

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL WITH-

OUT ACCESS TO COMMUNICA-

TIONS TECHNOLOGY?

Source: The Net Generation: A strategic

Investigation, 2008

If you have not seen this YouTube Video about the progression of information technology, check it out. (Click on Picture at home) Nov 30 Day 3 Dec 14 Day 1

Jan 4 Day 2 Jan 18 Day 4