Fall 2016

In case you haven't heard, after seven years as a consultant I've gone back to teaching. Even though I was formerly a high school teacher, I was fortunate to be offered a position teaching grade six at the school where my daughters attend.

Teaching in an elementary school has been a bit of an adjustment, but certainly an opportunity for growth. As a consultant I probably spent more time in elementary classrooms than secondary, but of course this is somewhat different. And it is a great experience.

As well, this has had a positive impact on my family as well. Not that I was neglecting my children before, but I do feel like I'm more involved in their lives and their schooling. And since my wife is also an elementary teacher, we can relate and commiserate much better.

So far, this has been great.

Week of May 9 - 14, 2016

Monday:

• ensure everything is set up for digital administration of PATs
• help Clearview with automated exam user provisioning
• GAfE training session for Facilities staff
• job interview

Tuesday:

• help out with PAT administration
• gather feedback regarding Google Docs and PATs

Wednesday:

• LT bullet round meeting
• quadcopter flight training for LLR staff
• teaching Drone Videography course in the evening

Thursday:

• possibly at JTC in Calgary
• participating in panel discussion if attending

Friday:

• professional learning day
• GAfE user account transition session at SAL
• drone videography for SAL staff video
• makerspace options session at JMW
• robotics session at FHS

Saturday:

• presenting at Young Scientists Conference: "Data Collection Using Digital Devices"

Week of May 2 - 6, 2016

There's Elk-nition planning and a couple of things like that, but half of my week will be taken up by the IDEAS Conference in Calgary. I'll post reflections on that later.

Week of April 25 - 30, 2016

• Organizing and preparing for upcoming esports tournaments
• Rocket League and Halo 5 on Friday
• League of Legends championship on Saturday
• Drone example videos
• Staff and student flight training at ADW
• Helping out with "Tech Camp Day"
• ElkFest Thursday night

Week of April 18 - 22, 2016

• PBL assistance at CLB
• LTPF committee meeting Tuesday night
• Learning Technologies Spring Planning Wednesday morning
• Teacher support related to classroom Hangouts, Read and Write for Google
• other things as they come up :)

Week of April 11 - 15, 2016

One of my priorities for this week is getting the Programming, Robotics, and Maker Education Junior High Scope and Sequence document mostly finished so teachers on Friday can see what it entails and make contributions. And, of course, I need to finalize some exciting activities for those teachers to participate in on Friday afternoon.

Other notable activities include the Elk-nition planning meeting, participating in an "Introduction to CTF for Administrators" session, and finalizing some plans for the upcoming esports tournaments.

Also on my list are things like helping construct a project-based Science 14 and/or 24 course, helping with the development of Computing Science modules, helping find a good alternative to Remark software, and making sure we get secure exam administration with Google Drive set up.

And I have a backburner project that I'd like some kids to help with. I'm imagining a hardware and app solution for old iPhones to shoot 360 video, similar to this or this. We can design a 3D-printed holder for the phone, and an app that can accept remote control for starting and stopping the video recording. Somewhat non-trivial, but it should be attainable.

Week of April 4 - 8, 2016

Monday and Tuesday I'm at the Invent to Learn - Effective Project-Based Learning with Modern Technology session hosted by the ETCATA and featuring the authors of Invent to Learn, Sylvia LibowMartinez and Gary Stager.

Wednesday is mostly catching up on things, and the Learning Technologies meeting.

Thursday I'm introducing a photography class at Bev Facey to aerial photography using drones, bring both of our Phantoms for them to fly.

Friday I'm hoping to laser cut parts for a MeArm, and then more flying at BFH.

Week of March 29 - April 1, 2016

Spring Break, so I'm not working :)

Week of March 21 - 24, 2016

Based on feedback from Joseph C. and James A., I'm in the process of redefining my work. I've been spending too much time on technical things, fixing and deploying, and not enough time on my actual innovation work.

Some of the big things I'll be spending more time on include

• Developing and promoting resources for computational thinking, programming, robotics, and maker education (e.g. Programming and Robotics in Junior High).
• Supporting CTS teachers in practical uses of CNC machines, 3D printers, etc.
• Organizing and promoting esports.
• Drone training and videography.
• Science and math data collection with DIY sensors.
• Invention Convention planning assistance.
• Office 365 professional learning for teachers (and continuing with Google Apps of course).
• Digital citizenship training and resources.
• Maker kits and carts.
• Learning Commons ideas and support.
• Intra- and inter-district collaboration.

I'm also looking forward to being a part of the UofA's Education Maker Day tomorrow afternoon.

Week of March 14 - 18, 2016

Monday:

• Apple School Manager and iOS 9.3 demo with our Apple representative
• Elk-nition event planning meeting

Tuesday:

• Apple Education coding event

Wednesday:

• LT bullet round
• ElkFest planning meeting

Thursday:

• Learning Services staff meeting
• ATLE Convergence Conference planning meeting

Friday:

• NXT lunch

Week of March 7 - 11, 2016

First a few of my calendar things for the week:

Monday:

• arranging pickup of computers for esports
• Wi-Fi design meeting

Tuesday:

• meeting with Learning Technologies and Facilities
• teaching Maker course in the evening

Wednesday:

• Learning Technologies bullet round meeting
• live streaming the CASS Conference keynote in the evening

Thursday:

• Scratch Day event!

Friday:

• meeting regarding decision of keynote speaker for Convergence Conference

And a few interesting things from my to do list:

• helping create CTF robotics and computing science course activities
• reattaching the wheels on two mBot robots that were involved in accidents
• getting some TVs on rolling stands out to schools for experimentation
• helping investigate how Dell Latitude 10 tablets perform off the domain
• exploring Fog Project as a possible bulk imaging solution for Linux machines
• coordinating digital resources for high school auto mechanics teachers
• getting another staff member up to speed on Moodle management
• perhaps building a MeArm
• exploring my new C.H.I.P. computers

Week of February 29 - March 4, 2016

A week that starts with a leap day and ends with Grammar Day.

Monday and Tuesday I'm attending (and presenting at) the ERLC Educational Technology Innovation Summit. Monday I'm presenting on Learning with Video Games and Computational Thinking, and Tuesday will be How to Prevent Plagiarism and Encourage Learning.

Tuesday night I'm teaching the second session of the Maker/3D printer class.

Wednesday will hopefully be a morning in the office, followed by the Learning Technologies meeting in the afternoon.

Thursday I'm meeting with a principal about a CTF robotics program for their school, and perhaps system-wide implementation options for robotics.

Friday of course is a professional learning day. I've arranged for some people from Microsoft to be presenting about our new Office 365 implementation as well as ways to get students coding. I'll be presenting on Scratch and robotics in the morning, and in the afternoon I'm facilitating discussion around Maybe We Don't Need Exams: Alternative Assessment Ideas.

Week of February 22 - 26, 2016

It finally looks like there aren't too many things scheduled for this week. Which is good, since there are quite a few big projects in the works, a number of event days to plan and coordinate, and things on my to do list.

I do have a couple of evening things booked this week, though. Tuesday night I'm teaching a Maker course that will run for three consecutive Tuesdays, and Wednesday night is the Off-Campus teachers' meeting.

I'm also thinking about starting a weekly podcast...

Week of February 16 - 19, 2016

Busy week this week. This is dated on Tuesday because of Family Day, of course.

Tuesday I'm helping out a little with the My Voice, My Future student conference (check out the Instagram from the day), presenting a maker session, talking to the Salisbury video game club, and touring a student around Learning Technologies as a possible Career testDrive or even internship.

Wednesday is the Learning Technologies meeting, and one of the big things on the agenda is an impact assessment of the proposed project to go 1:1 Chromebooks in grades four and seven.

Thursday is something of a "getting things done" day, and hopefully another impact assessment discussion with some education consultants.

Friday we'll finally get to meet together as a Learning Services team for the first time since a new member joined us.

A few of the other things that need to get done include:

• helping finalize potential hardware purchasing list
• investigate Moodle course migration options
• arrange March 4th professional development sessions
• publish a drone booking calendar
• finalize privacy impact assessment documents

and probably more things that I can't think of right now :)

Week of February 8 - 12, 2016

Okay, it seems that a non-trivial amount of each day involves responding to (and sending) emails, fixing stuff, and staff training. So I'm going to mostly leave those sorts of things off the lists for now.

Some longer-scale things on the go are Scratch Day planning (March 10th), esports tournament planning, and

Monday

• fixing some Google-related stuff (that I've been meaning to do for a while)
• book PD day sessions: Office 365, coding/robotics, alternative assessment ideas
• evergreening meeting

Tuesday

• esports planning meeting

Wednesday

• Learning Technologies meetings (as usual)
• Career testDrive meeting

Thursday

• nothing booked, maybe I'll be able to get lots of things done :)

Friday

• school closure day, I may not work

Week of February 1 - 5, 2016

Monday

• dropping off stuff at schools
• finishing "paper reduction" presentation preparation
• answering emails and solving problems
• meeting with new consultant

Tuesday

• helping BFH convert netbooks to Linux
• planning and arranging March 4th PD sessions
• meeting about Intellimedia plans
• other duties as assigned

Wednesday

• helping with Early Learning session
• LT bullet round meeting
• Dossier meeting
• SFS staff meeting
• teaching robotics session in EDU575 at the UofA (evening)

Thursday

• NCTCA convention
• offering sessions:
• Making Digital Devices for Science Measurement and Datalogging
• Maybe We Don't Need Exams: Alternative Assessment Ideas for Math and Science
• Using Open Data in Social Studies, Math, and Science

Friday

• NCTCA convention

Week of January 25 - 29, 2016

Some highlights of this upcoming week:

Monday - eSports Tournament (TowerFall Ascension), meeting with FAC
Tuesday - helping LLR install Linux on some netbooks, drone-related meeting at BFH, LT holiday celebration
Wednesday - LT staff meeting, PD committee meeting, student forum planning meeting, ATA PD meeting
Thursday - ATLE Convergence Conference meeting, drone filming
Friday - school closure day

And around those, of course, all of the "to do list" stuff :)

Week of January 18 - 22, 2016

Another week of getting things done :)

• Career Test Drive meeting this morning
• LTPF Committee meeting tonight
• Scratch and Robotics resource development session on Thursday
• Computing Science Teachers Symposium on Friday
• setting up Raspberry Pi computers at BWD
• following up on Moodle Language Lab server issues
• restarting the Chromebook management migration process
• robotics at SWH and MHV
• live drama stage view camera for backstage at VJS (using automobile backup camera)
• designing and shooting drone videography examples (and storyboards)
• finalizing next Monday's esports tournament
• exploring afterschool Skype- (or Hangout-) based help and information sessions
• finish PIA documents

And of course in my copious spare time at home I'm reading and writing related to my M. Ed. capping project :)

Week of January 11 - 15, 2016

This week I'm intending to:

• continue planning eSports tournaments
• plan a Scratch (and possibly robotics) resource development half-day
• finalize the LTPF Committee meeting agenda, and arrange venue and catering
• arrange some "digital safety" presentations
• (hopefully) finally finish the first couple Privacy Impact Assessment documents
• set up more Google Apps lunch hour tutorial sessions
• continue developing CTS computation thinking (etc.) modules
• help with the computer/device inventory process
• buy a small, very inexpensive drone for indoor flight practice

and of course whatever else comes up.

Week of January 4 - 8, 2016

At the start of this new calendar year I've decided to start writing at the beginning of the week about some of my likely activities for the week. Hopefully this will help organize my thoughts, and some of my colleagues may find it interesting. The style will be a little choppy, but hopefully that'll make for a quicker read.

One of the pressing projects is a system for administration of secure exams on Chromebooks using Google Docs. Greg and I have hammered out the basics of it, but it still needs a little polish and documentation, and of course some classroom testing.

Speaking of provincial testing, as soon as we get five year historical results from Alberta Education, I'll be uploading those to Intellimedia's Dossier system for administrators (and/or designated staff) to use for results analysis.

Another project in the works is the creation of some flexible learning modules for CTS courses that are not commonly taught in our high schools. This mostly includes Computing Science and Networking/Hardware courses. I'll be borrowing heavily on materials created by Jen Deyenberg as well as the expertise of teachers such as Gerald Chung. These will likely start as a web page or document, rather than building them in on a specific platform.

On a related note, we need to find a new home for our Moodle server(s) before the end of the month. This will involve setting up a new Moodle 3.0 instance (including OWLL), migrating the data from the old one(s), hopefully automating user (and perhaps course) provisioning. I'm also hopeful that we can collapse everything down to one Moodle instance for all of EIPS, but of course Next Step will always be the primary and heaviest users.

Privacy Impact Assessments for a few online services need to be completed. Hopefully Dennis and I will have some time to work on those.

On the fun side, I'll be flying our new drones to get some example shots, and writing up what is required for schools to borrow a drone.

Something else that is near and dear to my heart is esports and video game clubs. I'll be supporting schools such as Lakeland Ridge that want to set up lunch-hour clubs and/or gaming flex blocks, and planning more competitions, probably something like:

• January: Smash Bros (elementary)
• February: Halo (high school)
• March: Rocket League
• April: League of Legends finals
• May: Multathlon (a word I just made up for a multi-game competition, similar to Omegathon)

In addition to all of this, I'm hoping to continue empowering the HelpDesk staff to take over a lot of the management that I'm involved in, such as Google Apps, iOS, and Moodle.

As always if you have questions, comments, or concerns feel free to get in touch.