Beens' Blog

This will be the last post on this blog. All new posts will appear on my main website: www.beens.org  and posts from this blog will be transitioned or deleted. Blogger has been a great tool for my purposes, but the interface has become very slow lately and I just haven't been happy with the available themes. WordPress is an amazing blog (and website) platform and will the tool I use for future blog posts and my website. See you on the new site !

From the Ontario Ministry of Education: The Ontario Ministry of Education’s Virtual Learning Environment Request for Bid (RFB 1135/OSS_00546524) has been cancelled. The Ministry plans on issuing a revised VLE RFB later this year. The Ministry will be working with the current vendor to ensure school boards have uninterrupted access to the VLE until a procurement process is completed. The Ministry is committed to school boards having ongoing access to the VLE, while also honouring Ontario Public Service directives around an open and competitive procurement process. Until this is resolved, my own recommendation would be to develop your resources outside of D2L so they can be used in any LMS, including D2L if desired (pardon the pun).

Hello ACSE Conference Attendees, We're looking forward to seeing you all Saturday at the conference! Just a few last minute reminders and other notes: Registration takes place from 8:30 to 9:30 in room S1209. If you come in the door nearest the parking garage (see diagram below) you will see signs pointing you in the right direction. Location and parking information can be found here:  http://goo.gl/HqUQ2I Due to feedback from last year's conference, we will be increasing the amount of time we have at lunch and conducting an " unconference " in two rooms, loosely centered around Computer Tech in one room and Computer Science in the other. This will give us time to network with other teachers in an effort to learn from each other and perhaps make plans for further networking.  From Google: An unconference is defined as a loosely structured conference emphasizing the informal exchange of information and ideas between participants, rather than following a conventionall

OCTE Conference May 12 to 14 2016 “Setting the Standards-Practicing Safe Tech” Hilton Meadowvale,  Mississauga Take Advantage of the Early Bird Rate and Register Now Secondary Check out the OCTE web site  www.octe.on,ca   to view this year’s program and presentation descriptions for over 50 presentations and 35 vendors. Presentations include subject specific, Ministry of Education, vendors’ latest educational equipment and tools, and latest OCTE/Ministry of Education safety material. Friday’s lunch keynote speaker this year is Ron Kelusky CEO from PSHSA (Public Service Health and Safety Association. Attend Thursday night’s networking evening and dialogue with colleges in the same discipline as yourself, meet 35 vendors and discuss their latest trends in resources that are available to make learning for your students related to current industry standards and trends. Visit the web site to become aware of options available to you to receive funding to attend. Ch

From Mohawk College... Mohawk College Broadcasting Television program will be hosting a College  Applicant VIP Day on  Wednesday, February 3 .   There will be 2 sessions held throughout the day   and we encourage to register for one of the sessions :  an afternoon session from  1:00 PM to 3:30 PM  and/or an evening session from  6:30 PM – 9:00 PM .   If you have applied to Television/ Media Production programs we encourage you to come and tour Mohawk’s production resources/ facilities, meet the faculty, meet our industry partners, speak with students in the program, and shadow a production class.   It’s important for all student applicants to make an informed decision about their post-secondary education and we hope to provide you with information to further your career path exploration.    If you are interested in screen writing, independent and corporate production, field camera production, sports and event broadcast, and post production then sign up for the Applicant

(Guest post from Grant Hutchison) The ACSE 2016 conference is ready for registrations. Checkout the  website  with 18 different sessions across 5 different themes and plan your day. Keynote topic this year is:  Your Imagination is the Limit: Big Data is a Big Opportunity for Comp Science Students We have a few changes for this year's event including an unconference networking opportunity midday, we are also very pleased to have a full set of CS K-8 topics so invite all teachers from K-12 to attend. What hasn't change is the price ($90 for the day - includes lunch), the location (Seneca@York), and the high quality of the sessions and networking opportunities. In case you need some I have compiled a list of reasons to attend.... Reasons to attend Participate in your choice of 18 different sessions and learn from teachers, professors, and industry experts Learn more about:  coding (Python, Java, and much more) robotics and hardware (Arduino, Ra

From: Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing < cemc@uwaterloo.ca > The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing is pleased to let you know that our courseware offerings have expanded!  In addition to the previously available resources for "Advanced Functions and Pre-Calculus" and "Calculus and Vectors" which are available at courseware.cemc.uwaterloo.ca (and receiving lots of traffic!), four sets of computer science resources have been added: Python from Scratch : Python from scratch is a gentle introduction to programming, designed with the beginner in mind. No previous background is assumed. Each programming concept is first taught without reference to a specific programming language. Hands-on practice, using the programming language Python, helps to reinforce the concepts. Language Independent Programming Lessons : This "course" is a collection of videos teaching basic programming concepts in a language-independent manne