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All good things....

 What a journey this has been.  I have never taken an AQ class during the school year before, so having the opportunity to try things out as I am learning has been invaluable.  And to say I have learned a lot, would be an absolute understatement. Early in the first section, I had the opportunity to discuss digital binders.  These have entirely changed my life in regards to how I work with students.  What an incredible tool, not only for Universal Design, but also for differentiations.  And what a great way to store assessment data for later on in the term. I think differentiation, and using technology to differentiate has been the thing that has impacted me the most.  Whether it is the use of students own technology, or using technology in different ways, such adapted keyboards and mice, and the Google Suite for education with Adaptive technology it has helped me to look at everything differently.    It's hard to focus just on one thing, beca...
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Week 3

 This has been a particularly interesting 3 weeks of learning.  I think the thing that really stuck with me throughout the activities is that we need to focus on technology, not on our own, but together with our colleagues.   Having done the staff survey, it was interesting to me to see the different obstacles that my colleagues are facing in their classrooms that could be resolved if we talked more about what we are experiencing. Technology is such a great tool, because it provides very authentic and real ways for us to expose our students to different concepts and ideas by showing them things like source material over the internet.  Teachers it seems feel a little defeated by the technology that we are provided with to complete this task. I think this week, more than any other has changed the way that I look at how I can support the staff in my school, and eventually the staff in the board.
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Week 2 - What have I learned?

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This week has been the most interesting for me so far from both of the IICTIC courses.  I really enjoy looking at assistive technology and how it can benefit the teacher and the student.  I know that a lot of teachers find the concept of differentiating their instruction to be a difficult and cumbersome task.  The reality is that there are a lot of technologies out there that can stop you from needing to reinvent the wheel. Describe one significant idea or issue that has arisen for you, as you were engaging in the topics during Learning Experiences #1 and #2. For me, the significant idea was to think about the tools that we use, and think about new ways that they can be used.  The video of Westfield Technology College had a profound impact on my thinking about not using technology for technology sake.  They took things I use every day and put a whole new use to them.  I love the idea about using idea mapping tools to co-create expectations. Elaborate on how...
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Web 2.0

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 I have used a few Web 2.0 tools off and on for the last few years.  I have used Prezi, I have used the Google Education Suite, I have used WordPress (although I find Weebly to be a better choice).  My favourite of all of them is actually a product named Figma.  It is very similar to Prezi in some ways as it can be used as a presentation tool, and that is often how it is used, but it is also a great tool to organize ideas in a way that a presentation can be built right on top of the organization.  You can attach things at all different zooms and levels, like video and pictures as well as text.  For my travel presentation in the earlier assignment, students are able to plan out their entire trip, map it and have the user follow along with their tour of their country.  The thing that I really like with the tool is that we can take every other assignment and link them together in a collaboration.   This really takes the students learning to the ...
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