Ontario Extend Summer Institute
August 14th, 15th, 16th, 2017

Ontario Extend is a capacity-building initiative piloted with the ten publicly funded northern colleges and universities during a Summer Institute. The initiative is grounded in the belief that the impact on learning should be the primary motivator for creating technology-enabled and online learning experiences. Consequently, the Summer Institute sessions focus on the skills, knowledge, and attributes required to extend and transform our teaching and learning practices and to enrich our professional development and identity.

Ontario Extend is a capacity-building initiative piloted with the ten publicly funded northern colleges and universities during a Summer Institute. The initiative is grounded in the belief that the impact on learning should be the primary motivator for creating technology-enabled and online learning experiences. Consequently, the Summer Institute sessions focus on the skills, knowledge, and attributes required to extend and transform our teaching and learning practices and to enrich our professional development and identity.The activities of the Institute call on the participants to be curious and creative and to immerse themselves in this experiential learning opportunity. They will be challenged to teach and learn with different modes and formats, to create and collaborate using digital technology tools, and to discern what approaches may be used to design significant technology-enabled learning experiences.

The Summer Institute follows the framework presented in The Anatomy of 21st Century Educators as described by Simon Bates (2014) and is supported by six modules and a Domain of One’s Own project. The Institute facilitates the development of a professional learning network of educators who champion and advocate for online and technology-enabled course and program development for Northern Ontario.

The workshops, sessions, and activities planned for the Summer Institute are:

• Teacher for Learning
• Curator
• Technologist
• Collaborator
• Scholar
• Experimenter
• Domain of One’s Own
• The Daily Extend
• Twitter as a tool for building a personal learning network (PLN)

Teacher for Learning

Why else do we teach but for learning? Yet, there is often a disconnect between conventional, accepted teaching practices and research evidence about what enables learning. In this workshop, we will explore how we learn and what we can do to ensure learning environments are effective.

As we extend our knowledge, we will consider strategies for designing significant learning experiences that are grounded in and informed by research principles that foster student learning in specific contexts.

Curator

You may not know it, but you likely are already a curator. If you have ever made a playlist in iTunes, or organized a personal library in your house or on a device, or bookmarked your favourite sites on your computer, or subscribed to a feed reader, you are a curator. This session takes you beyond curating for yourself and your personal interests to learn how to curate, from your learners’ perspective, to create engaging, interactive, and open course materials. It discusses Creative Commons and Copyright and explores strategies to search for, find, and evaluate Open Education Resources (OER).

Technologist

We often find ourselves standing at the crossroads between the use of technology tools as trendy or as evidence-based practice. This workshop uses a design-thinking approach for selecting and using technologies, so you can create learning activities that support, extend, and enrich learning experiences.

Collaborator

Using technology tools to build intentional connections with others, to pose and solve problems collaboratively, and to strengthen independent thought is key to building digital capacity for teaching and learning. This workshop explores tools for online collaborations. You will also explore ways to create and extend personal learning networks (PLNs) through collaborations within, across, and between disciplines.

Scholar

What are some key questions you have about learning in your discipline? How do you choose from the array of teaching and learning strategies? In this workshop, we discuss ways to explore research-based, discipline- appropriate pedagogical approaches to extend your scholarly approach to teaching and learning in your discipline.

Experimenter

You will be presented with a series of challenges that invite you to experiment: to be curious and creative as you explore, and to reflect on new approaches to designing learning experiences. Experimentation is key to extending our skills related to online and technology-enabled learning.

Domain of One’s Own

The Domain of One’s Own project will enable you to publish, curate, and share your work online and to engage in reflective practice with a community of peers. You will create a place on the Web that you personally manage and design; where you can choose what you share (post) and how you represent yourself online.

You choose your own Internet domain name and have access to a wide range of tools.  Several sessions offered during the Summer Institute provide support for you to set up your domain, create a simple “calling card” site,  and begin a blog that you can use to document your learning.

This portfolio of your work will belong to you. The intent is that the work you post during the Institute will be a first step in you taking ownership of your digital identity and data as you explore the possibilities—and limitations—of digital spaces.

The Daily Extend

The Daily Extend is a set of activities to practice your media and networking skills while you explore new technologies or approaches to designing learning activities. You will have the opportunity to share your experiences, curations and creations, during and after the Summer Institute, via Twitter and on your domain.

Twitter

Throughout the Institute and beyond, we will be using Twitter to extend our skills and knowledge by sharing what we learn as we curate, create, collaborate and experiment. The Twitter account @OntarioExtend and the hashtag #oextend will be used for sharing news and links, for networking, and for building our Professional Learning Network.

A Twitter account is required for participation in the Institute.