LearnNowBC eBulletin – October 2009

October 2009 In this issue: Spirit Schools 2010 - Sign up your school by October 31st and win! UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Contest – Deadline November 6th eTraffic Press eBooks - review sample Pilot™ Math 6 eBooks online BCTC AquaVan – travels around the province, teaching about marine life New Toll-Free number for LearnNowBC Academic Advising Upcoming CyberSafe Workshops with Steve Dotto Website Links that you might find interesting

LearnNowBC eBulletin – September 2009

I missed these over the summer and thought maybe my e-mail had been taken off the distribution list.

September 2009 In this issue: Elluminate Live!- Virtual meeting rooms help save you time and money DPA Tracker – Keeping up with your students’ daily physical activity CyberSafe with Steve Dotto – District-wide workshop for SD #45 (West Vancouver) LearnNowBC Links that you might find interesting 1. Elluminate Live! Elluminate Live! is an online conferencing system that lets you meet with other people in a virtual meeting room. If you are a BC educator, or other authorized user, you can login to LearnNowBC and book a single meeting for occasional use or reserve a long-term meeting room for up to one year. The long-term use meeting rooms are suitable for regular online classroom sessions and other meetings. When you book a room, you will be emailed a link to the meeting room that you can send to anyone you would like to invite to the session. All your invited guests have to do is click on the link and type in their display name to join a session. When you are logged in to LearnNowBC, click the “My Calendar” icon to view your booked meetings. If you need help setting up your LearnNowBC account or Elluminate Live! meeting room, contact our Help Centre or call toll-free 1-800-946-8332. 2. DPA Tracker – Keeping up with your student’s daily physical activity LearnNowBC is pleased to provide schools with assistance in setting up their students on the DPA Tracker module for the new school year. Getting Started with DPA 24 Hour Access to Online Tutorials and User Manuals (including the LearnNowBC Sign Up Process) Facilitate a Student Sign-Up Day at Your School (travel fees outside the Victoria area may apply) Access to LearnNowBC Help Centre (1-800-946-8332 and Email Support During Business Hours) For more information regarding the DPA Tracker, or to find out how LearnNowBC can assist your school with administering DPA, please contact Mike Morin at mike.morin@vssociety.ca or the LearnNowBC Help Centre at Support@LearnNowBC.ca. 3. CyberSafe with Steve Dotto: Upcoming workshop School District #45 – West Vancouver 2009/10 Community Forum Series: Understanding Adolescence: The Incredible Journey September 29, 2009 7-8:45 pm Kay Meek Centre – Main 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver, BC This workshop is free, but registration is required. Register online for Community Forum #1 – “Cyber Safe with Steve Dotto” Contact: Chris Kennedy, Assistant Superintendent ckennedy@sd45.bc.ca 4. Other Links you may be interested in Learning Resource Repository – a collection of reusable Learning Objects Math Jellies – Fun online resources from Pilot Math Young Learning Centre – educational fun for young learners. Try these online versions of Bailey’s Book House, Millie’s Math House, Sammy’s Science House, and Trudy’s Time and Place House. ERAC Database ToolKits – an online reference library educators can trust BCTC AquaVan Schedule – the award-winning mobile sea-life education program travels in BC and beyond

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LearnNowBC eBulletin – Educator eBulletin – June 11, 2009

Educator eBulletin – June 11, 2009 In this issue: 1. DPA Tracker Updates 2. KnowWeeks Session – one more! 3. Teacher Essentials 4. Jellies 5. Tech It Up International! 2009

Blog Entries From Two Conferences

Leading up to the Virtual School Society’s annual conference and the Distributed Learning Symposium 2009 I posted a number of items.  Well, a few days ago I came across the blog Inquiry through Blended Learning and notice that the blogger had posted entries on both.

• Virtual School Society (VSS) Conference – Vancouver, BC
• Distributed Learning Symposium – Calgary, Alberta

If I find other blog entries from these two conferences, I’ll try and post them here.

LearnNowBC eBulletin – Free Professional Learning Opportunity

Free Professional Learning Opportunity May 3, 2009 — knowWEEKS: Digifolios Sponsored by the Virtual School Society Portfolios have been around for a long time as a form of presenting one’s work. Now with the emergence of social media, portfolios have acquired a new dimension—that of representing one’s ongoing learning path in a dynamic way. Educators are now replacing their static, paper versions with updated e-tools like Digifolios that act to collect, showcase and share teacher learning with others. A Digifolio is like an ePortfolio but it includes groups, rss feeds, comments on reflections etc. Join Ramona Dietrich (Portugal) and Cristina Costa (UK), to discuss how to showcase your complete work online and help you construct evidence of your ongoing projects. 2009 VSS Annual Spring Conference – the Best Ever! The Largest Turnout This year over 500 people attended the conference, making it the largest turnout ever! Here are the attendance totals for the various sections: Pre-Conference Session – 192 Main Conference (2 day total) – 546 Webcast Viewers – 50 Total – 788 Well Organized One partipant nicely summed up a common feeling at the end of the conference: “I enjoyed the experience. The whole event was very well organized and executed.” Much Appreciated Perhaps the single-most consistent comment we received from participants was how impressed they were with the selection of high-calibre presenters—from Keynotes to Spotlights to Concurrent Session Presenters. Testimonials from everyone who attended the conference were consistently positive. Comments from some presenters: “I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and energy of the participants.” “The dialogue I had with several participants and the chance to share our experiences with them was great.” “The feedback in the room was quite positive. The tech team was just great!!” Comments from some exhibitors: “The way you managed the trade show was perfect. From the set up through managing the crowds, it was superb. Seamless in fact. All I had to do was show up.” “The volume of traffic to our booth was fantastic. What impressed me the most was the people were genuinely interested in talking to us about what we had to offer.” “This has to be the single best conference we’ve ever been at from a direct sales opportunity perspective.” And comments from the delegates themselves: “I was completely blown away!” “I’m a regular to this conference and this had to be the best ever.” “All the presenters were well selected and good presenters—you seem to have chosen people who understand what we want to know.” “There were so many good sessions—it was hard to choose which one to go to.” Next Steps We are hard at work compiling materials from the conference. Keep checking the LearnNowBC Conference page for links to videos of the Keynotes, presentation materials from speakers and pictures of you! Use this material to continue your discussions about what happened at the conference, use it for ongoing professional learning, or use it just to reminisce.

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