Upcoming TIN - Nov. 17th - Making Connections

Image: 'Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept' - www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137737248

The Board of ManACE is pleased to announce that we will be offering a Technology Information Night (TIN) next week, on Tuesday, November 17th.

All educators are welcome to attend this event - you do not need to be a ManACE member to register/participate. For the extremely low price of only $5, you get dinner and three short presentations related to the use of technology in education.

The TIN is scheduled to begin at 5:30 with pizza/salad being served. Presentations will begin at approximately 6:00pm, and the evening should wrap up around 7:30pm.

The focus for the evening will be all about 'making connections'. The presentations will be as follows:

Introduction to Mindstorm NXT
This presentation will highlight how teachers/students can learn about robotics through the use of LEGO Mindstorm NXT. Find out how Mindstorm NXT can enable anyone to build a basic robot. Then discover how the addition of a wide range of sensors can transform this robot into a complex character that is capable of performing a wide range of tasks.

Putting Together The Pieces
This presentation will highlight one of the ways that LEGO Mindstorm NXT has been incorporated into an enriching and motivating classroom experience for students within Manitoba. Furthermore, this presentation will highlight some of the ways that educators can infuse a wide range of technologies to connect:
- the teaching to the learning
- the content to the curriculum
- their students to each other
- their classrooms to the world

Connecting To A Professional Learning Network
This presentation will examine the role of professional learning networks and shed some light on some of the tools that can be used to enable anyone to become an active participant in the networks to which they belong. Twitter is one of the tools that will be highlighted, and participants will learn how to harness the power of Twitter through the use of hashtags, direct messaging and creating Twitter lists.

Next week's ManACE TIN will be held in M.E.C.Y.'s Professional Learning Lab - 1567 Dublin Street. Details regarding parking and entrance to the facility will be sent by e-mail to all registered participants the day before the TIN takes place.

Please register to attend our 'Making Connections' TIN by e-mailing andy@mckiel.ca

We hope to see you there :-)
Andy

Media Literacy Event Registration

With Media Literacy Week (Nov. 2nd - 6th, 2009) drawing near, we encourage you to find opportunities to get involved.

One way that you can participate is by attending M.E.C.Y. & ManACE's upcoming Media Literacy event, as described in the previous blog post. Although you can participate in this event virtually, we would encourage you to get involved by joining us in person.

If you plan to participate in this live event the evening of November 2nd, please take a moment to complete the following registration form.

We hope to see you there :-)
Andy

Media Literacy Event - November 2nd, 2009

Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth (MECY), along with Manitoba Association for Computing Educators (ManACE) are celebrating Media Literacy Week, a national week of focus on Media Literacy in the Digital Age. Media Literacy Week was conceived by the Media Awareness Network and the Canadian Teachers' Federation. This year, the week of November 2-6 has been declared Media Literacy Week and we are celebrating in the following ways:

Media Literacy Event

• Purpose: to highlight 'Media Literacy' in classrooms across Manitoba, Canada and around the world, connecting to the ongoing work of Manitoba educators infusing Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum
• Co-Developed by: ManACE and Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth
• Date: November 2, 2009 7:00 -- 8:30 PM CST The event will be UStream'ed or you can attend in person at the St. James-Assiniboia School Division's Professional Staff Development Centre (PSDC) -- 150 Moray Street (access off of Portage Avenue)
• Presentation: Leading Question: Pan Canadian Perspective -- "What does Media Literacy mean to you?"
  • A 5 minute 'IGNITE' Presentation format: 20 slides/ 15 seconds per slide/Autoplay similar to the MB Bloggercon and Awakening Possibilities. We have a Pan Canadian panel with a EY/MY/SY, Higher Education perspective including Kathy Cassidy (Gr 1 Teacher, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan), Dr. Alec Couros (Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Saskatchewan), Ben Hazzard ( Consultant: Assessment & Evaluation K-12, Lambton Kent District School Board, Ontario) and Jacques Cool (New Brunswick Ministry of Education)
• Panel Discussion: Manitoba Teachers from across the province.
  • Leading Question: Local LwICT Perspective -- "What does media literacy look like in your classroom and how do you make it part of developing your students' Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum?"

Digital Media Production: Students can create videos, digital stories, text, images or any digital media that showcases the different ways they are Media Literate. To get things started, we have created a video (shown below) that is hosted on our YouTube Channel also located at http://drop.io/medialiteracyvideo.

We want your students to view the video and create their own digital representation of media literacy. Students can then upload their video responses or link to their digital artifacts using our YouTube Channel.

Celebrating and Sharing: If you and your students take part in this exposition of student media literacy, we encourage you to promote your activities with local media outlets and draw attention to the critical importance of developing media literacy in the digital age.

We hope you choose to participate in this exciting event with your students and attend the Media Literacy evening either in person or via uStream where everything will be archived.

If you have any questions regarding any aspect of either event, please email john.evans@gov.mb.ca, darren.kuropatwa@gov.mb.ca or rob.fisher@gov.mb.ca.

*Cross posted from the M.E.C.Y.'s new 'Shining Eyes' blog/podcast

ManACE SAG Sessions

If you're a teacher in Manitoba and you haven't yet registered to attend one of the Special Area Group (SAG) Conferences on October 23rd, please consider registering for one of our ManACE SAG Sessions.

All of our session information is available online, and ManACE is also one of the few SAG groups that offers the convenience of online registration :-)

We're offering a wide range of sessions this year, including digital photography, the use of interactive whiteboards, and Flash action-scripting. Sessions are filling up quickly, so please register early to avoid disappointment!

ManACE SAG Sessions

Stay tuned to the ManACE Memos blog to learn more about an exciting 'postSAG' event taking place in early November - details to be released soon ;-)

Please feel free to leave us a note,
The ManACE Board

MMM Summer Sessions

If you haven't signed up yet for one of the ManACE-MindSet-Microsoft sessions, please have a look at all of the great sessions that we are offering this year for all educators in the province of Manitoba.

We have a wide variety of one and two day sessions to choose from, focussing on many different aspects of infusing technology into your classroom teaching and learning.

The MMM Summer Sessions are being held in many towns and cities across Southern Manitoba and, for only $25/session, these sessions are extremely affordable :-)

Check out the available dates and sessions...

Diggin' Deeper at the ManACE AGM

Adapted from: 'Hand' http://www.flickr.com/photos/75424716@N00/467231755

Thanks to everyone who participated in the ManACE Annual General Meeting this evening :-)

We had a fantastic AGM with good food, great presentations and some excellent conversations. The evening's presentations were broadcast live over uStream, which enabled us to archive them to share with those who weren't able to attend in person.

The first presenter of the evening was Kevin Hnatiuk from New Media Manitoba. Kevin shared tonnes of amazing resources, including:

Peacemaker - an educational game about conflict in the Middle East
Living Sasquatch - a cool Flash application to control a virtual sasquatch
DiamondTouch - a multi-touch and multi-user work surface
EyeTech - incredible eye-tracking software
EyeTronics - 3D scanning hardware

Check out Kevin's presentation to see all of these tools (and more...) in action:


You may also want to think about registering to attend 'Going From Beat to Tweet', an upcoming New Media Manitoba event being held in Winnipeg on June 25th, 2009...

The second presentation of the evening was 'Mining Our Resources', presented by John Evans and Andy McKiel, which included Skype conversations with Clarence Fisher (aka @glassbeed) and Jarrod Robinson (aka @mrrobbo):


One of the other highlights of the evening was being able to present Clarence Fisher with ManACE's Technology Educator of the Year award for his exemplary use of technology.

On behalf of the ManACE Board, I'd like to thank all of our members for your interest in participating in ongoing professional learning opportunities.

Please feel free to leave us a note,
Andy
BTW, don't forget to check out our list of Summer Sessions that will be offered in July & August - registration is now open :-)

The AGM - Please Join Us :-)

Image: 'Invitation' - http://www.flickr.com/photos/11121785@N00/140042679

The ManACE Annual General Meeting (AGM) is taking place next Thursday evening, May 21st. Everyone is welcome to attend this event, which will be held at 150 Moray Street in Winnipeg.
Please register to attend the ManACE AGM by e-mailing andy@mckiel.ca

We'd love to see many of our members there, and we've got lots of reasons why you should attend:
- free dinner and refreshments
- networking with other educators
- great professional learning opportunities
- presentation of ManACE awards
- election of officers & directors

Our AGM will follow the format of our Technology Information Nights (TIN's). We'll gather at 5:30 p.m. for dinner, then we'll have a couple of 20-30 minute presentations that highlight interesting and innovative technology use.

The first presentation will feature Kevin Hnatiuk, from New Media Manitoba, who has many exciting tools and toys to share. The second presentation will be a continuation of our recent 'Windows To The World' event, where we'll Skype in some leaders from the field, and uStream out this portion of the evening so that we can foster virtual participation from a global audience.

If you're not on the list yet to attend our AGM, please register as soon as possible so that we can plan the food and refreshments accordingly - just e-mail andy@mckiel.ca

We hope to see you next week at our AGM :-)
Andy