Developing Blogging Skills: Simple Rubric

I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a blogging scope and sequence for a while. However, something about that idea makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like the thought of limiting blogging skills to certain age levels. For example, a number of my grade two students were sourcing and attributing Creative Commons materials for blog […]

Technify Your Teaching in 2013: PD Opportunity

As well as this blog and my class blog, I write Tech Tools for Teachers. This is a collaborative effort with my colleagues, Matt Limb and Simon Collier. Each fortnight we review an online tool and provide step-by-step instructions on its use. In January of this year we ran a professional development day called Technify […]

Internet Safety Posters for Teachers, Students, Schools, and Parents

Last updated July, 2018. Scroll down to find free internet safety posters.  Back in the days when technology lived in a computer lab, students were often advised on the narrow topics of cyber safety/internet safety as well as cyberbullying. While still vital concepts, changes in technology use have given rise to a broader range of […]

10 Internet Safety Tips for Parents

I recently published posts with 10 Internet Safety Tips for Students and 10 Internet Safety Tips for Teachers. If parents, teachers and children can all work together to build a culture of safe and positive internet use, problems can be minimised. Internet safety is a topic that should be regularly and authentically discussed in classrooms, staffrooms […]

10 Internet Safety Tips for Students

Last night I attended a presentation by former police officer and cyber safety expert, Susan McLean. She addressed many issues around internet safety, cyber bullying, sexting, problematic internet behaviour and digital reputation. Internet safety is something I try to address frequently and authentically with my students. I have found education around this issue to be […]

PowerPoint: Dead or Alive?

Since Microsoft PowerPoint was released in 1990, it has been a key tool in many classroom ICT programs and businesses. There seems to be a reoccurring theme in social media that “PowerPoint is dead”. PowerPoint has been the butt of many jokes including this infographic by SlideRocket. Wikipedia outlines a history of the “death by PowerPoint” criticism, […]

Instructions for Using Creative Commons Images in Blog Posts

Many bloggers are not aware that you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement. I teach my student bloggers to “do the right thing” by using their own images or Creative Commons images in their […]