GNS: EdTech Lead Teachers Learn Together
Posted on:On Wednesday, November 16th, all of the Educational Technology (EdTech) Lead Teachers across the Division met in Hinton for a day long meeting, led by Kandis Gilks, the Division's Supervisor Teacher for Educational Technology.
Part of the day included the sharing of the ISTE Educator Standards which provide the competencies for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, and outline a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide. Participants also reviewed IT (Informational Technology) and ET (Educational Technology) best practices including the review of current platforms used by the Division such as Lumio, CS First and Scratch, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
There was great discussion around what it means to be digitally literate and what digital tools are needed to support staff and students to make productivity more efficient and engaging. EdTech Lead Teachers also had time to collaborate and brainstorm with one another to discuss the different technology practices done at their schools so they could bring back ideas to their own staff. During the afternoon portion, a representative from WeVideo guided the group through a quick 45 minute session that looked at the different features of WeVideo and how teachers could use this platform in their classrooms.
The entire day was Super Mario themed and EdTech Lead Teachers were grouped into teams to partake in different learning activities with a fun ice-breaker to kick off the day! Teams had to design a Super Mario Kart for their character using the Lego provided and then describe its stats to the rest of the group.
Technology learning can also be hands-on fun!