Sanders Bobiash keeps passion for technology in perspective, Saskatchewan Bulletin, December 2011

A recent article was published about me in the December issue of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation's newsletter, The Saskatchewan Bulletin after I received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, Certificate of Excellence this fall. You can read the article on page 2.

Saskatchewan Bulletin, December 2011

View more documents from Joanna Sanders Bobiash.

Globe readers nominate innovators - teachers leading classrooms of the future - Globe and Mail, December 2, 2011

To read the full story, please follow this link to the Globe and Mail's website: Globe and Mail, 02/12/2011

Excerpt from the Globe and Mail, December 2, 2011

Three Regina teachers nationally recognized

Photograph by: Bryan Schlosser, Regina Leader-Post

Regina Leader-Post, November 22, 2011:
Three Regina teachers nationally recognized

Page: A5
Section: News
Byline: Kerry Benjoe

Regina is home to not one but three nationally award winning teachers.

Last month, Joanna Sanders Bobiash travelled to Ottawa to receive the prestigious Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence.
Randy McLeod from Campbell Collegiate and Dean Vendramin from Archbishop M.C. O'Neill High School each received a Certificate of Achievement.
"It was a very exciting experience," Sanders Bobiash said. "But also very humbling at the same time because I was nominated by a number of parents, colleagues and students to receive the award."
Sanders Bobiash has been teaching at Ecole Wilfrid Walker for the past seven years, where she is a part-time teacher librarian and teaches Grade 6, 7 and 8 social studies and science. She received the Certificate of Excellence for her innovative teaching methods.
Sanders Bobiash uses the latest technology and finds ways to incorporate blogging, Skyping, webquesting and Googling into her classroom lessons.
Her interest in technology has created unique learning opportunities that benefit her students.
"I actually went to Google this summer and became a Google-certified teacher in Seattle, (Wash.)," said Sanders Bobi-ash. "So I use that with all my students - they all have accounts and websites. I also use YouTube to integrate video."
She was one of 50 teachers from around the world selected to participate in the Google teacher program.
Sanders Bobiash chooses to use technology in the classroom because it gets students excited and keeps them engaged.
"We are learning in a whole different way than we used to," said Sanders Bobi-ash. "It's not just the traditional pen and paper. We are sharing our work with everybody. We leave a lot of our work open for people to comment on and we do different projects with different classrooms around the world."
McLeod teaches math and calculus for Grades 9 to 12 at Campbell and about 25 rural communities. His method of teaching has proven successful - about 95 per cent of his students both online and in class successfully complete his calculus class.
After 12 years as a regular classroom teacher, he helped to pioneer the distance education model. In 1990, he began teaching calculus and trigonometry via satellite television throughout the province. McLeod then worked to improve outcomes.
Vendramin teaches new media and social studies for Grades 9 to 12 at O'Neill. He's also Google-certified and worked as a technology consultant with his school division before returning to the classroom.
He introduces the communications production technology course which teaches web, graphic design, audio, video and multimedia production and is working on the new media campus articulation program. Like Sanders Bobiash, he's always looking at new opportunities for students to learn.

Making Your Library Googlicious

A joint presentation by Joanna Sanders Bobiash and Terry Pon, Regina Public Schools
RPSD, RCSD and PVSD Teacher-Librarian Professional and Learning Day
Regina, SK - October 25, 2011

Here is our presentation. (link) Please explore the links in the presentation and provide feedback using this form.

Regina TLs Day of Learning: Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone: Transitioning Toward 21st Century Learning

Keynote Resources from: bit.ly/SaskTL

Anytime,Anywhere, Anyone (Resources) - #SaskTL

Dr. Alec Couros
couros@gmail.com
@courosa
skype: aleccouros
youtube.com/courosa

Websites in Order of Appearance:

• SaskTL - Twitter search.

• About.Me - Alec’s About.Me page (as an example).

• Photo-A-Day Group - 2011/365 Group (mostly educators).

• EC&I 831 - Open graduate course, “social media and open education”.
• The Open Doctrine - My own personal attack ad (video).

• The Digital Native: Myth & Reality - Selwyn (2009)
• Debunking the Digital Native - Brown (2010)
• Visitors & Residents - David White
• Why Youth Heart Social Networks - danah boyd
• Justin Bieber Chrome Ad - Summary of his career growth.
• Maria Aragon - Sings born this way.
• Amanda Hocking - Young fiction writer.
• Connectivism - George Siemens
• Smartphones Surpass Desktops - From Mary Meeker
• Amazon Selling More Kindle Books Thank Print Books - From Amazon

• Creative Commons - Copyleft licensing mechanism & search.

• Sprint’s Now Network - Clever commercial from Sprint.

• Teenagers Living with Social Media - Keynote (video) from danah boyd

• David After the Dentist Description - Wikipedia article.
• Antoine Dodson Description - Wikipedia article.

• Best Job In the World - Top 16 applicants for the Best Job in the World.

• Saskatchewanderer - Saskatchewan’s version of the same contest.

• Saskatchewander Disqualified - From the Leader Post.

• Stephen Downes - Downes’ wise commentary on the Best Job in the World.

• Naheed Nenshi & Social Media - Social Media Analysis of Naheed Nenshi’s campaign.

• Trip Advisor - Popular hotel rating site.
• CouchSurfing - Find or lend a couch.

• Young Me, Now Me - Collaborative photo project.

• Dear Photograph - Collaborative photo project.

• The Networked Teacher - Diagram of a PLN.
• Visualizing Open & Networked Learning - Blog post.

• PS22 Chorus - Grade 5 Chorus

• Bow Drill Set - Young person’s networked learning.

• Writing Prompts for Teacher Candidates - Post about a collaborative Google Doc.

• Virtual Choir - Collaborative choir by Eric Whitacre.
• Johnny Cash Project - Collaborative artistic music video.
• Star Wars Uncut - Star Wars redone 15 seconds at a time.
• Khan Academy - Featuring over 2000+ educational videos.

• Twitter in 60 Seconds - From Jim Gates.
• High School Teacher Loses Job - Facebook picture.

• Thank You For Being a Friend - A tribute for my 40th birthday.

• 21st Century Literacy Framework - From the NCTE

Standards/Background:

• The Typical Teacher Network - This diagram attempts to visualize the typical network of teachers.
• The Networked Teacher - Increasingly more teachers are developing rich personal learning networks (PLNs) through the use of social media (sometimes called Web 2.0 tools).
• PLE Diagrams - Scott Leslie has compiled comprehensive list of individuals who have visualized their personal learning environme
• nts.
• What Does the Network Mean to You? - I asked the question of my network, "what does the network mean to you?". As a result, dozens of people responded via Voicethread (through text, audio, video) to explain their thoughts on networked learning and professional development.

• ISTE/NETS Student Standards
• ISTE/NETS Teacher Standards
• NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies
• 2011 Horizon Report

Examples and Information About Open Courses

• Social Media & Open Education (#eci831)
• Call for Networked Mentors (#eci831)
• Call for Networked Mentors - Follow-Up (#eci831)
• CCK08/09
• Personal Learning Environments Networks & Knowledge (PLENK)
• What is a MOOC (video)
• Success in a MOOC (video)
• Knowledge in a MOOC (video)
• Digital Storytelling (#ds106)
• CCK11 - Week 6 Readings

21st Century Learning in Practice (videos):

• Welcome to my PLE (video)Enable screen reader
• Why are some users anonymous? Learn more
• The Networked Student (video))

Communication/Networking Tools & Tutorials

• Twitter
• Twitter for Teachers (list of tweeps in various categories)
• Twitter for Teachers (another wiki with tools & resources)
• Twitter Handbook for Teachers (online document with tools & tips)
• Tweetdeck (most popular Twitter client, software download)
• HootSuite (another Twitter client, web-based)
• MapMyFollowers (easily map the range of your network)
• List of Educational Hashtags (from Cybraryman)
• Wordpress.com (a simple and free, hosted, blogging platform)
• Wordpress.org (where you can get Wordpress software if you want to host it yourself)
• Kidblog.org (Wordpress-based tool for hosting & managing student blogs easily)
• Weebly (easy to use website creator and blogging tool)
• Wix (free and easy, Flash website creator)
• Edmodo (easy but powerful, classroom social networking)

• Wikispaces (one of the most popular wiki tools, adfree for educators)
• PBWorks (another popular wiki tool)
• LinkedIn (important, career-based social networking tool)
• Schoology (free learning management system, course communication/creation tool)
• Posterous (very easy blogging/communication tool)
• Tumblr (media-friendly blog platform)
• Skype (most popular video/audio conferencing tool)
• join.me (video/audio conferencing tool)

• Tokbox (similar to skype but nothing to install, free for videoconferencing)

• Chatzy (free private chat rooms)
• TinyChat (live video chat rooms - beware of some inappropriate content)
• Today’s Meet (easy to setup chat w/ tags)
• WizIQ (virtual classroom for online teaching and learning)

Productivity & Collaboration Tools

• Google (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, Reader, iGoogle, Trends, Analytics, Adsense, Others)
• Open Office (Free alternatives to Microsoft Office)
• Dropbox (free storage & cloud syncing)
• AirDropper (works w/ Dropbox to extend functionality) - similar, DropItToMe
• The Ultimate Dropbox & Toolkit Guide (great guide with many useful tips)
• Evernote (a great notetaking tool) - EverNote Webclipper add-on recommended
• Delicious (the standard for social bookmarking)
• Diigo (advanced social bookmarking)
• Instapaper (simple tool to save web pages for reading later)
• Scribd (easy document hosting & management tool)
• Learnboost (online grade management tool)
• MapAList (create and manage address-linked maps)

Screencasting, Video, Photos, Audio

• Jing (free software for screencasting and image capture)
• Screenr (free, web-based software for creating screencasts)
• Animoto (easy way to create engaging videos from your imagery)
• Flickr (popular photo-sharing site, great for finding copyleft images)
• Aviary (popular media-editing suite)
• Jaycut (free video editing)
• Handbrake (rip and pull DVDs (Mac)
• KeepVid (download videos from Youtube & other sources)
• Zamzar (online file conversion)
• Lightworks (free video editing software for Windows)
• PhotoStory 3 (story maker for Windows)
• One True Media (create slideshows and share)
• Soundcloud (audio hosting & embedding)
• uStream (free live video streaming)
• LiveStream (another free livestreaming service)
• Blip.fm (social music service)
• GrooveShark (social music service, allows shared playlists)
• fd’s Flickr Toys (number of ‘toys’ for your images)

Presentation Tools

• Prezi (popular alternative to Powerpoint)
• Slideshare (great way to host slide decks & create screencasts)
• Glogster (alternative presentation format tool)
• 280Slides (similar to Powerpoint, but online)
• SlideRocket (another popular Powerpoint alternative)
• PhotoPeach (easy, sharable slideshows)
• Wordle (easy way to create word clouds)
• Tagul (another way to create word clouds)
• Stupeflix (another slideshow creation tool)
• Dipity (timeline creation tool)
• Voki (creating talking avatars)
• Xtranormal (create movies via text)
• GoAnimate (create cartoons and animations easily)
• Voicethread (create interactive presentations)
• VuVox (create great presentations)

Collaborating Thinking/Writing Tools

• Quora (post questions & answers)
• Dabbleboard (online whiteboard)
• Skrbl (Super-easy whiteboard)
• TypeWithMe (multi-author document creator)
• Mind42 (collaborative mindmapping tool)
• Webspiration (collaborative mind-mapping tool)

Referencing/Attribution Tools

• BibMe (online referencing tool)
• EasyBib (another online referencing tool)
• Plagium (plagiarism detection)
• Zotero (great research tool for organization, citation, bibliographies)
• Mendeley (a free reference manager and academic social network)

Polls & Surveys

• Doodle (easy scheduling tool)
• PollEverywhere (polling tool)
• Polldaddy (survey software)
• Google forms (surveys)

Aggregators

• Netvibes (personal, dashboard-like aggregator)
• Symbaloo (another popular dashboard-like aggregator)
• Weblist.me (easy way to quickly share links with visual interface- great for elementary)
• Feedly (Browser plugin to aggregate RSS magazine-style)

Media Resources

• Creative Commons (find & license copyleft material)
• mgur.com (Quick and iEasy Image Hosting site)
• CompFight (interface for Flickr photo search)
• Behold (returns high quality flickr images,  pictures “like” search)
• FlickrStorm (another interface for search Flickr)
• MorgueFile (public image archive)
• CCMixter (a community music site)
• Internet Archive (ultimate source for public domain and copyleft media)
• The Open Video Project (community around shared video clips)
• Wylio.com - Free embeddable images with citation

More Resource Lists to Explore

• Toolkit A-Z (alphabetized resource list)
• 50 Ways to Tell a Story (great resource from Alan Levine)
• TeachWeb (great resource from Wendy Drexler)
• Web 2.0 Tools (great resource from CybraryMan - also see this)