Author Archive

Teaching over Skype – The Results

January 30, 2009
By Neil Stephenson
Teaching over Skype – The Results

Yesterday morning I had my first experience of delivering a lesson over Skype.  Previously, I’ve used Skype in the classroom to have my students talk to experts, most notably with Sheldon Posen at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, but this was the first time I was on the other end of the Skype line....
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Remixing History

January 30, 2009
By Neil Stephenson

I’m excited about a site that was recently blogged about discussing the concept of remixing in relation to some of Marshal McLuhan’s ideas.  As I’m working through my master’s degree, I’m becoming more and more interested in the concept of remixing in K-12, particularly in light of the “historical remixing” that I think is...
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Putting the Final Touches on Digital Stories

January 29, 2009
By Neil Stephenson
Putting the Final Touches on Digital Stories

After trying to use iChat unsucessfully a number of times to have our student collaborate with Rocky View School division, yesterday I had my students upload their current iMovie projects into Voicethread in give and receive feedback.  Unfortunately, our school bandwidth was not making the use of Voicethread very successful either. So today I...
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Posted in assessment, collaboration, digital storytelling, iMovie, ichat, inquiry-based learning, professional development, voicethread | No Comments »

Teaching Over Skype

January 28, 2009
By Neil Stephenson

Tomorrow morning I’m teaching my first lesson over Skype.  As part of the collaborative project my students are doing with Rockyview School division, I’m introducing Mr. Hill’s students to the “Canada in a Box” site as well as the role that the sketchbooks played in making our Cigar Boxes last year. Here’s the Skype recording...
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Posted in Skype, cigarbox, collaboration, inquiry, technology tools | 1 Comment »

Google Docs for Peer editing

January 28, 2009
By Neil Stephenson

I’m starting this blog with the collaboration that I’m working on with Mr. Hill from the Rocky View School Division.  After hearing me talk about the Cigar Box project last year, he thought it would be something he’d like to take on as well – and he’s been an amazing partner to go through...
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The Cigar Box Project

January 23, 2009
By Neil Stephenson
The Cigar Box Project

The Cigar Box Project was a year-long, Canadian History project embedded in inquiry-based, 1:1 classroom. The Cigar Box Project has won two national teaching awards, and has been presented, locally and internationally. In doing the project, students lived the disciplines of historical thinking, information literacy and graphic design as they used 21st Century tools...
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Posted in cigarbox, history, inquiry-based learning, professional development | No Comments »