The Contest...

ManACE Developing Technology Contest

Aim:

To support Manitoba school-based projects that promote educational endeavours with schools in developing areas through the use of technology.

Overview:

ManACE will award up to six $1,000.00 prizes to Manitoba schools who present the best ideas for using the money to assist a school in a developing area in the use of technology. There will be up to two prizes awarded at each of three levels - K-4, 5-8, 9-12 if there are sufficient acceptable entries.

ManACE seeks to inspire students and teachers to use technology to reach out to others and to find ways to assist students and teachers who do not have good access to technology.

Schools must produce a short (max 5 min) video or online presentation explaining their project.

So basically:

Connect with a school in a developing place. Decide what that school needs. Then negotiate and get to know the people at the school, the other kids. Come up with a compelling argument and put it in a multimedia format Put together the package for selling this concept to the panel.

* ManACE reserves the right to showcase the winning projects.

Details:

Schools who wish to enter will either:

- Design a project to partner with another school in a developing area to find best ways to support their development.

-or-

- Present a project that the school has already begun which meet the criteria of this contest.

Judging:

Entries will be judged on the basis of:

Project (70%)
- Impact
- Sustainability
- Budget
- Practicality
- Evidence of support from receiving school and or other organization - can be a written submission
- Process - outline/description of project

Presentation (30%)
- Creativity/Originality
- Copyright free images, clips, sound and music
- Clear idea of the project
- Compelling promotion of the project {demonstrates need, appropriateness, feasibility, etc)

Presentations must use only free or Creative Commons images and music and other materials, pass school and divison policies.

Judging will be done by a panel of educators and non-educators.

Submissions:

Applications must include:
1. A document that states:
- Name of school and division
- Name of lead teacher
- Name and location of partner school(including a main contact)
- School divisional policies met
- A brief description of the project and how the partner school needs were determined
- Budget
- Plan of action
2. A student-created multimedia presentation (max five minutes) that explains and promotes the project
3. Adminstrator's Signature

Deadlines:

Entries must be submitted by midnight of Wednesday, April 28, 2010.

Results will be announced by May 13, 2010.

TEDxOntarioEd - The Winnipeg Satellite Event

Looking forward to the upcoming TEDxOntarioEd event?

If you're anywhere near Winnipeg and would like to participate along with many other like-minded individuals, please register to attend this event in person.

Of course, you could take in most of the content while eating popcorn in your pajamas. However, you'll miss out on some of the rich virtual & F2F conversations that will be taking place at the Winnipeg Satellite event and many of the other TEDxOntarioEd Satellite events that are taking place synchronously around the world :-)

There is no cost to participate in this event.
And - we'll have refreshments & prizes!!!

Register now...

The MSLA L.I.T. Forum

The Manitoba School Library Association would like to invite ManACE members to an exciting professional development event that they are hosting on Monday, Feb. 22 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. At the L.I.T. Forum, they will be teaching participants how to use Skype and Twitter, discussing the benefits of using these social networking tools both on a personal and professional level. They will also be Skyping several members of the school library community from Thompson, Brandon and Boissevain and their provincial executive rep from MTS who lives in The Pas, Manitoba.

The event will be facilitated by your past-president, Andy McKiel, and the president of the MSLA, Jo-Anne Gibson. It is being held at the St. James Professional Development Centre, 150 Moray Street. Admission is $5.00, payable at the door. Anyone wanting to participate should contact pleclerc@retsd.mb.ca to register. Those participating are encouraged to bring a laptop.

LIT%20Forum.pdf

Upcoming TIN - Nov. 17th - Making Connections

Image: 'Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept' - www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137737248

The Board of ManACE is pleased to announce that we will be offering a Technology Information Night (TIN) next week, on Tuesday, November 17th.

All educators are welcome to attend this event - you do not need to be a ManACE member to register/participate. For the extremely low price of only $5, you get dinner and three short presentations related to the use of technology in education.

The TIN is scheduled to begin at 5:30 with pizza/salad being served. Presentations will begin at approximately 6:00pm, and the evening should wrap up around 7:30pm.

The focus for the evening will be all about 'making connections'. The presentations will be as follows:

Introduction to Mindstorm NXT
This presentation will highlight how teachers/students can learn about robotics through the use of LEGO Mindstorm NXT. Find out how Mindstorm NXT can enable anyone to build a basic robot. Then discover how the addition of a wide range of sensors can transform this robot into a complex character that is capable of performing a wide range of tasks.

Putting Together The Pieces
This presentation will highlight one of the ways that LEGO Mindstorm NXT has been incorporated into an enriching and motivating classroom experience for students within Manitoba. Furthermore, this presentation will highlight some of the ways that educators can infuse a wide range of technologies to connect:
- the teaching to the learning
- the content to the curriculum
- their students to each other
- their classrooms to the world

Connecting To A Professional Learning Network
This presentation will examine the role of professional learning networks and shed some light on some of the tools that can be used to enable anyone to become an active participant in the networks to which they belong. Twitter is one of the tools that will be highlighted, and participants will learn how to harness the power of Twitter through the use of hashtags, direct messaging and creating Twitter lists.

Next week's ManACE TIN will be held in M.E.C.Y.'s Professional Learning Lab - 1567 Dublin Street. Details regarding parking and entrance to the facility will be sent by e-mail to all registered participants the day before the TIN takes place.

Please register to attend our 'Making Connections' TIN by e-mailing andy@mckiel.ca

We hope to see you there :-)
Andy

Media Literacy Event Registration

With Media Literacy Week (Nov. 2nd - 6th, 2009) drawing near, we encourage you to find opportunities to get involved.

One way that you can participate is by attending M.E.C.Y. & ManACE's upcoming Media Literacy event, as described in the previous blog post. Although you can participate in this event virtually, we would encourage you to get involved by joining us in person.

If you plan to participate in this live event the evening of November 2nd, please take a moment to complete the following registration form.

We hope to see you there :-)
Andy

Media Literacy Event - November 2nd, 2009

Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth (MECY), along with Manitoba Association for Computing Educators (ManACE) are celebrating Media Literacy Week, a national week of focus on Media Literacy in the Digital Age. Media Literacy Week was conceived by the Media Awareness Network and the Canadian Teachers' Federation. This year, the week of November 2-6 has been declared Media Literacy Week and we are celebrating in the following ways:

Media Literacy Event

• Purpose: to highlight 'Media Literacy' in classrooms across Manitoba, Canada and around the world, connecting to the ongoing work of Manitoba educators infusing Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum
• Co-Developed by: ManACE and Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth
• Date: November 2, 2009 7:00 -- 8:30 PM CST The event will be UStream'ed or you can attend in person at the St. James-Assiniboia School Division's Professional Staff Development Centre (PSDC) -- 150 Moray Street (access off of Portage Avenue)
• Presentation: Leading Question: Pan Canadian Perspective -- "What does Media Literacy mean to you?"
  • A 5 minute 'IGNITE' Presentation format: 20 slides/ 15 seconds per slide/Autoplay similar to the MB Bloggercon and Awakening Possibilities. We have a Pan Canadian panel with a EY/MY/SY, Higher Education perspective including Kathy Cassidy (Gr 1 Teacher, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan), Dr. Alec Couros (Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Saskatchewan), Ben Hazzard ( Consultant: Assessment & Evaluation K-12, Lambton Kent District School Board, Ontario) and Jacques Cool (New Brunswick Ministry of Education)
• Panel Discussion: Manitoba Teachers from across the province.
  • Leading Question: Local LwICT Perspective -- "What does media literacy look like in your classroom and how do you make it part of developing your students' Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum?"

Digital Media Production: Students can create videos, digital stories, text, images or any digital media that showcases the different ways they are Media Literate. To get things started, we have created a video (shown below) that is hosted on our YouTube Channel also located at http://drop.io/medialiteracyvideo.

We want your students to view the video and create their own digital representation of media literacy. Students can then upload their video responses or link to their digital artifacts using our YouTube Channel.

Celebrating and Sharing: If you and your students take part in this exposition of student media literacy, we encourage you to promote your activities with local media outlets and draw attention to the critical importance of developing media literacy in the digital age.

We hope you choose to participate in this exciting event with your students and attend the Media Literacy evening either in person or via uStream where everything will be archived.

If you have any questions regarding any aspect of either event, please email john.evans@gov.mb.ca, darren.kuropatwa@gov.mb.ca or rob.fisher@gov.mb.ca.

*Cross posted from the M.E.C.Y.'s new 'Shining Eyes' blog/podcast

ManACE SAG Sessions

If you're a teacher in Manitoba and you haven't yet registered to attend one of the Special Area Group (SAG) Conferences on October 23rd, please consider registering for one of our ManACE SAG Sessions.

All of our session information is available online, and ManACE is also one of the few SAG groups that offers the convenience of online registration :-)

We're offering a wide range of sessions this year, including digital photography, the use of interactive whiteboards, and Flash action-scripting. Sessions are filling up quickly, so please register early to avoid disappointment!

ManACE SAG Sessions

Stay tuned to the ManACE Memos blog to learn more about an exciting 'postSAG' event taking place in early November - details to be released soon ;-)

Please feel free to leave us a note,
The ManACE Board