BYTE 2013

This was a great day :), right from beginning to end! For those of you reading this that don't know what BYTE (Build Your Teaching Experience) is, it is a conference for educators, which was held in Neepawa this year. It was great to meet and hear from educators across Manitoba and I really am looking forward to the next one.

I attended four different sessions throughout the day and here is a little overview of each:

1. Safe and Caring Schools in Cyber Times: Making Connections and Building Community by Kate Roberts. I really enjoyed this session and found it to be interesting. Kate brought a lot of personal stories to the table that really reinforced what is being seen in schools. Bullying is happening and it is not just localized to one type. Bullying just happens and with the rise of technology it becomes more permanent and, of course, mobile. Kate reiterated what has been said before in our classes, and that bullying is a power balance where teachers have to be mindful of mediation because it is not an equal balance. Some students also have bigger and louder voices than others and will do what they have to do to be heard. Teachers need to be aware of and teach protective factors as much as risk factors. I think that community and parental support is key in bringing this awareness about. It seems that everyone needs to work together in creating an equal power balance.

2. They All Have Computers Now What? Teaching in a BYOD Classroom by Roy Norris. This session was very informative and I appreciated Roy Norris' complete honesty. He didn't have all the answers and that was ok because they were working together at his school on figuring it out. Roy Norris is a teacher at Dakota Collegiate, a school that has implemented BYOD in grades nine and ten. It was a long process of trial and error and is still in process and for the most part Roy said it works great. One feature that I really liked about his classroom is that he sits on a rolling computer chair and just rolls from one student to another. This way he is on their level (student and technology) and they can comfortably have a conversation. A positive impact of BYOD that was mentioned is that the transfer between home and school is seamless. Students can access their studies anywhere at any time.

3. Edmodo in Multiage by Barry Waldner. This was a good presentation to supplement the information we learned the other day in class from Don and Sophia, they talked about Blackboard though. Barry showed us that Edmodo is basically Facebook for education. After looking at it and using it a bit I`ve decided I dont like it. There is no chat feature which I think is important for students especially if they are online at home and want to connect with the teacher or other students. Another thing I didn’t like about the site is that students can resubmit submitted assignments as long as the teacher has not assigned a grade. Unless the teacher grades it right away that aspect defeats due dates. Althought I could be overlooking a feature that locks the assignment after it is submitted, but I don’t know for sure. One thing I did like about the site is that after tests the students choose an emoticon representing their reaction to what they just did. There were about seven different faces to choose from. That is an interesting aspect because it is always good to get student feedback so teachers can readjust the content or delivery is needed.

4. 21st Century Learners by Sophia Palahicky. It was great to hear from Sophia again and I really enjoyed the personal touches she added to her presentation. She talked again about the 4 C`s of 21st century learning, which are Community, Create, Collaborate, and Connect. When these are all implemented together students are receiving the most out of their learning. I think that every classroom should focus on the 4 C`s especially when incorporating technology.This session was discussion based and I really enjoyed hearing from teachers who have been in the field for several years. It seems that there is a consensus that teachers need to educate students on how to appropriately use technology and if students are using it anyway may as well implement it in the classroom. I found that really encouraging to hear!