Presentation Description

1. Blowing the Doors Off! All-staff, All-student, School and Regional online collaboration in FirstClass. Michael Komljenovic, Russell Baker, Regan Heffernan & Jeff Catania Abbey Park High School, Halton District School Board Leading Learning 2006 Komljenovic’s Website- http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~komljenovicm Komljenovic’s Blog- http://nlcommunities.com/communities/komljenovicm/ Abbey Park High School Website- http://aph.hdsb.ca/

2. Presentation Description Find out how one school has created an inclusive on-line learning community school-wide by bringing staff and students together with FirstClass. Our presentation will outline the processes and strategies used to blend the traditional face-to-face school with an on-line school to create a school learning environment that enhances communication, collaboration, and learning. “The revolution is not about technology. The real revolution is about access to information and communication. It's not about the wires, it's about what flows through them." Alan November

3. Building School-wide Online Communities with Staff and Students • Agenda: • FirstClassIntranet Tool for Schools • Growing Culture & Community Together • Engaging the Students • Building Capacity • Moving Beyond a Communication Tool • Future Growth

4. Intranet Tools For Schools • A unified communication platform that allows: • e-mail • public folders • conferences (similar to blogs) • personal and group calendars • easy web publishing and hosting • instant messaging

5. School Intranets as a Collaboration Platform • blows the doors off any barriers that keep students and staff from sharing information, collaborating and learning together in the classroom and across the school • 24/7 access to information and collaboration erases regular working times and accommodates busy schedules • maintains principles of openness and equal access to information

6. How does having this technology available to us impact our teaching practice and the school's practice? "The truth, as always, will be far stranger" Arthur C. Clarke

7. Engaging the Millennials in the Digital Age • Millennial Students (Generation Y):born 1980 – 2000 • Millennials are the first generation that have grown up surrounded by digital media. • Closes the gap between internet-savvy students and their schools.

8. Empowering Students with Technology • students use and develop ICT skills integrated with the curriculum they are learning. • students carry out activities that are much more like modern real-world experiences • (i.e. participating and collaborating in online forums, doing work on-line, … etc.) • supports a shared responsibility for education involving students, parents, staff and community. • supports literacy through reading and writing extensively online. • encourages leadership of staff and students through moderation of online conferences. • maintains a principle of openness and access to information. • cultivates positive school climate, culture and community.

9. What does it look like? “Grok the Power” - tour of Abbey Park’s online student conferences grok ( P ) (grõk)tr.v. Slanggrok·ked, grok·king, groks To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy. District-wide: whole district communicating and collaborating on-line School-wide: whole school communicating and collaborating on-line Class-wide: whole class communicating and collaborating on-line

10. Abbey Park High School Technology Umbrella

11. Growing Online Culture and Community at Abbey Park • Abbey Park CHATT Steering CommitteeObjective • Establish eLearning and CHATT as integral parts of the learning environment at Abbey Park, in support of our mission, vision and graduate outcomes.   • Students using CHATT to enhance and extend their learning experience. • Teachers leveraging CHATT to support student learning and to facilitate cooperative and integrated approaches to teaching and learning. • The entire school community utilizing CHATT to support effective communication, collaboration, and learning.

12. Students and Staff Online. Getting There Together. • student and staff moderators are key! • “A learning community is a trusting group of professionals united by a common concern or purpose, dedicated to supporting each other in increasing their knowledge, creating new insights, and enhancing performance in a particular domain.” • - Eric Vogt & Diane Hessan

13. Building Capacity and Moving Forward • Start with building awareness and understanding of it capabilities and build an action/ implementation plan. • 4. Commitment • Buy-in • Understanding • 1. Awareness 05/06 04/05 03/04

14. Building Awareness and Understanding - Action Plan

15. Abbey Park High School - Regan Heffernan • Building Capacity, Mission, and Vision • infrastructure: building, computers, laptops, wireless network • staffing • staff development http://aph.hdsb.ca

16. Mission Abbey Park High School is an inclusive learning community celebrating student growth through the pursuit of excellence and lifelong learning. Vision Achievement: Celebrate achievement by maintaining high standards in a dynamic learning community which values respect for self and others. Citizenship: Foster leadership, community participation, the appreciation of diversity and respect for the environment. Collaboration: Commit to a shared responsibility for education involving students, parents, staff and community.

17. Halton District School Board – Jeff Catania • Building Capacity • 1991 – Launched First Class (teachers & students) • 1995 – Started with Exchange (admin. & central) • 2001 – All employees migrated to FC • 2002 – 6k students on FC (by teacher request) • 2005 – All students on FC (year 3 of 3)

18. Moving Beyond a Communication Tool Toward a Learning Tool. The Online Virtual Classroom (a.k.a. online class conference) - tour of Abbey Park class conferences "Good teachers never teach anything. What they do is create the conditions under which learning takes place." -S. I. Hayakawa

19. Moving Beyond a Communication Tool Toward a Learning Tool. • The Online Virtual Classroom: • class conferences help in course management: • electronically share classroom resources • e-mail contact with students and parents • class calendar for managing timelines, evaluations and events • drop off and pick up new and marked assignments • builds inclusive classroom communities (i.e. cyber-tribes)

20. Moving Beyond a Communication Tool Toward a Learning Tool. • The Online Virtual Classroom: • class conferences help in balancing learning activities: • asynchronous online discussions (contrinutions occuring at different times) • synchronous discussions (a.k.a. instant messaging, chat rooms) • collaborating online on cooperative small group tasks & projects • student presentations • student electronic portfolio‘s or websites • student electronic journal's • information tasks: WebQuests.

21. Online Learning Communities "Intranets not only reflect, but shape the organizations in which they evolve. When individuals are entrusted with the capacity to create knowledge, the result is not only personal growth but an organizational vision promoting learning which emerges from all levels. The maxim 'Learn, Share, Collaborate' has been genuinely reflected in the core design principles of First Class since its genesis in the educational field. But now, organizations of all types can choose to become learning communities--with intranets as democracies rather than dictatorships." Jeff Catania, eLearning co-ordinator, HDSB

22. Future Growth • increase student and staff interaction • instant messaging • on-line forms • increase use of student websites/ portfolios • FirstClass Ed – Learning Management Solutions

23. Thanks to Jeff Catania and other Halton Visionaries for leading the way! References Tom Jenkins, Enterprise Content Management, Waterloo, ON, CA: Open Text Corporation, 2004 Alan November, Empowering Students with Technology, Glenview, IL: Pearson, 2001 Marc J. Rosenberg, E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, New York: Currency, 1990 Websites www.firstclass.com -FirstClass communication platform www.hdsb.ca - Halton District School Board