From Now Until December 17 - Show Your CORE And You Could Win!

The CORE teams at PHRD, RVS, GHRD, FFCA, CBE, and ADLC are joining forces to bring you a fun winter contest! Get involved and you could win prizes. All you have to do is show your CORE.

It’s simple! Here’s how it works:

Between now and Wednesday, Dec 17, 2014, select one or more of the following ways to Show Your CORE. For each way that you share, we’ll add your name to the draw for a prize!

• Log in to CORE and explore at least 2 resources 
• Leave a constructive comment and rating on a CORE resource 
• Tweet a comment, question, user tip, photo, or the CORE URL of a resource you are using to us @core4learning using the hashtag #showyourcore 
• Email a: photo of you using CORE, 20-word story, comment, or question to corecontest1@gmail.com 
• BONUS: Contribute a resource to CORE - a website or self-created resource, and receive two entries for your contribution! 

The Fine Print - It’s in regular sized font because it’s THIS IMPORTANT!

Please ensure that you follow your school district’s privacy policies when using Twitter, email, and posting photos. Do not Tweet or email a photo of a student unless you have the proper release form. (You can, however, photograph the back of a student’s head.)

Please be aware that any photos, words, or items that you email or Tweet to us may be used by the CORE team to share your brilliance in other ways, including on social media, via our CORE blog, and on Twitter.

Looking forward to seeing how you show your CORE!

Best wishes from the CORE Team: Salima, Shelley, Greg, Tammy, Cheryl, Nancy, Christine, Alex, Tannis, Arthur, Laurel, Jeff, Sue & Stephanie

CORE (Collaborative Online Resource Environment)

This fall we have an exciting new online resource that is available to all of our teachers in PHRD.

CORE is a resource repository that takes a lot of the resources many of us have already been using, and puts them together in one place.  No longer do I need to go to Learn Alberta and then Discovery Education and then 2Learn and do three separate searches to find learning resources.  CORE lets me run one search and find resources from all of these difference sources.   It brings all of my favourite resources together in one spot.  I can search Discovery Education, Learn Alberta, CBC Resources, MIT OpenCourseWare, Iris Resources, Pearson Resources, eTexts, Destination Imagination, and so much more!  Once I find what I’m looking for, I can save it to my favourites and it’s there for me to use in my classroom at any time.

To make it even easier to find what you are looking for, you can use the “PHRD Power Search” which lets you narrow your search parameters by subject, grade, resource format, resource provider, and language.  You can also use the “Browse by…” button to browse materials by grade, by subject and by format.  Enter your keyword, and CORE will find a wealth of information for you to look at.  Each resource comes with a brief description that will help you to decide if the resource is right for you and your students.

To get a brief overview of CORE and how you might consider using it, you can check out the video below.  It was created by CORE and CBE to help explain what CORE is and how teachers and students can make use of it.  Just click on the link below and it should take you to the video’s site in CORE.

Core 5 minute Video

Another feature of CORE is that it contains teacher made materials as well.  A bit like “Teachers pay Teachers” or “LessonPlans4Teachers.com,” CORE is a place where teachers can upload material and make it available to other teachers within the CORE community.  I can find lessons materials on a number of topics and course materials created by other teachers right here in Alberta.  For example, when I type “digital citizenship” into the search bar, I find an entire bundle of information for “Digital Citizenship Week” that was put together last year by teachers in Calgary along with the help of George Couros from Parkland School Division.  The bundle includes a recorded webinar aimed at junior high and high school students, student and teacher version of a passport to the internet, a planning template and an Ed Talk.  This material has already been used by other teachers, and it has been shared in CORE for me to use with my students.  In the future, as I develop some of my own learning materials, I will be able to upload them to CORE and share them with teachers in PHRD and in the other participating Alberta school jurisdictions.

Digital Citizenship Resources

One more way to use CORE, is as an online database.  All of the online reference center materials from Learn Alberta are available for use through CORE.  You can access Bookflix, World Book Kids,  Culturegrams, BrainPOP, Britannica School, Shakespeare in Bits, Lit2Go, Visual Dictionary Online, Art Encyclopedia, CN Images of Canada Gallery, The Atlas of Canada, Amazing Animal of the World, World Book Advanced, Visual Thesaurus, The Alberta Online Encyclopedia, CBC News in Review, Grolier Online Passport, and so much more.  It’s a great place to take your students using your SMART board and show them how to search for information.  I like to use World Book Kids when young kids are researching owls or penguins.  For older kids, you can get “Coles notes” type study guides and animated version of “Hamlet” through Shakespeare in Bits, and the CN Images of Canada Gallery would be great for Grade 7 or Grade 5 Social.   Eventually, the plan is to make CORE accessible to our students as well.  When this happens, you can set up a link to Grolier Online for your students to use when they need to do some research in class.  It’s great for younger kids who can get lost trying to do a Google search.

Online Databases

If you haven’t already had a chance to check out CORE, you might want to take a few minutes to run a search or two and see what you can find.  Just go to alberta.core.ca and login.   

Tammy Tkachuk

Collaborative Lead Teacher

Pembina Hills Regional School Division

Welcome to Your Destination for Learning Resources

This school year, we are excited to have six school districts using CORE to access, share, and comment using dynamic digital learning resources! Every student, teacher, and staff member in our CORE districts has the unique opportunity to explore and participate in the CORE learning community.

• Immediate access. You have anywhere, anytime use of 160,000+ educational videos, websites, images, podcasts, games, articles, simulations, experiments, lesson plans, and more.
• Comment and rate. Let your voice guide others in the CORE community by leaving comments and feedback on the many resources available. Tell the community how you used a resource, or how it could be improved.
• Contribute and share. Share the most valuable resources with your fellow colleagues and students. Contribute resources so that they can be searched, shared, and managed from one easy-to-find online location. (This feature is still being rolled out in specific school districts.)

3 Ways to Get Started

1. Try this 2-pager of 2-minute intro activities and get to know the CORE features including: saving favourites, searching, commenting, and rating resources.
2. Check out our 5-minute overview video and our 5-minute features demo to get an introduction to what CORE is all about.
3. Dive right in and explore! All students and staff can log in with your regular school district username and password at albertacore.ca and take a look around. Try the Power Search button out and start exploring resources!

Wishing all our CORE partners a great school year!

Upcoming CORE Professional Learning & Networking Events

The best professional learning opportunities include three key elements:

1. Time
2. Collaborative space
3. Opportunities to experiment and learn with colleagues

So we're providing you with opportunities that include all of these elements. Check out our upcoming events!

Moderating Student Contributions in CORE - Webinars & Face to Face Events

The student contribution feature will soon be turned on in CORE across the CBE. Contributing to CORE provides an authentic audience for students to share found resources such as videos and websites, gather feedback on work in progress, remix, share, and publish their work in a safe environment.

Each CBE school has designated someone in their building who can act as a the moderator of student contributions. The moderation process is simple and fast. These sessions are for anyone in a school building who may be the moderator of student contributions. We will run through the 2-minute moderation process and show you how to easily transfer moderation duties to any member of your school community. In the face to face sessions, we will also explore how sharing, remixing, and connecting through digital resources can support professional networks and student learning.

• Webinars - Three 30-minute live sessions - Monday, April 28th, at 12:30 pm, and Thursday, May 1st at 12:00 pm, and 4:00 pm. Register now. Link to Join
• Face to Face - Two face to face sessions on Wednesday, May 7th, from 4:30 - 6:00 pm at Samuel W. Shaw School,  and Tuesday, May 13th 4:30 - 6:00 pm at Robert Thirsk High School. Register now. *Please bring your own device.
• Self-service - always available, includes instructions (video & PDF), FAQs, moderation checklist and more in this CORE Bundle. Additional resources are available by logging in to CORE > Guide to CORE > Guide for Contributors

CORE Input Advisory (CIA) Team - Face to Face Event

Are you a teacher in CBE, CCSD, RVS, GHSD or CRPS? Are you interested in using digital resources with students and sharing the best digital content to build your PLN? Want to provide input that will help to shape CORE, an innovative edtech prototype? We are inviting all educators in CORE’s participating districts to join the CIA (CORE Input Advisory) Team. CIA events are opportunities to:

• Chat and experiment with fellow educators
• Pick the brains of the CORE implementation team
• Explore digital resource trends, crowdsourcing, and user feedback for learning
• Learn through creating and sharing content

Our next event:

When: Wednesday May 14, 2014 from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Where: Nickle Junior High School, 2500 Lake Bonavista Dr. SE, 2nd Floor Learning Commons
Who: Educators in CBE, CCSD, RVS, GHSD, and CRPS are welcome! Snacks will be provided.
RSVP here for this free opportunity. *Please bring your own device.

If you can’t make it to an event, watch for resource posts and future events in different locations around the city via Twitter @core4learning and here on the CORE blog.

Questions? Tweet us or email Stephanie at sdchan@cbe.ab.ca. 

Exciting News! The CBE is Getting Ready for Student Contributions and Sharing in CORE

Teachers and students have been making great use of CORE!

• Students and staff have provided 700+ comments and ratings to help their fellow users
• Teachers and staff have contributed over 1,300+ resources, links to useful websites, videos and articles, lesson plans, self-created items, and links to useful websites, videos and articles
• 77% of teachers have now used CORE and student use is rapidly rising

Announcing Student Contributions to CORE

The student contribution feature will soon be turned on in CORE. Contributing to CORE provides an authentic audience for students to publish and share work, a platform where they can get feedback and input on work in progress, and an opportunity to remix and share their work in a safe environment. To enable students to contribute, each CBE school will designate someone in their building who can act as a the moderator of student contributions. The moderation process is simple and fast. The role of the moderator is simply to:

• Scan metadata, keywords, and resource information in the contribution wizard for accuracy and searchability
• Confirm media release forms are in place when needed

For the time being, the role of CORE Student Content Moderator (SCM) for each school has been automatically assigned to your School Educational Technology Contact (SETC) (each Principal designated this person at the beginning of the school year). The principal or SCM designate at your school can change this assignment at any time using the moderator assignment tool. School-based moderators can choose how they would like to learn about moderation through self-service or hands-on experiences. CBE's CORE Team in ILT will provide three types of optional supports:

• Self-service - includes instructions (video & PDF), FAQs, moderation checklist and more in this CORE Bundle. Additional resources are available by logging in to CORE > Guide to CORE > Guide for Contributors
• Webinars - Three 30-minute live sessions - Monday, April 28th, at 12:30 pm, and Thursday, May 1st at 12:00 pm, and 4:00 pm. Register now. Link to join: http://eduadvisory.adobeconnect.com/corepartnerswebinar/  
• Face to Face - Two face to face sessions on Wednesday, May 7th, from 4:30 - 6:00 pm, and Tuesday, May 13th 4:30 - 6:00 pm. Register now.

If you have any questions, please contact Sue Bell smbell@cbe.ab.ca or Stephanie Chan sdchan@cbe.ab.ca. 

We're looking forward to seeing CORE grow as students and teachers leverage the system for sharing and collaborating.

Pssst...Last Night at the CORE CIA Event

Last night, we kicked off our first not-so-undercover CORE CIA Professional Learning & Networking Event. Members of the CORE Input Advisory Team trekked through the snow all the way to the Rocky View Schools Education Centre to:

• Chat and experiment with fellow educators
• Pick the brains of the CORE implementation team
• Explore digital resource trends, crowdsourcing, and user feedback for learning
• Get started with accessing, creating, and sharing content

We're sending a shoutout to: Agents Slalom, Lorenzo, M. Trevor, Captain BVI, room36, Bunny, Blaster, Special OPS, Twix, and those agents who haven't yet shared their undercover names. Be ready next time! We started off with a brief intro and networking activity. Here's what it looked like as we were filling out our networking cards.

Just getting started with our CIA session! #AlbertaCORE pic.twitter.com/25lhUs2PFR
— Alberta Core (@core4learning) April 16, 2014

The groups then moved into discussions about what networking and building your PLN is like in both online and face to face settings, and how accessing and sharing the resources that you find most useful in CORE can support professional learning.

Chatting about CORE and professional networks at our CIA session. pic.twitter.com/Uz32z62TCz
— Alberta Core (@core4learning) April 16, 2014

The CORE team sees many intersections around how people share and learn together.

The CIA Agents who came to our session mentioned the importance of face to face events like this to stay in touch with each other, learn about what other educators are doing, and sharing resources with a wider network. So we are hosting more of them! Some used an array of tools including Twitter, blogs, and Google+ to share their insights. Here are some ideas for how to continue the conversation:

• Check out the CIA bundle in CORE and share with your colleagues. It includes all of the resources that we used last night
• Use this feedback survey to tell us what you would like to see at our next session
• Take the conversation online with Twitter @core4learning and sign up for email updates here on the CORE blog
• Join additional edtech networking sessions hosted by CBE's ILT Team (all districts are welcome, no registration necessary)
• Watch for updates on our next face-to-face CIA event in May. We'll post the details on the CORE blog and Twitter feed as soon!
• If you're attending EdCamp YYC on April 21, members of the CORE team will be there to support anyone interested in chatting about CORE  

See you online, in person, and undercover...

Shades on!
~The CORE Team

Half a Million Page Views and Growing!

In running the statistics for CORE this morning I was excited to notice that we have passed the 500,000 point for total page views since September 2013. As more people hear about CORE and take the time to explore it to see what it has to offer, we are seeing our usership grow significantly.

In January of 2013 we had just 1100 teachers registered and using CORE. As of this month, we are at over 18,000 teachers and students.  That's cause for celebration!

If you are one of our 18,000 plus users, please take a moment to share your story of how you use CORE and why. Keep spreading the word to make the CORE community even stronger.

Here's How

• Who: All students and staff who have used CORE are welcome to share! 

• Length: Anywhere between 2-200 sentences long. Feel free to include links, images, and anything else that illustrates your experience. 

• Where: Submit your story now at http://albertacore.blogspot.ca/

Follow Us & Your Stories

• Twitter @core4learning https://twitter.com/core4learning
• CORE blog http://albertacore.blogspot.ca/

CORE CIA Input Advisory Team - Professional Learning Networking Kick-Off Event

Haven't registered yet? No problem. Just come!

Calling All Agents! Get ready to learn through a networked professional learning experience, provide input, and experiment! Are you a teacher in CBE, CCSD, RVS, GHSD or CRPS? Are you interested in using digital resources with students and sharing the best digital content to build your PLN? Want to provide input that will help to shape CORE, an innovative edtech prototype?

We are inviting all educators in CORE’s participating districts to join the CIA (CORE Input Advisory) Team. CIA events are opportunities to:

• Chat and experiment with fellow educators
• Pick the brains of the CORE implementation team
• Explore digital resource trends, crowdsourcing, and user feedback for learning
• Learn through creating and sharing content

Join us at our CIA Team Kick-Off Event!

When: Wednesday April 16, 2014 from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Where: Rocky View Schools Education Centre, 2651 Chinook Winds Drive, Airdrie, AB, Room: Wild Rose A 

Who: Educators in CBE, CCSD, RVS, GHSD, and CRPS are welcome!

RSVP for this free opportunity: http://tiny.cc/corecia

Snacks will be provided.

Unlike the real CIA, this isn’t a secret. Bring your colleagues to explore the many ways in which CORE supports learning. If you can’t make it to our event, watch for resource posts and future events in different locations around the city via Twitter @core4learning and here on the CORE blog.

Questions? Tweet us or email Stephanie at sdchan@cbe.ab.ca.

See you there!

CORE Resource Spotlight: Munk Debates

Here's a new addition to the CORE resources that can be used to support learning in Social Studies, English Language Arts, Journalism, and Debate at the high school level.

Check out these great debate resources in CORE on a range of great topics including: Healthcare, China, Foreign Aid, Religion, Climate Change, Humanitarian Intervention, Taxing the Rich, North American Economy, Europe, Gender, and the next one (that will be streamed live on May 2, 2014) on State Surveillance. 

Debaters include significant thinkers like: Tony Blair, Niall Ferguson, Henry Kissinger, Stephen Lewis, Mia Farrow, Elizabeth May, Caitlin Moran and more.

After the event, you can access transcripts and short video clips. We've included a full list of the debates here in CORE. NOTE: Free sign-up required to access resources. 

Here's a small taste of a few of the debate questions:

• Healthcare. Do ballooning healthcare spending, evermore expensive prescription drugs and an increased use of private medicine foreshadow the wholesale reform of Canada’s universal, single-payer system? Or, are the divisive debates, social inequities, and sky-high expenditures associated with the U.S. experience with private medicine a validation of Canada’s universal Medicare system?

• China. Is China's rise unstoppable? Powered by the human capital of 1.3 billion citizens, the latest technological advances, and a comparatively efficient system of state-directed capitalism, China seems poised to become the global super power in the coming century. The MunkDebates will table the motion: Be it resolved, the 21st century will belong to China.

• Foreign Aid. In a world where over 3 billion people live on under $2 a day, where economies and threats are globally interconnected, and where only small amounts of aid are given, should wealthy nations do more? Or, given the poor track record of aid, the support it provides to dictators and tyrants, and the actual need for individual entrepreneurialism and free markets, should we focus our limited resources elsewhere? The debate question was: Is foreign aid doing more harm than good?

• Gender. Since the beginning of human civilization, men have been the dominant sex. But now, for the first time, a host of indicators suggest that women are not only achieving equality with men but are fast emerging as the more successful sex of the species. Are men, and the age-old power structures associated with “maleness,” permanently in decline? Or do men still retain significant control over the workplace, the family and society at large, including women? Where are the sexes headed in the 21st century?

From the site: Held semi-annually since 2008, the Munk Debates are Canada’s premier public policy forum. The Debates take place in Toronto in the evening in front of an audience of 3,000 people at Roy Thomson Hall. The event lasts approximately an hour and a half. Two panelists argue for a debate style motion and two against. The format is short opening statements followed by a civil and substantive moderated panel discussion, followed by short closing statements.

Have you used these resources? How? Leave a comment below this post or about the specific resource directly in CORE. We encourage all students and staff to leave ratings and comments in CORE (your first name will appear with your comment)!

A Pot of Gold Filled with CORE Resources

Are we every lucky! The wealth of resources keeps growing in CORE and we are excited to continue to share some highlights with you each weekday in March (or until our resident leprechaun goes on Spring Break). Follow us on Twitter @core4learning or check back here where we will share the daily resource treasures.