Darren Prosper, Principal, Business Development, gWhiz, LLC
www.gwhizmobile.com

 

 

Timothy Gard, B.Ed, M.A. has had over a decade of hands-on involvement with students and teachers in information and communication technology. He loves innovative ideas, integrating technology across the curriculum and engaging students in the ever-changing world of technology. He currently teaches media literacy and communication at Sir Adam Beck J. S. in the Toronto District School Board.

  
Q: How do I introduce new technology in my class in challenging economic times?

A: A great way to introduce new technology into your classroom is through either a pilot project, or a research study. A pilot project gives you the opportunity to introduce and investigate new software or hardware in a classroom context that allows you to investigate the merits of that technology as it relates to pedagogy and curriculum. A research study is more formalized in that you have a clear hypothesis you wish to investigate, a research method, and a protocol that you are going to follow in order to study the merits of a particular piece of hardware or software technology as it relates to your hypothesis. Both of these opportunities are exciting, and rewarding; exciting because you get to learn about and introduce new technology to your students, and rewarding because as an educator you get to be involved in action research that makes a difference. Further, you get to investigate and report on this technology to the stakeholders who are interested to know the benefits of their technology in the classroom - a real-world context.

Helix2009 (Green Education and Technology Conference)
March 19-20, 2009
The conference will focus on green computing, attendees will also have access to other topics in the areas of Web design and development; administration and leadership; teaching and learning with technology; and security, networking and infrastructure.
 

 

HP Planet Partners Recycling
HP's Planet Partners recycling service provides an easy way to recycle any brand of computer equipment or HP printing supplies. HP's state-of-the-art processes ensure that unwanted hardware or empty HP printing supplies are recycled responsibly.
 

 

HP Eco Solutions
HP is committed to reducing its environmental impact across all aspects of business - from operation to products to services.  With the environment in mind we design our products to be sustainable throughout their lifecycles, offer product reuse and recycling solutions and set high environmental standards in our operations and supply chain.

     
Click here to read All Green IT Events

The Higher Education Headlines section contains several great articles from helping parents trying to save for their children's education, a major college admissions applications jump, five Ed Tech stories to watch for in 2009 and a New Virtual Teacher Training Tool developed at Acadia University in cooperation with Pearson Education.

The Ask a Professor Section features Dr. Doug Player, a seasoned education executive and professor who describes his suggestions for getting educational funding in these current tough economic times.       

 

 

Put away those ancient overhead projectors, or any other device you might use to display a two or three-dimensional object in your classroom! Today's 21st century projector is called a document camera, and it's more than what the name might suggest. These devices will display text, pictures, or three-dimensional objects onto your overhead screen, or interactive whiteboard. In fact, it makes most sense to use these devices with an interactive whiteboard so that you might capture your external object - whatever it might be! - and digitize it for use in a lesson, or an activity. Or, maybe you want to do some choral reading, or read aloud a book that has some amazing illustrations. A document camera is an overhead projector that incorporates the capabilities of a scanner, microscope, interactive whiteboard and computer. It's a technology that is well worth investigating!

 





I am pleased to announce the release of the alpha version of the Open Virtual Usability Lab (OpenVULab). This open source application is designed for remote usability testing and is being developed as part of the Fluid Project with generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and previously from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada.

 

Pearson Education Canada and Acadia offer "Real-Time" Teacher Training
Acadia Release | 03/12/08
First time classroom jitters may be a thing of the past thanks to a new teacher-training tool developed at Acadia University. Managing to Teach (M2T) simulates realistic classroom situations to allow new educators to make decisions in a safe environment - the virtual school.
 
 
New system can improve video-sharing websites like YouTube
UofT Release | 08/12/08  
The Tiny Videos system, created by computer engineering graduate student Alex Karpenko, is a groundbreaking system that allows extremely large amounts of video data to be compressed and then searched based on content.


Free Speech on Campus: Selective Silencing
Globe and Mail | 08/12/08
Students once led the push for greater civil rights and liberties. These days, they appear to want to limit freedom of speech, at least for some. Recent efforts by students to silence anti-abortion groups on university campuses across Ontario suggest that the kids are not all right.


Click here to read all Higher Education Headlines

Event: ....... Licensing Issues in Higher Education
Date: ......... February 9-20, 2009
Location: ... Online

Event: ....... eConcordia Summit 2009
Date: ......... March 12, 2009
Location: ... Montreal, QC


Click her to view all Higher Education Upcoming Events

Doug is a former Superintendent of West Vancouver School District. He holds a BA from UBC, a MEd., from WWU and an EdD from USD. Doug was noted for his innovative leadership during which he initiated the first international student program in BC, the super achievers program, all day kindergarten and computer immersion. While a superintendent, Doug was President of the Canadian Association of School Administrators (CASA) and an Associate of the Education Research and Development Institute of Canada (ERDI). He currently serves as president of Player-Works Inc, Vice President of Destination Imagination BC and is working to develop Whistler U, a fully accredited university in Whistler. His consulting clients have included Chancery, the NHL, the Canadian Educational Resource Council and Dell as well as numerous school districts across Canada.

Doug was awarded CASA's Distinguished Leadership Award for excellence in leadership in education in Canada as well as the BCSSA Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to education in BC. Doug taught leadership for ten years at San Diego State University and currently teaches the Masters in Educational Leadership program for City University in Seattle. When not consulting or speaking on RIPPLE Leadership©, Doug can be found on the nearest links or cruising the slopes of Blackcomb.

 

Q: How do we bring technology to education in tough times?

 

I sense an air of optimism for 2009, despite the challenging economic times. Top-of-mind this week has been "Obamamania" that has galvanized Americans and certainly has spilled over into Canada. On that note, I am pleased to share a little trivia in that Toronto born CEO/Founder of FableVision and New York Times Best Selling Author/Illustrator Peter H. Reynolds  emceed the 2009 LINK-live Presidential Inaugural Gala at The Corcoran Gallery of Art on January 20, 2009. I've met Peter at various EdTech conferences in the U.S. My connection to Peter is through his twin brother, Paul Reynolds, who is a fellow Pepperdine U OMET alum. Speaking of Pepperdine, I'm honoured be playing a leadership role as part of the launch team of Pepperdine's first Virtual alumni network. Our pre-launch strategy meeting will be happening later this week at the Florida Education Technology Conference, January 22-24.  Special thanks to Claudette LeCour, director, advancement services at Pepperdine U for her support.
 

Robert Martellacci, M.A. EdTech