…..stories

All of our schools and members of our school communities develop a narrative, story to better share our beliefs and mission to the communities we serve. This idea of building a narrative which then people can participate in, and in turn develop their own narrative from our schools story is a theme that more and more folks are talking about. A good example of a powerful narrative is the story of Steve Job’s and Apple narrative which over the years has become the narrative for many of us, as consumer and fans of their products. This month we are featuring this video from John Francis who shares his story  of 17 years of silence and walking,

 How does this narrative building play a role in schools? All of our schools through a variety of activities and curriculum engage our students and our communities in this process of building narratives. This for me really stuck out with us hosting the European Student Film Festival, and watching the engagement and enthusiasm of the students participating in the Film Challenge

In this event students work side‐by‐side for an intense time in which they write, film and edit a short film. This years theme was Revolution /Evolution with the setting of Prague and its neighborhoods. Watching the students from different schools, juggle the process of building a unique narrative pulled from their own personal experiences , and then collaborate to come up with a final product through film highlighted the complexity of the narrative  process.  What was delightful was to see the students gradually through discussion, problem solving, compromise and desire to succeed generate a common vision around one narrative.

A Common Thread from ECIS ICT Committee Member Leah Treesh

Many teachers remember the days of searching endlessly for beyond-the-textbook materials and tools to enhance and support learning in their classrooms. Some may even miss those days, due to how overwhelming sifting through the plethora of available possibilities can be when the pressures of the profession can seem to increase with each coming school year.

Since there are so many interesting and engaging options these days, from online tools to software and equipment, it is easy to either do too much and risk burnout before the end of the first semester, or to do nothing at all and stick to methods and tools which no longer reach students.

One solution for this is to identify (as an individual, department or school) on core goal for the school year, a goal tied to a desired learning outcome. For example, a goal could be making learning more visual or the development of cross-departmental learning projects. This common thread gives teachers one major area on which they can focus their efforts to create a more progressive learning experience and provides them way to build their knowledge and comfort with today’s tools without feeling extremely overwhelmed.

Bytes of the Month

• Media literacy education
• Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT)
• Top ten resources for Educators

Update : The ECIS ICT Committee Pre-Conference day
Thank you for signing up for the ECIS  Pre-Conference session facilitated by the ECIS ICT Committee. We are excited that many of  you will be joining us on in Lisbon Thursday Nov 17th 2011. We had such a huge interest we actually filled up all the seats. THANK YOU ALL  for your support 🙂

We have set up an iSkoodle  course for each workshop that you will be able to access for the Pre-Conference even if you are not there physically.  If you wish to access the workshop courses you will be able to do this via this link starting Nov 17th  http://moodle.ecis.org/course/category.php?id=8 Please note you will need to have registered with  iSkoodle to access these courses, registration is free.

ICT Committee Open Business Meeting @ECIS
We will have our  Open Business Meeting on Friday Nov, 18th from 11:00 to 12:00
If you have items you would like to see on the Agenda please go to our wiki.http://moodle.ecis.org/mod/wiki/view.php?id=1380