Presentations, Workshops and Publications
Workshops and Presentations:
- “Engaging 21st Century Learners” Battle River School Division, Camrose, August 2011
- “Leading Teacher Change in a 21st Century School” Battle River School Division, Camrose, August 2011
- “Learning with iPads” Strathcona Christian Academy, Edmonton, August 2011
- “Coming to Know in a Deep Way” Apple Distinguished Educator Conference, July 2011
- “The Changing Nature of Digital Texts: A Thinktank Discussion” May 2011
- “Current Trends in Educational Technology” Society of Educational Resource Groups, May 2011
- “Coming to Know in a Deep Way” ERDI Conference, April 2011
- “Structuring Inquiry-Based Learning” Two-part ISTE Webinar, March 2011
- “Google Tools: the Best Free Tools for the Classroom” Two part webinar, Central Alberta Regional Consortium, March 2011
- “Assessment for Student Learning,” Canadian Rockies School Division PD day, Canmore, AB, January 2011
- “Inquiry and Technology at the Calgary Science School” presentation to Delta School Board Leadership Team, Vancouver, Jan 2011
- “Designing Work for Student Engagement: A Background in Inquiry” ASCD workshop, University of Calgary, Jan 2011
- “21st Century Professional Development: Building your PLN”, Calgary Regional Consortium, December 2010
- “Lessons Learned from 5 years of 1:1 Computing”, ECOO 2010 (Toronto) November 2010
- “The Potential of New Media and Participatory Culture in Education”, ECOO 2010 (Toronto) November 2010
- “Participatory Culture in the Classroom: Remixing History”, OHASSTA Conference (Toronto), November 2010
- “Inquiry Based Learning: Embedding Technologies in Grs. 6-9,” Calgary Regional Consortium, October 2010
- “Using iMovie in the Social Studies Classroom”, Calgary Regional Consortium, October 2010
- “Leading Teacher Change in a Technology Rich School”, uLearn 2010 (Christchurch, NZ) October 2010
- “Designing Work for Teacher and Student Engagement”, Prairie Land School Division (Hannah), September 2010
- “Using Google Docs in the Classroom”, ISTE Webinar, September 2010
- “Using Google Docs in the Classroom”, Calgary Regional Consortium, September 2010
- “Using iLife 09”, Westmount Charter School, July 2010
- “21st Century Professional Development: Building your PLN”, Calgary Regional Consortium, May 2010
- “Improving Social Studies Assessment Practices: Embedding Technologies in Grs. 6-9,” Calgary Regional Consortium, April 2010
- “PBL: Better with Practice?” ISTE Webinar, March 2010
- Introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning, West Island College, March 2010
- “Engaging Students with Engaging Work”, Teacher2Teacher Conference (Bow Island), March 2010
- “Teaching and Learning for Engagement”, AISI Conference, February 2010
- “Supporting Student Engagement with Technology”, University of Calgary, January 2010
- Introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning, Mount Royal University, January 2010
- “Designing work for Student Engagement”, Calgary Regional Consortium, November 2009
- Introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning, St Timothy’s (Cochrane), November 2009
- “New Media in the Social Studies Classroom”, Alberta Social Studies Conference, October 2009
- “Strong Assessment: the Key to Student Learning”, Calgary Regional Consortium, October 2009
- “Leverage Apple Tools for Student Learning”, Apple Distinguished Educator Conference, July 2009
- “Improving Social Studies Assessment Practices: Embedding Technologies in Grs. 6-9,” Calgary Regional Consortium, May 2009
- “Embedding Technology in a Year Long Historical Inquiry”, ATA Social Studies Technology Night, May, 2009
- “Virtual Museum Project: Remixing History,” Central Alberta Teachers’ Convention (Red Deer) February 2009
- “Building Critical Thinking Mini-Challenges”, Critical Thinking Consortium (Kelowna), February 2009
- “Integrating Assessment into Inquiry-Based Learning”, University of Calgary, February 2009
- “Using Technology to Deepen Inquiry Based Learning”, Calgary Regional Consortium, 2-part dinner series, February 2009
- “The Cigar Box Project: A Social Studies Inquiry in a One to One Environment”, University of Calgary, January 2009
- “Simple ways to improve your Photographs” Calgary Science School, January 2009
- Technology and Inquiry Workshop at Calgary Girls School, November 2008.
- “Remixing Assessment, Inquiry and ICT Inside Cigar Box History”, Alberta Assessment Consortium (Edmonton) October 2008
- Intelligence Online Professional Learning Series : “Virtual Museum: History in a Box”. 4-part Webinar, Sept – Oct, 2008
- Technology and Inquiry Workshop at David Thompson Junior High, October 2008
- Technology and Inquiry Workshop at Airdrie Junior High, October 2008
- “How Student Voice can Change Assessment”, Alberta Emerge Conference, (Edmonton) Oct 2008
- “Using Technology to Deepen Inquiry Based Learning”, Calgary Regional Consortium, 2-part dinner series, September 2008.
- “Social Studies Inquiry in a One to One Environment”, Alberta Emerge Conference, August 2008.
- “Remixing History in a 1:1 Classroom”, National Educational Computing Conference (San Antonio) July 2008
- “Remixing History in a 1:1 Classroom”, Apple One to One Learning Conference, Calgary, May 2008
- “The Cigar Box Project: A Social Studies Inquiry in a One to One Environment” – Foothills School Division, Inquiry Learning and Digital Technologies Conference, April 2008
- “The Cigar Box Project: A Social Studies Inquiry in a One to One Environment”, University of Calgary, March 2008
- “Introduction to Podcasting”, Calgary Science School, February 2008
- “Web 2.0 – The Potential of the Read/Write Web”, Calgary Science School, February 2008
- “The Cigar Box Project: A Social Studies Inquiry in a One to One Environment”, AISI Conference, (Edmonton) February 2008
- “The $100 Project”, Gender Smarts Conference, February 2006
- “Teaching and Learning About Extreme Poverty”, Alberta AISI Conference, February 2007
- “The $100 Project”, Calgary Charter School Convention, October 2005
Feedback from workshop participants:
“You provide excellent tools (with examples of use) that I was able to incorporate into my teaching right away”
“OUTSTANDING! – someone needs to get this man doing a conference on technology and inquiry!”
“Neil was an engaging, clear and well prepared presenter. Being in the classroom brought an energy to the presentation because hi is working with the technology.”
“This was the BEST PD I have ever attended in this division. The topic was totally relevant and it was actually something that I can use in my teaching. I could have been in this session all day.”
“LOVED IT – best PD of the year! – Thank you!!”
Feedback from Collaborative Outreach participants at the Calgary Science School
“This was one of the best PD experiences I have had the pleasure of attending. Neil was so willing to share and collaborate with all the information and materials he has. Watching students work and collaborate with the technology was just mind boggling. It’s fantastic to find a school and staff members whose mandate it is to collaborate and share all their expertise and materials.” Calgary Teacher
“The results were very impressive, students wrote about how they had been very unsure and confused about inquiry-based learning, but after speaking with Neil, they felt a lot more comfortable with the concept. For a group of future teachers, it was inspiring to interact with a school who is actively applying inquiry based learning in a school setting.” Mount Royal University student, Faculty of Education
“My time with Neil at CSS was extremely useful. Through classroom observations and discussion, I was able to see 21st Century teaching and learning in action. It will help me to prioritize my focus to be able to develop my “coaching” role with teachers in my designated schools. It made me solidify my understanding of “inquiry-based learning” as the key element in moving forward.” Calgary Board of Education Learning Leader
“Recently I used your professional development questions (found online) on my own to help change my teaching practice as I am not feeling satisfied at the moment. Your questions and the work your school is doing to practice true inquiry at both a staff and student level is a model I would like to be part of implementing and so I share some of your posts with a couple of my colleagues and we talk about what we can do in small ways to make things happen.” Teacher from New Hampshire
“Student teachers react strongly and positively to Neil Stephenson’s presentations, and often cite his visit as one of the most memorable experiences in my Year 2 Seminars. Specifically, student teachers appreciate that Neil brings rich examples of student work, that he carefully describes the different tasks students have completed along with assessment methods and rubrics designed to give students feedback on the quality of their work. Neil helps student teachers to learn how they might negotiate authentic relationships with experts from across disciplines and beyond classroom walls to benefit student learning. Through Neil’s rich instructional plans and engaging methods of presentation, student teachers can appreciate the depth and sustained nature of innovative inquiry projects from the Calgary Science School, and begin to understand how they might design these kinds of learning experiences for their own students.” Professor, University of Calgary
Publications
- “Laughter is the Best Pedagogy”, published in Alberta Voices, Fall 2003 (Volume 1, Number 2)
- “Critical Thinking and ICT” Editor, The Critical Thinking Consortium, (In Publication)
- “Alberta Social Studies Online Guide to Implementation” Author of Grade 6 resources