LightintheWoods

My former instructor and current mentor, Dean Shareski, asked Darin, Nicole and myself to spare a few moments in order to speak to his under-graduate Educational Technology class this past October 1st.  This was great chance for me to look back, to reflect and to re-discover all that I had learned during Dean’s course and how he has influenced my development as an educator.  It was a neat experience to share via elluminate as a guest rather than participant or assistant.

Dean is one of my many mentors that have modeled these major learnings. I have learned how to use social web tools to connect and collaborate with strangers and new friends around the world; access knowledge and information I never knew existed; share resources, thoughts and opinions; discuss pedagogy, book reviews, teaching practices; build a personal learning environment; feel confident playing with new media creation; and think about my future classroom in a way that is more social, more active, more engaging, more empowering and more meaningful. I have learned to be a better learner.

With all of this said, here is Dean’s podcast recording from the class.

Podcast42…student voices

Not only was Dean’s class influential, but I am fortunate to live in the same town as Dean. This has lead to extended personal learning through a number of invitations to sidekick him on classroom adventures to observe and work with students in Prairie South Schools and to sit in on training sessions he offers to his teachers. Together we had a post-conference run down and reflection on ride home from the TLt Summit in Saskatoon last spring. He just is there when I have a tech/ed related question. Because of all of what he means to my own learning, and all leadership he offers so many educators, I was more than happy to sit in and visit his class for the evening.

Tonights ECMP class was very cool; the topic was digital storytelling. The power of technology was evident as we had 2 well known blogosphere gurus, David Jakes and Wesley Fryer participating in our conversation. Both of the gentlemen added some great insights and really reinforced Dean’s teaching. I really learned a lot. I see digital storytelling as a very empowering tool that allows to student to plan, compile and create a meaningful story that is their own. The options are seemingly endless. Digital storytelling is powerful education.

Following class I explored David Jakes site on storytelling. His PhotoStory 3 Screencasts are very good for learning how to get started with this particular program. From there, I viewed his screencasts on flickrstorm that have been posted to teachertube. I definitely foresee myself useing this program with my students because it saves time by directing the searching of images. Students can use it, or teachers can prepare photo sets for student use.