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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2016-02-03, Page 19Wednesday, February 3, 2016 • Huron Expositor 19 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com Technology, learning go hand-in-hand at St. Columban 21st century training continues to evolve Galen Simmons Mitchell Advocate At St. Columban School, the idea of 21' century learn- ing has taken on a whole new meaning as each and every student is now certified to use a suite of educational software to aid in and enhance the learning pro- cess, both in and outside the classroom. On Jan. 21, the parents of students at both St. Colum - ban School and St. Patrick's School in Dublin were invited to St. Columban to learn about how the school board has been integrating technol- ogy into the learning process over the past year. "Tonight we've got a family tech night and we've invited families from both St. Colum - ban and St. Patrick's Schools to come this evening to see what their children are doing in terms of digital technology at school," explained John McCarroll, principal of both schools. "Our parent council has been very generous in supplying technology to the schools so we want (stu- dents) to show off what they've been doing with it. We are also in partnership with the (Huron -Perth Cath- olic District School Board), so the board is training the kids in a three-level summit series:' In the gym, the families of students were told that each student at both St. Columban and St. Patrick's had been certified this year as a Level 1 Digital Student, which means they are all proficient in using the Huron -Perth Catholic District School Board's (HPCDSB) e -Toolkit. Sean McDade, the coordi- nator of 21" century learning for the HPCDSB, explained why the school board began implementing their e -Toolkit in schools this year before describing each of the pro- grams students have been using from that e -Toolkit. "Last year we decided to find out what happens if we train every student in the class on a suite of tools and Galen simmonsmmtcneu advocate As part of St. Columban School's Tech Night, students from all grades demonstrated for their parents the suite of software they have started using on a daily basis to help them learn both in and outside of the classroom. Grades 5/6 students Arianna Catalan (left), Rebecca McCarthy and Joe Ertel demonstrated a program called Mindomo, which is like a virtual bulletin board that students can pin videos, pictures and websites to, and can also be used for class presentations. how does that impact com- munication, collaboration and differentiation," McDade said. "We tested that in 14 classes around our Huron - Perth district. The results of that research study were so promising that the district made it available to every class this year. We've already trained 60 classrooms on the suite of tools - that's over 1,200 students. In fact, in this school, every grade has already been trained in that suite of tools." Students across the board now know how to use a suite of seven online tools, all of which McDade says are tar- geted at the point of instruc- tion, which means the tech- nology does not determine the learning, but instead, what the students are learn- ing determines which device and e -tool they can use to enhance those lessons. The first tool students are using, McDade explained, is Google Drive, which he says works as sort of a virtual pen- cil case for students. "From Google Drive, we have Google Read and Write. I call Google Read and Write the personal assistant or the personal researcher. This is another set of tools that allows for speech to text, text to speech, it's a reading assistant, it's a vocabulary builder, and what we like to say is, if there's any obstacle to the learner Google Read and Write will provide a tool to overcome it, McDade said. The next tool is called Min- domo, which McDade says is like a virtual canvas that allows students to pin videos, pictures and websites to it to turn it into an interactive bul- letin board that can also be used for class presentations. "Desire 2 Learn or Writes - pace, it is our digital class- room. So this is where stu- dents are able to chat, they're able to access materials, they're able to interact with their peers on assignments, it's the gradebook, it's a vir- tual classroom," McDade continued. "When you think about a single characteristic in a classroom, there will be a digital version of that in the Desire 2 Learn classroom:' The fifth tool students have been trained in is called Snapverter, which allows stu- dents to use their phones to take pictures of assignments after which the program reads the text of their assign- ments back to the students to prevent reading from becom- ing a barrier to students' comprehension of the tasks they have been set. Sixth on list is a program called Homework Help which provides students in Grades 7 to 10 with free online tutoring Sunday nights through to Thursday nights by an Ontario licensed teacher. "The last one that we have there is myBlueprint. Every child in Ontario has to have a digital portfolio. We're pro- viding two choices for teach- ers to choose to do the digital portfolio. They can do the digital portfolio in Google Drive because it's such a powerful place to park stu- dent work, videos and pho- tos, but the other option is myBlueprint, where kids can P RK TIIEATRE _* • -3J0Y -51'rviGODER1CF1 S 1 .52.q 7811 ;OR MOVIE INFO RMATION... - •-I\ www.rriovi&lirrka,.ci l �i�ufi7i�a tf- -3 3 Parents of St. Patrick's, Dublin and St. Columban students were shown first-hand what their students are learning during the schools' tech night Jan. 21. create their whole digital portfolio," he said. "MyBlueprint is also the software that our Grade 8 stu- dents use to schedule courses in high school and all the high school students sched- ule their courses." This year the Catholic board has ensured that every student has access to all seven of these e -Tools and that they have received intro- ductory training on each of them. Parents can also learn more about these tools by visiting http://goo.gl/KhfKsE "Through this digital certi- fication we decided that just receiving introductory train- ing is not enough, so we've created a program where stu- dents can become digital experts and we've created innovative pilot projects that promote coding, video con- ferencing and blogging and podcasts," McDade said. "There's going to be other opportunities for schools to send students to learn how to do those things so they can bring that knowledge back to their school. "We're also creating a pro- gram where students can be recognized as digital leaders in their school, and that's going to be something that will be rolled out this spring" After McDade finished speaking, parents had the chance to visit their student's classroom to see first-hand demonstrations of how stu- dents are using these seven tools to aid and enhance the learning process. 5 € tra1 lt4, i PUBLIC NOTICE 2016 Municipality of Central Huron Budget The Council of the Municipality of Central Huron has commenced the 2016 Budget Deliberations. Upcoming Budget meetings are as follows: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 5:00 p.m. Council Chamber 23 Albert St. Clinton • Roads, Utilities, Environment, Equipment, Fire Wednesday, February 17, 2016 5:00 p.m. Council Chamber 23 Albert St. Clinton • Recreation & Facilities, General Government, Protective Services, Economic Development Tuesday, March 15, 2016 7:00 p.m. Review Consolidated Budget Holmesville Community Hall, 180 Community Centre Line Holmesville Tuesday, March 29, 2016 7:00 p.m. Review Consolidated Budget Londesboro Hall 282 King St East Londesboro Monday, April 18, 2016 7:00 pm Council Chamber 23 Albert St. Clinton Regular Council and Public Budget meeting for adoption of bylaw Please check the municipal website for further details and postings as they become available. www.centralhuron.com