We're excited to feature some of the awesome technology-infused learning projects that received ManACE Seed Grant funding this year!

Educator: Daralyn Davidson
School: Dakota Collegiate
​Division: Louis Riel School Division 

High School Visual Art students at Dakota Collegiate will have the opportunity, through the Oculus Quest, to immerse themselves in Google’s TiltBrush virtual reality drawing software. Learners will be able to learn how to make and create artworks collaboratively in the virtual space to extend, integrate and refine their art-making competencies using digital and virtual reality technologies. Learners will be able to share their artworks with an audience through recorded photos, videos, as well as through experiencing the work for themselves through the headset.

ManACE Technology Information Night (TIN) - Thursday, February 21, 2019
6:00-6:30 (Free!) supper and socializing
6:30-8:00 Presentations
Location: Virden Collegiate Institute Multipurpose Room
Address: 251 Kent Street, Virden, MB

Please click here to register! 
Not in Virden? We will also be announcing a Winnipeg TIN Night soon! 

5 Tips and Tricks for using Google Suite in Your Classroom
Presented by Erica Snyder, Park West School Division

Google Suite has many useful tools for teachers across all grade levels. This presentation will highlight my 5 favourite features of Google Suite from my perspective as a high school math and science teacher.

Micro:bits in the Middle Years Classroom
Presented by Regan Brereton-Waller, Fort la Bosse School Division

Learn more about using Micro:bits and their vision, “to inspire every child to create their best digital future”.  The session’s focus will be how to incorporate coding with Micro:bits into curricular outcomes in a middle years setting.  We will discuss ideas and examples of how coding with Micro:bits can be meaningfully integrated into the classroom to provide high engagement and 21st century skills including critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.  

Connected Wellness
Presented by Devon Caldwell, Fort la Bosse School Division

Teachers face increased pressures in their work, and children and youth experience anxiety, lack of sleep, and distraction. This session will examine traditional tools such as meditation, yoga poses, and breathing techniques to promote wellness, stress reduction, and coping skills. Drawing from her own experiences as a classroom teacher and special educator, Devon will share practices and technology tools to ease anxiety, integrate movement breaks, enhance physical health, and improve mindfulness.

We are very excited to be launching new, monthly Twitter slowchat discussions beginning October 17, 2018!  We hope you'll find us on Twitter @manace_manitoba and join the conversation!  Read on to find out how you can participate.

How do I join the ManACE #mbedchat slowchat?

• Watch for our weekly questions by following the @manace_manitoba Twitter account or search #mbedchat
• Each question will be labeled Q1, Q2, Q3.   Compose your answer to the question using A1 for an answer to question 1, A2 for an answer to question 2 etcetera
• Be sure to use the hashtag #mbedchat on your answers.  Every hashtag is searchable, so you can easily follow the conversation by searching #mbedchat

What are we talking about?
The theme of our October slowchat is professional learning.  Each month there will be a new theme and a new moderator from the ManACE Board.  

Why join a slowchat? 

• Twitter is a great place to connect with other educators and learn from their ideas
  
• a slowchat is just that - the conversation unfolds slowly, so you can respond to the questions at your convenience throughout the week
• it is a professional learning opportunity that you can take advantage of anywhere (yes, even at home on the couch!)

More Tips and Tricks

• Using a social media dashboard like TweetDeck can make it easier to follow a chat without constantly searching the hashtag 
  
• Remember you are sharing publicly on the internet, so keep your Tweets professional and remember to proofread!  There's no editing Tweets, so your only option is to delete and start over if you make a typo! 

Here are a few more descriptions of this year’s Seed Grant winning projects. Enjoy!

Developing Digital Graphic Skills for a Visual Culture at Henry G. Izatt Middle School 
by Barry Dyck

Our cultural beliefs and value systems are embedded in the images that we create, whether it be in paintings or digital images. In a digital world where the creating and viewing of images is easier than ever, we have ordered two Wacom graphic tablets to expand student possibilities for creation.

The tablets will be used in our Art, Applied Arts, Digital Design and Graphic Communications courses for students to create digital art, animation, comics and to edit images.
​
Cricut Crafting Project at North Memorial School
by Kim Houle
​
The Portage la Prairie School Division’s strategic plan & North Memorial’s school plan have a strong focus on bringing community into our schools. Connecting families to the school. Giving parents a voice within their child’s education & learning. Additional, North Memorial School has put emphasis in the School Priorities to incorporate Indigenous Education into daily routines & lessons. With this in mind, our vision for the Cricut Crafting – Connecting Community project is to build community & rapport with families by providing a unique, creative, and relevant project that relates to their Indigenous culture. We will make family quilts that have symbols of their culture on them. Families will be able to come to the school and make the quilts as a family and as a community, and share stories about their culture with others while they craft together. We will use a Cricut machine to cut out the symbols and pattern pieces for the quilts. Using this technology with students and their families provides new skills, connects at-school learning to home, and it connects students, staff, and families.

by Abby Craton (Teacher Candidate – University of Manitoba)

Put simply, technology has revolutionized society. From the way we communicate with others, to the ways we can learn and access information, smartphones and other personal devices have entirely altered the way we, as humans, live. Though this comes with a multitude of obvious benefits for the economy, medicine, agriculture, business, education, and our social lives, there are many unintended consequences from the use of these tiny devices. Students need to understand the environmental, ethical, and social ramifications of their smartphones and personal devices, in order to be responsible citizens in the classroom, and in today’s world.

​In the past decade, owning a smartphone has turned from an anomaly to a standard. Since 2007, when the first iPhone was released, over 7.1 billion smartphones have been produced and sold – a number almost as large as the population of the entire planet (Greenpeace International, 2017). By 2020, it is estimated that approximately 70% of the global population will have their own smartphone. However, the average individual only uses their smartphone for about two years, due to diminished battery life, unexpected damage, or social pressures to update to a newer model (Greenpeace International). This is having a massive impact on the planet, both in the energy required to continuously produce massive numbers of smartphones, and with the resulting waste that comes from their lack of reuse. Much of electronic waste, or e-waste, consists of metals and chemicals that are extremely damaging to the environment, and are having an effect on microscopic, plant, and animal life across the planet (Pulcu, 2015). According to a recent study by Mission-Blue, a charitable organization for ocean preservation, the number of dead zones in the ocean has increased 500-fold in the past 40 years, largely due to the presence of toxic chemicals from mobile industries’ waste (Pulcu, 2015). Combatting this issue is difficult, due to the huge social status that comes with having the latest smartphone.