Vision of the Future – This is it! Time to share!

Digital artifact created using Microsoft’s OneNote: “Digital Information Literacy and an Educators Role - How do you know you need to know? - for New Teachers and TTOCs”

Video tour of my final project:

(Fletcher, L., 2017)

During this course, I stumbled upon a lot of helpful information regarding copyright, selecting quality resources, privacy online, cloud computing, etc. - much of which I wish I had known about at the start of my career. Since September, I had the reoccurring thought - how do you know you need to know?

I found that all of this important information felt scattered all over the place. Some websites I explored because of this course and others, or stumbled upon through links for further reading. As a library-minded person, I did not like how disorderly this was and this is how I landed on my idea for the “Vision of the Future” project.

In my future, I envision this helpful and important information to be in one place. Therefore, I created a digital resource that addresses key aspects of copyright, ownership, digital literacy, and safety. The intended audience is teachers on-call and new teachers (with a focus on content for staff in district 39), because we often miss a lot, like start-of-year processes when protocol and procedures regarding this type of information are discussed.

As more and more of our teaching day in online and uses online resources, I feel it is extremely important for educators to understand our duty to ensure our students are safe online. We are responsible for what we show and share in our classrooms, and we have to model and teach students how to be safe and accountable online, and how to cite other’s work in a responsible way.

Using OneNote, I am sharing information and links on what I have learned regarding digital literacy. I have included material on FOIPPA regulations, AUPs, copyright, ERAC, VSB IT support, CommonSense Media, Media Smarts, digital resources, library databases, and other content. In each section there are helpful links and brief information as to what that resource is and how I found it useful. 

This experience in this course was informative and provided the learning opportunity to work through some technological speedbumps of OneNote. Previously, I thought I could directly upload a video file, but after much testing, I found the file would not open. Sharing a web-link became the only option for sharing a video within OneNote, so if you create your own video, you would have to have a sharing platform (like YouTube or Vimeo) to upload videos publically.

As mentioned in previous blogs, sharing OneNote notebooks with non-Microsoft users has some challenges and sometimes information shared through a web link gets distorted or is missing information. I also learned that formatting will be altered depending on the screen size someone views the document, this really mangled my References page as the hanging indents keep shifting and active links cannot be split without breaking the connection. I searched help sites, and could not find a solution to this issue.

I also tried to add a watermark, like you can in PowerPoint or other Microsoft Products, however, you can only change the page colour on OneNote, you cannot upload your own watermarked background. Inserting a watermark .png file did not properly overlap the text, and again distorted all of my applied formatting. I also learned some interesting features of OneNote, like having it read the page to you, that may prove useful in other unintended avenues of using this tool in an educational setting.

Going forward, after receiving a final grade and feedback from peers as to any alterations to make to the artifact, I may look into gaining a wider audience, such as the BC Teachers’ Federation – Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association (VESTA) and the BC Early Career Teachers Association, perhaps even the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association to share this information with others in my professional community.

References

BCECTA. (2017). The B.C. Early Career Teachers Association. Retrieved from https://bcecta.wordpress.com/

BCTF. (2017). British Columbia Teachers' Federation. Retrieved from https://www.bctf.ca/

BCTLA. (2017). British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association. Retrieved from http://bctf.ca/bctla/info/about.html

Fletcher, L. (2017). Video capture of project using Screencast-O-Matic.

Microsoft. (2017). OneNote [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.onenote.com/

Final "Vision of the Future" Project: Technology + Who

The “final vision” project is coming together and the weekend proved successful – I was able to type out my full rough copy of the project. As mentioned last week, I decided to use the Office 365 version of OneNote as provided within my district. OneNote has the benefit of tabs, which allow for a very organized presentation of information and enables me to categorize ideas. 

Here is a quick video glimpse into what the project will look like:

                         (Fletcher, 2017)

At first, I was worried that a web link version of my notebook would not share any changes made over time, thus making the project stagnant. Through some testing, and a lot of logging-in and back out and back in again, I realized that my changes do  seem to automatically get updated through the link for the most part. This is beneficial because I want to make the notebook accessible to those without the OneNote program on their computer, or if they use Mac. Speaking of Mac users, I also investigated if there are other ways for Mac users to import Microsoft files. I found these helpful links from Ask Difference and Question-Defense which give some step-by-step assistance for opening OneNote on Macs.

In terms of strategies, I broke the content I wanted to share into various sections. My project consists of the following:

Introduction

·         Welcome Colleague

·         Table of Contents

Privacy and Protection

·         Privacy Commissioner

·         FOIPPA

·         VSB Policy

·         AUP

·         Cloud Computing

·         ERAC

·         MediaSmarts

·         Common Sense Media

·         Articles & Extras Worth Reading

Copyright

·         Copyright Modernization Act

·         Copyright Law

·         Copyright Decisions

·         BCTF

·         Creative Commons

·         Citing Sources

VSB IT

·         VSB IT Support

·         Logging-in & Wifi

·         Office365

·         Library Databases

·         Search Engines & Dictionary

References

In each section there are helpful links and brief information as to what that resource is, and how I found it useful. I also tried to embed a video, which works, but in my opinion does not show up as nicely as it does on a website. In terms of formatting, so far it has been going relatively smoothly aside from a few funny glitches that I will have to figure out – such as image content shifting down into text, even though that is not what I see when working in the program itself!

Exhibit A

My OneNote when I have the program opened on my desktop...

When I open the same page through my OneNote link... same content but shifted image...

Helpful OneNote Tips!

 I realized AFTER I typed everything into OneNote that you should set your default font and size FIRST as it will then apply it to every page. I did not think of this, and then realized it is not as easy as in Word where you can mass-highlight everything and make a change to the entire document.

That part of formatting afterwards was a bit annoying… but I put on some good music to get me past the frustration as I worked through  “click >> highlight >> edit font >> edit size” repeat x too many…

Also, try to name your notebook correctly the first time (when you first start it), as it can be a bit tricky to rename it once it is in use. If you have the OneNote program installed on your computer, it can be easier as you can rename it in the file folder where it is saved. If you are using the cloud version, you have to find the file in your OneDrive folder, which takes multiple steps and logging in with your Microsoft account. It was a bit difficult and not obvious to figure out if you are like me, and you are used to clicking on a real "save as" button. I found that online "how to" forums helped me to figure out what to do -- after a few tense moments...

In the next week I will be editing my rough copy and attempting to make my writing style quick and easy to read. At this time, I feel good about how this has come together and I look forward to sharing the final version with everyone; it still needs a better name, though!

References

Fletcher, L. (2017). Video capture of project using Screencast-O-Matic.

Question-Defense. (2016). How to Open OneNote Files Without OneNote Being Installed: Open .one Files. Retrieved from https://www.question-defense.com/2009/04/29/how-to-open-onenote-files-without-onenote-being-installed-open-one-files

Sono Acida. (2017). We heart it - Sono Acida via Tumbler [Image]. Retrieved from https://weheartit.com/entry/65000728

Stack Exchange Inc. (2017). Ask Different - Answers for your Apple Questions. Retrieved from https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/129283/how-to-import-from-onenote-on-windows-to-the-mac-edition-of-onenote

Final "Vision of the Future" Project: Rational + Why

As mentioned last week, I am designing a digital resource that addresses copyright, ownership, digital literacy, safety, and information technology resources that I wish I knew about when hired as a teacher on-call. The intended audience of this project is my peers who are TOCs and new teachers, because we often miss staff meetings or start-of-year setups when protocol and procedures regarding this type of information is discussed.

I plan to share information and links on what I have learned regarding digital literacy. I plan to include material on FIPA regulations, AUPs, copyright, ERAC, VSB IT support, Common Sense Media, Media Smarts, digital resources, library databases, and possibly other content. As more and more of our teaching day in online and uses online resources, I feel it is extremely important for educators to understand our duty to ensure our students are safe online. We are responsible for what we show and share in our classrooms, and we have to model and teach students how to be safe and accountable online, and how to cite other’s work in a responsible way.

When considering platforms to use I contemplated if I wanted to create a website, add to my blog, create a PDF, but then I started thinking about Office365, which my district offers to all teachers. I decided to use OneNote to create my digital resource.

I used OneNote in 2011 for a class project, but have not used it since; the cloud computing version is new to me and offered through my work e-mail. Our version is hosted in Canada, which compliments the content I am pulling together for this artifact.

I think a benefit of using OneNote is the tabs allow for a very organized presentation of information and enables me to categorize ideas. This program also enables me to update or change things in the future, so it acts as a living document. One thing I have considered though is how to share it with colleagues who do not have OneNote installed. There is a way to make a website-type link to my notebook, so it can be shared this way. 

While exploring the functions, I noticed an interesting feature of a “checkmarkable” task list. At first I thought this would be great to use in a table of contents, because then readers could checkmark sections as they read and come back to the resource at a later time.

However, while playing around with the features of OneNote, I learned that another reader has to have editing privileges to use the checkmarks. Another minor set-back is that video content does not display as nicely as it does on a website. So, although OneNote provides most of the features I am looking for, there are a few things that I will have to rethink to make my vision and the final presentation compatible. This experience also helped me to learn more about OneNote, and so I feel I could more confidently use it with students. A feature I found which is helpful for proofreading when your mind is tired is the read aloud! The voice is a little funny, but I can see the potential benefit for EAL students if a teacher shared OneNote notebooks with their students with various content. I found this feature under View >> Immersive Reader (book with sound symbol far right of navigation ribbon). 

I think once completed, this resource will be useful for TOCs and new teachers (I am using this audience as my motivation for completing this project) and I can envision myself referring back to it, too!



References

Common Sense Media. (2017). Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC). (2017). BC Digital Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.bcerac.ca/about/background-info.aspx

Media Smarts. (2017). Media Smarts: Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy. Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/

Microsoft. (2017). OneNote [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.onenote.com/

Vancouver School Board i3 Learning Technologies. (2016). Learning Technologies. Retrieved from http://go.vsb.bc.ca/schools/ltm/Pages/default.aspx

Final "Vision of the Future" Project: Scope + Design

For the “Vision of the Future” project, I plan to revisit ideas that caught my interest at the beginning of this course. During this learning opportunity, I have stumbled upon a lot of information regarding copyright, selecting quality resources, privacy online, cloud computing and its use in the educational setting. It caught my attention as I am someone who likes to follow rules and guidelines. 

I wish that I had known about these things at the start of my career, and throughout this course I have had the reoccurring thought - how do you know you need to know? 

While learning about the above mentioned, I found that all of this important information is in many different places. Some websites I explored because of this course, or stumbled upon, and sometimes I found information from articles I read for another class. Everything just felt scattered all over the place. 

As a library-minded person, I did not like how disorderly this was and this is how I landed on my idea for the “Vision of the Future” project.

In my future, I envision all of the helpful and important resources I have learned about to be in one place. I am designing a digital resource that addresses copyright, ownership, digital literacy and safety. The intended audience of this project is teachers on-call and new teachers, because we often miss staff meetings, or start-of-year procedures when protocol and procedures regarding this type of information are discussed.

Perhaps this is too simple? Maybe I am not expanding my ideas enough?

Since I am still at the beginning of my career, this seems like a good idea. It feels like a resource I wish I had when starting out. I will share it with classmates, and I will look into contacting the B.C. Early Career Teachers’ Associations, and possibly my own local of BCTF to see if the final product is something that would help other new teachers. If I work in a library setting, I could share it with future colleagues or link it to a library website if I create one. I spoke with one colleague who is brand new to teaching this September, and they said they did not know many of the things I was talking about and would be interested in reading my resource when it is completed.

So I have one audience member so far.

That’s a start.

Now to sit-down, concentrate, and create my “Vision”…

References

Aparajit, S. (2014). You don't concentrate, do you? [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140715134444-23597044-you-don-t-concentrate-do-you

BCECTA. (2017). The B.C. Early Career Teachers Association. Retrieved from https://bcecta.wordpress.com/

BCTF. (2017). British Columbia Teachers' Federation. Retrieved from https://www.bctf.ca/https://www.bctf.ca/

Damon, M. (2013). Putting Some Order In My Life [Image]. Retrieved from http://martywdamon.blogspot.ca/2013/12/putting-some-order-in-my-life.html

FreeImages. (2017). Free Stock Photo 5431 Blank folder dividers with tabs [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/free_stock_image/tab-folder-background-jpg 

Gfycat. (2016). ImprobableBeneficialAoudad [Image]. Retrieved from https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/improbablebeneficialaoudad

Lost in a phase...

Module 9: Summarizing and Discussing Phase 2 Topics and Interests

Where did Phase 2 go? I feel like we just started and now it is time to move into the final stages of this class already!

(Pinterest, 2017)

Phase 2 of this course encouraged me to explore some resources and stumble upon types of library environments that I previously did not know existed. Before this course I had not blogged, tweeted, or purchased and downloaded an e-book onto my home computer. So many new experiences; all of them manageable and not scary. Reading the blogs of my peers has also been a valuable exercise in participatory learning and sharing, as I have saved and bookmarked many of the resources my classmates posted. 

If I selected one topic from Phase 2 that resonated with me the most, I would say it was Module 5: Fostering Reading Culture in Schools. I think reading is the basis for everything in life, and often we focus much of our explicit reading skills teaching in the primary grades. I think that we still need to explicitly teach these skills in the intermediate grades, especially as many of our students are EAL learners and newcomers from all over the world. Additionally, during this module my classmates shared so many ideas that I want to try with my own class in the future. I especially liked Brittany Shoemaker’s book circle idea, because I thought that is a lovely way to start the day and encourage students to read books they may not select on their own.

(Lunn, 2016)

Another takeaway I will leave this course with is to allow learning to be messy and to apply design thinking into teaching more often, because success is not a straight and predictable line. ICT 

(Board of Innovation, 2016)

ICT and its use in the educational setting constantly evolves, and teachers have to go-with-the-flow and adapt to changes (I especially enjoyed reading Katy Connelly’s blog on this topic). Thinking about letting learning being "messy" I am curious about STEM education and how a learning commons could provide support.

How could I incorporate that into a library space?
Can the learning commons have a "maker space" or an "unmaker space"?
What would that look like?
How would that be made possible?

(Jolly, 2017)

How would such a space be managed?

These are questions I feel I will probably explore in the near future. A book I am interested in reading is, "STEM by Design: Strategies and Activities for Grades 4-8" by Anne Jolly.

In my own professional practice, I plan to seek out development opportunities so that as the teacher librarian, I can have a solid knowledge base to teach both students and colleagues. I will continue to embrace and explore online resources, and evaluate their educational usage using critical thinking and evaluative resources provided by ERAC.

References 

Board of Innovation. (2016). Insight into our Design Thinking Workshops. [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/2016/06/22/design-thinking-workshop/

Connelly, K. (2017, October 13). Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy! [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://katyconnelly.blogspot.ca/2017/10/take-chances-make-mistakes-and-get-messy.html

Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC). (2017). ERAC achieving together. Retrieved from https://www.bcerac.ca/index.aspx

Jolly, A. (2017) STEM by Design: Strategies and Activities for Grades 4-8. Retrieved from http://www.stem-by-design.com/

Lunn, N. (2016). Want to Be a Writer? Come to Our Smart Women Week Literary Master Class. [Picture]. Retrieved from http://www.redonline.co.uk/reviews/book-reviews/how-be-a-writer-smart-women-week-lliterary-masterclass

National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2014, March 6). STEM Integration in K-12 Education [Video file]. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlPJ48simtE

Pinterest. (2017). Explore Does It Work, It Works, and more! [GIF]. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/94505292157346492/ 

Shoemaker, B. (2017, October 3). Fostering a Reading Culture in School [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://bshoemaker12.blogspot.ca/2017/10/fostering-reading-culture-in-school.html