Afzal Shaikh

Associate Director of Learning, Innovation and Technology @The York School

Category: Uncategorized

Reflection on Google Application

October 19, 2013 /

Google Teacher Academy

Phew ! Finally done.

This entire process of answering questions, rating your Google Skills, and creating a 1 minute Youtube video about “Classroom Innovation” was an amazing experience. Over the last few days I’ve been mentally preparing my thoughts and what I’m going do and say in my video. I finally came to the conclusion of narrating my voice over some video taped scenes of myself and my students in action.

You see I want to be one of the lucky 50 participants who get selected to go Googleplex in London. Sounds easy right ? Make a video, answer some questions and bam you just might bet get in. Well I decide to of course Google to find out some stats and discovered that over 4000  people applied  to the last GTA event in Chicago. If the same amount apply this time (there is probably more) then that would put my chances at .01%. That’s a penny and even the Canadian government  figured that .01 cent is worthless so let’s just round down to ZERO.

BUT, it’s not zero, it’s .01%. I have hope.

That’s not my biggest take away though, becuase that would be just silly. I learned that are so many amazing educators around the world who are doing wonderful things to make the world a better place.  I’ve made several connections on Twitter and on Google+ throughout this whole Google Academy process. If I get the golden ticket, Great. If I get the “please try again” email that’s great too because I know in the end this process has made me grow as an educator.

Now go and check out my video !

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFUlPhD4e50[/youtube]

 

Grade 2 students sharing with VoiceThread

April 25, 2013 /

 

Grade 2 students were doing biographies of their parents for their Language unit. Originally they had planned to interview their parents and share their answers by writing them down in Journals. I introduced to them VoiceThread on the iPads as a neat way to share their parents bio’s and the teachers agreed. The students already possessed login accounts and the Grade 2 groups were setup before hand to make the use of technology seamless for the teachers.  This marriage between voicethread and iPads allowed the students to create, author and share their work with our school community. It also allowed them to self assess and reflect on their parents responses independently. Now only if we can get all of the parents to login and comment back on their kids work, it would be perfect collaboration !

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRVrZSxXEww[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRVrZSxXEww

 

 

 

Action Plan

January 25, 2013 /

vt

 

Here at the Junior school our teachers have adopted laptop carts, iPads in the classroom and various other online tools to enhance the teaching experience. (Coming from a rented church several years ago, those are BIG steps in the right direction.) One of the these “online tools” that we recently purchased was VoiceThread.

VoiceThread is a online digital media album in the cloud that allows users to collaborate online. Just upload a photo, video or document online and have others comment on it by text, microphone, video or telephone.

Also this is the first year the Junior School has a had a dedicated “Technology Integrator” (me). As Shane Heyes mentioned in his post it almost seemed that integration of tech was seamless at the other building up the street and we here had “one offs” when it came to technology. But why can’t it be seamless here as well ? It can be if we leverage the tools that we have effectively and stay the course by having full engagement from our faculty. Which brings me to my Action Plan topic: VoiceThreads.

My Action is going to revolve around on how do we leverage VoiceThread in the Junior School ?

Research:

a) How can I use VoiceThread as an assessment tool ?
b) How can I use it as a tool to share information ?
c) Can it be used to start a discussion ? or receive feedback ? or simply just tell a story by narrating ?
d) Is this the tool that get’s the teachers interested in integrating technology in the classroom ?

While researching the above questions I will also investigate best practices around the world and within our CIS community as well. My plan is to share my findings every week by updating my blog and tweeting out articles on my findings.

Evidence of Learning:

In addition to documenting my progress online through my blog and twitter account I will create a VoiceThread or Video to demonstrate what I’ve learned. My final product will include my findings along with feedback from faculty and students on my topic.

Internet… Where strangers meet

October 20, 2012 /

 

Essentially the internet has become a place were strangers can come together to share. There is a great ted talk by professor Jonathan Zitterman that talks about the internet as a place were “random acts of kindness” take place.

Enjoy and comment

 

 

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